spaced out.

.

Carter’s eyebrow lifted at the suggestion that he’d need a hospital after taking a bite of a cookie? He really wanted to believe that this starry eyed girl had somehow conjured up something poisonous and was planning on taking out the entirety of a college level PTA. But logic was telling him she was more likely just paranoid about the germs scattered across the bathroom floor. Which was fair. They were in Dayton. But that’s what janitors were for wasn’t it? Either way it didn’t stop him from reaching out and plucking one of the cookies up off the floor. Eyeing her like he was daring her to stop him. “Say shit and I promise not to eat it.” He offered as he held the cookie out of arms reach and took another long drag from his cigarette. Partially in response to her calling him bold, and partially to be a smart ass. “You really seem to know just about everything going on in their lives. Why take such an interest?” He asked a little more casually as he listened to her go on about the possibility of them killing her before her next birthday and the fact that she’d nearly burned down her apartment. It was a lot in such a short period of time but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t find it just the tiniest bit endearing. “Are you nervous?” 

The cookie was hoisted into the air and a duel had begun. Nova was not one for yelling, nor would she yell at strangers, but a yelp did escape her. A tiny thing, almost like the beginning of a sentence, a word, but it caught in her throat. Nova blinked rapidly at his words and her eyes narrowed for a moment. Oh, so it had come to an ultimatum. Novas knees bent slightly, her hands came to rest on the freshly smoothed and moisturized skin there, and took a deep breath. She went to say the word but just a pop of her lips happened. After two more failed attempts, Nova covered her eyes as if she were a character right out of a cartoon. “Fine.” She sighed, letting her hands fall to her sides. “I suppose I’m not the only one dying today. Do you think they’ll bury us near each other? Death by poop cookie. Death by ferocious mothers. It’s a great pair, wouldn’t you say?” Nova knew her skin was burning hot but she ignored it, pretending she wasn’t the sort to blush in seconds flat. “Nervous? Why would I be nervous?” She rocked a little on the balls of her feet before the gravity of the situation hit her. They were just cookies but the people she had made them for were important. A big deal. She fell backwards very slightly to rest herself against the wall and looked up at the discolored ceiling. Water stains had begun to pool in varying patches creating almost a type of artwork. “The PTA basically helps fund my shop at this point. All the orders they call in and birthday cakes their kids ask for. Without their business, well, I’d start struggling for sure. Not to mention I don’t like people disliking my services. Disliking me is one thing. It stings but I’m not a baby. Disliking and speaking ill of my brand and work... thats just different.” She looked down at him, “Why are you in here?”

Dale sighed, watching the young woman’s expression and feeling a bit bad for teasing at her. “Look, we all do it. Must be something good.” He told her playfully, not wanting to tease her too much. When she began to cover her face up he shook his head. “Well damn.” He stated, running a hand through his hair. “In a- in a church?” He lowered his voice, feeling a piece of him twitch simply at the notion of what would have happened if he was caught doing that. “By a NUN?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “That is honest to God, my worst fear. I ain’t even Catholic, still my worst fear.” He laughed. “Hey, those things are always way beyond realistic anyway.” As if he would know. “I mean hey at least you’re honest, besides it ain’t like everyone doesn’t do it. Not everyone does it… here but hey, maybe they do. You don’t know.” He told her, wanting her to feel better. “Well, I’m sorry you never want to see me again but this is my favorite bar, and I really don’t care if you read porn.” 

Nova was the sort of good girl who knew exactly how she was seen. The thing was, she wasn’t as good as she appeared to be. Oh, sure, she was a goody two shoes but she was not a prude. At least not when it came to her personal life. Was she a virgin? Maybe so. Did that mean absolutely anything when it involved her sexual fantasies? Absolutely not. As of right now, she just happened to be more involved in living vicariously through the novel in her hands than going out and finding someone to make her dreams come true - so to speak. Not to mention, it was hard to find anyone, especially in Dayton, who wasn’t terrified that she was one of those people who would be destroyed after she had sex for the first time. Nova was honest about her lack of experience and people shied away from it so far. “Right?!” The girl practically squealed, “A nun! I mean, religious or not, that’s pretty mortifying. And what can you do?! Its not like you can then go to church and beg for forgiveness! You had sex IN the church! You’re so in trouble.” Her cheeks were aflame and she took a long sip of her gin and tonic. This one was made with elderflower and the girl couldn’t get enough. “I’m Nova.” She said, holding out her hand as if it were perfectly normal to introduce yourself to a person after they found out you were reading porn.

