The Cast Mate

Norman sent her a text message in the morning and they decided to meet up at eleven at one of their favorite places to eat. Silver knew the table he would be sitting at so when she walked in, she headed straight to the back. She was clutching the straps of her bag with her head down. She was nervous and sick to her stomach. She sighed hard and looked up. Norman stood up the second their eyes met.

Norman smiled but it faded when he noticed her eyes shift away from him and her hands tighten on the straps across her chest. She shook her head then looked back at him. He could tell she was holding her breath. He sighed and forced his smile back into place. His stomach started to hurt as his hope leaked away. He had thought her agreeing to meet with him was going to be a good thing but he was starting to think he was wrong.

" Hey." He said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He wanted to hug her, but he knew her and she did not want to be touched.

" Hello." She said.

" I ordered us coffee. Do you want something eat too?" He offered. Silver shook her head.

" No, the coffee is fine, thank you." He nodded as she sat down. She kept her hands on her straps. He sat down and placed his arms on the table, drumming his fingers against the table lightly. She was looking at the table, completely refusing to meet his eyes.

" How have you been?" Norman asked.

" Fine." Silver answered. " You?" He sighed and when he didn't answer her, she finally met his eyes.

" I have been okay." He said. Silver nodded and looked down again. He shook his head and sat back as the waitress brought over their coffees over. Thanks for given then she walked away. Norman leaned forward again and locked his hands around his cup. " Silver, will you at least look at me so I can talk to you?" She shook her head and rolled her eyes before she looked at him.

" What do you want to talk about?" She asked.

" Did you read my letter?" He asked.

" Yeah, I did." Silver grabbed her cup and stared into the steamy, lightly color liquid. " But what do you want me to say?"

" Do you believe me about Jenna?" He asked. Silver pursed her lips together.

" I do, actually." She said, looking at him again. Norman smiled as relief went through him. " Sunny called me and told me what really happen."

" When did he call you?" He asked.

" This morning. I guess you told him we were meeting up." Silver said.

" Yeah, I did." Norman said. She shook her head.

" You know, that's not what is bothering me. We are not together. You can fuck anyone and anything you want. I don't give a shit anymore." Silver said. " But what pisses me off is the shit you said about me and Nick." He leaned forward, sliding his arms across the table top again.

" I understand." He said.

" I don't think you do. Do you really think so little of me that I would fuck someone behind your back?"

" No, Silver, I don't, it's just..."

" I don't care what it is!" She snapped. " You insulted me and you insulted Nick. He thought you were his friend and he would never do that to a friend. You literally got in my face and yelled at me. It came out of nowhere and because you wrote me a little letter I should just get over it?" She was frowning and had shifted her position so she was leaning forward. She had dropped her voice so no one could hear them but Norman still felt like she was yelling at him.

" No, you don't have too..."

" You're damn right I don't! I am so pissed at you right now, you have no idea! I'm pissed and I'm hurt. You accused me of sleeping around, got pissed because I wasn't ready to move with you, then you don't even bother to call me after we broke up." To his surprise a crack in her anger appeared. Her voice gave, the rims of her eyes teared up and her frown slipped. She realized it at the same time he did. Silver stopped talking and sat back quickly. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.

" I thought you might need some time to cool down." He said softly.

" Oh yeah, that worked well, didn't?" She snapped without looking at him. " You didn't talk to me for a month and three weeks." She wiped at her eyes and swallowed hard. She shook her head and looked back at him. " This was a mistake." He sat back again as he watched her get up and walk away from him.

XXXXXX

Silver was laying in her bed with her back to the door when the boys came in. She had bust into their apartment, threw her bag on the couch and went to her room without a word to her roommates. She had slammed her door shut hard, making them look at each other. Nick shook his head, Winston sighed, and Sam grabbed some ice cream and a spoon.

Nick walked around to the right side of her bed and sat down. Winston sat down behind her and started rubbing her back. Sam laid down across the end of her bed and opened the ice cream. Silent tears were making their way down her cheeks. No one said anything for a few minutes. Sam was eating the ice cream, Winston continued to rub her back while Nick stared down at her.

