What Can I Say?

[Beau LaRoux]

Erika Conner (Bellefonte)

Beau stared at his phone like it was some kind of alien technology that had been beamed down. Not like he hadn't texted before or whatever; he technically did it with Liz fairly often. This was... different. Mostly because he was contacting Liz's best friend nearly out of the blue to, well, talk about Liz. Also because Beau just wasn't the texting sort, but he figured he shouldn't just pop in on Erika, not when the girl was the Headmistress now and everything.

So, he drew out his phone and started typing:

Hey, Erika. It's Beau. Was just wondering if you weren't too busy and we could talk. Could use some advice on Liz.

And of course he stared at it for a while, hemming and hawing before realizing he should add a little more:

No emergency or nothing. We're doing fine. Just need some input from her best friend is all.

There, that should work, right? Right. Now send and try not to freak out.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Frowning at her vibrating phone, Erika held it up and squinted at the bright screen. The frown only furthered as she read the message; Beau? Why would he text her? Continuing, she pursed her lips.

Hey, Beau. What's up?

Looking at the screen, she shifted awkwardly. This felt odd.

And no, I'm not really busy. It's pretty quiet right now, so don't worry about that at all.

God, this typing felt awkward.

What can I help you with, good sire?

There, that felt better....ish.

[Beau LaRoux]

The return messages came quick enough, though Beau wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or worried about that. Looked like Erika was wiling to talk and all, so he had that going for him. He raised his hand a few times, hovering it over the keypad, wondering if he should try texting again. He lowered it, raised it again, lowered it, then had to chuckle as that last message came through.

Well, was just, uh, night or so ago. kinda had a few too many. Beau frowned, realizing that was a bit of an understatement. He sent that, pausing to read it. Soon his eyes were widening and his fingers practically flew: not like anything happnead or anything aliket that. just passed out in her bed was all.

Oh because that sounded better. And why the hell did he hit send before at least trying to spellcheck? Beau rubbed at the bridge of his nose. can I just call? I ain't no good at this text thing; usually just do it with Liz and that's different and all.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Frowning at the first message, a bemused expression formed on Erika's lips. But before she got much of a chance to react, another message came through and the brunette's frown furrowed. Well... She didn't doubt Beau's intentions or anything, but eh... This was just awkward. In a very humoristic kind of way.

Smiling at the last message, Erika rubbed the back of her neck as she dialed his number and lifted the phone to her ear. She had to fight the laughter that was bubbling at the back of her throat. Why didn't he just call right away?

After a few rings, she heard the phone being picked up, and she took a deep breath.

"You're horrible with words," she snorted. "Seriously, you just dug yourself a grave and kept digging." She was probably not making it any better, huh. "All awkward texting aside. You seem worried. What's up?"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau frowned, wondering if the texts had gone through or something. Maybe he was just used to Liz, who appeared to have managed to get "incredibly fast fingers" as some kind of strange side effect. So he'd been staring, expecting to see Go ahead in some variation appear on his phone. When his phone started actually ringing, playing "Rich Girl" at a modest volume, he practically dropped it. Thankfully, Beau did have a football player's reflexes and managed to catch the phone in time.

"Howdy," he managed into the phone without really thinking about it, though he soon found himself chuckling and moving to lean against the nearest wall. "An' I'm great with words; I'm jus' no good at the whole textin' thing. 'sides, this is kinda an awkward thing," Beau shifted, reaching up with his other hand to rub the back of his head and letting out a slow breath. "You talked to Liz lately? She, uh, say anythin'? Anythin' 'bout, well, uh, us, I guess, maybe? Or jus' anythin'. Aw, hell, ain't no excuse for manners, shoulda asked how you were doin' an' stuff. Sorry 'bout that. Jus' got a lot on my mind is all."

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Stifling a laugh, Erika tried her best to keep a straight face. She really did. She wasn't used to being tossed into these kind of awkward situations, and well, honestly? She wasn't used to talking to Beau on this kind of level either. "Yeah, this is kind of awkward..." she admitted with a laugh, which came off a little more high pitched than what she would have liked. Though, part of her was starting to worry. This wasn't like Beau at all.

"Uhm," she said, smacking her lips. "No, not really. At least, not after the double date," she added, lifting her hand to scratch the back of her neck. "We've both been pretty busy, I suppose." Okay. What was going on? The more he beat around the bush, the more worried Erika got. "What's going on, Beau? You're starting to freak me out." He couldn't drop a bomb like that and go back to talking about how she was doing.

"You guys alright?"

