nathan matlin

“Unfortunately, nothing too exciting.  Or I’d probably be able to keep my eyes open while I’m watchin’ the clouds.” She waved off his apology.  “I welcome the interruption- this day could use some jazzin’ up!” 

Confusion crinkled his brow. “So you called me here to look at the clouds?” That was a little strange, but he shrugged it up. “Jazzin’ up I can do. How’s sundaes by the creek sound? They’ll probably melt before we get there but... it’s worth a shot.”

“Alright, I can cop you a pizza, free of charge. But you gotta let me know the toppings. And trust me, this will say a lot about you.”

@frostfordstart​

“Cheese,” he said immediately. Nathan wasn’t one to turn down free food. “Cheese with extra cheese-- wait. What does that say about me?”

@frostfordstart​

roxie’s pink hair was down in curls around her face.  she’d driven out to mobile yesterday for an audition and had wound up spending the night with a friend before driving back into town.  now, since she had the day off, she was wandering through flipping through instagram as she looked around town.   she watched someone walk across the street with a dog and sighed, “okay, serious question.”  roxie said, turning to look at the person closest to her.  “should i get a dog?  this is not the time for pro con lists or expansive reasoning, this is the time for quickfire.  yes or no.  right now.”

The question caught him off guard, Nathan nearly choking on his milkshake. He had seen Roxie, of course, and intended on saying hello, but he was mid-drink and she’d fired her question before he got a chance to speak. “A dog?” he asked between coughs, then caught sight of the dog across his street, making the question seem less random. “I’m gonna say yes.”

“Did you know that you can’t really dance in these when they’re brand new like this? You’ve got to break them in,” Lucy said, briefly looking up from using a carpenter’s file to rough up the sole of her pointe shoes. “I usually have to step on them and slam them against a wall, too. It’s pretty violent…which probably sounds surprising. Thankfully I don’t go through twenty pairs in two months anymore.” 

@frostfordstart​

“Why’d you get them brand new, then? Can’t you buy used ones that are all banged up?” Nathan knew very little about ballet, further proving it by the way surprise overtook his features at her next revelation. “Twenty pairs? That’s so many! How come you go through so many so fast?” Another thought occurred to him. “Wait, so you had to do this to your shoes at least ten times a month?” How time consuming!

Emily chuckled at herself once he brought up the reason he texted her in the first place. “Oh, right.” Her mood shifted into a more positive one as she realized she wasn’t forcing Nathan to do something he didn’t want to do. Emily’s smile stretched across her face as she took Nathan’s phone from the dashboard. “Yes, sir!” She hit the magnifying glass on the map to search for ‘casinos near me’. “Have you ever been to a casino?” She looked at Nathan raising one eyebrow. “Are you a hustler? Do you know how to work the tables so we can win big?”

Seeing her relax did a lot to ebb away his own anxiety, enough that he finally risked taking a hand off the steering wheel to drink more of his RedBull. “Sir? I’m only a year older than you, why are you talking to me like I’m an old man?” Nathan laughed, keeping his eyes on the road while he waited for the GPS to bark out new instructions. “Only in GTA...” he confessed, laughing again. “Look, we don’t have to know what we’re doing to have fun at a casino, right? Part of the fun is figuring it out!”

“Considering the amount of money I spend on coffee each day I really have no room to judge irresponsible spending, but it’s probably best you don’t tell me,” she chuckled. She was the same way with Sarah’s spending. Sarah usually just brought up Mariah’s coffee habit in reply. Mariah wanted better for her kid and her basically kids. “Has it only been a week?” she asked, seriously before dramatically groaning as she pulled out of the drive, “Feels like it’s been a year, Nathan. I need daily ‘I’m still alive’ texts.” She shrugged to the question, she didn’t have too much planned, “I have a marathon coming up in July that I’m starting to really focus my training for. Other than that? Not much. How about you? Excited to take a break from classes? Lord knows you need one.” 

"Yeah but you’re an adult with expendable income, if you wanna use to spend it on coffee, that’s nobody’s business but your own!” He, however, was still living rent free with mommy and supposed to be saving to move out-- god, but shrimp was so good. Why couldn’t he get a craving for Snickers bars or something, those were still like a dollar fifty. “I think so!” He pulled out his phone to check the last time he had texted her. It was a meme, sent five days ago, and he told her as such. “You asked me how I’m doing, and I’m pretty much like that,” he said, turning the phone to show her the image again. “That’s awesome, how long is it this time? And where? Are you traveling there?” Lord knows he needs one? What was that supposed to mean? Was it that obvious that he was struggling? “Yeah! I haven’t taken a summer off in forever. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all that free time.”

