Josephine Baker

“Okay, hold up a sec…let me see if I got this right. You would spend a hundred dollars on a pair of jeans or even shoes, but you think fifty bucks for admission into a concert is outrageous? Dude - priorities.”

“Usually I would absolutely never, but those are Ariat boots and they’re actually in my size for once without having some weird pink or blue froo-froo design on them. You can hardly blame me,” she sighed, knowing she would never spend the money, “But I don’t even know if the music is good, so why would I drop money on tickets for one night when I could have boots that would last me years?” Joey was serious about her cowboy boots.

Julian was searching his pockets frantically. It was clear his pack had fallen out somewhere. Though it only had two cigarettes left, he still was out for the time being. He sat down again, the umbrella shading him from the sun. He was on break at Stumptown for the first time since his shift started, which was almost five hours ago. “Could this day get any longer?” He asked out loud, not realizing anyone was paying attention to him.

When the guy in front of her spoke, Joey looked around to see if it was possible that he was talking with someone else. It didn’t dawn on her that he was simply speaking out loud to himself. When she realized they were alone, she cleared her throat. “Probably, but that would take a screaming child and a mom arguing on the phone with her husband while ignoring said child,” she made up, going with the first thing that came to mind, “Or a happy couple making out in front of you. Both things are equally miserable.”

“What? Are you a math major or something?” Eli asked, visibly unimpressed by the young woman’s antics as he shrugged. “I mean, shit - addition and subtraction and all that sure takes a lot, huh?” He made it a point to make sure his voice was dripping with sarcasm as he looked back at her with narrowed glance. He wasn’t sure what it was that she wanted to achieve but for now he was just going with it. With a huff, Eli sat down on one of the seats by the bar but turned towards her still as he reached for his glass. Humming, as if what the girl was saying was the most logical thing he’d ever heard, Eli brought it back up to his lips, knocking back the gin with ease before he tilted his head at her. “Pretty great if you ask me. You’re being a real pain in the ass but also strangely entertaining so - if that’s your whole deal you’re not too bad,” he teased, shrugging. “You got a limit of people to piss off or do you go by how much you annoy them? That’s the real question here.”

Joey shook her head, hair running wild. “Definitely not. Numbers are far too predictable for me. I graduated in something far more exciting,” she promised, purposefully not actually answering him directly. Even if she could feel the sarcasm pouring out of him like sweat, it didn’t mean she had to acknowledge it. Far more fun to pretend it wasn’t there. “I’m not entertaining,” she insisted, pushing the hair out of her eyes, “I’m not a child. It depends on the night. If I can piss one person off to extreme measures, it is usually more satisfying than pissing multiple people off slightly, but I really just keep going until I feel satisfied.”

Stepping out of the way Georgia looked at the women and smiled. “Sorry, again I am not normally that rude unless someone asks for it. Would you like a drink?

“A drink?” she questioned, not following, “On a park bench?”

“Oh, I’m definitely old. You know what I am? Generation X, which means there’s at least one entire generation of living, breathing people between us. Give a take. Unless, you’re, like, a super young 55,” Raymond replied without looking up. “Yeah, yeah, sorry don’t mean to be the personal space invader or nothing, but privacy is super dead. No such thing as space anymore. The man is watching us everywhere we go.” He sighed genuinely at this before giving up on his device and tucking it back in his pocket. “Up until, like, two months ago, I still had a flip phone I’m usually good at the whole technology thing; really, I am. But I don’t know. This one talks too much in that stupid robot voice.” 

Sometimes she felt like a super young fifty-five. Joey rarely fit in with people her own age. There was a reason her two best friends were grown men. Twenty-two year olds never knew how to take her. “If you call me a millennial or whatever the heck I’m supposed to be, I’ll shove you off this bench with no regards for you age,” she promised, “I still won’t put my fingerprint in mine. Or my home address, but I’m sure it already tracks me.”

“Juul pods. Used em up, then refilled them,” he looked around, making a sly face when he regained eye contact, “Refilled them with my own special.. sauce.”

“Still don’t know what that pod thing is, but I think I can figure out the rest of it,” she snorted, never one to use drugs before, “You sound like a blast at bbq’s.” It was a joke on him calling it a sauce, but she was never sure how her southern jokes were going to go by up north.

“Aren’t math and aging just sooo fascinating?” Eli asked dramatically, dragging out his words as he blinked at her with an amused smirk, enjoying just how easily he seemed to get under her skin. He dragged a lazy hand through his hair and huffed. “We’re the best kind of drunk. Judgmental and bitter - the perfect combination if you ask me,” he told her nonchalantly, shrugging as he took another sip of his drink before putting it on the counter. “What’s your deal anyways? You always go to bars alone to stir shit up?”

Joey took in a long and particularly loud breath through her nose, attempting to employ some of the calming techniques people had attempted to teach her throughout the years. They never worked. “Perhaps if you could actually count correctly,” she bit back, tilting her head to the side like she had made such a good point. Joey had to chuckle at his comment. “Absolutely. It is my goal to piss off as many people as possible between sundown and sunrise the next morning. How am I doing so far?” she questioned, giving him a lazy sidelook.

