2025-06-15 - Changes by Night

[TXT to Dodge] Hayley: hey
you feeling up for a swim?
i'm feeling antsy and restless

[TXT to Hayley] Dodge: It's 2am

[TXT to Dodge] Hayley: and you're awake

[TXT to Hayley] Dodge: give me five minutes

[TXT to Dodge] Hayley: <3 i'll meet you by the pier

Dodge changes out of her sleepwear and into a bikini, throwing on jean shorts and an oversized t-shirt, grabbing a towel, and hooking sandals onto her feet. It's closer to ten minutes, but then she's visible in the darkness, padding towards the pier.

Hayley isn't exactly keeping incognito here, standing and leaning lazily back against a lamp post on the way, standing in a tie-dye bikini top that had been under her tank at the boat race, sandals, and a wrap loose around her waist.

Normally one to dress modestly, the evidence that she does Real Work is all too easy to see like this. There is true bulk and tone to her biceps, her abs sculpted and lean, shoulders broader than is typical for a woman her age.

Her head lifts from the phone, and she spots Dodge, smiling at her and waving quickly. "Hey!" she calls, happiness and bubbles.

"Hey," Dodge chirps back with nominally less enthusiasm. She might have been awake but she was still in bed, and now she is not in bed.

She waves with her towel and closes the distance to Hayley, reaching out and gently swatting her with the towel. "Can't sleep?" she asks.

"Rude!" Hayley replies to Dodge after the swat, and at this distance, the smell is clear -- she's been drinking her fair share. She shook her head, then, at the question. "Not that. Just didn't want to go to bed yet," she replies, a touch cagey as she motions down the beach. "I scouted a good spot for us about two hundred feet that way," she says as she starts to walk.

"There's beer," she adds.

Dodge takes note of the scent of booze but doesn't comment on it, though she shakes her head at the offer of beer. "Nighttime plus drinking plus swimming is not a combination that will work out for me, I don't think," she demurs, falling in line to follow Hayley towards this alleged good spot.

"Fun race today," she diverts. "We should rent speedboats from the marina sometime."

"Yeah! We should, we can go to that open island, see what kind of hidden secrets are there!" Hayley agrees, like this is the best idea ever. It doesn't take long for them to reach the spot, where she's arranged a few rocks in a circle and started a driftwood fire going, a cooler full of cheap but serviceable cans of beer near it -- and four open and empty to the side.

No footprints other than hers, though.

When they arrive, she does fish a can out for herself, cracking it open and taking a quick swig before she looks back to Dodge. "It's nice out here, isn't it?"

Dodge tosses her large beach towel down and sits down on it across from Hayley, glancing at the cooler. "It is, it's really nice out," she agrees, and she means it; the turn of weather has been welcome.

"So what's up?" she asks, fishing for more information about why Hayley is up right now, why she's drinking so much, why it's been so quiet coming out of 201.

"Paul's in San Antonio for two weeks. Left on Friday," Hayley offers to Dodge as her only explanation, taking another long swig from the beer before setting it on a driftwood log she has been using for a surface, stretching her arms over her head.

"It's a nice night, and I didn't want to waste it, but I didn't want to be alone. I'm sorry if you were in bed or something," she admits, rubbing at her neck and frowning softly, though she doesn't seem that sorry, truth be told. "You just told me once that I could knock whenever. And I wanted to go swimming."

"Ahhh," Dodge reacts to the information that Paul is gone, at least for a little while. Good. She doesn't say it but she wants to.

"It's okay," she adds, waving off Hayley's concerns. "I just need to get caught up on sleep." If Hayley had been home late the night prior, she would have heard what sounded like Dodge moving the furniture around in her apartment, through those thin walls that their units shared.

"So, things are good?"

"Things are great!" Hayley reassures Dodge without any hesitation at that question, before she approaches a little closer with a glint of curiosity in her eye, reaching for Dodge's wrist and lifting it to tug her gently toward the other. "Tell me about that. I was up watching movies and I heard all sorts of noise coming from over there," she asks, nosy curiosity blooming.

"Come on, let's talk while we swim," she suggests.

"What?" Dodge asks, wrinkling her brow and casting a gaze over at Hayley. "Oh," she realizes, smiling faintly and shaking her head. "Spring cleaning, but later. Summer cleaning," she deflects.

The truth was only a little more interesting, and spreading due to the slow travel of gossip, but apparently Dodge had been seen bringing a tourist to Crescent Island.

"Oh yeah? Just feeling inspired?" Hayley asks, seeming to accept this for now, even if looking a bit surprised about that. Apparently the rumors either hadn't reached her ears yet, or she wasn't going to pry about that.

"Here I was thinking maybe you were cleaning it up for someone," she says as she starts to head into the water in front of them.

"Like a roommate? I've gotten so used to living by myself," Dodge shakes her head, shedding out of her sandals and clothes until she's only in a bikini, and she follows Hayley to the water.

"No, no roommates. I had one at the beginning, I think I mentioned to you. Didn't last."

