Lunchtime Musings

[razzledazzlee]

WHO: Jubilee & OPEN (max of three more people so we don't go crazy with tags).
WHERE: Some random big coffee shop.
WHEN: May 19th, afternoon.
WARNINGS: None yet.
SUMMARY: Lunch.
FORMAT: Either.

Comments

[cantyouhearmy]

There was only about an hour to go until Billy was expected on shift at Coldstone's at the line at the cafe was at the height of the lunchtime crawl. He probably, he thought ruefully, should've hopped into a McD's or something and grabbed a burger, but a week of being teased about how he'd put on weight working at an ice cream place had left him, privately, a little paranoid.

So soup it was and a few crackers to sprinkle on top and a shameful, shameful diet Coke that he would never live down if anyone actually knew what he was drinking. When the girl behind the cash finally served him his tray, Billy gave her a conspiratorial smile and turned around to look for a place to sit down and eat. The other side-effect of eating lunch downtown during actual lunchtime was that the place was pretty crammed. There were a couple of seats at the counter still, though, and balancing his tray precariously, he approached one.

"Hey," he said, nodding at the girl next to the seat he had his eye on, "that taken?"

[razzledazzlee]

Jubilee looked up, still biting the straw, before smiling at him, "It is if you take it."

She looked at him. If there was one thing Jubilee had was an appreciating eye. And she did think he was super cute. But that diet Coke... If there was one thing Jubilee had as a talent - besides the obvious - was that she was good with people and at taking in details. And that kind of soda totally made her sigh, but with a smile. He was so not into girls.

But still, as said, super cute.

"Come here often?"

No harm with small talk. Besides, she had to take her mind off silly thoughts.

[cantyouhearmy]

Billy had never been the sort to smile a lot, but he's not rude so when the girl smiled at him, he smiled back, though with an obvious lack of practice. She had a nice smile, he figured; it was hard to not want to smile back. He slid onto the stool beside her, cracked his pop can open, and started fiddling with his package of crackers.

"Uh. No. Not really," he said. "I just started a job around here and have been trying to find an okay place to take my lunch break, you know? This is experiment number three." He finally managed to rip the plastic packaging, which freed up one hand to offer to her. "Hi, I'm Billy."

[razzledazzlee]

She watched him struggle with the plastic bag, still chewing on the straw, before moving her eyes up to him. Pulling her mouth away from that half chewed plastic tube, the girl too the hand he was offering to her and gave it a light handshake.

"Jubilee. Nice to meet you," she pulled her hand away to play with the straw again, to avoid chewing on it, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I kind of like this café here. It's a nice spot. Lets you think, you know what I mean?"

Scratching her nosetip, she leaned her elbows on the counter and propped her chin up on her entwined fingers, "So, where do you work, Billy?"

[cantyouhearmy]

"Coldstone's? The ice cream place down," he made a lazy motion with his hand out the the front of café, "that way."

He crushed his package of crackers in one hand and then sprinkled them over his soup, all the while darting glances at the girl out of the corner of his eye. There was something sort of familiar about the name Jubilee but between people he was supposed to have known from the first two times around and people he had just talked to in passing over the last month, it was hard to keep straight where he might have met her. And the face didn't look familiar either, so eventually Billy just gave up trying to figure it out.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your thinking," he said, grimacing apologetically. "I'm totally cool with just sitting here silently if you wanted to get back to that, though I admit that it's nice to talk to someone who isn't trying to convince me to give them extra sprinkles."

[razzledazzlee]

Following his hand, she looked over her shoulder, before turning her attention back to him, "Ice cream place? Do you have free ice cream? That's pretty much every partying teen's dream or something." She laughed softly, crossing her feet at her ankles.

"Oh, you didn't interrupt anything important," Jubilee waved her hand like she was waving away some annoying bug, "I was just getting lost in nostalgia or something like that."

With another gentle laugh between closed lips, the girl winked at him, "I hope that if I keep you company and end up visiting you in your shift I won't have to convince you of anything at all."

[cantyouhearmy]

He rolled his eyes and gave an amused little sigh. "Yeah, free ice cream is awesome. Right up until the point where all your friends start teasing you about how you aren't going to be able to fit into your--" He broke off for a second, taking a hurried sip of soup as he bit back the urge to say uniform, and then finished with a much lamer, "Into your clothes anymore."

He picked up his Coke can and gave it a demonstrative wiggle, as if he was saying hence the diet soft drink that I would not be caught dead drinking otherwise, took one sip, and then set it back down on the tray.

"If you promise not to tip when you come," he said, returning her laugh with a brief smile, "I can definitely arrange extra sprinkles. Deal?"

[razzledazzlee]

"Oh, I so know what you're talking about," she confessed, still playing with the plastic straw between her fingers, "I work at a bar and I have my fair share of self control to not to smash a bottle or two on a drunk's head." she said, scratching her chin with a rascal smile, but she rose her hand in a bit of a mock solemn promise, "Scout's honour, I have never done it."

Jubilee ordered another orange juice, just to keep him company (and to have another straw to chew on). She stretched a bit and pointed at him, "So, you're in school?" her curiosity was never ending, "Or do you just work?"

She took the orange juice when it came in her hands and took a small sip.

[cantyouhearmy]

Billy gave her a considering look. With some many heroes (and villains) in the city, it was like every time he got into conversation with a stranger he found himself trying to look for clues that the person he was talking to was someone on the comm or, alternatively, trying to slip in clues that he was in return. He couldn't help being curious.

So as casually as possible, keeping his eyes fixed on his soup, he said, "Coldstone's is the day job. But between that and, uh, hobbies, I don't have much time for school. Which my mom would have an aneurysm over if she knew." He shrugged. "But while I'm here, I've got to pay my share of the rent, so."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "What about you? Just the bar? Or the bar and school? Or?"

[razzledazzlee]

Intuition was something that Jubilee trusted upon a lot and right now hers was telling her that this guy's hobbies weren't exactly collection stamps. She couldn't yet put her finger on it, but she had a good eye to spot out of the ordinary people and there was definitely something about this Billy. Jubilee simply hadn't him figured out yet.

"I guess you could call it a private school," she said, as if she was stating something completely normal. Having been doing this for so many years, when she talked about her mutation it was like saying tht the day was sunny. It was casual and she was just so used to it that it didn't bother her.

"And I got my own... hobbies too."