[Annie/Russel] - Today I made you a mix tape

[pianistofraielin]

Who: Russel & Annie
When: Feb. 14, Friday
Where: LCHS
What: Russel gives Annie a mix tape to expand her musical horizons and neglects to consider how that sort of thing will be taken on Valentine's Day.



Russel had finished his mix tape for Annie the night before, and he could barely contain his excitement. As soon as classes let out for lunch, the first thing he did was track her down to hand it over to her.

To call it a "mix tape" was a bit misleading. For one thing, it was on a CD-R, not a cassette tape.

For another, it was actually...on seven CD-Rs.

Over nine hours of music, organized by genre, and each CD case had painstakingly written notes along with it, containing a track listing, the artist and year of release for each track, and the album or greater body of work the track was pulled from, if applicable. They were categorized fairly broadly: Classical, Country, Rock, Jazz, Electronic, Soul, and Blues. There were no repeat artists, and not a single 21st century release date to be seen. The songs were arranged on each CD to flow neatly into each other, creating a smooth listening experience instead of the jarring mess you usually got on compilation albums. (That would be the reason it was organized by genre instead of by decade.)

He'd obviously put a lot of thought and effort into it, but that was mostly because he was a music nerd who loved sharing his interest with new people. He would've done the same for any of his friends.

But when you hand a girl a stack of CDs that you obviously toiled over on Valentine's Day, the whole thing takes on a completely different context. To which Russel was, of course, perfectly oblivious at the moment.

Comments

[sun_sun]

Annie was generally the sort of person upon whom Valentine's Day weighed heavily. It's not that her self-worth was particularly tied to being in a relationship, it's just that she felt like the world took today to rub her fifteen-year losing streak in her face.

Russel manages to catch up to a kind of sulky-looking Annie in a non-deserted hallway, on her way to the cafeteria.

[pianistofraielin]

"Annie!" he called out, to get her attention so she'd stop and wait for him to catch up. Quite the contrast to her sullen mood, Russel was all energy and cheer.

He stopped in front of her, shrugging his backpack off to dig out the CDs. "I finally finished it. Here." He pulled out a small cardboard shipping box, which had seemed the simplest way to keep the CDs together, and handed it over to her. Seven slimline jewel cases sat inside, each with a CD and detailed track listing.

He waited for her reaction, barely containing his enthusiasm.

[sun_sun]

Oh hey it's Russel OH GOD WHAT IS HE DOING.

"Huh?" Annie's immediate response was to frantically make sure nobody she knew was watching. "You're... You made this? For me? Today?"

[pianistofraielin]

His excitement dropped immediately, replaced by confusion. "Huh? No, I spent a couple weeks on it." Of course he hadn't made it today! Trust Russel to miss the point.

[sun_sun]

"No, I meant... uh, today, it's... I mean, weeks, really?"

Shit. Shit. What is happening. Why is this happening.

"Wow, uh, this is really thoughtful, but like, I'm not really, uh... I don't..."

Words failing. Blush rising. Help is not on the way.

[pianistofraielin]

. . .


It...

was Valentine's Day, wasn't it.


OH GOD HE JUST GAVE A GIRL A MIX TAPE ON VALENTINE'S DAY. Was that sensation of hollowness that passed through him an Echo or the emptiness of dread? He brushed it aside to make room for the oncoming freakout. Because Annie was JUST A FRIEND and oh god he hadn't meant to do something accidentally romantic.

He snatched the box back from her in a panic. "YOU KNOW WHAT I'LL JUST GIVE THIS TO YOU ON MONDAY IN--stea..." What was that weird tapping sound...? He trailed off, looking down at the box.

Thankfully it was closed, because there were two dark red drops of blood on the white cardboard lid. A third joined with another soft tap.

And then Russel freaked out again and shoved the box back into her hands with one hand, the other flying up to cover his nose. THAT SURE WAS A SUDDEN, INEXPLICABLE, ODDLY SEVERE NOSEBLEED, WHAT THE FUCK.