[Beau LaRoux]

"Well, I ain't tryin' to make it awkward," replied Beau. He tapped the wall again, looking around. He'd been walking around, wanting to make sure that no one overheard, and it seemed that he'd wandered toward the music room, which wasn't that surprising. Probably his brain wanting to go somewhere comforting. He'd better start moving again though: last thing he needed was for his sister or Liz to show up and overhear this.

"What? Oh, yeah, we're doin' fine an' all," replied Beau, waving a hand. "In fact, that's, uh, well, we're kinda doin' more than fine an' all. oh hell, I'm prolly freakin' you out somethin' fierce, ain't I?" Beau let out another breath running his hand over his face. "Okay, so, uh, yeah. Kinda got drunk an' mighta mentioned to Liz that, uh..." Beau trailed off for a bit letting out another breath. Should he be mentioning this to Erika? Well, she was Liz's best friend, so surely Liz would want her to know eventually. But did Liz want to tell Erika first? Did that matter? Seeing as Beau wanted, no, needed some advice and the sooner the better, as he couldn't figure out where the hell to go from here, and if anyone knew Liz almost as well as he did (or arguably better), it was Erika Bellefonte.

Of course, all that thinking meant that Beau had gone silent again.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

"I know you're not," Erika replied with a smile. The silence that followed, Erika spent sitting down, leaning her back against the wall as she splayed her free hand over her knee, drumming her fingers absentmindedly.

Letting out an audible sigh of relief when Beau told her they were fine, Erika closed her eyes and lifted her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. However, she had to admit that her curiosity was now peaked. "You could say that, I suppose..." She laughed, but fell silent to allow him to finish whatever he was going to say. "Mentioned what?" Beau had gotten drunk? Somehow, she couldn't quite picture that. He always seemed to so confident and composed, it was really strange seeing him like this. Well, hearing him. 

"You can't leave me hanging like that, Beau," she scolded him and leaned forward, pursing her lips. "You're just freaking me more out by saying nothing." She didn't want to pressure him, but clearly, there was a reason he'd called.

"Would you be more comfortable talking about this in person, or?" Maybe that would put some ease to his clearly troubled mind?

[Beau LaRoux]

Man, he was not doing a great job of this. Beau had never been great at phones and stuff, which was the main reason why Liz pretty much just invaded his space whenever she wanted to talk to him (which was also part of the main reason why the two of them were pretty well always together, well, that and other things that you just couldn't quite do over the phone as easily).

"Sorry 'bout that, jus' workin' through it all is all,' replied Beau, gesturing with his hand. He let out another breath and made sure to move out of the general music room area, mostly to put some of that nervous energy into moving. The fingers of the hand not holding the phone had already started tapping against his leg as though fingering the frets of his guitar.

"Would make it easier," admitted Beau, frowning, "but I know you're busy an' all, an' I don't wanna take up more of your time an' all." Beau took another breath, tapping his leg all the more furiously. "Kinda mentioned that... that I figure we're gonna end up married some day an' all. Didn't propose or nothin', but I jus--" and no, it was less Beau actually pausing for a bit and more that Erika was likely to do some screaming or interrupting around that time.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

"No, no, it's fine," she assured him. Even if she had been busy, she was never too busy to help out a friend, and she liked to think that despite Beau dating her best friend, they were friends as well. And then Erika almost dropped her phone, and her jaw along with it. Blinking, she stared blankly out into the room in front of her. Well, the whole part about them getting married one day was a given; Everyone knew that. Everyone had seen that one coming. But clearly, there was much more to it than Beau getting drunk and admitting to it.

"...You wanna propose, don't you?" she asked silently. Pushing herself up, Erika started slowly pacing from one end of the room to the other. "That's why you called?" she asked again, not really giving him much room to reply before she spoke again. "Or...?"

Wow. Was this a season where everyone proposed, got engaged and married? The image was almost hilarious, and the telekinetic had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from laughing. Wow, someone must have put some kind of love potion in the water lately.

[Beau LaRoux]

Did Beau wanna propose? "Well, yeah, kinda, or, well, eventually," said Beau, letting out another deep breath. He rubbed at the back of his head again, and had somehow started walking in slow circles while he tried to figure something out. Naturally the moment his hand lowered, it started fingering frets all over again. The only reason Beau hadn't started humming was because he knew that it would be rude to do so when on the phone.

"I'm jus'... well, tryin' to figure out if she said anythin' an' I also kinda figured that you'd be one to know an' talk to 'bout it," explained Beau, letting out another breath. "I mean, we ain't really in the best place to actually get hitched or nothin': we got school an' all to get through an' we don't wanna mess that all up an' stuff. I jus', well, I kinda always figured that was where we were gonna end up."

Beau chuckled, shaking his head. "Hell, are we movin' too fast or somethin'? We've only been datin' a few months an' all. It's jus, well, you know we've kinda been together forever an'-- oh hell, don't even know what I was thinkin'."

