There's More To See

“I’m only just realizing how sad this sounds, but I… don’t really have one? I’ve never planned that far ahead in my life. I always had this issue when I was younger, where I could never really imagine myself as an adult with a career or life outside my parents’ house. People would say something like ‘oh, when you’re all grown up’ and I guess I just never bought it. It felt made up. And now that I actually am an adult, it’s still just… the same. I can’t imagine myself as an adult with a career or life outside my parents’ house. That’s… probably something I should work on a bit, huh?”

“I kind of regret every decision I make just moments after I’ve made it, so take your pick.”

“Oh, Harry Potter, of course. I think everyone in my generation wants to be in that world. I don’t care that I’m too old to go to Hogwarts anymore or that there was a corrupt league of evil wizards causing torment for so long. I’d be happy to just walk through Hogsmede for fifteen minutes. It’d be the biggest dream come true.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know him very well just yet, but… I don’t get why everyone is so hard on him. Maybe he’s a bit rough around the edges sometimes, but he’s got a sweet heart underneath it. You just need to actually talk to him for a few minutes to see it. He’s also really, really talented. Way more talented than anyone gives him credit for, which I’ll never understand. But… but yeah, I think he’s great and I’m really excited to know him better.”

When she set the box down and walked away, Jax had fully been expecting that to be the extent of their conversation. He couldn’t really blame her. His reputation not just around the studio, but as a whole wasn’t great. “Oh, well thanks. Nice to meet you, Rory,” he said as she disappeared back into the studio “I’m Jax-” but she was already gone. She had possibly been the first person he’d met at the studio that didn’t annoy him immediately. So, once she was gone, he went back to sitting on the curb. He wanted to leave, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to drive in the state he was in right now. When he heard the door open again, he didn’t lift his head this time. “I’m going to get out of your hair don’t worry,” he said, “I just need a god damn second,” he said, finally lifting his head again. Seeing it was Rory again instead of security surprised him. “Oh, it’s just you,” he said, letting out a small sigh. He didn’t have the energy to deal with security. When she told him to lean his head down again, he was a little hesitant. It was no secret that Jax didn’t get along with really anyone, so why was she being so nice. Especially when he had just caused such a huge scene in the studio she worked at. He did what she said regardless. As the cold bottle came to his neck, he let out a small sigh and closed his eyes. He did as she said and began to count in his head. Before he knew it he was feeling a lot better than he had been just five minutes ago.

After a moment, he lifted his head so he could look at her, “Um, thank you for that,” he said, his eyes scanning over her briefly. She was really cute. How had he not noticed her around before? “Sorry, if you had to witness all that,” he said, nodding back towards the studio. “Shit’s just been rough lately,” he said, letting out a small sigh. Usually, Jax didn’t like to talk about stuff like this. He would with Al, but that was really it. It had been hard enough talking to his own brother about it. For some reason though, he felt completely relaxed around this girl. “I don’t mean to be super straight forward,” he said, pausing to let out a small laugh, “Okay, I’m always straight forward, but could I take you out for lunch?” he asked, “It’s the least I could do after you helped me like this,” he said with a small smile, “Plus, I’m sort of kicking myself for getting fired. Work would have been my excuse to talk to you, so I need a new one now,”

It had been a really, really long time that Rory had been dealing with her anxiety. She’d suffered from it since she was a kid. Her fathers had tried a lot; therapy, medication, even homeschooling to keep her away from large groups of people. And yeah, all those things helped a little. She was still on medicine and still saw a counselor once a month, but what helped the most was just genuine, real help. Her dad had taken to pulling her away from a situation and making her focus on some small, remedial task until the feeling passed and she was back on earth. He made her cover her eyes and talk him through her favorite memories or recite the lyrics to her favorite song. It helped, a lot. She didn’t know the lengths of what Jax was dealing with, especially seeing as his anxiety was brought on by very recent PTSD, but she hoped it’d help. And it seemed to. As she sat with him, she watched as his chest heaving with his breaths began to grow smaller and smaller until his breathing had steadied completely. It filled her with a teeny sense of pride, but mostly relief. If her panic attacks were bad, she couldn’t imagine how tough he had to be feeling right now.

