gold dust woman

for: natalia reed, @golddvstfm.

muse: cameron bennett.

location: sunset villa beach, palmview pride.

natalia almost missed the sound of her name being spoken entirely, the noise from the surrounding party and the general crowd chatter enough to makek comprehension difficult. if she hadn't become really good at navigating crowds from her time back home, she would have been fucked, but she'd spent enough time navigating downtown after 3am that this was second nature. she almost just brushed it off, ready to write it off and ignore the person, but she whipped her head around anyways, her breath immediately catching in her throat at the sight of that face looking back at her.

no matter how old they got, she still saw that same boy she'd always remember; the boyish smile he had, the bright ambitious look in his eyes that were full of mischief, love, and a promise that there was a life beyond her father's thumb. and now here he was, ten years later and staring right back at him.

The scent of freshly brewed coffee filled the entirety of the coffee shop. Dez stood off to the side after placing an order. His lips pursed together as his foot rhythmically tapped against the linoleum flooring. He'd never really been the one to be nervous for anything. The closest that he could compare would be the first few shows he played with Velvet Moon while on tour. Locally had been surprisingly easy compared to the tour.

Now it was worse than that. His hand quickly smoothed his hair back from his forehead before pressing his fingers into each other to stretch them a bit. Just something to do with his hands while also incorporating some minor physiotherapy during the slow ticking seconds until Holly was supposed to be there.

The barista just set down two cups of coffee when he heard the bell ding for maybe the sixth time, and for the sixth time, his eyes cut over to the door to see who walked in. Something in his chest stuttered at the sight of her. In person. After all this time. Thanking the barista, he grabbed both coffees and approached Holly with a soft smile. "Hey. I went ahead and ordered for you." He held the steaming cup out for her with his left hand before swapping his own coffee to that very hand. The grip on his right hand was still a little funny, and he'd rather not draw attention to it.

Should have worn longer sleeves...

the fear of what could happen if let him back into her orbit lingered in the back of her mind. if he was back in her life, what other habits could start to return. could she be around him and interact with him in this new version of herself? would he like her and the person she'd grown into the way he liked her back then? the way she'd felt like she could love him?

and then there he was, just 10 feet from the shop's entrance, and he handed her the cup of coffee with an ease that made it feel like they'd never left each other's sides. (what would have happened if she hadn't left that night? would there still be a them? would they be doing this easy handoff all the time?). that familar feeling of tightness found its way into holly's chest, a reminder that they'd always have that red string tying them together for the rest of their lives. this was probably always going to happen. they'd find each other no matter what; that's what they'd said once, whispered in the middle of the night, tangled between sheets in some less than stellar hotel room in philly, or maybe chicago.

"you remembered," she said simply, her words almost surprised. she took the offering, immediately gripping the cup just a hair tighter when the familiar scent wafted up to her nose. exactly how she always drank it, still to this day. of course he'd remembered. she let her lips curl into a small grin as she took steps towards the two chairs in the corner of the shop. "a lot has changed, but you'll never get me to believe sugar goes in coffee."

the cool condensation of the amber glass bottle collected in the palm of luca's hand as he brought it up to his lips and took a swig of the bitter, but refreshing lager. his eyes scanned the beach, observing the people like they were aliens. or maybe he was the alien who watched the people. either way, he felt a disconnect from the joviality of it all. his gaze fell to holly standing near the food trucks and he made his way over, "so what do you think the chances are that at least one of these trucks has tamales as good as the ones we got in texas?"

with: holly de leon @golddvstfm

"Ugh, not him. He sucked." James grimaced at the memory of him. "He was at one of our shows, right? He was... something." He didn't want to be too mean about it. "But, c'mon, we can't have been apart for so long we can't come up with anything else to talk about other than my ex and Rattail Guy."

"we could talk about how the guy over there has been trying to pick up the redhead for the last 30 minutes even though he's getting nowhere. unless you've got something better, jamie."

"any chance i can steal you away for... ten minutes? i am in desperate need of some s'mores, and i don't want to stand over there by myself." maybe it'd be a good way to make some new friends, but she already had a whole band full of them. and they'd promised to stick together, in good times and bad, and she was pretty sure this was included in that. "i want to get over there before they run out of chocolate."