[sun_sun]

WHY DOES THIS KEEP GETTING MOE RIDICULOUS. As soon as she had wrapped her head around getting the stupid thing, he's TAKING IT BACK and now he's BLEEDING EVERYWHERE. Poor girl's going to get whiplash from the scene changing direction so quickly. "Holy crap, are you okay?!"

[pianistofraielin]

Welcome to interacting with a Violinist of Hameln character, Annie.

Once the box was out of his hand, it was free to join the other in an attempt to contain the tide. Leaning slightly forward, both hands cupped over his nose, he answered her question with a thready, high-pitched, "Um." Cautiously, he pulled his hands away from his face just enough to get a look at the damage.

And immediately regretted it and returned them to their previous position. "I-it's probably fine, ha ha ha--!" A little too fast, slightly pitched up from his normal tone, obviously lying. There was blood dripping through his hands already.

[sun_sun]

"Nurse's office! Go! Quick! It's just down the hall!"

In hindsight Annie may realize that the considerate thing to do would have been "Let me take you to the nurse's office" instead of pointing and shouting, but she's seriously freaking out here.

[pianistofraielin]

"NO IT'LL BE FINE IT'S JUST A NOSEBLEED IT'S NOT LIKE I'VE NEVER HAD A NOSEBLEED BEFORE, THERE'S NO NEED TO BOTHER THE NURSE ABOUT THIS." Except you know. Usually those were because of blunt force trauma to the face, and not inexplicably gushing blood just standing around in a hallway.

[sun_sun]

"YOU'RE BLEEDING EVERYWHERE DUDE THIS IS WHY WE HAVE A NURSE GO GO GO!" Now using her one free hand to push Russel towards the nurse's office. Why is this so ridiculous. Why are you ridiculous.

[pianistofraielin]

Because he is Russel. That is why.

He let out a brief cry of protest when she tried to shove him on his way, and--oh, that one was definitely an Echo. He stumbled as it washed over him, had to pull his hands away from his face to keep his balance.

And then he suddenly froze. He stared down at his hands as if realizing for the first time that they were covered in blood. The hollowness of the Echo filled in with dread.

Because.

He was having a nosebleed.

And a girl was watching it happen.

It made perfect sense to him in the moment. There was something horrifying about the fact that this had happened in front of Annie. His body had betrayed him and there was a girl. Witnessing it.

THIS WAS A DISASTER.

His head whipped up; for two seconds--two very long seconds--he stared at her like a cornered rat. And then, quite suddenly...

He bailed. He took off running and disappeared around the corner of the hallway.

GOOD BYE ANNIE YOU ARE NOW ALONE IN THE HALLWAY WITH THE BLOODSTAINS and also his backpack, whoops. He'll um probably be needing that back later.

[sun_sun]

Well. This is how Annie spends her Valentine's Day. Trying to decide which is worse: That Russel gave her a giant mix tape in the middle of the hallway, that he took it away five seconds later, that he ended up bleeding all over everything, that he ran away afterwards, leaving his backpack with him, or that she was actually really happy to get the damn mix tape in the first place.

Annie leaned against the nearest wall, sank to the floor, buried her face in her hands, and quietly willed the Earth to split open and swallow her up forever.

[pianistofraielin]

When Russel ditched Annie in the hallway, he did not run to the nurse's office. He ran to the boy's bathroom.

It was safe there, you see. And he could clean himself up and hide the evidence before anybody else saw.

The bleeding had stopped by the time he got to a sink, but there was still enough blood on his hands and face to make it pretty obvious he'd just suffered a severe nosebleed. That, or to make someone suspect he'd just murdered a person.

[abhero]

Tending to yourself in a public bathroom always carried a certain amount of risk. True, there weren’t any girls around but fellow male students could come in any minute.

And Russel was about to realize just how false the sense of security was, because thirty seconds after he ran in, the door banged open to show Emil.