“It’s no problem. I-I’m glad it helped.” Rory pulled the water bottle away from his neck and passed it into his hands. “Drink some water. You need it.” She offered a small smile, and prepared herself to get up and leave again. He was not a peoples’ person in the slightest, so he probably didn’t want her sticking around for long. He hated the show, anyway, she imagined that he was gonna head home fast and enjoy his much needed day off. “O-oh, uh...” Rory felt her cheeks flush a deep, deep red. She got attention from men often enough; even if she never felt very pretty, other people usually had a different opinion. But she generally just dodged compliments and left the situation fast. And nobody like Jax had ever showed any interest in her. He was a f*ckin’ superstar, for God’s sake. The offer made her nervous, one hundred percent, but it was intriguing to her more than anything. He didn’t seem so bad. Yeah, he pitched pretty public bitch pretty often, but he seemed sweet. To her, at least. So, to her own surprise, she started nodding. “Yeah... um, yeah, I’d like that. Sure. Just give me a moment to go get my bag and let my papa know.” She stood up from the sidewalk, anxiously wiping any potential dirt off her behind from the ground, and went back inside quickly.

Her papa was not very thrilled to hear the news. He not-so-gently reminded her of what just happened and of the numerous other scenes Jax had caused during his time of set, but Rory just grabbed her things and promised him that she’d be back soon, that it was just because she didn’t want to be rude by turning him down, and she went back outside to meet Jax before he could argue with her any further. “S-so, um, are you ready to go?”

“I have the X and honestly I’m content with that. She doesn’t have a phone yet. I told her that I need to know she’s grown up enough to have one. I wanted her to get a phone this year, but there’s no way I can afford an 11 on my salary,” Ana sighed as she ran a hand through her head. “Really? How much would it be? I would definitely do the parent control thing they have on the phone. She needs a phone for when she hangs out with friends and I need her. I didn’t realize how old she’s getting until I realize she’s going to be in middle school soon.”

“I think I got my first mobile when I was thirteen or so. Maybe she’s getting up to be the right age for one. I-I dunno, though, phones are so much more advanced than they used to be. M-my phone could just... like, text my parents and call the police in an emergency. So I get the hesitation.” She gave a quick, quiet laugh, tucking hair behind her ear. “You don’t need to pay me for it. I was just going to recycle it, anyway, so you’re more than welcome to just have it. I-if you’d like, we can go get it cleared at the Verizon store and maybe you can pick out a new phone case for her, too. I’ve been promising my parents I’d take theirs to the store to be recycled, anyway, s-so I’ve been needing to make a trip.”

“You’re never going to believe what happened at work today,” Cory said turning to the person next to her. The smile on her face was enough to show her excitement but the tone of her voice just sold it more. “So, I got called into work today and at first I was like ‘no thank you I am exhausted’, but the girl who called out is so so sweet so I agreed,” she paused, the smile on her face just growing more, “Anyways, long story short! A guy seriously gave me a hundred dollar tip today!” she let out a squeal of excitement, “Like, can you believe that? So worth coming in on one of my only days off,” she said. “So, I was thinking that I’ve literally been working for like two weeks straight now and I need to go have some fun, so you’re coming with me. Whatever we decided to do, it’s on me!” she said, the big grin from before returning to her face.

 @itneverrainsstarters​

Rory and Cory - hah, cute - knew one another vaguely from work. She’d never worked on Night Practice, but she’d had a small part in a film that was being shot at the same studio. They’d made pleasant conversation a few times at the food court, sat across from each other as they ate if Rory’s papa was busy with work over lunch. Rory was mostly quiet, Cory was mostly not. She filled up the silence very, very well on her own. It was sort of comforting for the more withheld girl in the pair. But the idea of hanging out with her properly was a little intimidating. She was so outgoing and Rory was so... not. But, the thought of turning her down was even scarier. So she nodded slowly. “Um, yeah... y-yeah, we could do something tonight. Erm.. I’ve never really done all that much around the town. I’ve only lived here... six months.” That sounded embarrassing, but it was true. Rory did not get out much. “Maybe... the pier? I’ve heard it’s fun there, sometimes. But really, whatever you’d like to do is good with me. I’m afraid I don’t know much we could do around here.”

