RP: Drink to a Stranger, Drink to a Friend

[stephenross]

Date: August 14, 2011
Characters: Stephen Ross, Harley Jordan
Location: La Luna Bar and Grill
Status: Private
Summary: Wandering around lost in his own life, Stephen finds a bar and a new acquaintance.
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[harley_jordan]

Sunday wasn't much of a bar day usually, but Harley was in the mood. If she'd had her way she'd have done some drinking last night, but since she'd had to work this morning that would only have made the customers even harder to deal with. She went to her usual bar, not feeling up to bright and family-friendly right now. She'd had a low-level headache for what felt like days and was coming off her fourth ten-hour shift in a row

[stephenross]

He took a slow sip of the whiskey, letting it burn all the way down to his stomach before he realized someone was talking to him. He had started that slow sink down into boozey quiet and it startled him.

"Oh...huh?" He looked down at his drink with a slight smile. "Yeah, well. I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow morning. What's your excuse?"

[harley_jordan]

Harley smirked. "Fair enough," she said as Joe slid an identical drink toward her. "I worked this weekend, so I don't have to go in until afternoon. Haven't seen you in here before." Which probably made her seem like some kind of alcoholic, but fortunately she didn't give a shit what anyone thought. "This place is kind of hard to stumble on, I mean."

[stephenross]

"Is it?" He looked around. "I dunno. I just drove until I found somewhere that looked like I could get a decent shot of whiskey on the cheap. Guess when you're looking for nothing, it's not hard to find."

[harley_jordan]

"Well this is a good place for that," she said, taking a slow sip of her own drink, liking how the drambuie made the whiskey go down smoother. "They don't even water it down that much." She added that part for Joe's benefit and got a choice finger in response.

"Kidding. So you do a lot of aimless driving?" She tended to do hers on the highway, just for the thrill of speed and the comforting roar of her car's engine.

[stephenross]

"No, never used to anyway. But I live with my mother now and drinking alone in my room would probably go noticed by her."

He sipped the drink, frowning into it, annoyed by his own sudden honesty. Then he realized...it didn't fucking matter did it? He didn't know this girl, didn't know this bar. He could be himself and if she got bored or disgusted by his apathy...so what? It didn't matter. The thought relaxed him utterly and his sighed almost in happiness.

"The drink is better than I'd make anyway."

[harley_jordan]

He was younger than he looked if he was living with his mother. But then Harley realised that she actually had no idea when most people left the nest, having never been in one to start with. "I wouldn't know," she said with a shrug, then eyed him again. "Good thing about bars is you're never really drinking alone. I mean, unless you want to be." She had no problem leaving him to it.

"Mm. I'm not much for making my own drinks. Too heavy-handed I guess," she smiled faintly. "Which isn't really bad, just expensive as hell."

[stephenross]

"I tend to curl up around the bottle." He admitted, leaning against the bar and giving her a closer look over. She was pretty enough, he thought, interesting. Different. "No, it's...I thought I did, but it's probably better if I don't. I don't think I've talked to anyone my own age in...months. Huh."

Time went fast when you were sliding into oblivion.

[harley_jordan]

Harley raised a brow; most people wouldn't admit that to someone they'd just met. Though maybe strangers were easier. She didn't much like opening up at all. "I can usually think of better things to do with it than curl up around it," she commented lightly.

"You like a loner type, or...?" He seemed so whitebread and clean-cut that she imagined he must have a ton of frat buddies or something. "Nothing wrong with that, I mean. Just wouldn't have guessed."

[stephenross]

He looked down at himself wondering what it was exactly she saw. Clean, pressed clothes. Gelled hair... generic type. Probably not the type that usually came to this sort of place, he realized. Oh well.

"Not exactly." He took another burning sip. "I graduated a few weeks ago from college. No on I really wanted to talk to since then. Everyone's...busy, I guess. Jobs, more school or whatever."

[harley_jordan]

Her mouth formed an silent 'oh' and she nodded slowly. College guy--well, she'd been halfway right. "Congrats," she offered, because that was what you said for that kind of accomplishment, she supposed. She actually didn't know anyone in her life who'd been through college.

"I don't know much about it, but I figure most people spread out from college. You lose touch. Maybe they weren't all worth keeping in touch with anyway, though. Doesn't sound like you miss them."

[stephenross]

"No. I don't." It was strange to say it out loud, he touched the tip of his tongue to his teeth tasting the truth. "Isn't that fucking weird? I can't even remember their faces."

He laughed low, pressing the glass to his forehead before taking another sip.

"They weren't bad guys. Nice people. Guess I just never took enough notice of them to remember."

[harley_jordan]

"Weird? I don't know, maybe not. I haven't really kept in touch with people I used to run with. Some people are just...blips." A lot of people were like that for her, just glancing through her life, kind of how she liked it. Still, the few attachments she'd made meant a lot. She looked at him closely, wondering what would make someone forget faces that fast.

"Maybe you're just, like..." she sipped and searched for the word, something she'd pinged on in one of her practice books, "...misanthropic."

[stephenross]

"I have no idea what that means." He admitted with a small smile. "Sounds good though. Like someone who's missed something and might be short sighed or something. Or is the myopic?"

[harley_jordan]

"Means you don't like people." She was pretty sure, anyway, as long as she hadn't mixed it up with something else she'd studied for her GED. Well, he didn't know better, that was the important thing. She chuckled into her drink. "Thought you were supposed to've learned all that useless shit already, college boy?"

[stephenross]

"I don't dislike people." He frowned, then shrugged. "Guess more I don't understand them. It's like I get the general idea and all. I could sum someone up for a book report, but I probably based it on the tv movie...does that make any sense?"

He laughed a little.