“Because it’s a bus stop…” Stella trailed off, as if her response was obvious. “Listen, I’m not trying to stand out in the rain.” The bus stop was usually accommodating to multiple people, until the rain showed. There was only so much shelter under the bus stop’s canopy to protect oneself’s from the showers.

Joey looked up at the girl and back out at the rain, letting out a sigh. Without hesitating, she stood up and stepped slightly into the rain to give up more personal space. A girl like Joey? She’d take rain over losing personal space any day. It was probably a complex, but she didn’t want to think too far into that. “Better?”

Georgia had got so trapped in her own world that she didn’t notice how close to was to the women in front of her. Blushing a deep red when she hears the women and realizes how close she is she looked at her. “ I am so sorry”

“No problem,” Joey shrugged off the apology, “Just two steps to the right would be grand.”

“Because I’m old, it’s a free country, and I need to sit down. Plus, space is, like, at a premium around here. Pretty soon, it’ll be nothing but yuppies and yoga studios, and we won’t have any benches left,” Raymond replied before sinking into a vacant seat and crossing his arms. He began fiddling with his cellphone, with which he seemed to be having immeasurable trouble. 

“You’re not old and damn right it is a free country which means I am entitled to my space,” she grunted, scooting over regardless. For a moment, she watched him work with his phone. “You know how to fix those, right? Throw it in the garbage over there,” Joey snorted, as about as attached to her cellphone as a reptile was to its child.

“I’ve no idea what you’re on about,” Noah feigned ignorance. The self-satisfied grin plastered to his face proved he was well aware of just how annoying he was, even as he took up a seat with next to no space between them and had the audacity to comment, “You know, you’re taking up an awful lot of space.”

“Get away!” she whined, pushing against him with only half he normal strength. Joey snorted at his comment. “Of course I do. I’m a big person,” she lied with so much confidence that it almost sounded like she believed it.

“Look at this- I’m a motherfucking genius,” Beau said, pulling out a handful of juul pods from his pocket, “My own blend. Oil based so it hits smooth.” Beau tossed a few over in his hand and smiled, clearly satisfied with himself. “This might’ve been the best thing I’ve done yet.”

“I have no idea what you just said,” she snorted, not sure if he was talking to her or himself. Either way, she thought he could use a hairbrush and that was saying something coming from the girl who didn’t know how to use an eyelash curler.

It wasn’t like Eli wanted to seem superior to the girl or intimidating as it was, he merely didn’t want anyone to think he was just some drunken fool, rambling about his sad excuse of a life in a very public bar. His pride had always been something he was a little too protective over but with it being severely damaged as it was, he wouldn’t let someone like her ridicule him. “A whole year? That makes you twenty-one, huh? Now that’s cute,” he teased on purpose, raising a challenging brow at her. If she wanted to play smart with him, so be it. A snort escaped him and he shook his head as he crossed his arms in front of his chest once he’d put down his glass on the counter. “Wow. Incredibly mature as well I see…”

“That makes me twenty-two,” she insisted, as if that made all the world of difference and she would suddenly sound far more grown up. Having an argument in a bar, she was definitely mature.. Her heart raced from embarrassment as he talked down to her, fueling her need to stand up for herself. “At least I’m not a judgmental drunk,” she mocked, knowing she was way too happy of a drunk. 

“What happened?” Luc asked, suddenly curious. “It’s fine, better company than textbooks and my laptop.”

Joey ignored the slight flush in her cheeks. “Nothing big,” she lied, pursing her lips, “Just alcohol and friends who pressure poor choices.” She left out the fact that they had taunted her into getting way drunker than her normal “tipsy” and had gone to a strip club where a guy gave her a lap dance while she squealed and died a little inside from absolute embarrassment. Being the girl that she was, a prude, Joey had done her best to block that memory out. Every time she remembered it, though, the red cheeks returned.

Not that he wouldn’t have been singing anyway, but as it turned out, singing while he was taking his jog wasn’t just great for breathing, but it made his voice stronger. On the elevator ride down, he was alone, so naturally Silas got an early start, stretching as his playlist began.

We’re talking away I don’t know what I’m to say I’ll say it anyway Today’s another day to find you Shying away I’ll be coming for your love, OK? Take on me (take on me) Take me on (take on me) I’ll be gone In a day or two

It was as he hit the high note on the final word that the doors happened to open on a random floor, Silas striking a disco pose when he noticed. He could have been embarrassed, but his threshold for that had grown rather thick over the years. Instead of flushing and running off, he only pointed at the person and continued to grove to the music as he blew them a kiss.

When the elevator doors opened, that was the absolute last thing she expected to see looking at her. Maybe he didn’t blush, but Joey sure as hell did - bright red. Who the hell was this guy. Not having any interest in getting on the elevator with him, she stepped to the side. “Creeper,” she muttered to herself, but unfortunately loud enough for him to hear.