lightning in a bottle

   “Hello Toby” he said and smiled at the dog, “you’re welcome, he seems like he loves adventure”

“He loves adventure and getting me into trouble,” she added to his sentence, laughing. “I’m not gonna let you out of my sight, you hear that, Toby?” she spoke to the pup.

                    Alexis’ head went elsewhere, focussing on work and arranging an upcoming event the Mayor had wanted to host. A small dinner for his closest family and friends, catering needed to be perfect and the house had to look pristine. It was a lot of work, despite what anyone else thought. Her desk was covered in papers, an untidy mess that stressed her out even further so when the doorman interrupted her, Alexis almost told him to go away. Hanging up the phone, Alexis sighed and brushed herself off, perfecting the pristine smile she greeted everyone with and walked outside to find Eva looking somewhat dishevelled. She was about to ask if everything was okay, but the woman spoke first and Alexis’ jaw fell slack. “Please—” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Tell me you’re joking…”

"I’m not,” Eva said, shaking her head, her demanor fast and jittery compared to Alexis’s calm exterior. She was feeling the full extent, the weight of her situation now. “I don’t know how it happened, we were doing so good, and then...” 

                               “I try not to,” she said, chuckling lightly. Zoe liked to believe she had the backbone to not allow herself a dog when she didn’t have the room and time for it right now, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be hard to leave without a cute puppy. “Yeah? He sounds really cute. I like lazy, fat cats, they’re less fickle I think.” Obviously that was just her own opinion based solely on her own assumptions and ideas, but Zoe had a lot of those. When Eva showed her a photo of her cat, she laughed softly. “Aww, he’s so cute. I bet he’s just fattening up for winter, right? Even through the summer,” she joked.

"Yeah, he’s definitely got a personality. Not full on Garfield, but getting there,” she said with a smile. “Oh, definitely. He’s gonna go into hibernation inside one of my roommate’s hoodies, and then we’ll never see him again. Do you have any pets of your own?” Approaching the store, Eva pushed open the door that jostled with the ring of a bell. “Here we are,” she said, holding it open for Zoe to enter in after her.

“It was a KitKat, so I was fairly pleased with it.” Alexandria replied, letting out a small chuckle. She just hoped that it wouldn’t be the last time that she got a random gift from a child. “I assure you, there is nothing dangerous about shots. You’re far better off getting them because the help you fight off things that would otherwise kill you.”

"You’re right, you’re too right. I’m gonna go the first minute I’m free and get it done. Hey, I could come to your place. What time are you guys open for that kind of stuff. Do I have to make an appointment beforehand?”

   “Not really….just simple memory loss” he lied, not waiting to talk about, “yup and they maybe wanted to start fresh”

Eva chuckled a little. “Memory loss doesn’t sound so simple.” Her curiosity was piqued and she wanted to dig around, but she knew when to let a topic rest. “Precisely.”

Not long after, they approached the described place, and Eva hop-skipped to beat him to the door, playfully tugging it open and waving him in. “After you, mister.”

Brody quickly turned his back towards the pie eating contest, raising his eyebrows as he looked towards the woman with an amused expression. “I have no particular plans as to where I’m going to head, but I’m sure we could figure something out.” He was actually pleased that he wasn’t going to have to spend this entire night alone. Most of his day had been spent cooped up in his office, so it was a welcome sight to have another person to talk to. “How do you feel about a drink? Excellent? Average? Or just fuck no?” His question was both playful and mildly curious, after all, he knew not everyone enjoyed a couple of relaxed drinks like he did. Those people were crazy in Brody’s mind though.

"Definitely on the excited-spectrum,” Eva chimed, the prospect of getting a drink and getting out of this place certainly an appealing one for her. “It’s not going to be one of those mulled wines from the stall though, is it,” she said, pointing over at the only source of alcohol she seemed to have found at the entire festival. “I mean, it looks nice, as do the hayrides they’re offering, but I’ve kinda had enough of this whole thing.” And, she assumed, he looked like he had too.