Dale was willing to just walk away and let it go. He had been entirely prepared to make a snarky remark and walk it off, however when the girl very defensively retorted that she was not reading porn Dale froze before smiling widely and laughing. “Oh you aren’t? Well shit, must be real boring then.” Dale shrugged playfully, though he knew full well he was guilty of reading the stuff every now and again. “Oh so that makes it not porn, alright then.” Dale laughed a bit playfully as he paused now to look at her. “Oh that… that bad? Alright now I’m interested.”

Nova set her kindle down, upset at having blabbed but also feeling more free, so much for the privacy the device was supposed to have given her. Her head fell into her hands once again and Nova giggled in embarrassment. Except the giggle sounded more like a sob for a moment. “It’s so bad it’s good. It’s-- oh my god. I can’t believe I’m reading it in public.” She peaked up at the boy through her fingers, “They just had sex in a church. A nun walked in on them. A NUN!” Nova smiled again, “How am I getting butterflies from a novel? It’s either really sad or-- no, its just devastating. This is the most action I’ve seen in my entire life.” Nova shook her head, “Hi, stranger. Thank you for listening to me about my porn adventures. I really can’t say if it’s been a pleasure. I would be happy if we never met again and you forgot every single second of this conversation.”

"If you ever catch me pouring cereal into already awaiting milk, throw me in jail. Assume that there is something severely wrong with me.” Nova shook her head, “There is a process. A clear and informed process. You don’t go against the process in any form of baking, cooking, anything involving the kitchen...”

       brynn sighed knowing the other girl was fully right but she wasn’t sure her ego take the massive blow that would come with more people witnessing this travesty. “listen i get what you’re saying and if you can’t get me out yourself i will not fight against calling the fire department but i would much rather avoid that.” the blonde spoke as she grabbed the others hands. “well men are stupid and gross and therefor i needed to make a quick and stealthy exit – which apparently could only be done through a window.” 

the blonde took her hands and nova immediately began pulling with as much strength as she could muster. the window was just incredibly small over the others ass. “okay, well, now we know that dayton has not figured out how to make bad date escaping windows.” nova grunted out as she tried to manuever the other as best, “but I agree. men are stupid and gross. kind of why I prefer women.” nova hadn’t really ever discussed this about herself out loud but it wasn’t like she was going to see this girl ever again. “sorry it was a bad date. what was the moment that made you crawl up through the window?” nova asked, curious. she’d never been on a date herself so she wondered if she needed to add another thing to be anxious about for when the time inevitably came. 

There had to be no feeling better than putting your hand in the pockets of your pants and realizing you had a $20 you didn’t realize you had. It had to be a good day after that. Dale had gone out and gotten some cigarettes, and then realized how great a beer sounded. The Library was great, he could hang out for a while, maybe chat someone up. He’d grabbed a beer and was finding a seat when he saw one girl up at a high top, blushing at her tablet. Dale was willing to smirk as he walked by and let it go, but when she opened her mouth to defend herself he couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “I wasn’t saying anything.” He raised his hands with a smile, looking on as the young woman tried to defend herself. “Must be reading something real good to have you that worked up. What is it?”

Nova really should have learned to keep her mouth shut but after twenty something years, well, it was a habit that would never leave her she feared. The boy probably would’ve kept walking by but she’d captured his attention instead and now she really needed to explain herself. “It’s not porn.” Nova said too quickly before looking up at the ceiling. “And it’s not not porn. There’s a story surrounding it.” She could have fallen through a hole in the floor right then and there. As if she needed another thing to make her appear like a silly girl to the Dayton citizens. “It’s called My Killer Vacation and truly I think I need to go to church after the chapter I just read.” 

