like fire on pavement;

“Oh definitely. I left the finer and prettier champagne glasses alone,” Veronika told him, setting two glasses on the counter. She trotted to the cabinet that held records and CDs and tapes. She fiddled with the record player and eventually got something to play. “What do we have here?” she asked, referring to the alcohol.

      Austin smirked, watching as she set the two glasses on the counter before he moved forward, popping open the top of the bottle that was in his hand and pouring the liquid inside of the glassware. Picking up his own, he brought it to his lips, allowing the dark liquor to slide down the back of his throat. “ Whiskey. Tastes kind of cheap but, it’s not half bad. “ 

“Oh, I did,”  She nodded.  “And then someone was killed and most people started hallucinating.  So I really don’t think most parties are for me.”

“ Clearly I missed that one. “ He sighed. “ Were you friends with this person? “

          “I was saying did you want to get a box of butter popcorn for a dollar fifty ??” Nate asked as he rang through the movie tickets. 

     “ Yeah - no, I’m more of a gummy worm guy at the movies myself. “ Austin chuckled softly. “ Quick question though, is this movie even worth seeing or am I just going to waste the next two hours of my life? “

“I think they called your order number, man.”

      “ Number twelve? I could’ve swore they said number ten. “

“I was saying. Please move yourself a few inches that way so I can grab my bag. You’re blocking the way.”

     “ Oh. “ Austin sighed, moving off to the side so the girl could get her bag. “ Kinda figured that someone would need that back, sorry about that. “

“I did no such thing,” Aradia answered as the man spoke up when she almost passed by him. “I merely tried to tell her there was a better way to handle something than how she had. Apparently people don’t like to hear they’re wrong.”

      “ That was sar    nevermind. “ The male muttered, slowly nodding his head as she explained to him what exactly happened with the girl that had walked away moments before. “ Well, what is it that she didn’t handle correctly if you don’t mind me asking? “

“You know, I think this guy does have a few records around. Find some alcohol and I’ll fetch the records.”

     “ Sounds like a plan. “ The male smirked, moving around her to reach in the higher shelf to grab the bottle he had eyed before. “ Did you at least save a couple of glasses for this? “

“I never had any intention of doing so.  I always left that up to you and my sister.”

           “ Right. Well, I guess that’s good but, you don’t want to miss all the fun all the time. You should give some parties a chance. “

She wasn’t sure how to react to him standing there. She was cursing herself for nearly spilling her coffee on him. She let a silence fall between them, and she wanted to run. 

“ Yeah,   busy I get that. “ The male was used to things being weird with them and didn’t even acknowledged the fact that she could barely look at him, because the truth was he could barely look at her either. He had his own reasons, reasons that he honestly didn’t like thinking about but, every time he looked at her he was reminded of them. That night a couple of years ago changed everything, it changed a lot and as time went on it changed him in ways that he didn’t expect. He didn’t like thinking about it, he hated thinking about it but, standing there now it was the only thing that seemed to be on his mind -     it always was, and that’s why he always tried his best to avoid her himself.

“I’ve never really been one for the ‘party scene’ anyway.”

     “ That’s probably a good idea. I mean, drinking leads to hangovers, hangovers lead to... yeah, not joining the scene is a really good idea. “

“It’s a new trend. All those indie kids are into it.”

       “ And here I thought they were just into breaking records. Yeah, good to know. “

“Oh hey now come on! What did I say wrong? I swear I didn’t mean it!”

       “ Well you did kind of insult her mom. “ Or maybe she insulted her shoes,        he didn’t know, he wasn’t actually listening. 

      “ Actually, it’s kind of the complete opposite. “ The male remarked, arms crossing over his chest as he eyed the girl. “ I mean you just saying that makes me think you’re up to something. “