like sugar to my heart

luckily for him, he's not one to shy away from giving someone a compliment. even if it's a celebrity that they'll probably never meet in this small town. "i don't know if i'll leave my whole family for him, but he is attractive. i'd at least take him out for some food. or let him take me out, since he's probably swimming in money and all of that." how much do actors make again? "my top three in different genres are sleepaway camp, babe, and rush hour. what about you?" horror, a family movie, and comedy. he feels like that's a good enough mix.

frankie scrunches her nose, thinking about his suggestion. "the one with the better job should definitely pay. i wouldn't usually say acting is better, but someone super famous like that is definitely making better money than us. and he's a little older too, so like, he should be, right?" she's no more familiar with an acting income than anyone else in this town. she can't imagine a world where people on the big screen aren't pulling in huge bucks, though. when she imagines making her debut in reality tv, she definitely imagines big bucks for herself. maybe she could introduce jamir to a rich actor for real then. "wow, that's... the weirdest combination of favorite movies i've ever heard. but all surprisingly good choices," she chuckles.

Everyone needs an ego boost sometimes.

"Hard for boys at the bar to hold your interest when there's a real man on stage." Obviously he's not talking about Julien. Julien isn't a man - he's a jealous little shit. One who's probably crying to Birdie at this moment; that is, if he's separated himself from his computer long enough to come to a party at all. Whatever. Noa's not thinking about that; he's thinking about the beautiful girl giving him attention.

Noa lets his smirk show, mild and genuine amusement in his expression. "Long enough to want to find you after the show. If you forgive me for not sending you a personal invite to the tour, I could keep you entertained now. No twirling involved."

Well-trained fingers flick ash off his cigarette before he takes another hit. He considers her a moment more before reaching out with his free hand and brushing something non-existent off her bare shoulder. "Unless you'd rather stay here with the boys and the wallflowers."

"what, like you came to this party just to find me? i doubt that," she snickers, knowing she has every reason to. she's pretty much decided to let him weasel his way into her good graces for the night, so everything that follows is just frankie having a little fun of her own. "being a man, you know forgiveness is something that has to be earned... but luckily, i'm up for letting you earn mine. maybe you could prove to me how you're so much different than the boys." her head ducks when he touches her shoulder, hiding another smile and the flush on her cheeks that comes with it.

"if you know anything about me, you should know i'm not always easy to entertain. did you have something in mind?" she takes a step closer to him as she asks, making it clear she has no intention of being left behind with any wallflower.

The joint he made sure wasn't pretty, but it would certainly get the job done. He fished a lighter out from one of his pockets and sparked it, shielding the flame with his palm in case any chill decided to come through the window. When it finally caught, he took the first drag, and then passed it off to Frankie. "And, please don't let Merritt get involved." Lord know he didn't need a tag team situation.

There was a little pang in his chest when she said she didn't want to bug him about it. "You've never been a bug to me. You know that, right?" It was rhetorical, but the statement still stood. Frankie may have been a bug and a thorn in everyone's side, but not his.

"Maybe I needed space," he admitted, quietly, his hip jutting out to rest against the wall. "But I didn't need radio silence. You're kinda hardwired into my life, Franks." Someone should tell this guy the phone works both ways.

Then, he nodded towards the joint he passed over. "Go easy." Last thing he needed was Frankie greening out on him.

"you say that like you can't live without me or something," she comments, aiming for a bit of banter. it falls flat, her stomach twisting when she thinks about what she's actually done: left her best friend alone at a time when he needed her most, and all for what? "sorry," she adds quietly, looking down at her feet. "it sucks there's not a guide for something like this, huh? i've never known anyone that got a divorce besides, like, parents or teachers or whatever." technically she knows a girl from college who got married and divorced during their junior year, but it doesn't really seem relevant.

frankie only remembers holding a joint when smokes drifts into her vision. despite his advice, she takes a big hit, too big, barely holding it in her lungs before she starts coughing and passes it back to him. "you make that look so much cooler," she manages between smaller coughs, laughing at her own ineptitude.

"are you okay? really?"

With movies not being Marlowe's thing, per se, it's curiosity that wins out and places them in Portal Movie Rental before the marathon. They'll probably gravitate to the back and fiddle with their newest obsession: their Blackberry. For now, they're mostly lingering when their eyes land on Frankie.

"How's it going, trouble?"

It's said neither affectionately or maliciously. Their tone is neutral, because they've heard about Frankie's tendencies long ago. Being in her neighborhood doesn't help, but outside of the gossip warning label, Marlowe otherwise has no issue. They maintain an otherwise amicable back and forth.