“I’m not sayin’ this town is dry, but.” And Rayleigh stopped, because she thought she sounded like her mother. “I am sayin’ my mom’s finally run outta people to set me up with. That must be a good thing.” 

@frostfordstart​

"Isn’t it? Now you’re free to look around on your own!” Nathan wasn’t sure why she wasn’t doing that from the start. “Or-- has your mom expanded her search? There’s probably eligible bachelors next town over!”

Nathan was easily one of the kindest people in the world, so it was really difficult for Asia to keep looking like she was annoyed due to her musical interruption. “Oh! Ya bein’ real nice, Matlin.” Asia felt a little bad for her initial reaction when he was being nice enough to offer her some free pizza, so she did what anyone would do in this situation and took a pack of gum out of her pocket, offering him a piece. “What toppins are ya thinkin’?”

Nathan kept waving the gift card around until that annoyed look disappeared off her face, the big grin on his never wavering. Who could stay mad when there was free pizza? “Aren’t I always?” He took the offered gum without realizing it was a peace offering and popped it in his mouth. He gestured for her to come with, and started making his way to the Cuttery. “I could go for cheese with extra cheese, and a little more cheese on top of that, but I’m fine with anything as long as it isn’t pepperoni.”

Amelia, while caring and open-hearted, especially even more so prior to her five year stint in California, she never really saw herself being a police officer. Though, she would’ve used a different reason than the one she just gave Nathan, that was for sure. “Ya totally, but to be honest like.. I’m like totally not into desk jobs. I just like so totally didn’t see myself doing customer service or something it’s like.. so totally not me.” This would be the most shocking thing to come from her mouth, as she’d always been a friendly person and would have been a star in such a role.

"I mean, that’s fine.” Nathan himself didn’t know what he wanted to do anymore, in spite of having a goal his entire life. Customer service was okay for now; that was what he told himself, at least. “But to be honest I always saw you like... working at a charity, or with like old folks or something. Doing something to help people-- not exactly police work, but--” He grinned, but the smile quickly slipped off his face when he saw the time. “Oh shit--” Nathan stuffed the rest of his waffle cone in his face and pushed himself off the counter. “I gotta head back to work, my break is almost over-- do you wanna do something later? Like, I don’t know...” Nathan trailed off uncertainly. Shit, what did Amelia do now? Her instagram was full of party and beach pictures. “Just hang out,” he finished lamely.

Emily giggled at his dramatic reaction. “Makes our late night game sessions pretty hard when you have those!” Emily nodded her head matter-of-factly. “Yes, just to make sure it stays up in spikes! The more gel, the more it will stick up. Promise.” Emily opened the door for Nathan following him inside with a smile. “If I can run my fingers through it, it’s long enough to hold a spike.”

"For me, maybe! But not until that morning, so I don’t regret it until my alarm goes off at six.” He kept telling himself to go to bed at a normal hour, but everything interesting always happened after midnight. Nathan lead the way, taking them directly to the aisle with the hair gel. He grabbed a random one off the shelf, turning it over to read the back. “You think so?” He ran his fingers through his hair and up, judging the length. “It says to squirt a quarter size of product onto your hand and work it into your hair. I’m not gonna go bald from using more than that, am I?” He chuckled, setting the gel back on the shelf. “Which one do you use?”

time: sometime in the past location: a party somewhere

Nathan didn’t know what it was about parties that made him so painfully aware of the time. He had been here for a little over two hours, had a couple of shitty beers, but he still felt… uncomfortable. Tired. He didn’t try looking for the person he’d come with; Nathan just wandered off and sat away from the group, sipping another shitty beer while scrolling through his phone. The party went on behind him, the loud music drowning out most of everything else. He looked up at the sound of the door opening and closing, an uncertain smile curving his lips when he recognized the guy. Slug, Nathan thinks they call him. “Hey. Enjoying the party?”

Babs’ face softens as he casts her a hopeful look – it was like watching an ASPCA commercial, she was expecting Sarah McLachlan to start singing in the background any moment now. “Nathan, if you need five dollars you know you can just, like, ask me for five dollars, right?”

Nathan was ready to call victory when he saw her features soften, but then guilt set in. “What? No--! I mean, yes, I know I can just ask, but like. I don’t need five dollars, I want five dollars, so it’s not an emergency or anything!” He flipped the coin over in his hand, looking at it for a second. “I think I’m just gonna keep it. It does look kinda cool.” He pocketed it. “So, anyway, lunch?”

