A.J.'s breath was pretty much held the entire time they'd been close, and, with straightening, he seemed to hold himself in a way to make up for the loss of distance in those few moments. He gave Angel a brief scritch behind her ears before handing her back to Annette. "Don't worry about it," he said. If he wasn't feeling like keeping words to a minimum, he'd mention that it's a common room, a free world, pets tend to go places, blah blah blah. But he did want to keep words short, so that was all he said, with a light, weak smile that went away quickly as he turned slightly away to take care of some of the mess from the hair adventure.

"Hm?" A.J. asked, trying not to really look over toward Annette but unable to help doing so just a little bit.

A.J. bit his lip a little, eyes still down. He bet that she got it for him a while ago, before the blowout and didn't really know what to do with it no w. "Maybe," he said, quietly, "when I get yours; that way we can exchange them."

"No, it's cool," A.J. said, frowning a little bit in thought. He hadn't thought of what to get Annette that she'd know she'd get. He might have been planning an anonymous gift, but now... "Christmas and all, y'know?"

Man, she certainly wasn't making this whole distance between them, angry at her thing easy, was she? A.J. bit his lip again, toed at the floor. "I dunno, Annette; we'll see, yeah?"

A.J. blinked a little. "Leaving?" he asked, turning his frown toward her. "You mean, like, for the holiday?"

"...Oh." A.J. blinked, not really knowing what to say to that. So he just ducked his head again. "I...I see."

...What did she mean by that, 'how he felt about her'? A.J.'s frown at the floor deepened a little more, as he tried to decide whether he should say something. It would probably lead straight into an argument, another blowout, another shouting match to make them both feel miserable...

But, at the same time, what could you say to something like that? So he just thought maybe it would be best if he didn't say anything at all, because saying things was what usually got him into all these messes.

God dammit.

"Annette," A.J. sighed, softly, looking over at her with his head still lowered, "I really don't think this is the time or place..."

A.J. was trying really, really hard to just hold back; really, he was. But it came out of him before he could stop it, and he was done here, anyway. He didn't need to stick around so he could say his piece and then leave.

"I like how I do everything I can possibly think of to show you that I care," he muttered, shaking his head, "and you think it's all bullshit, and then you just show up, say it, and expect me to just believe it like that. It's astonishing, Annette, really fucking astonishing."

That said, he grabbed the towels and moved to leave.

A.J. paused, sucking in a deep breath. "No," he said. "That isn't what I'm saying. What I'm saying is a lot more complicated than that."

A.J.'s sigh was a short, frustrated one. "Annette," he said, dismally, with an air of how futile this all felt, "if I need to explain it to you by this point, you never will understand."