To say that the last couple of weeks had been hard on Jax was honestly an understatement. He couldn’t think of a time in his life that had scared him as badly as that night had. It changed him. It left him feeling like he was empty. He went from his busy lifestyle to not wanting to leave the motel room he was staying in. He took a week off from work so he could clear his head some. The studio probably hadn’t been thrilled that he didn’t show up for a week of shooting, but it had to be done. There was no way he would have been in the right headspace to be working.

Now that he was back at work, he wasn’t so sure that he was even ready now. Throughout the day he found himself spacing out and missing cues. Then if he did come in at the right time, he forgot his lines. Honestly, it was all a huge mess. It didn’t help that Jax never really loved his job. He didn’t put the effort in before, and he definitely wasn’t now. The director called for a break to allow Jax to get it together, but things only went downhill even more. On Jax’s way to get some coffee, one of the other actors stopped him to check on him. It was an innocent gesture, but it brought Jax back to that night. He freaked and shoved the other actor away from him causing a huge commotion that ended with Jax punching the guy before being thrown out of the studio and fired.

David, the writer of Night Practice, wasn’t thrilled about what had just happened. Obviously, Jax had been under a lot of stress lately, but he didn’t need to lash out like he had. So, he did what he thought was best and cut him from the show. Jax was removed from the studio immediately, so he wasn’t given a chance to gather his things. David, being as frustrated as he was, considered just tossing it out, but he knew the hot-headed actor would probably throw a fit. So, when his daughter came over to him to see what was going on, he assigned the task of dealing with his things to hers. “I need you to go gather all of Moretti’s things for him. He won’t be returning to the studio,” he explained briefly before taking his leave to go talk with the director.

Jax was more freaked out than anything right now. The actor had just been asking him how he was after all that happened, and he had freaked. He hated how badly that night still affected him. So, instead of getting into his car and speeding away, he sat down outside the studio and placed his head between his knees. It was a grounding technique that Al had shown him and it honestly helped. When he heard the studio door open, he lifted his head again. He had fully been expecting to see the director or something, but instead, it was a girl. He’d seen her a few times around the set, but he had no idea who she was. He did know that she was holding his things though. “Wow, here I was fully expecting to have all my shit thrown in the trash, but instead I’m getting it hand-delivered by…” he paused and looked her over, “Who are you?” @rorthomas​

It was borderline impossible for Rory not to know who Jax was. He’d been in the news pretty regularly over the past few years, since his band split up, because of some ridiculous scandal or other, and of course most recently because of... well, everything that had been going on. It had gotten a lot of attention and a lot of coverage, especially with how he was handling it. A day hadn’t really gone by where there hadn’t been something in the news about Jax lashing out at somebody due to the stress he’d been under. Rory didn’t know him personally at all, hadn’t ever even spoken two words to him, but she felt horrible for him. It didn’t matter how unpleasant he’d been before; everyone had to understand what he’d gone through and why it was making him act this way. Holding him accountable didn’t really seem fair.

Even without all of that, though, she would’ve heard about him through Papa. Jax was cast on Night Practice as soon as the show was pitched, which meant he’d been working with her papa for months now, and he had new complaints about the hotheaded actor every day. He was disrespectful, he didn’t take the work seriously, he shat on the show every chance he got... some really nasty tea about him. Rory listened, politely sympathized with him, but never really took it to heart that much. She definitely didn’t ever want to have a conversation with the guy, but she didn’t know him. That was just the way she wanted things to stay.