“And I’m sure she’ll love the cookies you make. In fact, you might even make me her favorite person with those cookies. In fact, what kind of blackmail situation am I getting myself into?” Dominic asked himself as he quirked his brow at Nova. He took another bite of his donut, finishing the delicious pastry off within a few bites. “All the gorey details?” Dominic was generally surprised. No one ever wanted the gorey details. “You are one of the many few that actually want the gorey details. I knew you were a secret freak, Nova.” Dominic joked with her as he grabbed his prescription bottle from his pocket and opened it. A few blue pills laid in his large hand before he put them in his mouth and took a sip of his coffee. “Down the hatch.” He said. Adderall was his new addiction. Something he wasn’t proud of. “Honestly? He didn’t make any noise. I think the poor guy was a professional at this point.” He said before taking another sip of the nice warm coffee Nova had made him. “Don’t worry. I swear we only judge you in the break room.” He joked with her again, exposing his pearly whites with a smile before laughing. “How about you? Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

“Mmmm blackmail cookies. Now that’s a form of the business I never thought to get into. I could market that pretty easily. For you, obviously, it’d be free but others in Dayton?” Nova’s brow quirked before the usual weight of anxiety set inside of her chest. “Oh but could I go to jail? I mean what if I unknowingly give someone blackmail cookies that they then use to kill someone. I can’t be an accessory to murder.” The girl wouldn’t last in jail for a single night. She barely lasted in Dayton with all the shenanigans that went about. “Okay. I’m gonna have to think over that business model but a batch of blackmail cookies are on hold for you whenever you need.” When others looked at Nova she was sure they saw a sweet rich girl who was untouched by the world. In a lot of ways they were right but that didn’t mean she wasn’t also full of surprises. Nova was the sort to love horror films, especially the gorey ones. She loved learning about people, even the scariest parts of them. She was the sort of person who actively tried to make friends with the toughest of people in Dayton because she knew they deserved love and affection as much as anyone else in the world. “A secret freak? You just haven’t spent enough time with me, apparently. I just didn’t know I needed to advertise that I want to hear about yucky things. Like pimple popping videos do not even begin to cover my interests. My nanny used to make us watch Forensic Files and I think that informed a lot of who I am.” Nova was proud of who she was for the most part but she still felt the heat of a blush creeping up her neck when she talked of herself in such a boastful way.” She watched Dominic take his pill but thought nothing of it. This is where her naivety came in. For all she knew, Dominic needed this medication to survive so she said not a word. “Me? I mean, I’m boring. I work in the bakery all day. Go to The Library on Wednesdays and Fridays wondering if I’ll finally have the meet cute of my dreams and get swept up into a whirlwind romance but instead I typically just wind up reading whatever romance novel I’m in at the time, have a drink or two, and then go home and fall asleep early. Truly, I don’t have anything interesting to offer except other peoples stories.” Being Nova had some perks. She heard a lot about other peoples lives in her line of work. They came in not knowing that she would keep their snippets of conversations as little treasures. 

“I promise this isn’t like a sad thing. This is really fun and cute and quirky!” Nova practically cringed at the way her voice sounded as she tried to explain to the boy that the situation he had found her in was one she’d come to enjoy. Sure, at first it was sad and not exactly what she had planned, but now it’d come to be a sort of habit for her. In her quest to make friends, Nova went to The Library - the bar - and would sit down at a high table. She’d order a gin and tonic, of course, and would read her smutty novels on her kindle so no one else could ever see. When she giggled at her screen or her cheeks flushed then she knew no one would know exactly the reason. It made her feel mysterious and, yes, that was just about the only mystery she had going for her. Otherwise she could be read like an open book. “I have friends. I-Its just I fall asleep when I read at home and this place is like the hip spot to be...”

