wake up. i miss you.

“I don’t doubt that. I could use a good ass-kicking right about now. Might wake up this old bag of bones a little more,” he joked, switching hands. “As far as I can tell, you are a treat. Digging the whole disregard for boundaries thing. Punk rock.”

“Yeah? Put ‘em up, tiger!” she joked, her hands coming up in fists for a moment before she quickly backtracked. “Actually, I’m totally kidding, I don’t want to kick your ass. You seem like a swell guy, aside from the shanking bit.” She chuckled, holding up a hand in a rock ‘n roll sign. “Hey, fuck the man, am I right?”

“What if I don’t carry a wallet?” He countered before peeling his hand away from his face to stare at the other. “What if I’m one of those people that just doesn’t carry any sort of valuable with them and is patiently waiting for someone like you to take my wallet so I can shank you?” Resting his head on his palm, he didn’t break eye contact for a moment longer before cracking and letting out a dry chuckle. “I’ll be sure to stay up so you don’t get shanked.” Glancing at his coffee, her question pulled him away from it momentarily before he simply shrugged. “Probably the heavy burden of life and its many questionable inconveniences like spiders, fanny packs, pringles’ cans, and social interaction.”

“Then you live the kind of life that I want to live,” she replied, an unreadable smile on her face as she met his gaze for as long as he held it before breaking away as well, chuckling and taking a swig of her own coffee. “Yeah, you know, I’d prefer not to get shanked, but you should know that I’m pretty damn tough and I’d probably kick your ass,” she added with a laugh, tilting her head back. She pouted. “Don’t be like that. Social interaction isn’t nearly as bad when it’s with me. Not to toot my own horn or anything like that.”

“This would be the perfect time for you to buy me a drink,” she said, sitting on the stool next to him. “Look at me, I’m here without a drink in sight, and I so desperately need one today. And you, dear, sweet, Noel, are my friend for the evening, so you get the distinct  pleasure of buying the first round. That’s how this whole friendship thing works, right?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him with a mischievous smirk spread across her features. 

taliya couldn’t help but let out a rather amused chuckle as the girl stood up, her coffee cup in hand. clearly everyone in the cafe had a bystander mentality - and perhaps taliya would have intervened if the situation escalated. “ you got it, ” taliya nodded sincerely as her gaze followed the girl who walked over to the disgruntled customer. she hadn’t quite been expecting a scene like that - it caused her eyes to widen in disbelief, waiting for the man’s reaction to which he was clearly fuming. brief words were exchanged before the man grabbed a handful of napkins in a clenched fist and made his way out of the shop. “ look what you’ve done - now you’ll have to go get yourself another coffee. ”

“So anyway, he yells, way too loudly, it was sticky everywhere! And the entire bar goes silent and the whole thing was so damn awkward, and I wasn’t about to make a joke in that kind of situation, no, I was trying to distance myself from him as much as I possibly could. In the end, though, I went home with his friend.” She shrugged. “He wasn’t too happy about it, but he shouldn’t have been such a weirdo in the middle of the bar.”

Austen plopped down at the table across from the stranger. “Be a doll, won’t you?” she asked, letting her bag drop onto the table between them before she pulled off her high heels. “These shoes are killing me and there’s nowhere else to sit. Well, at least nowhere interesting. I’ve never been one for sitting by myself, honestly. You’re probably that kind of person, considering that you were sitting by yourself before I got here, but I think that you should consider my arrival into your quiet afternoon a vast improvement on the day.”

It’d been a long, arduous day full of phone calls, late night coffee runs and mostly radio static. Times like these were a godsend most days, but there were other times he found himself missing the loud, exhilarating frenzy of the bigger cities. He missed being on call and actually having something to look forward to— as morbid as it seemed. It’d become routine, and Nolan was slowly becoming mentally drained from the lack of excitement (as lacking of excitement as you could get with a job like his). Pressing his two fingers into the bridge of his nose, his eyes naturally fell shut as even his own cup of coffee couldn’t keep him awake much longer.

               “Oh — Oh, no.” Erika muttered when she sat at the bar and caught sight of a person she had done her best to avoid for the better part of a year ( though it felt like an eternity ). Panic arose when she turned to the nearest person, her puppy dog eyed expression already up and ready to go. “Listen, I need a favour,” she said with a halfhearted smile, “if you pretend to be with me and help me avoid the male in the blue checkered shirt, I’ll give you a free haircut — which let’s be real, you should have started thinking about getting already. So, do we have a deal?”

Austen’s eyebrow raised, and while she wanted to say something about the haircut comment, she didn’t, instead feeling a mischievous smile spread across her features. “Well, in what way should we be together?” she asked, finding a whole lot of fun in trying to pretend to be someone she wasn’t. It endlessly fascinated her, reinventing herself. She tried to do that everywhere she went, though her personality was so strong that it rarely changed. “Because I can really sell it, if that’s what you want,” she added before winking once.

‘’i think i’m literally about to throw up’’ delphine let out, totally grossed out by the scene in front of her. a man, probably part of the traveling circus that was coming through for a few days, was eating a giant live spider in the middle of the streets. it was all part of a little show of course but it still looked disgusting and a shiver ran through her spine before looking a the person next to her. ‘’what if he like, chokes on it and it gets angry?’’ she let out, knowing full well it probably didn’t make any sense but still, the whole scene still looked quite unimaginable to the brunette. 

“don’t look,” austen replied, completely enraptured by the man. she always found creepy-crawly things like that to be endlessly fascinating, thanks to the deep-seated morbid curiosity that honestly plagued her. “i’ll let you know when it’s over. you want a play by play? because i’m pretty sure the spider is fighting being eaten right now, and it’s a fight between this guy’s tongue and the spider in question.”

the coffee shop near her apartment was never crowded this time of day - hence why she always found herself here at the exact same time almost every day. turns out she was far more addicted to caffeine then she’d like to admit. she glanced up from her mug when she heard the angry shouts of an older man at the counter, clearly disgruntled by something. he shoved his cup back towards the barista who was clearly taken aback. profanities spewed from his mouth as he grunted in frustration. you have one job and it’s not that damn hard ! he shouted. his words caused the girl to roll her eyes, clearly a majority of the attention was on him. taliya turned to the person next to her, “ looks like someone could use a swift kick int he groin, ” she suggests, “ you think that would teach him some manners ? ”