#lorelailewis

where: mack and mac's, ocean crest, nov 1st

"She's not here," Mack says in lieu of a greeting after opening the door after a series of knocks revealed Lorelai Lewis on the other end of it. She's far from a rare sight in the apartment he shared with his sister, part and parcel of the pair of them being best friends.

He wanders from the door and lets her follow him inside if she still wanted to in Macaulay's absence, heading to his fridge to get a bottle of water for the hungover scratch in his throat that was making his throat hoarse. His night had taken a sharp turn somewhere around bleach blonde Adam Levine and a purple teletubby with coke to spare, and he doesn't remember the exact ins and outs of what followed.

where: aurora bay police department

"Scottie. Nolan."

If Atlas had to repeat himself one more time to the station desk clerk, he was going to lose his cool and end up hauled into one of the holding cells that he knows his sister was currently in. Lori telling him that Scottie had gotten herself arrested had managed to mostly sober him up, enough to have called her former foster father on the way so they he could secure actual bail money.

Just as the woman was about to say once again that there was no one by that name there tonight, Atlas tries something he doesn't want to work.

"Scarlett. Try Scarlett Nolan then, and don't fucking call her that if you know what's good for you."

where and when: black cat cafe, august 12th

"I need you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to ask you," X says slowly, trying to entice the blonde's focus back to him. It had been his choice on where to meet and he thought the cafe was a safe bet to risk not running into Van while they did, but he miscalculated how distracted Lori would get by the actual cat roaming around and he couldn't risk her only taking onboard half of what he was saying while she pspspspsp'd.

where: lori + cricket's apartment

The walk from the library to Ocean Crest had gone as Keo expected it to. A little awkward, a lot unsure, the change in a previously comfortable shared presence residing almost completely with him.

Like most things that were difficult, it makes him want to cut and run. Trail back a little in the last few metres between them and the apartment building, a sharp turn in the opposite direction when he was out of her peripheral and he would be in the wind.

There's no mistaking the appeal, but if he doesn't have a long overdue conversation with her now, he never will.

The hesitancy stays with him even as he follows her into her apartment, wondering if the silence and now eyes glaring at him from the kitchen was a false sense of security and either of her roommates may pop out at any given moment.

where: driftwood, speed dating

"Ah, see. I knew if I moved around these tables enough I'd have to end up sitting across from someone hot at some point."

Law of averages, simple deduction or showing up with the knowledge that she would be there -- it didn't matter. He was finally at the table he wanted to be at.

Atlas had little interest in speed dating and even less interest in everyone else who was attending it, but the idea of the pair of them signing up to it had seemed a funny one at the time and he was already on his fifth backstory.