And It's All In My Head

ambrose joshi; and I just can't look its killing me

[mollychill-blog]

Why Molly was still standing here and listening to this guy stutter and ramble all the while, she wasn’t sure. She had never been a fan of wasting her time doing something that wasn’t work. Something that didn’t have profit, which is how she’d managed so long without friends in Town, but even if she wanted to, she wasn’t sure if she could find a way out. He started in on ‘her story’, and all Molly could do was stare in disbelief. The fact that he’d thought that deeply into something involving her, without even knowing her… she wasn’t sure whether or not to be creeped out or flattered. Of course she leaned more towards the first option. Molly prided herself on being good at most everything she did, but… she waited until he was finished and let a short silence fall between them before clearing her throat. “It’s not that I can’t do my laundry. I just don’t have to. A guy across the hall does it for me. He’s in his fifties and he’s kind of a creep but they always come back folded and wrinkle free, so I can’t complain,” she murmured. “I don’t have a dog, though. Too much work. I’m not home enough, and if I was a princess I definitely wouldn’t have relocated in Town, but… interesting. I guess.”

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

This was exactly why Ambrose avoided actually talking about his stories: they weren’t very good. He was sure that people would expect some kind of insightful, Sherlock level deductions when instead he preferred to hang around in his own little fantasy worlds. “So I was right about the laundry! Kind of,” he replied enthusiastically, almost completely ignoring everything else she had to say. “See, the thing is... the truth sort of doesn’t matter. Stories are just pretty much about stories. They’re not supposed to be true, they’re just supposed to be enjoyable. See, I never thought I’d ever actually talk to you or really ever see you again so why not give you your own secret identity. Then it’s like I’m living inside some really cool action or romance or horror or fantasy story, except I’m not actually in it. I’m Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-ing the rest of the world. You may not be a princess in your world, but in mine you were a super classy warrior princess who was the one keeping our fair streets safe at night with your super powers. No disrespect or anything but it wasn’t supposed to be right. I’ve always been lousy at puzzles.”

[mollychill-blog]

This guy couldn’t be serious. As she listened to him attempt to explain his variety of names, all she could do was tilt her head to the side and try to figure out what was going on. “I get the feeling that even if I tell you to stop, this is going to keep happening,” she decided, tapping her foot a few times as she waited for him to try and explain himself. As he started, Molly’s offense and distaste was clear. It was easy to assume the worst when he started off with wondering where she lived, but as he went on, she found herself less defensive. Though that didn’t particularly show in her expression, still as grumpy and confused as ever. She stayed quiet until he seemed to fall into a deep hole of despair, and she knew she’d have felt guilty later if she left it there. “… What do you think mine is, then?” Her curiosity definitely had got the best of her in that regard, anyway. She always wondered how others saw her, so she couldn’t help but ask. “My story,” she clarified.

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

Ambrose just laughed self-effacingly, shrugging his shoulders again. “No, no, you’re probably right about that. My mouth has a mind of it’s own. Which is good because my actual mind doesn’t really pull its weight most of the time. I sort of gave up trying at this point.” Seeing the offense rise to her face, Ambrose was quick to raise his hands in a gesture of innocence, hoping his rambling would find a way to redeem him somehow. But honestly he doubted that it would. Getting ready to be attacked, Ambrose prepped an apology in response  to whatever she had to say. “Sor--wait... oh! That. Well uh... I figured you were headed home, like I said. But what you don’t want people to know and why you were so quick to catch on to someone watching you is that you secretly live in one of those amazing houses out on the outskirts of Town with a butler and maid and cook and all of that. Three dogs: a husky, a pure bred shiatsu and some puppy mutt you picked up off the street when no one was looking. Because you’re secretly a princess, right? One of those exiled by an evil plot a la Lion King and are hiding out here and trying to live a normal life but accidentally giving yourself away by being too graceful or amazing at stuff. And I was going to say that your tragic flaw was that you don’t know how to do laundry, but now that I’ve talked to you I’m getting more of a Xena vibe so you can probably take care of yourself. So... no castle, just probably an apartment. And possibly one dog. Which would mean that your fatal flaw is that you’re too nice to walk away from the clearly nuts guy who won’t stop talking nonsense? Because that’s the only one I’ve got for you right now. Unless there’s some kind of witch’s curse or you’re a werewolf or something. But that’s sort of more cool than it is a fatal flaw.”

[mollychill-blog]

Instead of reply, Molly kept the same judgmental stare as the man tried to explain his staring. Poorly. “Yeah,” she dragged out, crossing her arms over her chest and settling to face him. If he tried anything, Molly was sure she could defend herself, but he seemed to nervous, anyway. “Whatever I want to call you?” She lowered her chin, raising her eyebrows. “You were explaining why you were staring at me. That’d be nice  to know,” she suggested, tilting her head to the side. “Ugh… Molly.”

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

Ambrose was so used to judgmental looks at this point that it hardly fazed him in the slightest or encouraged him to babble less. “Well, the name’s Ambrose technically but most people call me Josh. It’s a thing. But I’m not that worried about what people want to call me really. Which was still more explanation than you needed. And I was about to go on more. You really should tell me to stop.” Shaking his head at himself, Ambrose set about collecting his thoughts to figure out how to express himself well, an effort that was doomed from the start. “Right, the staring thing. Well...” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish look about him. “I was just sort of thinking about how you were probably going home and where that would be, what you’d do, who’d be there... oh god, this sounds bad. Not... not like anything weird. I do that to a lot of people... that’s not helping me, is it? It’s a story thing. I like to people watch and try to guess what their stories are. I guess I got a little too caught up in yours.... please don’t report me or anything, I swear I’m not as creepy as I’m making myself sound. You know what? If you need me, I’m going to go find a hole to jump in. Maybe then I can finally learn the art of silence.”

