Eye of the Beholder (1/2)
Summary – Dean eats vegetables, Lori brings over her study group, with angsty consequences. Part of my Lovers, Heroes and Rogues (Blind!Dean) 'verse.
Words - about 1,000 in this part.
Disclaimer – Don't own them.
Rating – PG-13 for swearing. Gen with hints of het.
Notes – angst with schmoop, or schmoopy angst. Dean-heavy.
Dean moved his fingers across the plate, till they were able to trace the distinguished shape of a hamburger's bun, sesame and all. However, there was something else there, moist and…
"Vegetables?Again?" Dean asked. "You know, there is such thing as overdosing on vitamins. I can drop dead any minute, just by eating those veggy things."
"Somehow, I doubt that a bit of lettuce and a slice of tomato would make you 'overdose' on vitamins," Lori said. He could hear her putting down another plate.
"You're just trying to avoid eating them."
"I'm not three, you know."
"No, you're six. Now eat your vegetables."
Dean groaned, just to let her know that vegetables were an insult to his stomach, but took a bite anyway. His food, he thought grimly, should be eating that, but Sam – and Lori by proxy – had other ideas. He went from eating vegetables once a week to once a day.
Lori woke him from his musing. "Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you mind if I have my statistics study group come here tomorrow afternoon?"
Dean suddenly had troubles swallowing his bite of hamburger and lettuce.
"Study group? Here?"
"Well, it's my turn to have them over, but if you don't feel like it…"
"No, no, it's okay," Dean said quickly. "I can't believe you're so geeky that you have a study group," he added.
"Funny," Lori said, "you try passing statistics without help, then we'll talk."
He used to drive Sam to his friends' houses, back in high school. Sam never brought them home, though. He didn't remember ever caring enough about school to join a study group himself, or knowing people who started one. But hey, if Lori wanted to have them over…he was just going to take cover in his room for an afternoon.
"How many people are coming?" he asked.
"Just two," Lori answered, "Hannah – she majors in Psychology, too, and Casey – she majors in Social Work. We all take pretty much the same course, only with different names, so we figured out it would be easier studying together."
"Have you always been such a geek?" Dean asked, "or is it living with Sam that affected you?"
Lori sighed.
In retrospect it was obvious that, with his lousy luck, he was destined to get caught on his quest for a bottle of beer. He opened the refrigerator, felt for the bottles and grabbed one, when –
"Dean?"
The voice made him lose his grip, and the bottle went down and shattered on the floor, covering his bare feet with broken glass and cold beer.
"Shit!"
"Don't move," Lori said, "there's glass all over the place."
"Well, I was going to make sure I'll have all kind of cool green glass pieces stuck in my soles, but now that you told me not to move…" He wasn't a complete idiot.
"Casey, can you bring me the paper towels?" Lori asked someone.
"Sure," said an unfamiliar female voice, and Dean shifted uncomfortably. Whoever she was – and whoever was the fourth person in the room, who hasn't spoken yet – they got a full view of his face. He could hear someone wiping around, occasionally touching his legs.
"Can I have one of those?" Dean asked. Someone put another towel in his hand. He muttered a quick thank-you and bent to clean his feet.
"It should be okay for you to move now," Lori said.
"In that case, I'm going to the bathroom to clean myself up." Without waiting for an answer, he took a wide step – just in case there were still fragments around – and moved past them. He washed his feet, dried them, and tried to shake off the feeling of being an idiot. He made himself leave the bathroom by remembering that it was spilled milk (beer, anyway) – those girls have already seen his face.
"Dean?" called Lori from behind the door, "are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he groaned. He pressed the knob and opened the door.
"Got your slippers," Lori said, and gave them to him.
"Now that you're beer-free…I'd like you to meet Casey and Hannah."
"Hey. Sorry about earlier." He moved his weight from one leg to another, and lifted a hand to smooth the hair at the top of his head. The slippers were still in his hand, and he bent to put them on.
"It's okay," said someone, "I'm Casey."
"I'm Hannah," said a different voice. "Nice to finally meet Lori's mysterious employer." Someone – probably Casey – giggled.
"I like keeping to myself." Dean said, straightening. "Wouldn't want to scare the little kids and all that."
"Dean!" Lori said sharply, "you're not scaring anybody."
He hoped so.
"Do you still want that beer?" Lori asked.
At that point, he needed it.
"Yeah, sure."
"Great. We just finished studying. Mind if we keep you company?"
He did mind, as a matter of fact. But he couldn't say that, because then he'd have to explain why, and 'I don't want your friends staring at my scars' didn't sound quite right.
"Why not?" he said.
Those girls turned out to be okay, Dean thought. Sure, they used that fake cheery voice with him, but so did everyone but Sam and Lori; he didn't hold it against them. They sat there while he drank his beer, and he joked and charmed and listened to their stories, and tried to forget about his mess of a face.
It turned out that Hannah was Lori's old roommate, and Casey moved in her place ('my roommate was horrible' she said heartily) after Lori left. They talked about college life, mainly, and Dean told some – carefully censored – anecdotes from his days on the road. On one hand, he had to admit – it was nice talking to people that weren't his brother and/or caretaker. On the other…days like those made him miss the road more than ever. He missed his car, the open spaces, bars, girls, one-night stands…
"Dean?" He heard Lori calling.
"Over here," he called, stopping the treadmill and stepping off it.
He heard the door to their home gym opening. "Casey just called," Lori said, a bit out of breath.
"And…?"
"Just listen, okay?" Dean heard a cell button being pushed, then Lori put the phone to his ear.
"Hi, Lori, this is Casey. I'm calling for Dean…I wanted to know if he'd mind meeting me for coffee. Please ask him to call me back, okay? Thanks."
TBC