oh yeah

“Just a tea? We could always Irish it up?” Ro quirked their eyebrows, but dutifully hailed a waitress and ordered a tea as requested. “Just something for my show. I like to play something original on a Friday to get everybody hype for the weekend, but that just means I actually have to create something during the week. It’s a pain,” they complained. 

archie politely declined the offer with a shake of his head, “it’s still way too early for a drink.” he cocked his head to the side in interest. he wasn’t really a fan of electronic dance music, but he genuinely liked their original track, even though he’d only listened for a few seconds. “a show?” he grinned, “i’m interested.”

“Someone once described VSCO to me as Pinterest for straight people. I’ve never used either, but it just seems like a place for white girls to post over-filtered pictures of scrunchies and shit.” Solomon shrugged with a small chuckle. “But I do think we need to make some conservation moves stat.”

Ro furrowed their brows, considering his suggestion for a moment. Then, they bent over their laptop. tapping furiously on the keys for a moment. It wasn’t long before they’d implemented his suggested changes, then popped the earphone back into their ear, replaying the section. It sounded great, and a satisfied grin spread across their features. “S’perfect. Thanks a lot, bud. I owe you one. Maybe I can get you a drink?” They asked. 

“Very goth,” Solomon commented jokingly. He cocked his head as Archie continued to grill him. “Yeah, I like blue. My second favorite is probably green. I’m into nature, you know, I’m just a regular VSCO girl.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Archie with a small smirk. It was easier to joke as he got his mind off things.

“It’s still missing something,” Ro said with a frown, restarting the track they were mixing on their laptop again to try and pinpoint exactly what was wrong with it. “Here, give this a listen,” she popped out an earphone and offered it to the nearest passer by, “And let me know what you think. I want an honest answer, by the way. Compliments won’t help me.”

“Oh, that makes a lot more sense,” Solomon breathed a sigh of relief, though perhaps he relaxed too soon. After all, if Archie could sense his mood from just those things alone, who was to say everyone else didn’t notice? What if they all knew how pathetic he was? He shifted uneasily, then did his best to hide it, straightening up and forcing a smile. “It’s my favorite color, man. You’ve got taste.”

sawyer chuckled softly as archie checked himself out some more while he made quick work of getting his own jacket off and getting it ready to buy. it was so different from anything else he owned, but he knew he needed to get himself out of his comfort zone in whatever way he could. “you gonna buy it or just check yourself out all day?” he teased.

she’s suspicious. there’s something about his whole character that makes less than sense to her and cecilia’s eyes narrow a little. what does he get, putting on the good boy act? he’s not subtle about the whole i’m-in-a-gang aesthetic and yet, here he is. trying to be helpful. but cecilia isn’t falling for that, no sir. she groans a little when he says they’re in the stock room. she was really looking forward to exploring the section a little bit. “oh, i wanted to look around what you have,” she explains her groan, not wanting to be misunderstood and getting gangster boy sending his friends to run her over with a motorcycle. “but uh- the photographer’s eye and the photographer’s mind are the ones i really wanted to find. they’re both by michael freeman,”

sawyer beamed under archie’s compliments as he twirled around to inspect himself in the mirror, pleasantly surprised that, for once, he liked what he saw. he was finally starting to see the person he’d always wanted to be when he looked in the mirror, and nothing was as liberating as that feeling, he thought. “yeah, i think i’m gonna get it,” he said, smiling at archie as he turned back to him, “you’ve got good taste, man.”

“Yeah, I commute to Portland every day, and it’s fucking exhausting,” Solomon replied. It wasn’t a lie. Just a half-truth. “I don’t know, man, I feel like I can’t see any of this shit. I mean, unless it’s obvious like you said.” Then again, maybe he was just more obvious than he thought. “Is it like auras or something? My friend says they can physically see people’s auras.”

no one can make her admit to it, but cecilia is actually scared of the man in front of her. it’s odd- that he’s apologizing, that is. she stares at him with narrowed eyes, wondering if that’s some kind of test and just steps back when he’s gathering the books. she doesn’t offer to help him - it was his fault, after all. besides, the quicker she can escape him, the better. “ah,” she takes his explanation, thinks about it. so maybe it’s not just the designer’s fault, but the actually librarians’ fault that she’s not finding her books. “is that why is everything’s a mess?” cecilia asks, but she’s not nearly as aggressive as she could be. she doesn’t want to piss him off and give him any reason to find out where she lives and strangle her to death one of these nights. or run her over with his motorcycle. or just find another humiliating and horrible way to murder her. “i can’t find the photography books.” 

