#later andrew will introduce her to marvel comics a la jane

[vykio]

"Shall I say hello?"

Flash fic challenge!

Jane prompted: Andrew and Renee summer camp (bonus: archery scene). This is the slightly extended version of the scene I wrote!

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“He’s staring again.”

Renee looks up at Artie, then follows his gaze over her shoulder. There’s a table against the wall that everyone seems content ignoring. That’s fine, Renee supposes, since its single occupant prefers to sit alone and keep watch. Andrew is looking their way, but she thinks he just sensed their eyes on him. 

Artie says, “He’s always staring. It’s so weird.”

“You noticed, too?” Next to her, Charlie shudders dramatically. Artie copies her but ups the drama, wrapping his arms around himself as he shakes.

“You were staring first,” Renee reminds him casually. Finally, Artie breaks to look at her instead, a grimace seriously twisting his face.

“No, I wasn’t. I just noticed he was staring because I just looked that way.”

Renee had been inspecting her sandwich for its contents when he made his remark, so she won’t debate him on it. 

“He’s a starer,” Charlie says. “Have you noticed he stares at you a lot, Renee?”

She hasn’t, not really. Andrew and her exchange looks sometimes but it’s never unsettling like the others are making it out to be. When the instructors make bad jokes, he’ll find her in the crowd to roll his eyes and it makes her laugh. She says, “Maybe he wants to make friends.”

“He’s too scary to make friends,” Charlie says.

“He doesn’t talk to anyone,” Artie says, “not even if you’re speaking directly to him.”

“He talks to me.”

They all blink at Renee.

Charlie leans into her and whispers, “What does he say?”

He tells her when her shoelaces are untied, which is very nice of him.

He’d once instructed her to tell the camp counsellors he’d rather drop dead than do the zipline. “If they ask,” he’d said, “I’m foraging in the forest.” She’d thought foraging had been a fun, but she hadn’t gotten the chance to use it; no one had asked for Andrew until roll call after the session, and by then, he’d quietly returned.

Renee finds she’s neither good or bad at archery, but his advice at the range had been particularly useful for improving her stance. The range was outside and covered in nature’s debris, but she had not heard him approach until he’d said her name.

He’d been standing next to her some paces away, his eyes wide with concern, though his expression flattened when he’d successfully caught her attention.

“Drop your shoulder,” he’d told her. She’d dropped the shoulder drawing the string. Andrew circled to her other side and said, “No, this shoulder.”

She did, and when he was satisfied with her form, he’d let her shoot. She’d been steadier, her shot more sure, and it pleased her. He’d said, “Remember that,” then walked away before she could thank him.

Renee shrugs. “Normal stuff.”

“He’s not normal,” Artie is quick to say. “Caroline said he totally followed her around camp once and—you remember? He picked a fight with Tony and broke his nose.”

Shut up rises and swirls in her throat, but she swallows it back and buries it down. She doesn’t want to be irritated with her fellow camp mates, but these kinds of talks of Andrew have been popular because he keeps to himself and doesn’t stand for bullies. Renee won’t ever say Tony deserved the beating he got, but she doubts it was unprovoked.

She clears the gossip from her mind and corrects her mood with a practiced smile. “His nose was not broken. Shall I say hello?”

“No,” Artie hisses. He lunges at her from across the table but his grip is shaky. She easily breaks free from it and climbs over the bench with her tray in hand.

Andrew notices her immediately as she strides over to where he’s sitting. He looks suspicious of her but doesn’t tell her to go away when she invites herself to sit.

“Hello, Andrew,” she says.

He glances over at the table she vacated, then slides his gaze back to openly stares at her for a long minute. “Cool hair,” Andrew says, and Renee smiles brightly at him.

“Thank you.” She tugs at the blue tips of her hair then tucks her bangs behind her ear. She should tie her hair back to get it out of her way. “I did it myself.”

“I can tell.”

Renee laughs, not at all offended by that. She draws her eyebrows together to look upset, but her smile is too wide. “Hey, it’s hard work, you know. It won’t always look nice but I’m proud of it anyway.”

Andrew grunts, which Renee takes as acknowledgment. She asks, “Have you ever dyed your hair?”

“No.”

“Would you want to?”

“You just said it’s hard work.”

“Well, sometimes it is.”

“I prefer never to do hard work.”

“You like archery.” Andrew narrows his eyes at her accusation. “That’s hard work.”

Andrew doesn’t answer that. Instead, he puts his drink down and switches his sandwich for Renee’s. She watches him for a moment, amused as he appears to ignore her and takes a bite of her original sandwich.

“What’s this?” she asks, sliding her tray forward. 

She’s lifting one of the edges of the sandwich when Andrew says, “You hate onions.”

Renee can’t help the surprise that takes over her face. She smiles, wide and true and pleased to be known. She puts her dessert jello in his tray as thanks, and he shrugs one shoulder as if to say thank you and you’re welcome at the same time.