"A roommate, a boy, I don't know. You know I worry about you being lonely," Hayley says to Dodge with a glance over her shoulder, untying her wrap, balling it up, and tossing it toward the shore. Thankfully, somehow, it doesn't land in the fire or right back in the water, and she follows with her sandals shortly after. "I've never really lived alone, I don't know how you do it so long."

It doesn't feel great to lie to Haylely but the thing about a sneaky link is it's sneaky, and Dodge doesn't want to spill that tea just yet. Eventually. Probably.

For now, Dodge starts to wade into the water, hissing a little under her breath at the temperature change, though in all actuality, it feels nice. "I have Poe and Koda," she reminds Hayley. "I'm basically never alone."

"That's fair enough," Hayley says to Dodge, and she turns, then, and splashes playfully in the direction of the brunette, giving her a quick grin before she runs out into the lake and dives into the water once it's deep enough, disappearing under the water for a long moment before surfacing, pulling her hair from her face and turning to look back in the direction of the scene of her crime.

Dodge reacts blandly to being splashed, running a hand down her face to remove the excess water. But she leans back and dips the rest of her hair in the water, and then her face, fully submerging for a moment before righting herself again and pushing her hair back and out of her face, plastering it against her skull the way wet hair loves to do.

"You're in a good mood," she observes, scratching at her eyebrow. She threatens to return fire by lifting her hand in a splashing-sort-of-way, but she doesn't. Yet.

"You say that like it's weird," Hayley replies with a light frown on her face as she stands in the water, still at a height where her head and shoulders are above, blinking a few times in confusion. "I'm buzzed, the weather's great, and I'm swimming with a friend. That's good enough reason for me." Then she sees Dodge's hand raising, and her own comes up to guard her face, a grin coming across it. "You wouldn't," she whispers, a challenge in and of itself.

The instant that Hayley says Dodge wouldn't, Dodge does, cracking the flat of her hand against the water's surface and sending a splash headed in the blonde's direction. "I would and I did."

The reward for that is a squeal of indignation, and Hayley responds to it by surging forward in the water and trying to grapple onto Dodge, to wrestle her down as well while laughing. "Oh, you wanna go, huh?" she asks, playful aggression everything about her at the moment.

"Not particularly," Dodge acks as she's grappled, counter-latching her arms around Hayley because if she's going down she's dragging the perpetrator with her. "But you start it and I'll finish it," she declares, trying to throw them both off balance by flinging her weight to one side.

Hayley's strong, there's no doubt about that when they're both gripping each other -- but she's also not precisely sober, and they're in the water, so when her weight is flung to the side she takes a few quick steps in that way, tries to steady herself, overcompensates, and lands back in the water with a large splash that ends up soaking them both again. She sits up, then bursts out into delighted laughter, holding a hand up toward Dodge.

Dodge is not as strong as Hayley is, but she's fast and wily--and sober. So when Hayley goes down, she manages to avoid the same fate, not that it spares her getting splashed by the blonde's toppling over. She laughs and offers Hayley a hand to pull her back up to her feet. "You booze, you lose," she teases lightly.

"Yeah, well," Hayley responds to that in the most simple and mature of ways: sticking her tongue out as she gets pulled back to her feet, steadying herself with a hand on Dodge's shoulder.

"You... swim, you win?" she suggests, weakly, knowing herself that doesn't work. A scrunch of her nose, and a much smaller splash given after. "Jerk," she laughs.

"Good one," Dodge offers in consolation, ducking away as she's splashed but failing to escape the bit of water sent her way.

The low hoot of an owl can be heard from the treeline and Dodge looks up and over in that direction. "That will be Poe," she muses. "Letting me know she disapproves."

Hayley doesn't seem to believe for a second that it was a good one, and she huffs at what she sees as patronizing -- but it's with good humor, shoulder-bumping the brunette as she turns to look at the owl.

"Hi Poe!" she calls with the insistent cheeriness she always has toward the grumpy owl. "Don't worry, I'm looking after her real close!"

There's another low hoot. "She said she saw you splash me," Dodge reminds Hayley, chuckling. "Though jury's out on whether or not she feels I deserved it."

"I did splash you," Hayley confirms, before looking over her shoulder in a hootwards direction and calling, "And I would do it again!" A firm nod out there, and then a look back to Dodge. "She's very protective, isn't she?'

"Protective and grumpy. She treats me like a baby owl that's too dumb to stay alive without help," Dodge informs Hayley. "And like it might be more her obligation than her delight to provide that help."

Another low hoot seems to confirm this hypothesis.

"Oh, so she's like a cat," Hayley reasons, nodding her head in firm delight. "Still, that's got to be nice in a lot of ways, knowing something out there is looking out for ya like that."

She peels back, and away, shifting to lay on her back and start to float in the water of the lake. "What kind of stuff do nights like this remind you of?"

"She's like a cat in that way, yeah," Dodge agrees, raising her shoulders in a half-shrug. "I suppose it is. Yeah. Even if she's very crotchety about the whole thing."

