I can’t say with any certainty that I know what is right and wrong in most social situations. However, I know when someone is trying to be an asshole. I never had anything big against Casper before tonight, but now I feel bad for not being more understanding about Caroline’s hatred of him. He is definitely a jerk.
-_~* Week 15 *~_-
Casper is lying across the entire couch with his bare feet propped up on the arm. He is wiggling his toes and clicking through channels without any attention on the actual content. Unsure about how long Caroline intends to be, he stuffs his hands into his pockets and watches the screen while leaning against the nearest wall.
Sports, cooking shows, game shows, cartoons, infomercials; he passes everything within seconds. “She just got out of the shower. It’ll be a bit so you might as well sit down,” Casper calls out unexpectedly in a brash tone. He seems grumpy, but Santiago guesses that he’s just bored.
“Thanks,” he replies lazily. There is absolutely no temptation to join him but he walks over very slowly just to entertain his offer. Nothing sticks with him, eventually prompting him to sit upright and toss the remote onto the coffee table, the last channel still on the screen. It is a television documentary of some sort about the industrial age. Santiago has to fight the urge to pay more attention to the screen than to Casper.
Shortly after he stands up to stretch, Casper says something about Caroline always being slow to get ready even though she’s never late, and that next time Santiago should wait a little longer to show up. He doesn’t comment since he doesn’t know Caroline’s routine as intimately as Casper must, what with his living with her and all.
“You’ll learn with time. I hear that you’ve both updated your statuses to ‘officially dating’ now,” it seems like a snarl more than an exchange of information. It leaves him confused and unsure of how to respond.
So he doesn’t. Santiago just stands there and keeps a blank expression. He has mastered this skill when interacting with other people.
Casper walks over to where he is and mimics Santiago’s stance, facing him dead on, which is unexpected. He seems to be assessing Santiago, in a way, and he can’t figure out exactly what Casper might be trying to see in him. “Can I help you with a question?” he offers.
“She’s going to walk all over you,” Casper snorts. It is harsh and ragged and wrong in ways that Santiago didn’t even realize a laugh could be until that moment. The sound reminds him of a metal rake on the sidewalk when he used to drag it behind him along the driveway at home. It is like a scratchy magnet sliding down a blackboard or foil being used to clean dishes. Yet, this noise is coming from a person’s throat.
“How do you mean?” he asks, clueless to whatever insinuation that he is trying to make beneath the surface. Of course, Santiago doesn’t think that Casper means it literally. He couldn’t mean literally, but he didn’t know what about Caroline could make her the sort of person that ‘walks all over’ another person even figuratively.
Snorting again, he gestures to Santiago’s entire body, as if his very existence is enough to justify his statement. These were the sorts of things he watched people do in high school when they aimed to hurt someone’s feelings, or, as they used to say, ‘knock someone down a peg or two.’ Displeased with the intention of Casper, he waits with a slack face.
Initially, there’s nothing, and they stand awkwardly waiting for an answer to be spoken. Santiago is surprisingly patient, and Casper is visibly unnerved by it. Though it takes several minutes, Casper finally expresses what he thinks he’s already conveyed with his hand gestures. “You’re just not the right type for her. She needs someone who will stand up to her and put her back in her place. Caroline needs to be reminded that the world doesn’t stop on her command.”
“Do you even know her?” Santiago blurts, almost laughing at his audacity. Could he really be talking about the same Caroline Wilson? Everything he’s come to know about the eccentric blonde suggests exactly the opposite. There are times where she is misled or misinformed, but she has never once made an effort to be dominant over others in any situation.
Casper grunts, “I know her way better than you do.”
Every nerve in his body begins to tremble with frustration, but none of that shows on the surface. Santiago keeps his cool and shrugs his shoulders. “You might have dated her once, but that doesn’t mean you know everything about her today.”
At first, he doesn’t reply and simply bites his lips instead. There’s something of a grin shining through the awkward angle his face muscles are being pulled. It makes Santiago wonder if he even wants to know what’s going through Casper’s mind. Surely it can’t be good…
And it isn’t.
