feel_human | saturday night and the moon is out

Tucked away off the road in Bon Temps, there's a road house. Warm light spills from its windows, and the sound of a jukebox playing drifts out into the muggy Louisiana night. The regular assortment of trucks and Hail-Mary-please-keep-this-lemon-goin'-just-a-little-longer cars sit in the dirt parking lot; what amounts to about half the town's small population... or, at least, of those of the 'drinking age and above' persuasion.

Inside, it's a bar of the type scattered all across the American South: homey, no-nonsense. Booths and tables. A man in a plaid flannel shirt wiping the bar; a crossdresser in the kitchen singing Gospel hymns and rolling his hips in time with the words just to scandalize the prep cook. A handful of waitresses, bustling about.

Sookie makes her way briskly through it all, a tray balanced on her palm and her eyes kept stubbornly front, as voices swarm around her. Aloud, and... less so.

...I’m just going to have one beer tonight Jesus one beer that’s all...

...better not gripe about me eating fries not after what I did for him last night...

...I cannot wait to get the hell out of this podunk town...

"Well, make sure you do, and before it’s too late," she responds, thoughtless, to the young man. "Because every year you wait? You just get more and more stuck here. Believe me, I know."

He stares at her. So do his parents.

So does the other table. And she realizes, too little too late, that he hadn't said that out loud, not at all. She laughs, uncomfortable. "I’ll get y'all some ketchup," she says, brightly, and flees, ponytail swinging against the nape of her neck as she goes.

Stupid, Sookie, she chides herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

gavemea_45

"That sounds nice. When you're ready," he hastens to add. "There's no rush."

From:

feel_human

"Okay."

It's coming on the afternoon now, and it'll probably feel nice for him to take a dip in the cool, deep water. "In a minute, then."

From:

gavemea_45

He turns to the side and runs a hand over her hair, smoothing it down as he smiles at her.

"No rush," he repeats.

From:

feel_human

She yawns and smiles back at him.

"You want that pie before, or after?"

From:

gavemea_45

"After," he decides. "It'll be nice to come back to. If that's okay with you?"

From:

feel_human

"'Course."

She leans up to kiss him, then rolls over to reach for her bag, pulling out a towel and her suit, red strawberries printed on white.

From:

gavemea_45

While she's getting ready, he retrieves the small bundle of towel-and-trunks he'd picked up in town from where he'd dropped them by the picnic basket when he set it down. Sam pulls his clothes on, makes sure the knives are safely wrapped in the towel, and comes back to offer her a hand up.

From:

feel_human

She ties her bikini on and runs her fingers through her hair to untangle it and fluff it out, then takes his hand to pull herself up, holding onto the towel with her other hand.

Despite having just lain here together bare as anything, she still glances appreciatively at the way the trunks hang from his slim hips. "This way," she tells him, lacing their fingers together and tugging him off the blanket and onto the grass.

From:

gavemea_45

There's something about the way those scraps of cloth look on her that draws his attention to the curves he'd just caressed. Sam somehow manages not to trip over his own feet, and follows after her willingly.

"That's a pretty suit." Appreciation rings through each word. "You look amazing."

From:

feel_human

Sookie gives him a shy, amused grin. "Thanks. I like yours, too." She likes the way it looks on him even more, but surely that much is obvious.

She leads him down the little slope and into the stand of trees, where the scent of water comes much more strongly. The swimming hole is really just a large pond, fed by a wandering stream, with a slightly rickety dock leading out into the water.

From:

gavemea_45

"I wouldn't have known this was here," he marvels.

From:

feel_human

"It's a little hidden treasure, isn't it?"

She lets go of his hand and spreads her towel on the edge of the pier, then sits down and looks up at him, encouraging. "Go on, see how the water is."

From:

gavemea_45

"How deep is it?" He sets his towel down near hers, still bundled up, and wanders to the end of the pier to test the temperature with his foot.

From:

feel_human

"Maybe eight, nine feet?"

She leans back on her hands, enjoying the sun. "At the deepest."

From:

gavemea_45

So probably safe to dive, but only if he's careful about it. Sam decides discretion is the better part of valor and jumps off the pier instead, then comes up and slings his wet hair back from his face and swims over alongside it to reach for her ankle.

"Aren't you coming in?" Mischief is in his eyes as he gives a light tug. "It's nice and cool."

From:

feel_human

"No – "

She doesn't exactly jerk her foot away, but she's careful to brace herself on the pier, in case he gets any ideas. "I... can't swim."

From:

gavemea_45

"You can't?" He lets go of her ankle and crosses his arms on the pier instead, resting his chin on them. Sam looks at her in surprise. "Why not?"

From:

feel_human

"I..."

Of all people, he'd probably understand the fear she has, that as soon as she pushes beneath the surface, something will grab her and drag her under, far from light and air and the world she lives in. Even now, as he idly kicks, perfectly safe, she's sure that if she were to slip into the water, something would try to pull her down, even with him right there. "My parents," she says, finally.

It's not everything, but it is the moment she can point to, to say: the water is dangerous. "They died in a flash flood. I haven't liked water since."

From:

gavemea_45

Understanding strikes like a bolt of lightning. "Oh, Sookie," he says, softly. "I'm sorry."

From:

feel_human

"It's okay," she hastens to assure him. "It was a long time ago, I was just a kid. And I don't mind bein' by it, or watchin' someone else in it. I've just never been able to shake the feeling that if I go in... somethin's gonna pull me down, too."

From:

gavemea_45

"No, I get that." He kicks his feet slowly, almost absently, holding his position. "Did they... was it here?"

From:

feel_human

She shakes her head.

"No. On a bridge over the river. We cross it goin' back and forth to Merlotte's."

From:

gavemea_45

He nods. "I won't pull you in," he promises. "Or splash you, or anything like that. And I'll... well, I'll try not to drip on you."

From:

feel_human

She laughs a little and shakes her head. "I'm not worried about that," she tells him, amused and touched in equal measure. "And I don't mind bein' dripped on. I take showers, after all."