TWISTED

Chapter 17

You can't avoid me forever, Music Note!

Jocelyn jerked awake, her eyes snapping open and limbs flailing. She wanted to kick herself for dozing off. The hazy fragment of a dream still lingered behind her eyes, making her want to inject coffee straight into her veins. She hated needles, but she'd do anything to stay awake these days.

Next to her in bed, Hazelle was sleeping soundly, not a care in the world. Must be nice, Jocelyn thought bitterly. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a good night sleep. Ever since they'd gotten back from their trip to Gravity Falls, she'd been plagued by guilt, which led to the nightmares, which then led to Jocelyn avoiding sleep altogether.

Jocelyn smiled ruefully. At least she was consistent. Avoiding everything she deemed unpleasant.

The thing is, when avoiding everything, everything has a tendency to catch up to you.

Jocelyn couldn't sit there in that dark room.

She decided to get some water and was making her way down the stairs to the kitchen when something jumped out at her, putting her over the edge and into defense mode.

Jocelyn instinctively adopted a defensive stance and started to open a portal before she realized just who had confronted her.

"You've read Sophocles?" Ford asked excitedly.

"Jesus- fuck," she exclaimed, quickly shutting down her portal and putting a hand to her chest, where her heart was beating out of control. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," Ford replied, obviously not sorry at all. "You've just never struck me as the type of person who would read someone like Sophocles." He adjusted his glasses, eyes bright.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jocelyn asked, slightly offended. Leave it to Ford to insult her, even when trying to get information.

Making her way to the cabinet for a glass, Jocelyn was careful to keep her back to Ford, hiding her shaking hands. Surprises and her powers didn't exactly mix. Ford had no idea how close they'd just come to a disaster.

"Oh, you know," Ford replied, adding a quick note to his journal. He clearly hadn't realized the effect his words had.

"No, I don't," Jocelyn said flatly, leaning back against the counter. "Why don't you enlighten me?" she added through gritted teeth.

"Well," Ford began, looking up from his journal, "you haven't exactly shown yourself as the… ah… academic type. Sure, you know some random facts and tidbits, but that's memorization, not intellectual ability. And those instruments, well, that doesn't really mean anything at all."

Jocelyn raised her eyebrows. Fucking dickhead.

She'd had enough. Jocelyn pushed off of the counter, and quickly left the kitchen, taking Ford by surprise. "Goodnight, Ford," she intoned as she left the kitchen.

There was a beat of stunned silence before she heard, "No, Jocelyn, wait!"

Jocelyn smirked, and poked her head back into the kitchen. "It's almost four in the morning." she chided. "People are sleeping, you know."

Ford scowled. "I wasn't being that loud. And there was no need for you to walk away like that. It's rude."

Jocelyn barked out a laugh, amused. "You know you're kind of a dick, right?" she asked, pulling out a chair opposite and plopping down.

Ford reared back, offended. "Excuse me?"

Jocelyn took a sip of her water. "Yeah. Like, you can't just go around, like, insulting people. That's rude."

"I was only stating facts," Ford protested, indignant. "You've never struck me as the type to read Sophocles, and you haven't presented yourself as an individual of academic intellect thus far."

Jocelyn sighed. "And while that's your opinion, you can't just say stuff like that. You'll piss people off. There's a reason Stan was probably your only friend when you were younger."

As Ford opened his mouth to argue, Jocelyn cut him off with a subject change. "But yes, I have read Sophocles. We read Oedipus and Antigone my in my junior year world lit class."

"As a junior?" Ford asked, interested once more. "That's so young to be reading something as complex as Sophocles."

Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not, I'm not stupid. I'm in all honors and AP classes, and set to graduate in the top 10 percent of my class. And those two stories aren't exactly complex. They're just Greek tragedies. In a lot of ways, they're actually kind of amusing."

Ford raised his eyebrows. "I am failing to see how the deaths of several people could possibly be amusing."

"In a dark way," Jocelyn backtracked. "I mean, come on, it is at least kind of funny that a man would accidentally marry his own mother, have kids with her, blind himself, and then go live with some sheep."

She took a sip of her water. "And it's the same thing with Antigone. Like, had this bitch just waited like 20 minutes and really thought about her decision, she would've lived, and been free. But I do like her big 'fuck you' to uncle Creon at the beginning. That whole sprinkle of dirt thing is genius."

Ford was quiet for a moment, looking at Jocelyn with his piercing gaze. "Hmm," he said finally, looking down at his journal, and then back up at Jocelyn. "I've never thought of those works in that manner before." He chuckled briefly. "I suppose it is somewhat commical."

Jocelyn nodded at Ford and gave him a knowing smirk, leaning back in her chair.

Ford held Jocelyn's gaze, and there was a moment of silence and mutual understanding before Jocelyn, uncomfortable, looked down at her water.

The room was filled with only the sound of Ford's quill scratching across the pages of the journal.

Jocelyn could've gotten up and gone back upstairs- her nightly spat with Ford was over.

But she didn't.

There was something about that moment- the silence of the room, the rare moment of mutual understanding- that made Jocelyn want to stay.

"So what are you working on?" she asked finally, holding her water close to her chest.

Ford finished the paragraph he was working on before looking up at Jocelyn over his glasses.

"Oh, just some portal calculations and findings. Not anything you would understand. I'm documenting our work as we go along, in case another scenario such as this arises in the future."

Jocelyn felt a slight flush creep up her neck, embarrassed. Ford's swing at her didn't have any malice in his voice. The matter of fact nature in his voice made the fact that he didn't believe in her abilities even more obvious. If only he knew how close he'd just come to seeing a real live portal.

But she decided to let it go.

"How do you catalogue everything?" Jocelyn asked, amazed at the speed at which Ford's quill raced across the page. "You guys have done so much," she added, quieter this time.

And they had. Jocelyn had gone down to watch Hazelle, Ford, Dipper, and sometimes Mabel work. She'd never become involved; it wasn't her place. Besides, Hazelle wouldn't want her around anyway.

Jocelyn glanced up from where she had been staring into space, realizing she'd missed something Ford had said.

"What?" she asked.

"I have a photographic memory," Ford replied, holding Jocelyn's gaze. "You've got to pay better attention, Jocelyn. You'll never get far if you keep missing things," he added, fixing his glasses on his nose.

"Yeah," she replied distantly, choosing to ignore Ford's thinly veiled insult. And just when we were getting along, too.

Jocelyn waited a few more minutes before standing up and stretching, joints cracking loudly.

"Not much to say tonight?" Ford asked as Jocelyn went to refill her water before heading back upstairs.

"I guess not," Jocelyn replied. She hated how observant Ford was, and how ambitiously curious. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

"You know, Jocelyn," Ford began as she headed towards the stairs. "Despite your dislike of me, my offer still stands. I know what it's like to be alone and travel dimensions, with nothing but your inner demons. And I'm here to talk if you need it." If only he knew.

Jocelyn stopped and eyed him warily. "People awake at 4 am need usually someone to talk to," Ford added, noticing Jocelyn's pause.

Jocelyn stood there for a moment, unsure of how to react to Ford's rare show of kindness.

But she didn't want his help. She couldn't explain it, but Ford's actions lit a fire of anger deep in her stomach.

"Thanks for the offer, Fordsy," replied sweetly, knowing the use of this nickname would be sure to get a rise out of him. "But I think I'd pull out my own teeth one by one before using your help."

And with that, Jocelyn left the room and an indignant Ford, back to the darkness and the silence of Hazelle's room until morning.