“Holy fuck… look at that view. I can’t believe I was born in this town and didn’t know about this place,” Margot said after finally reaching the top of a hillside on the outskirts of Haverford, down by the lake. Her gaze roamed the landscape in front of her, taking it all in, while cliche thoughts of how simple it all looked from up there popped into her mind. “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

“Sure looks... nice from up here,” Eva said, panting a little because exercise had never been her friend, and hiking up a steep hill without any stops? Definitely counted as exercise. “I’ve been here three years and never been up this way.”

“Oh,” Ella replied, somewhat confused. “Four pages doesn’t sound too bad. I could do it for you,” she offered.

“Really? You would? He’s super particular about stuff though. Like, he wants it checked for grammar, spelling, word flow, if the paragraphs are cohesive, stuff like that,” Eva said with a sigh, knowing it was somewhat a lot to ask of someone. But relegating it to Ella would make her day, especially with her squeezed in schedule. “I’d totally pay you in like, lunch or dinner if you did it though.”

“Some lady on the fuckin’ bus asked me if I was the guy from The Voice,” Vinnie explained, leaning forward on the bar and swishing around his glass so he could watch the whirlpool the drink made. It seemed to occupy his attention for a moment too long before he chimed in again. “And when I said no, she said I looked just like him. So I kind of…I dunno, sighed and went ‘God, I hope this bus crashes.’ Was that mean? That felt mean. I dunno, man.” He grimaced. “Point is, I did the whole black hair and tattoos thing first. I didn’ mean to be mean.” 

“Take it as a compliment,” Eva said, swirling the straw in her mojito. “Half of America wants to bone that dude and is in love with him. That was just her way of saying she finds you veeerry attractive.”

They’re 8 replies deep in to text rant to one of their old room-mates in the city, but it was more of 8 texts in rapid succession of how their life had been recently because she had gotten a hold of Temple first and asked the loaded question, which they were more than happy to comply to, but because of that, they were unaware of what was going on around them.  The streets weren’t busy by any means, or maybe they were because it all stopped when Temple hit a sign, immediately apologized and then caught themself. “Wait, you’re not a person,” they muse with a soft laugh at themself, “You don’t have feelings, or maybe you do. I’m not here to judge, but then again,” another laugh, “I’m talking to a sign,” they shake it off, and notice a feeling of someone watching, or maybe just nearby them enough that Temple has that feeling. “You can’t  tell me you’ve never apologized to an inanimate object. I nearly hurt it’s hinges.”

"Talking to a sign? Really?” Eva said, watching them fondly as the accidental run-in happened. She was happy to see them, though, a perk up to her otherwise hectic day. “It’s okay, I’m not judging. My grandma does it sometimes when she can’t find her glasses. She asks the stuff on the mantlepiece if they’ve seen it. It’s kind of adorable.”

  “I honestly don’t remember…i still can’t remember some stuff from months ago” he answered, “I think it came under a new management”

“Oh...any reason?” she turned to look at him. “Ah, makes sense then. Probably wanted to rebrand.”

“You’re right, I can’t believe I missed that pun opportunity. I need to up my game.” He commented with a shake of his head, coming across as if he was feeling disappointed in his skills, but his amusement was clearly showing through. “I agree, I don’t think they’re that good to be honest. I mean I’m not going to say no to a slice but I’m also not going to pick it if I have other options.” Brody added in agreement, following her gaze and watching as a queue of people began to line up for the opportunity to devour one of the pies on display. “I can’t think of anything worse than seeing people make a mess here, I would need several drinks before someone could make me watch this.”

“I agree,” Eva nodded, pulling her hoodie closer around her, to keep off the cold breeze. “I mean, by the time dessert rolls around on Thanksgiving everyone’s usually too stuffed to have it, anyway.” She found his remark a little funny, and the smile on her face and the side tilt of her head indicated so. “Well technically you are watching, right now. Unless you have plans to head off somewhere before the whole thing starts? Somewhere much more interesting and if so, care to share?” Eva herself had gone around the entire festival with her group, and saw everything there had been to see, and not really been impressed with much.