Ryliee was fairly certain that if she propped the brunette up there would be a “ragdoll” effect. She was more than happy to leave the girl as she was, delightfully buoyant and harmless. The vagina comment seemed to come out of nowhere and from a girl with a face like a sweet angel it had Ryliee choking on her beer for a minute. “I don’t know what a tight five is, but girl you are funny as fuck. At least while high.” The request for apple juice came…innocent, sweet. Oh a girl like this needed a party buddy to make sure she was safe while in such states. There were too many gross, dark intentioned people in the world. “Apple juice sounds really good. Do you have a favorite brand? I’m a Mott’s girl myself.” She glances over, the pizza shop isn’t closed yet, there’s maybe a fifteen minute window. “If I go get you apple juice will you be a very good girl and stay right here in this spot and not move?”

It might have been embarrassing were she sober to be acting like this in front of a beautiful blonde who she hadn’t met until today but that was the beauty of drugs - although Nova continued to lie to herself about it - they took away her ability to be embarrassed. Instead, she spoke how she felt and there wasn’t an ounce of regret in her about it. Regret was for tomorrow. “Oh. Tight five. It’s a comedian thing. You know... the people who go up and stand and just speak for an hour in front of an audience with the sole intent on making them laugh. People thought baking was a weird career choice,” She scoffed, “Tight five is their five minute audition they do to book clubs or so i’ve heard.” Nova was brought into a round of giggles that impaired her ability to open her eyes, “High. I’m high. High five.” That brought her over the edge, laughter fully bubbling out of her stomach as her arm shot into the air and then she high fived herself as she had unknowingly suggested. After all, she’d meant to make a pun off of the tight five with high five and, well, jokes weren’t funny when explained. Not even in Nova’s head. “What’s the one where you bite into the bottle it sounds like you’re biting into an apple? Do you know the one? Oh whoever made that deserves to have their willy sucked.” Yes, Nova was the sort who couldn’t say dick. It was just crude. Now, vagina and clit and cunt... those were great words. Words she loved. “Is apple juice my only reward if I’m a good girl?” Nova had a praise kink. It was known to no one, not even herself, which is why she was shocked as wings beat against her insides at the sound of the other calling her something of the sort. “Scouts honor.” Nova then whispered, “I’m not a scout. Don’t tell anyone or I’ll go to jail for impersonating an officer.”

       brynn winced at the girls scream, “seriously? are you trying to attract more attention? don’t call the fire department, as hot as they are this is not exactly the position i want to see them in. and also, the only thing i’m losing right now is my patience and my pride so can you either try and pull me out or come inside and pull me back in?” brynn huffed in annoyance, not toward the girl but toward the situation. “i’m sorry i’m not trying to be a dick but this has been a shit night and this seems to be the icing on the cake.”

“well attention seems to be the thing that you need! this is a situation that needs attention! you are stuck in a window.” nova at least had the decency to scream whisper the words. she had no idea how to help. these were not her situations. she was level headed in a bakery but not in the real world! not when a girl was stuck in a window! “okay... okay. lets try out this way.” nova dropped her belongings on the grass and scrambled over to the window. “sorry, my hands are probably cold,” but she held them out for the other to take so that she could begin pulling as soon as she could. “Can I ask how this happened? or at least why. I mean, I think I know how. you were gifted with a great ass but apparently that gift became a curse tonight and for that I am so sorry. I don’t speak for god but I speak for the general public.” 