“Do you have… any other tips on how I could help with a sunburn?” Bo asked the person in front of him at Dixie Drug. Crowded in his arms were at least six bottles of aloe vera, all because his mama had called his sunburn simply atrocious. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to getting sunburnt while working at the orchard, but the first sunburn of the hotter season always made mama a little nervous. “I have a feeling this… ain’t gon’ cut it.” @frostfordstart​

Nathan was stocking product mindlessly on the shelves when Bo walked up to him. First question was why so many tubes of aloe vera, but before Nathan could say anything, Bo asked his question. “Yeah, just smack it!” He raised a hand as if he was about to do just that to Bo’s shoulder, but lowered it with a laugh. “I’m just kidding. Aloe’s good, and maybe some sunscreen, so it doesn’t happen again--” The humor drained from his face, Nathan suddenly remembering he was at work. “Oh, uh, but the pharmacist can probably help you find an alternative to aloe vera, I can ask them, if you want?”

Nathan had more than enough time to shower and make himself presentable after his shift at Dixie Drug, so he figured he should extend the same courtesy to Kaleigh and pick her up at her house, rather than directly after work. It wasn’t until he pulled into her driveway and rang the door bell that he realized that meant facing her father. Fathers, she had two of them. What if they interrogated him? He didn’t exactly have a plan yet, and what if they knew about the accident(s)? Nathan wasn’t sure if word ever got out around that, but sometimes people gave him looks that made him wonder...

Glancing back at his car made him wish he had biked here instead-- except that would’ve been really lame, so no he didn’t. He was still second guessing his choice of transportation when the front door opened, Nathan uttering an awkward greeting and wishing he had texted her and waited in the car for her like a normal person.

more laughter pours out of the redhead despite her instinct to stop because of the heat that waved from her tongue. she nods, “ah, yeah – milk might be the right bet.” politely, joey flags down the bartender for a glass of milk, something she never thought she would do; order milk at a bar, but she is quite found of her taste buds. she laughs and shakes her head at the fire joke, “you just think a’ that one or have y’ been savin’ it for the right time?” she smirks at him.  “you would think i could, i even got the fiery hair to match but apparently these wings might just be my demise, nathan.”

Considering how hot the nuclear wings were, this was definitely not the first time Nathan witnessed someone order a glass of milk at the bar, but that didn’t make it any less funny. Nathan grinned widely, and snickered when the bartender returned with the glass of milk. “It came to me just now, watching you struggle! You gotta remember, no one’s asking you to do this. You decided to burn your tongue off all on your own.” He drank from his bottle, then motioned at the remaining wings on her plate. “What are you gonna do with those? ... Don’t tell me you still plan on eating them!”

Emily looked at Nathan with a raised eyebrow at him. Most of these weren’t her friends, but she dropped the subject. She knew them, yes, but hung out with them? Hardly ever. When he suggested they go and do something else, a feeling of hope rose in Emily’s chest. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want to take you from a beach party. I don’t want to be lame and do that.” She wasn’t sure how much Nathan was looking forward to the party, but she didn’t want to have him do something else if he’d rather be there. She chuckled at the idea of them at a casino together. “I mean, I’ve never been to a casino before. I think that would be kind of fun.” She turned towards him, eyes wide. “As long as you’re sure. I–I think I’d feel more comfortable if we didn’t go, but I’ll go if you want to go.”

Nathan laughed when she told him she didn’t want to keep him from a beach party. “If you recall, I texted you because I was trying to get out of going. I’m only going because you said you wanted to go.” It wasn’t that he hated parties or anything, Nathan just wasn’t good in a group, and the thought of driving all the way out there when he wasn’t sure where he would fit in... he could think of nothing worse. Who were they supposed to look for when they got there? Amelia? Andrew? Nathan pushed the thought out of his head, hating how anxious it made him feel. Instead he nodded toward his phone on the dashboard, motioning for Emily to take it. “Look it up, find out how far the closest casino is. If it’s not too bad, we’ll head that way instead!”

“I’m sorry son,” he paused, “six years? You’re gonna need them changed soon. The tread is probably completely gone. I’ll give you a discount and everything for it. Only nice of me to do since you returned my tire.” He laughed, nodding. “Yeah, it’s fine there, no worries.”

Nathan blinked. The what? He didn’t know a damn thing about cars, but that sounded really bad. All he knew to do was to get the oil changed every however thousand miles. “Really? A discount?” Maybe Travis was actually nice? “Um! That would be great! I should-- I mean, should I drop it off tomorrow, later this week? To get an estimate or whatever!”