Color Blind

Chapter Ten

AN: This is Nirvana's version of Where Did You Sleep Last Night? Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees vocalist) has a good one, too.

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Cole had to go to the convenience store the next day to get more ice cream. He hadn't suffered any ill effects from the last batch and he deemed it safe to try a fresh one. If he could survive the expired container, surely a fresh container would do him good. He hoped it would, anyway.

Much to his surprise, he ran into the secretary from the clinic. What was her name...Nancy. Right.

He wasn't sure if he should say hello or not. Was hello a good thing or a bad thing? It wasn't like he knew her or anything.

He deemed it safe to try a hello. It wasn't like he was asking her out or something.

Good luck with that!

"H-Hi, Nancy."

She nearly dropped the bag of chocolate bars she was holding when she spun around.

"Hey, Cole." Now what? Maybe this had been a very bad idea. "You never struck me as a vanilla person."

What did that mean?

"I'd forgotten."

Whoops. Maybe that was an even worse thing to say.

No, it had made her laugh. Okay. That was good.

"Well, see you Thursday." she said. "I have to go home and study." She gagged. "Spare me."

"H-have fun."

She left. Cole wasn't sure what to make of this. He was going to have to be very careful now. This time he'd been lucky that she was busy. Next time she might not have to study and then he'd have to chat longer. He wasn't good at that.

He took his ice cream home and hid it in the freezer. He didn't particularly want to share, if he was going to be honest.

Once he was upstairs and in bed, he took a few minutes to run over his conversation. Making people laugh was good. Then they wouldn't ask questions about this bruise or that cut.

His head hurt and he rolled over to go to sleep. Hopefully Sean would be home soon.

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Nancy made sure the door was locked before tearing open her bag of chocolate bars. She normally didn't shop at that store, but they were the only ones that had this one brand of chocolate and dammit, she'd been craving them.

Seeing Cole had been a surprise. Thank God he was more socially awkward than she was, or things might have gone worse.

He's cute when he's flustered.

Stupid, traitorous brain! She had a thousand reasons why men, and Cole in particular, were off-limits. Heroin was a big one. And the fact that eventually...no, she wasn't going to go there.

Oh, but it's true. He looks like a puppy.

Fine. She would admit that he looked a bit like an underfed puppy. But that didn't mean that she wanted anything out of it. That wasn't allowed.

She turned her radio up as loud as it would go. She didn't need to think about Cole right now. Or ever, really, unless he didn't show up for an appointment.

Someone next door banged on the wall and she turned the radio down. Maybe it was time to take a shower. Yes. A shower and then maybe some homemade macaroni and cheese. And then chocolate.

Maybe chocolate first.