“Ha ha. Very funny, Nova.” Dominic spoke sarcastically as he entered the bakery and made eye contact with her. “Did you… bathe in flower this morning? Or, because this is Dayton, cocaine?” He inquired with a chuckle as his whiskey colored orbs scanned every inch of flour that had covered her body. As he walked closer, the instant aroma of sweetness filled his nostrils. It was always his favorite thing when he walked into Nova’s bakery. “Oh my god, these look amazing, Nova. I think you’ve outdone yourself.” He said as he admired the strawberry custard donuts she put in front of him. “You know what? Maybe you did bathe in cocaine this morning.” Dominic joked playfully as he bit into the donut letting the sweet flavor take over his taste buds. “Incredible. Amazing. Show-stopping. Never been done before. Whatever that Lady Gaga meme is.” He commented as he took another bite. “Seriously though, I think this has to be one of my favorite things you’ve concocted so far. Brava, Nova. You may take a bow.” Dominic smiled as he clapped his hands together for her. Although he didn’t know Nova well, it made him feel good to see her smile. He couldn’t do that with most people in his life, always being the disappointment, which also made Nova special to him. “Actually, do you have any coffee?” Dominic inquired with a raise of his eyebrows. He was exhausted. “I’m alright. It’s been… a lot lately. Going to school by day and fighting all night. I’m fucking exhausted, but… if doing all this helps me get my daughter back from my ex girlfriend, then that’s all worth it.” He said. “Oh! I had to administer my first enema today on this wonderful gentleman. Thought that would make you laugh.”

Nova knew that a girl like her should be cowering from a man like Dominic but something inside of that deep lizard brain of hers refused to accept that. Instead, she stood on top of herself, willing to joke right back. Looking down at herself, a bright grin bloomed, “Oh yeah. It’s a new skin care routine. Haven’t you heard of it? It’s all the rage with the tiktokkers.” She wasn’t funny, she didn’t have to be funny, she was just Nova. “They don’t let me near the cocaine. You know that. Afraid I’d become too cool for school. I mean, can you imagine? Me becoming the baddest around here? I’d be too powerful. No. They’ve got to keep me with coke in coca-a-cola. Alas it’s a rough life I lead. Sad. Boring.” She paused, rambling was a habit but one she didn’t care to think too much about, “That and I think they’re afraid I’d accidentally use it as batter. It might just help the business boom. Coke-ies? Cookaines? I’d obviously need to work on the title.” Nova watched with intent interest as Dominic took a bite of one of her donuts. There was always a slight flutter of butterfly nerves - okay more like a cacophony of bat wings - inside of her stomach whenever someone tried something she had created. It was easy to follow an already made recipe but to create one of your own... it was almost vulnerable in some way. Like opening yourself and your creation up for judgment. One wrong move and Nova was always sure that she’d go down in history as the worst baker who ever lived. This was all she had, all she was good at, and she clung to it like a drowning man to a buoy. Nova had a death grip on being good at this one thing and she wasn’t about to let it go. Which is why when Dom began to sing her praise, Nova sighed in relief. “I don’t even care if you’re going way too over the top right now, that means the world to me.” She gave a bow as prompted and clapped giddily when she arose. Before Dominic could even finish his request, Nova was pouring a cup of her coffee roast for him. That was something Nova was still learning. Coffee. Most people were addicted. Hell, she was addicted, but that didn’t mean she knew how to compete with the local cafes. She slid the cup over to Dominic and got one for herself before leaning against the counter, “You’re working hard. I have no doubt you’ll get to see her again. And I’ll make you the warmest cookies to give her when you do. It’ll be all worth it.” Nova loved hearing about his child. She was a big fan of kids and the fact that Dominic was working so hard to reunite with his gave her the hope that maybe one day her own father would fight to see her again. Then again, his circumstances were far different. “Okay you have to tell me all about this. I need all the gorey details! Did he whimper? I’m always afraid when I go to the doctor or I’m being taken care of by someone that I’m going to make some weird noise. Did he do it? Did he make a weird noise?” 

“I think it’s funny you’re like the snickers bar commercials. ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry.” Nova teased the man as soon as she heard the ding of the bells to her shop. Turning around, flour covering her in spots and specs from head to toe, her hair in two buns and a small smile settling on her lips, one could easily tell that she had just cracked the case on a new recipe. With major corporations surrounding her, Nova had to keep up in some way. Todays recipe was a strawberry custard donut with fruity pebbles as a garnish. The trick was to figure out how to make the custard just tart enough that the fruity pebbles didn’t over do the whole treat with their sweetness. “Fresh bake. You can be my first taster if you’d like. Be careful, though, I’m sensitive and this might just be my favorite to date. If you use harsh words I’ll forever be changed.” Nova was all in jest, though. She had yet to be hurt by this man. Nova only knew a bit about him but she just had a feeling that he’d never harm her. She’d been wrong about that with a different person in the past but maybe this time would be different. “Chat with me. What’s going on? Snacks and chats. I don’t have real beer in here yet but would a root beer float your boat?” 