Who was staring because Russel looked like he just escaped a crime scene.

“Dude. What the fuck happened to you?” He stepped closer to take a better look at the damage, and smirked. “Don’t tell me you got rejected this badly on Valentine’s day.”

[pianistofraielin]

"Gah!" He jumped, spinning to face the source of the voice. As soon as he saw Emil, surprise melted away in favour of outrage. "What are you doing here!" (Russel it's a public restroom, what do you think he's doing here.)

[abhero]

The downside of coming closer to point and laugh, was that Russel’s act of spinning flung some blood droplets in Emil’s direction. Gross.

“Ew!” He stepped back. “Don’t bleed on me, that’s disgusting. And I’m here to take a piss, the hell you think I’m doing here.” He crossed his arms, annoyed. “So a girl punched you in the face on Valentine’s, don’t take it out on me.”

[pianistofraielin]

Super gross. But you know what, Russel didn't feel the least bit bad about it, because this guy!!!!

"THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED AT ALL! It was spontaneous and I definitely did not get punched in the face by a girl." Russel could you maybe try talking like a normal person so that people might actually believe the things you say.

[abhero]

“Relax man, don’t get your panties in a twist,” Emil said, enjoying how easy it was to get this guy riled up. But if he really didn’t get punched in the face by a girl…

Ah. Of course! Really, Emil shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.

“Oh I see. You got punched in the face by a guy,” he nodded. That’s why there was much blood, only a guy could’ve done that damage. A strong guy. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed. Overtaken by the romantic atmosphere of this day, you spontaneously confessed to one of your teammates in the locker room. Unfortunately, he freaked out and punched you. That’s why you ran all the way here to wash the blood off.”

He gave Russel a grin, proud of his brilliant deduction. “Don’t worry, there’s still hope. Maybe he punched you because he’s confused and can’t deal with his feelings. Maybe he’ll come around once he cools down!”

[pianistofraielin]

Well, it was a logical conclusion. But the idea was so far from Russel's mind that it was shocking to hear. Horror melted into disgust. "S-stop making up ridiculous theories! I just told you what happened!"

[abhero]

“Yeah, it was spontaneous and not because you got beaten up by a girl. Fits what I said perfectly.” Maybe Russel was just shy about it. Or maybe it really was a random nosebleed, Emil honestly didn’t mind. “Don’t make that face, hero of love, it’s unbecoming."

[pianistofraielin]

"Don't throw that name around like it's shameful, hero of justice!" he shot back, slamming a fist against the sink counter (and leaving a bloody smear behind). "For your information I gave a girl a mix tape today and she accepted it!"

This was a gross misrepresentation of what had happened but he was too angry about Emil's dumb smug face to care.

[abhero]

“I’m not saying that name like it’s shameful, I’m saying it like it’s silly,” he replied, knitting his fingers behind his head. The angrier Russel became, the more amused Emil looked.

That last bit earned a raised eyebrow. “You gave her a tape? You do realize it's 2014."

[pianistofraielin]

SCREW YOU EMIL YOU JUST HAVE NO TASTE IN HEROING NAMES. Russel gave a derisive huff and turned back to the sink to finish washing up.

"'Mix tape' is just a name! Obviously it was a CD." HE'S NOT STUPID, OKAY.

[abhero]

Emil was about to say that no one’s using CDs these days either, when a familiar sensation washed over him, the one he learned to identify as an Echo. It wasn’t a memory this time, at least not a specific one - it was knowledge. The nosebleed, the girl story…suddenly it just all made sense.

He now knew without a shadow of doubt that he had a secret weapon against Russel.

And he was eager to test it.

“You know, this blood’s gonna ruin your shirt,” he said conversationally, the mocking tone gone. “I heard coke’s good for removing stains, lemme check it out for you…” he pulled his phone out and messed with it for a moment. “Found it - look.”

Emil held the phone up to Russel’s face - but there were no laundry tips on the screen.

No, it was a photo of a bikini model.