everyone_takes | (no subject)

It just figured that as soon as some things started to go well, other stuff went totally to shit.

Given what everyone said about the island, Kate just figured that was how things went, but that didn't mean she had to like it. A part of her was super psyched, because she'd actually met a guy who was nice and wasn't a complete freak like both Ben and Gene had been. So he was also Harry Potter, which she was sort of pretending wasn't a big deal in front of him, although it was kind of awesome under the surface.

On the other hand, Effy obviously wasn't around anymore, which sucked. A lot. Knowing people wasn't the same as being friends with anyone and even Kate knew she'd lacked in the whole friend department back home. On the island it wasn't a lot different, but she'd actually considered Effy a friend and now she was gone, which Kate didn't really know how to deal with. She didn't want to talk to Britta about it, only because Britta was older and was probably able to keep her shit together way better than Kate ever could.

Marshall already knew she was kind of screwed up. She figured he wouldn't judge her too much for either of these things.

"Yo, Moosh," she said, coming into the room they shared in the Compound. One day she'd maybe ask him if he ever thought about moving out into a hut, but today wasn't that day. Today she was just torn between feeling weirdly shitty and weirdly happy.

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Marshall was reading. Admittedly, he did a lot of that lately. It wasn't like he wanted to be a hermit or anything, but he was feeling pretty bitter about life, in general, and he had enough self awareness to know that didn't make him very good company.

Open on his lap was a book on filmmaking -- one that was, unfortunately, pretty elementary -- and he was actually kind of relieved when she came bursting into the room.

"Yo," he said back to her, and it didn't matter how many times he said it, parroted back to her in that vaguely mocking tone of his, the word would probably never sound right coming out of his mouth.

Flopping onto the foot of his bed on her stomach, Kate kicked off both the flip flops she'd been wearing, sending them sailing almost to her side of the room. "Okay," she said, playing with the ends of her hair, looking at Marshall as she tried to decide how to tell him her news. Not that it was that important, but in a world without a news station that misspelled tornado, she thought maybe this was sort of a headline.

"I have to tell you something, but you have to promise not to be like, totally weird about it, okay?" she asked. She'd tell him about Harry first and then maybe she'd tell him about Effy. Or maybe she'd keep it to herself. It wasn't like talking about it could bring her back.

"Okay," Marshall said with a skeptical look, dragging out the sound of it, because he honestly couldn't think of anything he'd be totally weird about, when it came to his sister. Sure, he gave her a hard time, but they'd both pretty much heard everything, at this point.

"You're not about to ask me to help you hide a body, are you?"

"No," she said, returning the look Marshall was giving her before she perked up a little. "Would you? I mean, if I asked you to help me hide a body, would you do it?" It wasn't the point at all, but he'd been the one to bring it up in the first place.

"Whatever. Not important," she decided, figuring if it came down to it and it was really necessary, he'd help her hide a body. He'd helped her dump Lynda's pot when they were thought the cops were there to get them and that was practically the same thing. "Okay, so, on Mardi Gras, at that big party? I kind of made out with Harry Potter. Like, a lot."

Marshall frowned, thoughtful for a moment. Would he? Probably. When it came down to it, there wasn't a lot they wouldn't do for each other. Just try getting either of them to admit it.

Then she was talking again, and he thought he heard... Wait, what?

An almost hysterical bubble of laughter burst out of him, but even though Kate was a pro at stretching the truth, he was pretty decent at noticing her flat-out lies. "Like, a lot? How much?"

And no, that wasn't his voice that made that squeaking sound. It wasn't.

"I don't know, a lot," Kate repeated, laughing, too. It was sort of insane, but a really cool kind of insane. "We were both totally drunk. It was after I talked to you, I remember that much. Anyway, we made out a whole bunch and then he totally asked me out on a date. I mean, not at the party, because we were so wasted, but a few days after."

Generally, Kate didn't do dates and she knew Marshall knew that. She also sort of hoped the fact that she was going on a date would be enough to let him know she actually liked Harry, because she didn't want to have to come out and say it.

"Wow," Marshall said, his lips turning down in a thoughtful frown, because he knew that meant she was actually serious about this whole thing. Kate had a tendency to do things that were fun, without much thought for the consequences, at least as far as Marshall was concerned. But a date? She wouldn't do that unless she really wanted to.

"I think I'm actually jealous of you, right now. I don't know how I'm supposed to handle that."

"Ew, don't tell me that," Kate said, but she was grinning. "Then I have to think about why you'd be jealous, which naturally leads me to the conclusion that you want to make out with a guy I've made out with and that's practically incest."

She was totally ignoring the fact that Marshall and T had both made out with the same guy once. That was ages ago and she didn't think Marshall would want her to bring that up either way.

"But I guess if you're jealous, it's kinda of okay," she said.

With their family history, he didn't even want to go there. Rolling his eyes seemed to cover everything he might've needed to say.

"So, you're dating Harry Potter. I honestly didn't think anything could surprise me, anymore. Congratulations of shattering that assumption."

"I live to shatter your assumptions, brother," Kate replied. "And we're going on a date. That's different from dating." At least, she assumed it was different. She liked Harry, but they'd both been drunk at the party and it was possible the date would turn into a total disaster. Then they'd never end up dating and she'd end up re-virginized by the island.

Pausing, Kate chewed on her lower lip for a second, then said, "But my friend disappeared. I guess she went back home. So that kinda blows."

"Whatever," he said, waving off the distinction. It wasn't like he did a whole lot of casual dating, but he knew she was probably right.

He was all too familiar with disappearances lately, so that was more than enough to draw his focus. "That sucks. Who was it?"

"Effy," Kate said, although she didn't know if Effy and Marshall had ever met. "She was from England or something. She was pretty cool, I guess, and now she's just... gone."

Which was something Marshall knew about and that was really the only reason she was telling him at all. It sucked and he got it and that was what mattered.

"Oh," he said, his frown deepening, "I knew her. I mean, not well, but she was with us when Hal and I got stuck with the dinosaurs."

He was quiet for a moment, looking down at his hands, then he said, "Do you think they go home? After they leave here?"

It was what she had to think and so Kate nodded. The way the island worked was a little too much for her sometimes and the idea that there were two versions of a person existing in two different worlds was weird. That one version -- the island version -- might just blink out and not remember anything was more than she could deal with.

"Yeah, of course," she answered, like it had to be obvious. "I mean, where else would they go?"

"I don't know. We don't even know where here is, it kind of stands to reason that there might be something else waiting for us, afterward, you know?"

It wasn't something that he wanted to think too much about, really, but they couldn't even be sure how they all got here. How could they be sure what would happen after they left?

"I don't know. That makes it sound like we're all dead and this is like, limbo and we're all just waiting here until we can prove ourselves or something," Kate said, making a face. Maybe that was right, but she didn't want to believe it, even for a second.

"I know I'm not dead," she said. "And I know you're not dead. So that can't be right."