Tokyo Bound

Cassie's brow knit up, and she glanced over at John. "I'm fine," she said, as if it should've been obvious.

She kept walking, not in a hurry but with no intention of waiting up for anyone of anything. Her mouth was shut up so tightly these days that it felt more unusual to speak. Even her nightly calls home weren't really nightly anymore. The pressure of having to find ways to keep the worst of everything from them was just too much to bear. "Everything's good, daddy. No, don't worry about that, it looked worse on TV. She's fine, I'm fine. Everyone's okay, I promise."

It turned her stomach. Before last month, she'd almost never told a lie in her life. Now it was just routine, and she hated it. She felt ashamed whenever she spoke, and lying to her dad... it made her sick. The idea that she didn't feel like she could be honest, that she had to keep things from them was worse. She felt like she'd lost the best thing in her life, and it was all because of that horrible girl. Because of Talia.

"Tell Clyde I'm sorry for yelling at him," she said quietly. She hated the feeling of losing her cool with someone, but unfortunately it happened more and more these days.

John shook his head a bit from behind Cassie, and then decided to keep walking. It hardly felt like his place, having just met the girl a few moments ago, but something told him to keep speaking to her. The way she kept walking, though, John had to hurry to catch up with her.

“Look, I donâ€t wana pry…” He said, following her out and down the corridor. “But Iâ€ve seen fine, and Iâ€ve seen not fine. Donâ€t take this the wrong way, but you donâ€t look fine.”

John continued to follow her. Part of the reason she didnâ€t look fien was how eager she was to escape the situation, where a few moments ago she was very eager to socialize with, at least, John. “Donâ€t worry about Clyde, Iâ€ll tell him latter. Are you sure you donâ€t want to talk?” John left ‘talk†open ended. It could be just to converse, take her mind of things, or it could be to talk about what was bothering her, it was up to her to interpret it.

Cassie did her best to ignore John. What did he know? So what if she wasn't really fine, she told him she was and he should leave it at that.

His question made her slow her pace. She looked over at him, without stopping, and her big, green eyes were deadly serious. The directness of her gaze, the conviction in it, was enough to make anyone pause.

"Yes," she said, quietly, forcefully, and with a finality that ended the conversation. She turned away and sped up to a brisk pace, fast enough to send the message loud and clear that she didn't want to be followed.

Clyde stepped out of the cafeteria and shrugged off some of the looks he got from some of the folks, grimacing at the unwanted attention, he debated about bugging Mercy at work but decided he wanted to go chill alone now. He wasn't sure if he was the one at fault but wasn't in the mood to find out.

Pulling on the hem of his suit jacket to smooth it out, Clyde began to make his way down the hall to find the exit and skedaddle out this joint.

Sometime during their conversation, after Cassie had join in, Heather was making her way to the cafeteria in the HQ as well. She found it a good time to just step out and take a little break, but what she heard before she was about to enter caused her to stop. She overheard Clyde's voice, freezing up a bit and biting her lip as she would wait by the entrance of the cafeteria.

She didn't expect her name to come up, but when it did and the way Clyde reacted, hit her quite hard. To think that that's what he actually thought of her was quite the shock to Heather. She clenched her fists, trying to keep herself from tearing up before she would clear her throat a bit and compose herself. She would step out, standing a little ways away from the place as she could tell Clyde was about to leave. She was leaning against the wall as he exited, letting him walk by, glad he was preocupied in his own thoughts before she spoke up.

Spoiler:

"Just a bitch huh? That's what you think of me after all this time?"

Clyde was just heading outside the cafeteria, figuring he'd slip out and go before his guilt over the Cassie situation came over. Hopefully John wouldn't hold it against him, but Clyde sort of expected him too. Cassie was a cutie after all.

Turning the corner, Clyde would see the exit down the hall and was about to make his way out before he heard a familiar voice near him. He turned his head to spot an old flame leaning against the wall, giving a cold glare. Clyde's eyes raised up nonchalant, surprising to see Heather and more surprised to hear that she was calling him out for his comment.

He looked at her for just a second before he began to smirk coyly.