" Almost two months went by before he said anything to me." She said.

" For what it's worth, he's being genuine when he has he's sorry." Nick said. " I could tell when he came here and talked to us."

" He told us everything he said to you." Winston said.

" Why would he wait so long?" Silver asked.

" No offense, Silver, but when you're mad you're hard to talk to. He knows that. Norman knows you really well." Nick said.

" I bet he thought you'd come to him when you calmed down." Sam said.

" You know, I was pretty pissed when you told us what happen. I was pissed when he showed up here to talk to us but I have to say, he's sorry. I agree with Nick." Winston said. Silver sighed and turned over onto her back. Nick and Winston moved at the same time and laid down beside her. The four friends stared up at her ceiling for a long time.

XXXXXX

Norman was sitting on his couch later that night, eating a bowl of cereal. He was watching TV but not paying attention to what was going on. He was replaying their conversation over and over again in his mind. He could see that his plan to give her time had backfired on him. Truth was, he hadn't been sure of what to say to her but now he wished he had just sucked it up and called her. She would have yelled at him or ignored him but she would have seen him trying.

He sighed when a knock came to his door. He stood up and set his bowl down then walked to his door. He was sure it was Sean. He wanted them to go out and get drinks but Norman wasn't in the mood to drink. He had planned on watching some TV then going to bed earlier. He pushed his hair to the side of his head then opened the door.

" Hey." Silver said softly.

" Hey." He said.

" Can I come in?" She asked. He moved out of the way, shocked she had come to him.

When she walked in, he closed the door then walked to her side as she slipped her bag over her head. As he always did, he took her bag from her. She took a hold of his left hand and it made him want to smile. He squeezed her hand as he led her to his couch. He dropped her bag in his love seat before they sat down together, with her on his left.

" Do you want something? Some water or something?" Norman asked.

" Yeah, some water, please." He smiled and squeezed her again.

" Yeah, give me a second." He said quickly.

While he was gone, Silver took a moment to look at his coffee table. There was a script for a movie she knew he had signed on to do. It sat in the center of the table. On the right side was a picture of her and Mingus. They were standing by the fountain in Central Park. Mingus was standing on a park bench while Silver was standing beside it. They had their arms around each other and she was wearing his hat. Both were smiling. There was another picture on the left side of the table and it was of her and Norman. They had been standing on his balcony. His right arm was around her neck and she was kissing his cheek with one of her hands on his chest. He had a smoke in his mouth. He had taken the picture with his left hand.

She sighed as her eyes wondered up his wall. His TV was mounted on the wall and on either side of it was floor to ceiling built in shelves. The white shelves were lined with books, records, CDs, DVDs, a CD player, pictures, and fan made things. All the pictures were of the three of them. Almost two months apart and he hadn't taken down any pictures of her. Not even the ones he had taken of them kissing and there was a lot of those. He had taken the pictures with them kissing on the balcony, on the couch, in his truck, in her car, outside.

" Here you go." He said when he reached her again.

" Thanks." Silver said, taking the water from him. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Silver sighed and turned to face him. Her fingers were playing the the cap on the bottled water. " I was not ready to live together and I really don't think you were ready either. I don't think you asked me because you wanted me here." He nodded and sat back in his couch. His left arm came up and rested against the back of the couch.

" You're right. I knew you would say no. You're not the type to just rush into living with a man. I knew you would say no but I knew then that I could fight with you. I wanted a reason to be mad at you." Norman admitted. Silver nodded.

" Thank you for admitting it." She said. He moved closer to her and when she didn't reacted, he reached out and started to play with her hair.

" I should have called you." He said. She nodded.

" Yeah, you should have." Than she paused for a few seconds. " But I might have just hung up on you." She said when she looked away. His hand moved from her hair to her shoulder as he slid over to her again. He let his hand travel to the back of her neck where he started to rub it. She closed her eyes so he pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Her arms went under his to his back.

" I'm really sorry." He whispered. He felt Silver nod against him.

" Maybe we could start again but move slowly." She suggested. He sighed and tucked his head into her neck.

" We can move however you want too."