someone just mainlined the series through s4.

[biotch]

So what, you and me, we shack up on your couch for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden you think you know my life? Like that suddenly makes us tight or something? [ Yeah, he's not having it. ]

Nah. Nah. Cause, y'see — I know guys who shit bigger turds than you. So here's what's gonna happen. I'm going home.

Here's what's not gonna happen. I'm not giving you a hug, I ain't gonna play, and I'm definitely not about to let you make me your Ken-and-Barbie fun-time bitch, yo.

We crystal?

Comments

[biotch]

[ The first thing that comes to mind is the word vacation. Jesse almost laughs (in a grim way) because he's forgotten what those are actually like. (A vacation, on Gus's dime? Not a chance.) Still, Mike's an okay guy (—I guess.). If somebody deserves a vacation, it might be him (maybe). ]

Ah. [ Jesse nods in a way the thinks should look sagely. ] Well, y'know. [ He shuffles his feet; he scuffs a toe. ] If you ever feel like bouncin'—

[ He shrugs. No big deal. Take or leave. (Real smooth, Pinkman.) ] —I could bounce.

[measures]

[ Mike's brow furrows, and though it seems like he already knows what he's going to say (take care of yourself, kid, see you later), he takes a moment before giving up any kind of answer. ]

"Bounce"?

[biotch]

[ To his credit, Jesse doesn't make a face — though there's the suggestion in how his eyes crinkle slightly at the edges (in a way that implies discomfort rather than pleasure). His mouth purses one way and then another before he straightens out his posture a bit. (Did I flinch, bitch? Only not quite.) ]

Just— [ He shrugs again. ] —if things ever got, like, heavy and you needed backup.

—I could be the guy.

[measures]

[ You are not the guy, he'd said, once upon a time. You are not capable of being the guy. But as Mike looks at Jesse now, there's something aside from the annoyance and disdain that had originally colored their interaction. It's closer to regret, all things told. (Walter White is poison. The kid doesn't deserve shit like that.) ]

It's not a matter of "could," kid, [ he says, at length, the words slow but not reluctant. It'd been Jesse who'd helped him into the medical tent, back in Mexico. It'd been Jesse who'd shot Tio's grandson, Jesse who'd gotten them to the clinic in the first place. You already are the guy. ]

[biotch]

[ You are not the guy, Mike had told him once. You are not capable of being the guy. Jesse remembers the moment clearly despite all the meth he's dropped since then (two days sober, four days sober, eleven days sober, then off the wagon again and it's back to day one). The words come to mind whenever something goes wrong, whenever shit goes sideways and stuff spirals out of control and it's another case of him or me and Jesse's not sure whether or not he'll be the one who'll make it out okay in the end.

So what if he took care of business, learned how to cook, how to clean, how to throw a car in reverse and floor it, how to pull a trigger. Jesse still wonders: am I the guy? Then he wonders: will I ever be?

Funny that the answer's right there and yet he still doesn't get it. ] And what's that supposed to mean? What, like, no only not saying no?

[measures]

[ Mike's head slowly tilts, like he can't believe he has to clarify but isn't totally surprised by the fact. He's not the kind of person who, despite being blunt, comes out and says stuff like this, but he figures he can make an exception. ]

It means you are the guy. I don't like double meanings and I don't make a habit of using 'em.