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

"She hasn't said anything about it... Yet." Erika furrowed her brows. Well, she couldn't blame Liz for not saying anything, seeing as how long it had taken Erika to tell her the same thing, with her and Everett, which kind of made this entire thing comical. "Well... Honestly? I think all of us expected you two to end up there, so I'm not entirely sure what you're so worried about. I mean... If you don't think you're ready now, why stress about it? It'll happen when it happens, you know? When the time is right, you'll know, and..." she trailed off, shaking her head.

"I'm not sure if I'm the right person to talk about 'moving too fast'," Erika laughed nervously, instinctively looking down at the ring on her finger. Did Beau know? Had Liz told him? "Look, it doesn't matter if it happens now or if it happens later. What matters is what's right for the two of you. Even if you'd only dated for a week, or five years. None of that matters." She pursed her lips at that and a soft smile formed on her lips. "Do what makes you guys happy, and what feels right. This relationship is about you two, and not everyone else. If you want to marry her, marry her."

That was the best she could possibly explain it, although it came out...sounding a little weird. That was how she felt about her own engagement, and well, regardless of what other people thought of it, she knew that it was the right thing. She could feel it down to her core.

[Beau LaRoux]

All of them? Beau had to chuckle at that, remembering how it did seem like everyone had known that he and Liz were destined to be together before the two of them had even gotten around to doing it. Should he stress about it? Should he wait? Erika actually made some sense there, waiting till the time was right and all.

Beau actually lapsed into silence while Erika continued, holding still even in moving, which put him near a water fountain and a few people who clearly thought he was going to be using it. Beau, stunned as he was, mostly kept still, listening to Erika as she gave out the advice. Only mattered to the two of them.

"Well, hell yeah I wanna marry her," said Beau. that got a look from the person waiting for the fountain and he gave her a quick grin before walking around and moving again, his excitement moving his feet. "Like I said, that was always the plan an' all. I love the damn girl, Erika, an' I jus' don't see a future where I ain't with her forever an' for always," Beau turned, not even sure where he was going. "But you ain't me my family. I propose to a girl without at least introducin' her to 'em, an' I'm gonna get hanged up by my toenails an' all. That's assumin' they don't ask MaryAnne to get me afore they even show up."

Beau paused again, taking a breath. "I dunno, Erika... you think she'd even say yes if I asked?"

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Her smile only widened as Beau continued talking. It made her so damn happy, hearing that Liz had found such a wonderful guy who cared so deeply for her. Heck, it even made her tear up. "Have you told her that?" she asked, "That you don't see a future without her? Because if you haven't... You really should. She loves you too, you know, but I think you already knew that." Pressing her lips together, Erika stifled a laugh. Ah, yes. Both Beau and Liz came from huge families and they were obviously a lot more close than what she was to her own.

"Then why don't you introduce her to them? Why don't you invite them all down here, or take a weekend off or something? You already know they're gonna adore her, and her family is going to adore you too." There was no doubt about that.

"You're trying to make a problem out of nothing here, Beau. You're making excuses," she said, shaking her head. "What are you afraid of? What's the worst that could happen? Imagine the worst, and tell me you don't think the two of you would be able of overcome it. You've gotten too far to let anything stop you now."

Wasn't that the truth.

Laughing again, Erika rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "Of course she would. She adores you, Beau. That's obvious for anyone to see."

[Beau LaRoux]

"'course I did," replied Beau, chuckling a little, "kinda came out with jus' 'bout everythin' else."

Which was precisely why he was now wandering around the school and talking to Liz's best friend, who was providing quite a lot of insight and advice that Beau was most definitely listening to.

"Erika, they live--" he began, only to pause as Erika insisted they were excuses. Did Beau really think that he and Liz could overcome anything involved? Well, yeah, of course he did. He didn't even need to pause and think about it for a moment. Because exactly as he said: he couldn't imagine a future that didn't include her. Plus, he knew that Liz and MaryAnne already got on well enough.

And Erika even said that Liz would agree. "you sure? I jus' don't wanna... I mean we're kinda young an' all, an' I know we're gonna end up, but if she doesn't want that, then I don't wanna pin her down. 'course, I ain't gonna let her get away. Girl like that don't come around twice in your life an' all,' Beau chuckled, "though I guess you kinda knew that already. I gotta do this right though, Eri. Like, I gotta ask her dad an' get the right ring an' all. It ain't excuses or nothin'; girl like Liz deserves to get it all right," Beau nodded confidently, then paused, looking around again. He appeared to have wandered toward the West Wing now, and he couldn't even remember what was actually in that section of the school. Best to just keep moving.