Feelin like a broken record

“Don’t have much to say,” he told her with eyes forward, nodding towards the bar, sitting on one of the stools. “Whiskey sour,” he looked at her, “And whatever she wants.”

“Clearly” she said before looking over at the bartender. “Old fashioned, please” she said politely, always wanting to be nice to the person that poured her drinks. 

“Have you ever heard the cheerio story?” Chandler asked, the smell of alcohol on his breath obvious. “So there were a family of cheerios. There was a dad cheerio, a mom cheerio, and two children cheerios. And they wanted to go out to dinner one night. So, like, they drove in their little cheerio car to the restaurant but traffic was bad and they had trouble finding the place. They tried to find a parking space, but like cities are shit for finding parking. Then they got lost. They went down one street, but it was the wrong street and then they kept trying to find it but ended up in the same place they started. So they stopped and asked someone for directions and this guy cheerio was like ‘Oh it’s near the theater’ and so they find the theater and then the restaurant and they go into the restaurant. The daughter cheerio wants mac and cheese, and the son cheerio wants chicken tenders. The mom cheerio decides she’s going to get pasta and then the dad cheerio picks steak. They ask how he wants his steak done and he tells them medium rare. So then they order drinks - which is backwards but whatever it’s a story about cheerios so that’s not the biggest issue here - and the mom orders wine and the dad orders beer and the kids both order punch. And the waiter tells them they have to stand in line for it. So the mom cheerio asks ‘Where is the line for the punch?’ and the waiter says ‘There is no punch line.’“

“That was the worst joke I’ve ever heard” Kennedy said, looking over at him. “And your breath smells like liquor, it’s terrible”

He couldn’t blame the girl, he thought he was invincible at that age but something will crush her sooner or later. He didn’t really care about the name, he wasn’t going to use her anyway, why hold onto it? “Good to know.”

“Not really much of a conversationalist then, are you Cain?” she said, annoyed. “Just go buy me a drink so we can both fuck off and pretend we never met each other, yeah?”

Cain wanted to roll his eyes but he knew younger people didn’t respond well to that, but he knew it was a sick joke for someone like her to go against the fellon following them. “Because you won’t survive if you do. Step by step, remember?” The man kept her moving through the crowd, doing his best to swerve in-between people. “Cain.” 

“And what- you can’t handle the guy either so you just run away?” she groaned, “Yeah yea, step by step, you don’t have to remind me how to walk” he said, still moving with him. Most people when they saw her didn’t expect her to be as fearless as she was, but at this point it took a lot more than a felon following her to be truly afraid. “Cain.” she repeated, “Well I’m Kennedy, figured you should know the name of the person whose drink you’re buying”

“Listen very carefully,” he spoke as he put his hand on the persons shoulder, pushing them along with him as he walked along the side of the dark alley. “Someone is following,” now while he didn’t specify who, he knew that it would be best for them to tag along –– someone in danger always obeys. “You’ll be fine,” his scottish accent thick with his words. “Step by step. We’re going to round this corner and one more block and I’ll buy you a drink,” he said picking up pace. “How does that sound?”

“So then let’s turn around and kick the shit out of whoever’s following, doesn’t that sound more fun?” she said as he looked over at the man. “I never turn down a free drink, so that sounds great to me” she said with a shrug, “Got a name I call you by?”

Liam shrugged, “Maybe not. But it can’t hurt to meet her?” he said carefully, “She’s always been really good to me.” he explained. He’d like for Bea to finally get to meet his former foster-sister.

“I’ll try to play nice” she said with a small smile. “But now you have to help me come up with a good costume, too”

“Nobody is too old to dress up for Halloween.” He told her. “I don’t want to be like everyone else, that is the whole point.” He added with a light smile. “And you I guess are going as.. yourself?”

“Whatever” she looked over at him, “I wasn’t going to do anything for halloween, so yeah I wasn’t going to be anything. Now someone I know is trying to get me to go to a party with him so I have to get a stupid costume”

Liam nodded at that, “Definitely sounds like a good idea then.” he said before giving her a small smile, “I’d like it if you’d come? It would give me someone else I know there, and I think you’ll like Bea. She does throw a really good party too.”

“I’ll come, because you want me to. But I don’t know if I’ll like her, people usually rub me the wrong way” she said, fully aware that she had a very abrasive personality. But of course, that’s not how Liam remembered her. She was a lot sweeter back then. 

“Magneto sounds simpler … and like I would get less attention.” he said after a moment, which was good as Liam’s goal in life had certainly never been to draw attention to himself. “Do you think you’ll come? Do you have the night off?”

“It’s much simpler and only the X-Men fans are really going to notice you then” she shrugged. “Do you want me to come?” she asked, “I don’t know what costume I’d wear, I have the night off but I was just going to chill at home probably”

“I never actually do this Halloween thing, but my friend’s throwing a party this year and I’m pretty sure I’m not getting out of going.” he commented, “Do you have any idea where I could get some kind of last-minute costume? She say’s it’s villain themed.”

“Villain themed, hmm...” she thought for a second, “You can cross dress and be maleficent, that’d be funny to watch” she smiled, “Or be Magneto, you just need the weird helmet and an asymmetrical cape”

“I saw this pretty awesome werewolf costume down town the other day.” Evan said with a light smirk. “I went back today, and apparently they sold out two weeks ago. I don’t know what the fuck to do now..” 

“Aren’t you a little old to be dressing up for halloween?” she looked at him. “Just throw on cat ears and take off your shirt like everyone else does”

“This is a.. stupid questions.” Sam said towards the person closest to him. “But like.. Do you know how to tie a bow tie?” 

Celeste sighed and stood up walking over to him, “Don’t move” she said as she grabbed the bowtie around his neck and began to tie it for him. “What’s the occasion?”

“People pay good money to do their homework. If only I actually did it, then I’d be rich,” he mused over to her. “You’re paying me actually,” he joked. Rolling his eyes, he nudged her back, “Yeah, I’m sure my siblings are gonna really like advice from a hardass like you, fat chance.” Hudson just shook his head. “No, no way, I’ve got plans, you know I’m always busy.”

“Clara Ammon.” he explained, shrugging lightly, “She kept her maiden name professionally, but gave me my dad’s last name to try to avoid some of this. She never wanted me to get pushed into anything I didn’t want.” he said. And that was true both of her fame and people who felt he should have been pushed academically in directions he didn’t want to go. “Yeah, I mean I always get the same questions about my mom, so I kind of get that? It’s really annoying, but I bet it’s worse for you, cause people probably recognize you more easily.”

“Ooh, alright, I get it then” she nodded, understanding the appeal of wanting the people around you to not have to deal with your fame. “I get recognized pretty often, yeah” she said, shrugging. “It’s not so bad, you get used to it. There’s also the fun time when you get hit on by random guys who say I should be a model. The look on their faces when I say I am one is amazing”

“You know, I’ve officially decided that my least favorite part of college is when classmates suddenly realize who my mom is and want to play twenty questions.” he said with a sigh. “I mean, I’ve always tried to avoid as much of the ‘spotlight’ as I could. I don’t get why people suddenly think my mom’s career is my favorite topic of conversation as soon as they realize she’s an actress.”

“Who is your mom?” she asked, curiously, actually not knowing. She wasn’t planning on asking anything else about her, she understood how annoying that could get. “People don’t really ask about my mom, I just get a lot of questions about me being a model. And it’s the same questions from every single person, it’s tiring”