So following him out of the studio with his belongings wasn’t really what she wanted to do. Her papa was usually really careful to not put her in a situation where she felt uncomfortable, often stepping in when actors seemed stressed or like they might snap at her for correcting them. This was the first time she’d ever been tasked with dealing with Jax for that exact reason. But she could see just how stressed he was about all of this, following Jax’s huge meltdown on set. She knew that if her papa followed him off set, it’d result in an even bigger fight and, hell, he might even wind up getting punched too. So she didn’t protest as she collected all his things and put them in a box, excusing herself quietly to her father and the director as she went outside.

Finding him sitting on the curb with his head against his knees surprised Rory a little. She had to do the same thing often when she got overwhelmed in public, and she always felt a little humiliated for having to do so. There was absolutely nothing wrong with dealing with anxiety in whatever way helped, but she knew that if someone that took that much pride in their public image had to stoop to something like this, it had to be bad. It hurt her heart a little to see him so worked up. “Um, Rory. I’m Rory. I wouldn’t have let them throw your things away.” She set the box down beside him on the curb and hesitated for a moment before heading back inside. It probably seemed like she was just returning to work, but it was just to grab a cold water bottle and head back outside to him. “If you, um... here, lean your head down again?” She sat down beside him on the other side of the box and gingerly pressed the water bottle to the back of his neck. “Y-you’re okay. It’s over now and you’re okay. Just count to twenty in your head, then backwards back to one. Okay?”

Charlie sat at the small, wooden table in the coffee shop and sipped on her caramel mocha frappuccino. She studied her surroundings, taking in every detail. The ceiling fans didn’t have lights on them like she was used to, they were just fans. The shop depended on the copious amount of fairy lights, and the daylight beaming in through the large windows, to brighten up the place. ‘Not going to lie, it works,’ she thought to herself. The lighting wasn’t too dark or too bright, it was comfortable. Charlie liked that. After occupying a little too much of her time by studying the lights in the shop, Charlie noticed that there was a stranger sitting at the table right next to hers. They looked a little lonely, and Charlie hated the thought of anybody feeling alone. Charlie spoke softly, “My name is Charlie. What’s your name?”

@itneverrainsstarters

Rory didn’t generally go out by herself. That invited the potential for her to get in peoples’ way, talk to a stranger, embarrass herself... honestly, it was just a smorgasbord of possible messes for her to get into. But it had been sort of a long day at work, so she went to a coffee shop rather than going straight home, and leaned against her table with her cocoa in front of her, scrolling through her phone. Someone striking up conversation next to her startled her, and it immediately made her a little nervous, but the woman seemed warm and kind. Like she was actually just interested in checking up on her.

“Aurora,” the Brit answered after a moment of calming herself down. “Or - Rory, I go by Rory. I don’t know why I said Aurora. Um... sorry, I’m kind of out of it today.” She laughed awkwardly and tucked some of her blonde hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t - I wasn’t bothering you, was I? I’m sorry if I was.”

Hodaya was at Ralph’s, trying to decide which carb to serve with Shabbat dinner Friday night. There was brown rice, white rice, rice noodles, udon, lo mein noodles, chow mein noodles… It was hard for Hodaya to decide. She turned to the person next to her, “Hey, I’m making vegetarian stir fry for dinner Friday night. Should I serve noodles or rice as my carb?”  @itneverrainsstarters​

“I was hoping that Anelia would want something a little less adult for her twelfth birthday, but instead she wants an iphone 11. I don’t even have the iphone 11, so I don’t know why she would think I would get her the newest phone when I don’t even have it,” the Bulgarian woman rambled, knowing her English probably sounded bad. “I don’t even know what to get her now.” @itneverrainsstarters​

“I just got the 11 and it’s... it’s okay. I don’t really see all the hype. It’s probably not worth wasting money on for you or for her.” Rory shrugged dismissively, looking down at her own phone clutched in her hands. The intimidating trio of cameras on the black stared up at her. “Wh-which iPhone does she have? I had the XR before and it’s still in pretty much new condition, so if you’d like, you could have that to give her. Otherwise, um... oh, I dunno, I’ve not had to buy a kid a present since I was a kid. What does she like?”