.

School was not his thing. That much was certain. Honestly it’d been kind of a scape goat to get his parents to allow him to move to Dayton in the first place. Their few restrictions included school, finding a job, and living with Ellie and Ryliee, which surprisingly he’d managed to check off all three. But it didn’t mean he particularly loved any of them. Well that’s not true. Work wasn’t terrible. But school? Learning? Definitely not his thing. And he sure as hell didn’t have any interest in helping any further with the project he was supposed to be doing when he’d made his way to hide out in the restroom. A place he fully expected to remain pretty empty until the girl not only made her entrance, but made it and managed to simultaneously drop everything she’d been carrying all at the same time. “Shit…” He mumbled mostly to himself as he took another drag from his cigarette. His eyes were scanning the spilt pastries, unaware of just how hungry he’d been until he caught wind that she was talking to him. “Shi-miney… That’s a new one.” He chuckled as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and let a cool stream of smoke leave his lips. “Were these for that conference thing going on next door? You could probably save some of em. Just tell em you were mixing it up this year.” 

Nova caught this strange wispy boy eyeing her cookies and held up a finger before she could process any of his other words. “Don’t you dare eat those. I do not need to take a stranger to the hospital today. I-I mean I don’t even think I know where the hospital is at this point.” That was a lie. She’d been many times. If record showed true, Nova might just have been the clumsiest person this town had ever met. The ER nurse knew her by name now with how many times she’d come in needing a stitch or burn treatment. “Yeah. I know it’s stupid but I had a bit of a cursing problem and, well, if you look sweet then better talk it too huh?” Better that than being mocked for sounding like a child when you cursed like a sailor. She looked at the cigarette with a raised brow, “A bit of a bold move. Smoking in a library.” Paper was extremely flammable. She knew this from experience. Something about the boy in front of her made Nova feel hot and nervous. Nova never could keep her head on straight around the bad boy types. And don’t even get her started on the bad girls. She’d do just about anything for them. “If I gave those mothers cookies with fecal germs on them I wouldn’t live to see my next birthday and that’d be bad... I quite like birthdays. Especially when they’re mine. Not to mention I think one of them is a practicing witch and something tells me a curse is worse than death. I’ll just... have to uh... I’ll text them. Something caught on fire,” She lied, his cigarette sparking her imagination, “it wouldn’t be hard to believe. It’s happened to me twice this month. Though not in the bakery. That might give me a bad rep, huh. But a candle! I left a candle on in my apartment. That’s it. Thank you.” She bent down, rushing to grab the destroyed goods back into the containers. The sooner she was out of this persons vicinity the better. 

The fascinating thing about pot was how differently it could affect people. Giggly, chill, sleepy, paranoid, anxious, depressed, the body could pick and chose so many cocktails of reaction, and then when you added in different strains things got even more deliciously intriguing. Thank god this girl was going the ‘silly but relatively stable’ route because Ryliee didn’t want to have to sober up to take care of anyone tonight. “Oh my god, when’s your career in standup comedy starting, huh?” she playfully teased with a grin. “How ya feeling? Do you need some water? Something soft to play with?”

Nova had never chosen to actually smoke but at this point she didn’t mind the effects of an edible whenever the universe chose that she stumble across one. Nova high meant that she experienced what was called “no bones” mode. Her body, well, it had no bones. Her eyes could barely open because most everything was funny to her. And, well, she was uncaring of anything she said or did which had both its benefits and drawbacks. “Oh I can’t handle comedy. You need a tight five and I’ve never been a tight anything. Well, my vagina is tight. I guess that counts for something. I like cookies too much to go into comedy.” Nova mulled the questions given to her over. “I want apple juice.”