“Until you get someone in bed, you never really know what kind of person they are,” his remark comes in a gruff voice that suggests the obvious: that he’s been intimate with Caroline. While the confirmation weighs in his mind as a very heavy truth, he never assumed that they hadn’t slept together. They dated for a significant amount of time, and Caroline has never mentioned a desire for celibacy or the close practicing of any particular faith. As such, he simply never ruled out the possibility.
However, what Casper is suggesting is crass and inaccurate. Having a sexual relationship with someone can teach partners more about one another, that is not in question, but a person isn’t defined by their sexual preferences. Caroline is more the sum of her actions and her promises than who she is in the privacy of her bedroom– whether that person is Santiago or someone else in the future, or even, goodness forbid, Casper.
Santiago steps closer to Casper, seething with something that he’s not sure he can call rage. More than anything, he has to say that he’s disgusted by the feeble man‑boy standing in front of him – trying to shake the trust he has in his girlfriend. Casper is unsuccessful, even though he doesn’t look like someone who’s lost the metaphorical pissing contest.
“That might be true for you,” a soft growl comes from his throat with a level of restraint that he has to work to maintain, “but everyone else thinks Caroline is better than you. That’s why you’re single again, isn’t it? I think that says a lot more than a few nights sharing the same bed.”
After he speaks, several things happen at the same time. First, Caroline emerges from the hallway sighing and making a comment about how she forgot to pick up the movies on her way home from work. Then Casper pushes Santiago hard against his shoulders, shoving him back a few feet as a result. Finally, without thinking, Santiago steps forward using the momentum of having lost his balance from being pushed while raising his fist to punch Casper.
His fist meets the underside of Casper’s chin, but it doesn’t faze him much. He flinches in shock and holds his chin. Santiago highly doubts that it’ll leave a bruise., so he thinks that Casper is doing it for dramatic effect. As what happens starts to sink in, it’s clear that he will be hitting Santiago back. Thankfully, Caroline races to Santiago’s side and stops the altercation before it starts.
“What the hell is going on?” she demands angrily, staring at Casper.
“Your boyfriend is jealous,” Casper sneers.
She laughs, “Of what? Of you? There’s nothing to be jealous of!”
“You’re a bitch and he’ll never be enough for you,” the declaration comes from his throat rather than from his mouth. It’s clear that the only person who is jealous is Casper. When he goes to his bedroom, Caroline and Santiago let out a simultaneous sigh. Without saying anything to each other, they leave the apartment.
Apologies fly as soon as they clear the building doors. Santiago feels guilty for succumbing to the frustration from talking with Casper, while Caroline feels terrible for making him wait and putting him in that situation in the first place. They each apologize for playing Casper’s game in the first place.
The conversation comes to an end very quickly, though, because Caroline makes a declaration. “I’ve been thinking about moving for a couple of weeks now after talking to Doctor Anya about Casper’s behavior lately. She knows another student who is looking to move out of the dorms and is going to see if she can get us in contact. With any luck, I’ll be moving out of there over the winter break.”
To say he is relieved to hear that she wants to move into a better situation is an understatement. Seeing Caroline motivated to make changes as big as finding a new place to live is exciting and reassuring that she’s thinking ahead and planning a future for herself. He loves knowing that she’s thinking ahead. Seeing her wanting to make life changes leaves Santiago yearning for whatever comes next.
Unfortunately, he feels guilty that she has been talking to Doctor Anya about something that she doesn’t feel like she can share with him. Bringing up this concern will make him look as bad as Casper, if not worse, and make him seem obsessive too. The worry picks at the back of his brain but, ultimately, the feeling passes. He has to trust that Caroline is doing what’s best for her mental health and respect that decision.
“Let’s get a smoothie to celebrate potential new beginnings,” Santiago suggests, reaching the car and opening the door for her. As she gets ready to climb in she leans forward with her hands behind her back, almost hesitating. Just before she makes a move to get in the car she twists and plants a kiss on his cheek. These little moments, these little celebrations, are so important to them that it never feels as mundane as it sounds. Going for a smoothie might be a time-wasting sort of thing for anyone else, but to Caroline and Santiago, it is an adventure. They’ll celebrate anything if it means having a good time together.
Besides, there are some days where the little things matter more than anything else.
I bet you didn’t realize that there’s already another chapter waiting for you 😉
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