Janey sighed. Mika was in the shower, her family otherwise gone off to eat dinner. She felt like she had barely seen any of them in the time she had been home. The TV was on but she was staring past it, a jumble of bright color and muffled sound. Her mind returned to the incident with Ted this afternoon, her chin resting on her knees which were curled to her chest with arms wrapped around her shins. She wanted nothing more than to take it back. Not the fact she had said something so much as the way she had chosen to say it. The intercom chirped, breaking her line of thought. 6:15.. too late for a delivery. She shrugged and stood, she was never much of one too worry about her appearance when she got into one of these melancholy moods of reflection. Brown curls hung loose and wild, a tank top and a pair of boy shorts hugging her hourglass curves. She swung the door open without checking and could only bite her lip and stare when Ted appeared on the opposite side. She took a moment to collect herself before speaking.
"Ted.. um... I didn't realize that you and, uh, Mika, had plans tonight, she's still in the shower, but um... I'll let her know you're here." She went to vanish up the stairs, leaving the door open for him.
"Janey... wait." She stopped, turning to look at him standing barely within the door, uncomfortably. "I'm, um, I'm here to see you." She turned fully then, staying on the stairs as though she were afraid of startling him. "Can we, uh, talk for a hot minute?" Janey simply nodded descending back down the stairs. It didn't help the whole situation that she was basically in her underwear. The only time he had seen her in so little was a bathing suit, he could see why Matt had such a hard time keeping his hands to himself.
"Wanna go in the living room?" Her voice was so small and childlike, he knew that voice, it was the voice she always took on when she couldn't read a situation. He nodded and followed her as she walked, watching her grab a seat on the couch Indian-style and pull a throw pillow into her lap to lean on. He sat on the opposite end, looking at her for a moment before speaking.
"I'm sorry about the way I ran out of here this afternoon. I just-"
"Don't worry about it. I, um, shouldn't have yelled at you like that. It wasn't fair."
He sighed and continued, "Janey, when this whole you and Matt thing started, I thought it was just this casual, one time, drunken thing. I thought that I would be able to tell him the truth about how I felt and then he would back off and I could step in. But then you both seemed so happy, and so, I don't know. It was like every time I saw you two it was more obvious that behind closed doors it wasn't so casual and.." he paused as Janey looked at him with her lip back between her teeth.
"Ted..." She was trying to stop him but she had nothing to follow his name.