"you know what they say, an assistant manager's job is never done," she replies with a brief smile. marlowe calling her trouble makes frankie feel a little cooler than she actually is. not that she's going to share that with them. "probably a bit of both. i'm predicting the first two movies will be pretty packed, but by the end of the night, people will be busy drinking in the parking lot or whatever it is the kids are doing." for once, frankie speaks without judgment, trying to be playful. "should we expect you to stay through the whole thing?"

What Dario wasn’t expecting was to find Frankie ducked behind the booth like she was trying to disappear, tears steaming down her cheeks. He doesn’t hesitate to step a little closer to her, concern washing over his face. “I was coming to test out the rink. I’ll admit I was also coming over to see if I could scare you, in a funny way, not to be mean, and then I was going to ask if you wanted to skate with me for a bit. But with pretty much everything in my life…clearly this was bad timing.”

He hesitates for half a second before he tugged the sleeve of his hoodie down a bit, reaching out to gently wipe a few of her tears away. “Hey…” His voice drops low, softer than usual. “You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong if you don’t want to,” he gently reassures, letting his hand drop back to his side. “But…I’m here if you do want to talk about it, okay? And if it was someone here who hurt you then you just tell me who and I’ll handle it.”

the more he talks, the nicer he is, the more frankie feels her head spin. she closes her eyes and steels against a new feeling, one that tells her she's going to be sick. but instead it's just word vomit that comes up, the words spilling out of her before she can stop them. "i think i'm in love with milo," is how the whole terrible thing starts, and the words are such a relief to say out loud that she doesn't immediately stop. "not in love love, i mean, obviously i love him because he's one of my oldest friends. but those feelings feel like more than friends feelings, right? and i've never done anything about it! he's been with mila, and i love mila—not love love her! as a friend love her, but not the way i friend love milo. but also, like, i've never been in love. i've never even dated anyone."

frankie exhales, blinking for the first time. "oh god," she whispers. "you can't tell anyone."

CJ knew that he'd be staying late that day a full two hours prior when Mathew, his parents' chatty old neighbor, beelined to CJ as soon as he walked inside Paperweight, dragging a rusted wagon behind him. Of course, his shitty luck had to strike just once more before the day ended, and on top of his list of closing tasks, Mathew decided to ignore the other two employees because CJ "certainly wouldn't con him" due to their friendliness with each other. CJ took one look at the number of books about to spill from the wagon and passed an innocent smile to the man- 'go to hell and sell your books to Satan himself, you old fart' but what came out instead was a rather pleasant "of course, Matt. Just come by tomorrow for your cash back? Okay- yeah, I know- don't worry, you'll get a fair price. I'll do the appraisal myself."

That's how he found himself alone, his coworkers clocked out for the day, the baristas already gone- only the scent of freshly ground coffee still lingered throughout the floor. A few customers straggled behind, idle and distracted in between the shelves and no one seemed to need his help; or perhaps they were deterred, sensing his foul mood radiating from behind the checkout counter as he looked through each book in Mathew's cart, a price sticker placed on the front page as he finished with one. The sun sat low on the horizon, washing the store in elongated shadows from the maze of bookshelves. CJ looked up every time the door opened, welcoming a cool breeze inside felt by CJ in his position behind the cash register.

She walked in and the books spread out atop the counter became obsolete, his job long forgotten in favor of tracking her flit about inside the store, discreetly following her from one bookshelf to another. He pretended not to notice, feigned immersion with his work until she announced herself in front of him with a clearing of her throat. Unhurried and wearing a mask of relaxed charm, CJ placed his pen down and closed the book (praying it wasn't upside down in his poor attempt at appearing too busy to notice her) as he regarded her coolly. The sky outside had darkened considerably and despite the store's grim lighting, the sight of her bright face somehow dried up his throat and CJ coughed to mask the too-long minute he spent in admiring her high set cheekbones and the curve of her jaw as her mouth moved while she spoke.