"Oh hey, honey! Did ya finally stop bein' all thick headed and finally listen to somebody fer once?" He asked with a smug, shit-eating grin as he began to loosen the tie around his neck.

Heather watched Clyde as he would turn to her, waiting to see his reaction. She wasn't expecting any smiles or anything like that, but she was hoping for at least a little something, like feeling sorry that she heard him, but there was none of that. She watched as he got that sly grin on her face, her heart skipping a beat before she would hear those words come out of his mouth.

"A-ah.." Heather was slightly speechless at his response, clenching her fists hard afterwards. She was holding herself back from letting her pride and anger take over, her whole body wanting to lash out and attack Clyde, but she knew that would just make things worse.

"Why are you being such a jerk?" She let out, glaring at him. "Honestly...I wanted to find a time and a way to apologize but then I hear you talking about me like you did..and then you come out here and say THAT." She let out, her fists clenching even tighter. "I-I don't even..I don't even know what to say to you right now.."

Clyde lifted up his chin smugly at Heather like he was just trying to rub in his douchyness to her, because in his mind, she deserved every single bit of it. But perhaps the craziest thing was why Heather just couldn't seem to grasp why he was acting this way. Maybe he was still on edge over the Bonnie Situation but the truth of the matter was, she didn't understand. That was upsetting.

He scoffed at her words. "You're as clueless as ever... Or good at playin' dumb. I still live in the apartment that was once yours. My cell number ain't changed at all. You've had a good couple of months to tell this ol' cowboy here that you're sorry for fuckin' my damn face and humiliating me on live TV!" Clyde spat accusingly as he pointed his finger at Heather.

"I ain't stuttered one bit in the cafeteria, baby. You used me durin' that match and you didn't give a damn whatcha did to me. You just enjoyed it. So I'll say it again because you can't seem to understand where I'm comin' from." Clyde would add as he learned forward and sneered, curling up his lip like he was trying to channel Billy idol of all people.

"Yer a sadistic bitch."

"It was hard..You don't know how bad it felt and how hard it was to talk to you after that.." Heather let out, biting her lip, her chest feeling like it was pulsating in pain as she would just let Clyde continue on. He just was laying into her more and more, driving in what he thought of her and it was just making Heather feel worse about herself.

Those last words though really got to her. She lowered her hands down, her fists shaking from how hard his words were hitting her, in disbelief he was able to say them so easily.

"After..all we've been through..you're just intent on hating me aren't you.." She let out, holding back her tears as much as she could. "You stand t here acting like it was easy for me after what I did, you act like I didn't care, you act like it wasn't killing me every time I thought about it!" She yelled at him, now unable to stop her eyes from watering. She drew her hand back before swinging it at his face, trying to hit him with a hard slap.

Clyde huffed bitterly as Heather expressed her feelings and regrets. Hearing it all just made his brow raise in irritation. "Pft. Did she expect me ta' be okay with getting face fucked by her?" He thought to himself, unable to understand how she didn't think of the potential consequences. And even if she didn't, it wasn't much of an excuse in his eyes.

He scoffed further at her next comment. That he was intent on hating her. It made Clyde sneer with near arrogance towards her because she could not understand. He just let her yell back at him, thinking over all the feelings she expressed over the incident while her eyes watered. It made Clyde a bit weary but he kept telling himself over and over that she was lying. He remained apathetic to her claims and stood there to take the brunt of the hard slap that stuck his cheek. A hard echoing smack that knocked Clyde's head to the side, his hair whipping along to the side, a red imprint stained on the side of his cheek.

The lobby was quiet. And people were staring now. Clyde didn't say a word after being stuck, he just trained to Heather with a blank expression and looked to her for a moment before he began to grin out the corner of his mouth. "Ya' sure know how ta' make it sting real good, baby." He taunted, acting like he enjoyed it. It stung like hell though.

"You're lyin', Heather. It was easy for you ta' just use me over and over. Even when I wanted to give up, you still kept on going till I had to kiss yo' dirty fat ass ta' end it. You'll do this sort of thing ta' anyone and I ain't no different in your eyes. Even after all we've been through... Right?" He said, putting emphasis on a set of words she had used. He did not believe her one bit. She just wanted to use him.