sorry seems to be the hardest word [Open]

[sylviedevereux]

She spends the entire flight wringing her hands. As soon as the plane took off she regretted her decision and wished she was anywhere but strapped into her seat heading towards the United States. She's never been to the USA, and on some level, that's exciting, she supposes, but on the main level, oh mon dieu, what am I doing? Four years ago, she said that she was done with this, with him, with everything that kept tying her down to that mess of a life. She said that she was done, but here she is, flying straight into the eye of the storm.

She comes armed with more books on the occult than she thought she'd ever be able to find. Her local librarian had thought she was losing it a little with how many books she had gathered, but she had to know everything she could before she faced him again. Once, he had told her what he was, and despite the love and the gorgeous life they had shared, the whole idea had stricken icy fear down her spine. She had thought she couldn't get tangled up in that mess again; she had wondered, briefly, if he had been one of them, sent to find her.

In her rational mind, Sylvie knows it was all a gut reaction, that two years of trusting Shea Cooper with everything she had should have taught her better than to doubt him at a second's notice. She'll regret making that decision until the day she dies, and this is some kind of atonement for it, like she can forgive herself for throwing away her happy ending if she just sees him one more time.

The plane touches down and she's in a cab heading for Siren Cove before she's really ready for it, and then the cottage she'd organised online is staring her in the face and this is real. She gives herself long enough to unlock the door and put her bags down before she grabs her handbag and heads straight back out the front door. If she's going to deal with this, the first thing she needs to go and find is a bottle of wine, and maybe by tomorrow she'll have steeled herself to track him down.


ooc: hi, this is sylvie. quick intro post for her before I have to hiatus :( catch her around town, or maybe be her neighbour?

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[owenphillips]

Part of Owen wishes he hadn’t asked. Part of him wants to sigh with relief that Coop hasn’t seen her yet and the other part of him feels like he’s just been thrown into a deep pit as a challenge to his role of best friend. After all, now he knows he should really go and warn Coop that his ex is in Siren Cove and that she clearly is there to see him. To avoid some kind of horrible meeting like this between them. But of course it isn’t really his place to get involved like that; he wasn’t part of this relationship so doing that might be sticking an oar in where it isn’t wanted. But all he can imagine is Coop’s feeling of betrayal if he didn’t say anything but Sylvie mentioned she had seen him.

“Fuck,” he whispers, pinching the bridge of his nose. Blaming Jamie and Claire for not being beer drinkers seems a great idea right now. He has so much beer at home and they could have completely avoided this situation. Of course, it was still going to happen, whether he was aware of it or not. Either way, he’s going to buy several bottles of wine and get the couple to the same level of drunkenness he will need to make any sort of decision. “Sorry. Just, fuck.” Who said your thirties were the time in your life when things get easier?

[sylviedevereux]

She can't help the smile that creeps onto her lips as she watches him, and she tries to hide it with her hand to her lips. She shouldn't, she knows this has to be awful for people other than her, and she can only imagine what he thinks he knows about her. Still, they're standing in a grocery store aisle and he just keeps swearing to himself and she can't help but find it just a little bit funny. It's the kind of thing her and Shea would have laughed at, once upon a time.

"That's a fair reaction," she says. It feels so incredibly weird, being here. She feels weird in this store, speaking this language that aside from to Shea, she hasn't had to speak since college, and she can feel her accent tripping around some of the words. This is not the cool and collected front she wanted to put up, but it'll have to do. "You're still close?" she pauses and has to remind herself to breathe. "With him?"

[owenphillips]

All he can think is the Coop is not going to take this well in general. His friend likes things to be simple in life, in a way that Owen’s never understood because since he turned 18 years old his life has always been a complicated rollercoaster. A selfish part of him also thinks the timing couldn’t have been worse – Coop’s been his emotional crutch the last few months and he can’t help but have flashbacks to when his friendship with Les crumbled.

“Yeah, we’re still close.” He avoids making a comment about how most people find it difficult to drop Coop out their lives, but the fire really isn’t there. She is probably too tired for a fight and he has no right to start one on Coop’s behalf. Not now anyway.

His phone starts ringing in his pocket and he knows it’ll be Jamie or Claire. The conventional telephone chiming filling the silence that dropped over them. Either way, he lets it forward to voicemail, even though that isn’t really fair on either of them but they’ll forgive him in the long run.

Taking a deep breath, he sighed before talking. “I’ll be honest with you Sylvie. I wasn’t prepared for this to happen and in all honesty I wish it hadn’t. Because I’m going to end looking like a bad guy however this goes down and without going into details, there is bigger stuff I have to deal with in life right now.” He bent down and grabbed a couple of extra wine bottles that were going to act as an apology to the Lyles. “Have you found somewhere to stay whilst you’re here?”

[sylviedevereux]

Her father's fire in her flares when he starts talking like she's walked into a grocery store and ruined his life, but she quickly tempers it with the knowledge that he has a point. This is going to be hard, and she can't let herself get worked up over every little thing that's said between now and when she inevitably gets booted out of this place. He's Coop's best friend and he has a right to be mad, even if she wants to tell him he doesn't know anything about her or what happened.

"Sorry to trouble you," she says, and she means it. She hadn't meant for this trip for wine to become so exhausting, and she's betting neither did he. "I've got a place." She watches him gathering up his bags and bottles and nods. "I don't want to keep you," she starts, giving him the out. He can tell Coop whatever he wants; it's not her right to dictate what he can and can't do from here. She would have liked to talk to him herself without any interruptions, but that's out of her hands.

[owenphillips]

“It’s not your fault,” he admits. As he had said, the timing was just terrible. The police were ‘having a chat with him’ tomorrow. Hence why his friends had taken on babysitting duties for the night and why they were probably going to call him again in a minute. Really they should all realise that he wasn’t going to do anything stupid at this point, that time had passed. Reining his attention back to the present, he nodded his head at Sylvie and asked, “Are you alright getting there? New places can be a bit confusing.”

He’s still deciding what to do about Coop. It’s one of those head and heart decisions where it’s not really clear what is the best decision. Even after knowing Coop for so long, he isn’t really sure which his friend would prefer in this situation. Considering it had never really cropped up before.

[sylviedevereux]

She has to appreciate that even during this shitfight, he's concerned that she might not get home okay. In all honesty she isn't 100% sure how to get back to where she was, but she's sure she can manage. He clearly has places to be, and she doesn't know that she should be hanging out with Coop's friends before she talks to Shea himself.

"I'll be fine, thank you, though."

[owenphillips]

He’s not sure if he quite believes her, but he’s not going to demand he makes sure she gets home. She’s managed to find Siren Cove after all; she’ll most likely be just fine finding wherever she is staying. So he adjusts how he’s holding the bottles and wonders quite what goodbye is suitable for this situation. Instead of words he goes for a polite nod of the head and takes a step before realising what he should say. “Look. Sylvie. I’m not going to say anything to him. If you talk to him and he decides he never wants to see you again, then he can tell you that. So… Please don’t do anything if you think you’re going to hurt him again.”

Because Coop deserved so much better than that. And Owen was putting trust in a person he didn’t really trust with that promise. Even though he knew she had to care for his best friend to some extent to fly all this way.

He didn’t really think there was anything else to say at that point and headed off down the aisle towards the checkouts. Answering his phone this time, when it began to ring again.