sometimes, i panic!

“Okay… but is it safe to be outside right now?” Freya questioned the cop over her phone as her daughter continued to pull and tug on her hand in attempted to escape and run straight for the park across the street. She had been hearing more and more stories about these quakes and while she thought taking Elise to the park would be a nice after nap activity, she was starting to regret it, and wonder if she should’ve kept them in their apartment. And of course the cop didn’t give her anything to work with, so with a short huff she hung up the phone. “They can’t actually think they can handle whatever is going on, do they?” She asked, to no one in particular.

“Don’t you just love that there’s absolutely NO service in this damn town? First, the damn worms and now my cell is acting up.”

“You mean to say I’m not good looking? Damn, man— I’d be hurt if I didn’t think my cooking is that good.” Aiden turned away from the oven and set the heavy roasting pan on top of the closest countertop. As he reached toward a nearby shelf, he finally answered, “Chicken. Keep your paws off it, though. It still needs a finishing touch.”

“Hey man, you’re a feast for the eyes, but I’m hungry and not a cannibal, so.” Noah pursed his lips, craning to look at the contents of the roasting pan. “God, that looks so fucking good, I could dig in, finishing touch or not. Reminds me of my Nana’s chicken. She used to make it so mouth watering, and spicy, it brought people to tears. She’d call it made with love, but we all know it was all the damn chillies from her garden. I wonder if I could grow a chilli garden here...” 

Her eye roll was already beginning before he could even finish his first sentence. “Mhm.” She glanced down at the food she was carrying to take back to the kitchen after some random visitor in town complained about it not being their order. “Don’t know. You’ll have to ask the chef what he cooks because all I do here is wait on people and bring out wrong orders. It’s a hobby of mine, truly.”

“If you can name them it implies that you own them, do you have a giant worm hidden somewhere? If so, I’m an FBI agent and need immediate access.” Pen’s thoughts went elsewhere for a moment, wondering if it was possible to befriend a worm and if they liked cookies or not. One day she’d find out. “What’s Ricky and Morty?”

“I don’t...I would never own a giant worm. I don’t like worms of any shape or size, unless they’re in a glass case and a foot away from me. Are you really an agent? Because I think I have one unpaid parking ticket, and I don’t know if that counts as a felony.” Noah shrugged, sitting down beside the girl. “It’s a cartoon series about a science asshole and his nephew. It’s cool. Lots of butt jokes.” 

“I was thinking,” she started after the noise of pitter patter had reached through her earbuds in between a song, “do you think they have names? Our worms, y’know like — ‘don’t start with me today, Susan. I had a long day terrorising the upstairs people.’”