“Yeah, my job doesn’t care that much anyway. I was just messing around,” Solomon explained with his own soft smile. He tried to follow Archie’s directions, but his question sent a spurt of anxiety through him, and his finger started to drum against the table on their own accord. Vaguely, he replied, “I don’t know, man. I’m just tired. How do you see all this stuff anyway?”

sawyer regarded the jacket archie picked out, deciding that he liked the guys style. it wasn’t something he might’ve picked out for himself, but he liked the look of it, and trying it on certainly wouldn’t hurt. with a smile, he took the jacket from archie, picked out a dress shirt from the rack, and thanked the heavens above that he’d decided to wear black jeans today, anyway. with a swift motion, he made his way into the fitting rooms, putting everything on as quickly as he could. soon, he stepped out of the room, shoving his hands into the jackets pockets and hoping he looked even slightly cool. “what do you think?” he asked, looking up at archie expectantly.

she perked up at his excitement, and a smile spread across her face. “i think my favorite is the shining but it is up there,” she replied, excitedly. “also pet sematary.” layla babbled, a tendency when she herself got excited. “have you read any of his son’s work? joe hill? he’s really good, too.” she watched as he got up to order, leaning her head on her hands. “you’re a hero,” she joked, and grinned. 

( @archiesanders ) it’s interesting how a different experience can totally change the way you look at things. when she was still studying law with her bought spot at college, she hated the library. it was just a reminder of how much she hated studying for that stupid major. she had - has zero interest in all they had to teach her. going to college for a few years, for law and not finishing it might just be the stupidest way she could ever be in debt. but now that she’s standing in the library because she wants and looking for books on actually interesting things, it’s not so bad. might she dare say, it’s almost nice. the furniture desperately needs an update and it’s a few years behind on dusting, but hey, it’s not that horrible. 

cecilia makes her way to the section she hopes it’s photography but- but of course it’s not. why would the labeling on the shelves make sense? she can swear that they just put all the books wherever. it’s not that she’s lost inside a library, the library is just confusing. terrible layout. the architect and interior designer should never be hired by anyone again. if everything was where they should be, it wouldn’t be so diff-

“gah!” she exclaims, jumping a bit in place. oh no. the archie guy. she definitely didn’t see him arriving. is he a ghost too? gangsters should make more noise. “you fucking scared me!” 

“shit!” archie raised his hands up in surrender as a reflex, subsequently dropping the books in his arms and garnering a lot of annoyed stares. “oh my god, i’m so sorry,” he quickly apologised, to the other or to the books that had fallen on the floor, nobody knew. crouching down, he hastily stacked them back up, expertly balancing them in one arm as he stood up.  “i, uh—yeah, my bad, i was just...” he vaguely glances down at the books in his arm. “a university donated a bunch of books, so we’re rearranging the shelves.” he knew the woman wasn’t looking for an explanation, but the excuses began slipping past his lips before he knew it.

sawyer smiled when his advice seemed to be a hit, glad he could make any difference he could. he looked around when archie asked if he was getting anything, finally taking in the store around him. there were some nice things in here, maybe he could get something to impress solomon in. no — that was a dumb thought. but he could. maybe it would help. “i don’t know,” he said with a nonchalant shrug, “anything in here you think would suit me?”

with a thoughtful hum, archie pulled out a sheepskin bomber jacket from the rack and lifted it up. “this,” he said firmly, “maybe with a simple dress shirt, or a pair of black slim fit jeans.” because you can never go wrong with black. archie grinned, “do you want to put it on?”

“Are they business casual?” he asked, only half-joking. He shifted in his seat and looked again at the rock in his palm. “I don’t feel anything yet. Should I be feeling something already? Or does it take longer than this? I’ve never gotten into the crystal thing before. Obviously.”