[wowgiselle-blog]

“I -” She cut herself off with a nervous laugh, before shrugging her shoulders. “I guess so… it’s nice,” she repeated again, clearly not the best at complimenting others. Or talking to people who she didn’t know very well, but with how much the guy was starting to speak, she was trying her best to keep up. Though, she struggled as he went on, her face flushing. On instinct, she reached up to run her fingers through her hair, self-consciously trying to fix it, despite his words. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed, before blinking in realization. “I mean - you know, you don’t… have to, I just… ha,” she ended awkwardly, lowering her head, but she did manage to catch him slapping his forehead. “Ambrose, Josh, Joshi… I’ll - go with Josh, if that’s okay,” she decided, glancing down at her hand before sticking it out to him. Though, she almost pulled it back, but decided it was far too late. “I’m Giselle,” she said again, before clearing her throat. “I… already said that, right, uh - you’re doing fine! I’m sort of a mess, too, though I could argue that I’m being… far more embarrassing right now.”

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

It wasn’t really until he noticed her blushing that Ambrose realized just how much he was talking and how uncomfortable she seemed to be. He tried to remember to reign himself in but he wasn’t really good at thinking things through before talking. “I’m serious you know. It looks nice,” he commented as she seemed to try to fix her hair. Laughing slightly, he broke out into a bit of a smile. “I don’t have to...? Sorry, but you lost me. I’m not much good at doing things because I have to, generally I just say whatever comes to mind. Thinking... is not really my strong suit.” Ambrose shrugged, nodding. “All my friends do. Or they would, if I had any friends,” he joked, though he supposed there was an element of truth to it since he’d only moved to Town recently. “No one but my family calls me Ambrose.” Taking her hand with a grin, he shook it firmly but enthusiastically. “You did, but I was incredibly rude and didn’t say that it was wonderful to meet you, so we definitely needed a do over. Let’s try this one more time.” Taking his free hand, he clasped it around hers so he was holding her hand between his. “Hi Giselle, I’m Josh. It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you.” With that he nodded and let go of her hand. “There, much better. We may be able to save this conversation yet.”

[mollychill-blog]

Molly didn’t respond to the question, grip on her purse strap and hip jutted out as she narrowed her gaze on the boy. Even when he finished attempting to explain himself, she didn’t speak at first. She was more or less feeling him out, deciding whether or not to shrug it all off and move on, find herself concerned, or initiate conversation. He seemed nervous about getting caught, but she still found herself wary. “You weren’t looking at my hair,” she finally pointed out, quirking an eyebrow. 

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

“But your hair does look really nice. I mean, totally worth staring at. It uh... wasn’t exactly what caught my attention at first, but it’s nice, you know what I mean?” Realizing he was rambling and just saying the same things he had been before, Ambrose caught himself and shook his head. “Right... let me try this again. I’m Josh. Or Ambrose. Or whatever you want to call me really. And I was... well there’s really no way of saying this without making me seem a bit weird. But it’s probably too late for that anyway, isn’t it? Uh... where was I? Sorry... I babble when I get nervous. Not that I have anything to be nervous about... okay, you’re a little intimidating but I swear it wasn’t anything weird. God... absolutely none of that made any sense. I’m shutting up now.”

[wowgiselle-blog]

“A little, yeah,” Giselle replied, an eyebrow quirked when he seemed to catch on to the uncomfortable look she was sending him. Giselle wasn’t quite used to people staring at her for anything good, though, so she shuffled nervously on her feet, ready to move on when he tried to explain himself. The compliment caught her off guard, reaching up to touch the ends of her hair and letting out a laugh - not the most attractive of laughs, to be noted. “My hair?” She lifted it up to look at it, as if that would help her decide on whether or not he was telling the truth. “I have trouble believing that, if you’re staring at my hair. I don’t do - anything with it, but - oh, thank you. Sorry. I’m really bad at taking compliments,” she rushed out, her eyes widening in embarrassment. “I clearly don’t - not many people… uh - sorry. I’m Giselle. You have… really nice hair, too.”

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

“Really? Then I guess it’s just naturally nice then, right?” he suggested, shoving his hands into his pockets, amazed that he’d actually come up with a somewhat plausible story. Or at least that he’d found someone willing to buy it. He didn’t really think there was any harm in it, especially since he hadn’t been thinking anything particularly bad--just hard to explain. “I mean you wouldn’t believe the amount of work it takes to get my hair looking like this. Sometimes it’s upwards of ten minutes. It would probably be easier if I took the time and effort to go get it cut but... well that’s effort.” He chuckled a bit in a self-effacing way and shrugged his shoulders. “That’s because you don’t have enough practice, right? They do say practice makes perfect. And I’m free if you ever need a hand with that. I’m more than happy to stare adoringly at your hair whenever you like.” Grinning at her, Ambrose paused to smack himself comically on the forehead when she introduced herself. “Right! Right! I’m Josh. Well... actually the name’s Ambrose but most people call me Josh or Joshi. I probably should have started with that  Clearly I need a refresher course in ‘how not to be creepy when first meeting someone’. Sorry about that. I lose track of where my head goes sometimes.”

[ambrosejoshi-blog]

“Oh... was I staring?” Ambrose asked, realizing he’d been caught and offering a sheepish smile to the other person. “Sorry. It’s just... uh... your hair looks really nice? Yeah, definitely worth staring at. It was completely meant as a compliment. And, if it helps, I promise I’m not crazy.”