#non event.thread

"Oh this? It's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?" Finn grabs the bottom of his shirt and pulls down, stretching the image flat so it can be see free of wrinkles. The shirt he pulled from the t-shirt grab bag for the night out celebrating his birthday. "It's Danny Dorito. Impeccable design, if I do say so myself."

"Hey…"

Pax grins sheepishly when the door opens with a leash dangling from his hands. "As it turns out, Duke is on the run. Again." Curse his father for not fixing the spot where Duke has dug a hole to slip under, Erica's trash bin is now a victim of a hit and run. His eyes shift to the side where it's toppled over with some spillage.

"He's also in your backyard, and I didn't want to just trespass." No, breaking the law is only in Duke's cards, and Paxton will remain a law-abiding citizen so long as he can help it. "Can I…?"

"I have my flash drive here, plenty of photos from your last performance. I touched up many of them, and I left some duplicates untouched as a point of reference so that you can compare the work and provide feedback so if you need them edited for a different look, you can give me the direction."

Finn plugs it into the USB port of his laptop. The poor thing is hanging on by a thread with the corner taped together, but it works well enough for him to bring up the photos.

"You asked for twenty to work with for promotional purposes, I threw in an extra twenty, pro bono, as a thank you for hiring me to shoot for you." As a student, any bit helps, even if he could easily be squeezed for more work and be paid in experience.

"Okay, so!"

He slows from his jog. The one he started the moment he saw Sloane in the crowd, and lands right next to her. It had been a while since he'd seen her, but he tried not to press. The whole baby thing has probably kept her busy. That goes without saying he'd shot out a few texts over the course of these few months.

"I know you like diet coke, but I read on google you shouldn't have those. And I didn't want to text and ask because that would ruin the surprise, so I got a La Croix." Asher slides his backpack off and digs inside to pull out two slim cans — one peach and one passionfruit in hopes she would like either. "I wouldn't open those yet. They're shaken up. And I also got a bag of Sour Patch Kids." That's when he finally pauses to take a breath from his endless sentence, and it hits him.

"So, where, pray tell, have you been?"

Finn slides into the empty seat across from Emerson. No introduction or greeting involved, he just joins her. "I'm sorry, you're reading, but also. Not sorry. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in ages?" Now that he thinks about it, he thinks the last time he saw her she was in a cast still. Hah, it would've been funny to wield his own had he found her before it'd been taken off.

"But yeah, anyway. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm not at the diner anymore. Come to think of it, I haven't seen your brother recently, either. And we're neighbors. This might be my fault, actually."