" Coffee? No one is here from- actually never mind. I can make you something." He stepped behind the counter and made his way to her as he said this, unable to help himself from stopping in front of her for just a second before he continued a slow backward walk to Fast Breaks, their height difference apparent in this momentary pause.

as always, frankie keeps her cards close to the chest, never revealing any of this.

she doesn't notice the pause, distracted both by his question and moving to follow him to fast breaks. "yeah, if you had something in mind from that one. i really liked the whole cat and mouse thing between astrid and her mom, but i would say i'm open to most suggestions... especially yours. you never let me down," she pauses herself now, unblinking for a moment, then adds as she exhales, "on your book recommendations." if it sounds like she's implying something more, it's because she is. she knows so much about everyone, too much by some people's standards, and with that comes a certain amount of disappointment. knowing the darkest secrets, the worst choices. imagine finding out the kindly librarian everyone carries groceries for has a sordid criminal past in florida, or how the beloved town pediatrician cheats on his wife on a semi-regular basis. with great power comes great responsibility or whatever, but she can't recall a time she felt overly dismayed by anything she learned about cj. at least not yet.

then he settles down in the seat and stretches out his legs. jamir doesn't know when the last time he got to relax like this was, so he's going to take advantage of it. "all i want to do is sit, so at least you'll have a good neighbor for the movie." he points out. then he shakes his head, answering with his body before his words. "sadly i haven't, but it's been on my list! i've heard he's a total dreamboat in it but so is everyone else." his smile only widens when he sees were frankie's eyes land. "knock yourself out." jamir reaches his hand out, handing her the slushie.

frankie can't imagine jamir being anything but a good neighbor, but she doesn't bother mentioning it. jamir being a model citizen is pretty much common knowledge, right? to himself included, probably. "you've heard it? does that mean you've never actually seen him, or you just didn't think he was dreamy? if he walked out right now as george of the jungle, i might leave my whole family," she jokes, though whether the joke is her doing that or her having family worth struggling to leave is unknown, even to her. after a generous sip, she asks, "what about you? favorite movie?"

“Can you just make sure to watch out for my stuff while I leave? And please don’t let anyone claim the seat next to me.” She gets up, setting her stuff down, before spinning on her heels and heading to get them both some snacks. Popcorn for two and seeing who she can get snag two beverages from. Rookie mistake on her part for forgetting to bring her own, really. Surprisingly, it didn’t take too long to snag either of her desired items. “Popcorn secured and a drink.” She grinned as she approached, carefully holding out the popcorn, making sure to be very gentle about balancing the drinks so they wouldn’t spill everywhere. Now that’s the worst. “Which movie is it?” She asked, settling back down, before popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

"diet coke?" the question is rhetorical, and frankie takes a sip without awaiting the response. the faux-sugared liquid is just the pick-me-up she needs after sitting through the first movie, maybe more so than the popcorn. "airheads. not my favorite, but we could have ended up with way worse. petey seems really proud of the selection, so..." shrugs as her words trail off. "you never said if you were here for the first movie or not. obviously you weren't here here, with me. don't tell me you ditched me to sit with your brother." spoken as if family isn't a perfectly valid reason for not spending every moment with frankie, but her opinion of easy is no mystery to anyone, not even junia.

God knows he could use the distraction.

"I do," he says. It isn't cocky - it's the truth. 2nd Heaven knows how to perform, even when the band members are holding a month's worth of tension between themselves. For all the audience knows, the five of them are riding an all time high. Noa flips the cigarettes closed and pockets them again, fingers digging for his zippo next. "But thanks."

With a practiced ease, Noa lights up, takes a puff, and turns his head to exhale out of courtesy. When he looks back to Frankie, he isn't coy about the way he looks her up and down. "Saw you dancing out there," he says eventually, answering her initial question that he didn't bother with before. "Should've had you at every show this month. Some of the towns out there are filled with nothin' but fuckin' losers. Might've actually had some fun on stage if I'd seen you out there twirling."

it takes herculean effort to not react to the revelation that he had been watching her.

"really? i wouldn't be caught dead standing still at a concert. that's so embarrassing, like being a literal wallflower. not really my style," she tells him, hues shifting from his and following the trail of smoke released from his mouth until it fades into the night. "between you and me, the guys at the bar weren't really keeping my interest anyway. the twirling was as necessary as it was fun, y'know, keeping me entertained."

thankfully, she seems to be merciful in striking up a deal with him. like always, jamir has bought too much to eat in hopes that someone else is going to want something. so he already hands frankie the extra large bucket of popcorn. "here you go. you can take all of it if you want." he waves the other bag in his hand and the slushie. "i think i have enough to last me six movies back to back." not that he's going to test the theory, but he can almost bet on it. "so, can i sit?" he's still standing, blocking the screen for those behind them.

eyes light up at the large bucket of new popcorn. she takes it without further niceties, her shoulders rising contentedly as she takes a bite. "are you kidding? sit, sleep, bring a girl back. do whatever you want, extra popcorn gets you all the points. have you seen this movie?" she speaks around little bites of buttered goodness, her mood clearly transformed by the offering. "it gets a bad rep, but brendan fraser is really dreamy," she sighs thoughtfully, then shifts her attention to the slushie in his hand, looking between the cup and his face. "can i...?"