She watches Hayley lay on her back to float and look up at the sky, then glances up herself. "Oh, I don't know. Probably how vast the universe is and how insignificant all of my problems actually are in the grand expanse of things. You?"

"What I'm doing," Hayley answers quietly. "I don't mean, like, work. I'm perfectly happy with work, with being here, with what I'm doing in all that. But I guess I just sort of start... doubting myself. In the face of all that," she says, her hand motioning at the sky. "I'm just a blip, and am I wasting that blip?"

"What do you mean?" Dodge asks.

"I don't think I'm happy, Dodge," Hayley finally says quietly. "I don't know if I can keep pretending I am."

Dodge frowns and drifts over towards Hayley, reaching out through the water to squeeze her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she says quietly. "What do you think would make you happy?"

"I think you know," Hayley says as she looks over at Dodge, a hand taking her forearm and holding it lightly in response to the gentle touch. "But I don't know how to do it. I think of him coming back and..." she sighs.

Dodge frowns a little deeper, but she nods her head in acknowledgement. "You can stay over at my place until he moves out. It's just a one-bedroom but the couch folds out, and Koda won't mind sharing. He's pretty good for cuddles, too," she offers quietly.

"That might be for the best. Thank you. I promise I can be quiet as a mouse, you'll hardly even know I'm around," Hayley says to Dodge, chewing on her lip slightly. "I'll owe ya big for it," she adds.

"Do you think I just... text him?" she asks.

Dodge raises her shoulders uncertainly. "If you think that's the best way for a clean break," she murmurs. "Because if I know anything about breakups, it's that if you give the other person even an inch, they'll take a mile. So you just need to make sure he knows it's final and not negotiable. And if the best way to do that is via text, then text him. He can't be surprised. Not after everything."

Hayley turns her head, looking at Dodge and something clicks in her, sitting upright and letting her legs hit the (relatively shallow here) bottom of the lake. "I'm sorry you know something about breakups," she says, and sounds like she means it, with a sad smile on her face.

She turns, looking off into distance. They're pretty far north, and close to the longest day of the year, the sun starting to tickle the edges of the sky. "I suppose I should just pack all his stuff up, write him, and make sure I'm not around when he gets back."

Dodge gives Hayley a rueful smile and lifts her shoulder. "Yeah, well... it's alright," she murmurs when Hayley apologizes that Dodge knows a thing or two about breakups. "Everywhere is a beach eventually. Everyone knows about breakups eventually."

She dips her chin in a quiet nod. "I can help you pack his stuff, if you want."

Bringing both hands up to rub her face, Hayley mutters, "Maybe," to that offer, her cheerfulness from earlier faded as her shoulders slump, a long breath coming out, her hands dropping. "I should have waited until I was married," she mutters to herself, awkwardly rubbing at her neck, then. "I fell for him too quick, and was dumb about it."

"What do you mean, waited until you were married? Waited for what?" Dodge asks. "Living together?" She shakes her head. "No, no way. You don't want to marry someone and THEN find out they're total slobs." For someone who describes herself as exclusively a solo act, Dodge doesn't seem to lack experience with dating-adjacent topics.

"When do you think you'll do it?"

"Maybe I'll hide a corpse flower in his bags," Hayley muses, a crueler streak than she has ever shown coming out a little, before she looks back to Dodge, then shrugs and shakes her head. "Before, you know, everything. I crossed a lot of lines with him I promised myself I wasn't going to." A sigh, then a turn back to the shore. "Day after tomorrow I have off. I think I can get most of his stuff packed then, get the things of mine I want to make sure he doesn't take squirreled away with you. Think he forgot that I was the one that bought those consoles."

Dodge dips her chin in an understanding nod. "Day after tomorrow then," she agrees. "And you can write a letter and leave it on one of the boxes, and just turn your phone off, and we'll go get hammered, or get dinner, or pet Koda, or whatever you want to do."

"I promise I'm not just a sad sack," Hayley says after a moment, looking over her shoulder at Dodge and smiling weakly at her. "You've been a really, really, really good friend to me."

"I know you're not a sad sack," Dodge says, pawing a hand out and squeezing Hayley's shoulder. "And it's okay. You're welcome. It's light work."

Hayley turns and, wordlessly, gives Dodge a damp hug after that contact, holding her for a long moment before she pulls away, before bringing a hand up to rub at her eyes very quickly. "I'm keeping you up, we should head back," she decides. "Unless you want to race or something?"

Dodge allows herself to be damply hugged, and returns it, squeezing the blonde in a tight embrace. "Zero part of me wants to race. If forced to race, I will throw," she admits, smothering a yawn. "But yeah, let's head back."

The mature response Dodge gets to that is another extension of Hayley's tongue in their direction, and then she's wobbling back to the beach. Drinks, towel, wrap all gathered, she waits until Dodge has everything as well before heading back to the apartment. "Plus side," she says, "I should be a lot quieter to live next to."