" i've not gone out in a while. " bit of an understatement. the last time susan truly had any sort of 'girl's night' was back when she was living on earth. she had some friends she considered to be closer, and they'd occasionally go to a restaurant or even a more upscale bar in the recently-rebuilt london. then the daleks attacked again, and alex died, and earth didn't really bounce back the same way it had. there was less motivation. it wasn't necessarily that people didn't care, but it was hard to justify putting all that money into nonessentials when there was always threat of an alien invasion. there were no invitations to be extended, and she wouldn't have accepted if there had been. perhaps her excursions with veklin could count as 'going out' but it wasn't the term she would have used. that had involved a lot of drinking and gambling and occasional fighting. it wasn't the sort of thing she imagined herself doing with donna.
it had taken more time than expected for susan to figure out what to wear. she was looking forward to this evening, and she hadn't really looked forward to much in a long time. she tried on a dress, and although it fit well and was comfortable, she found that she didn't really like the thought of going out in it. she was simply too exposed. eventually she settled on a more classed-up version of her everyday wear. instead of a t-shirt she wore a nice long sleeve one, and leather jacket was left behind. still nice, and she could easily move around in it.
jenny and the doctor were left in the tardis. that had made susan a bit nervous -- she had a tendency to get unnecessarily defensive of jenny. she hadn't worked through the why quite yet, but it almost definitely stemmed with her own feelings of being judged by the doctor. -- but they had things they needed to talk through and it would be better if susan and donna weren't there.
" we used to hang around pubs after school and try to get people to buy us drinks, " she mused as they passed by a bar that was beginning to get a bit of a crowd. it wasn't nearly peak time yet, but it was clear this would be one of the more popular spots. " i even got convinced to put on make up and try to act older to get into a club. it didn't work, of course. they saw right through us. " the way susan spoke was incongruous with how she looked. not just the fact that she was reminiscing on her time at school in 1963, but the delivery, the tone, were all much more mature than should have been coming from someone who once got carded trying to buy fireworks. she chuckled as across the street she saw a woman staggering as her friends shouted at one another in drunken concern. " i think those days are behind me. "
@donnanxble
