The Perk, Tuesday Morning

[myownface]

The island was doing that mistletoe thing again. That mistletoe thing, Sparkle remembered it vividly from a precarious situation in a stairwell back when Alec was still a part of his life, and no amount of lecturing the island on people's right to choose who the hell they kissed for themselves had apparently dissuaded it from making it tradition.

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[intotheout]

Thanks to her family's relative proximity to Baltimore and the causeway, and to Tip's managing to have landed not one but two jobs on the island -- a fact that made Tip's mom proud as much as it made her worry about her daughter's ability to have fun -- it'd been agreed that Tip would spend most of her break staying in the dorms, coming home just for the Smekday celebrations themselves on the 25th.

Tip hated this plan. But mostly because she would be perfectly happy if the entirety of December just got cancelled. They could replace it with "Dan Landry Month" for all she cared. She kind of hated everything this month.

Currently, she was hating very loudly on the fact that the world had apparently decided all caramel flavors had to have salt in them, now. "Why would I want a salty hot chocolate?! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! You drink stuff to not be thirsty, and salt makes you thirsty!"

Sorry, Sparkle. Tip hadn't even noticed yet that she was getting her bitter-and-angry all over your morning coffee shop time.

[myownface]

And Sparkle... had noticed Tip. Tip was kind of hard not to notice, really, what with the fit-pitching that was going on over there.

Hooboy.

"Salt is actually a flavour-enhancer," he offered, from where he was sitting. "Makes you taste the sweet stuff even more. Fortunately, 'not salted' is also an option, if you ask nice."

Hey, Sparkle hated the holiday as much as the next person, but it wasn't like the barista had put the item on the menu to piss anybody off. Minimum wage was not enough to put up with even the most righteous angry teenager's yelling.

[intotheout]

"Don't try to pull a tone argument on me!" Tip. Tip, no. She might've been slightly less pissed off if her pet billboard hadn't spent all morning flirting with sentient mistletoe. But, well. "I get to be angry when I'm angry!" She spun back on the barista and pointed at her. "I'm sorry I'm yelling! Can I please have a non-salted caramel hot chocolate!"

Well. It was a step in the right direction?

[myownface]

"At this rate, she's gonna spit in it," Sparkle muttered to himself, sighing but settling back to watch the show all the same. At least he had his drink to keep him company while all of this unfolded.

The barista looked only slightly mollified, but had clearly put up with worse crap than this before and set to work making Tip's drink. She even only rolled her eyes the once.

[2_old_for_this]

Peter had mostly missed the mistletoe so far, on account of being an antisocial angsty loner on his own for the day.

But he was trying to be good and get out and have tea, so. Here he was.

He nodded at Sparkle and smiled at the familiar face. "Hi. Haven't seen you around in a while."

[myownface]

"Well, you haven't needed new clothes in a while," Sparkle replied, shooting Peter a little smirk. "And anyway, I'm a homebody. How goes it?"

[2_old_for_this]

"I...yeah, homebody pretty much describes it." Peter sank into a chair at Sparkle's table. "Last week was...something."

[myownface]

"Last week can go fuck itself sideways with a rake, and if it hurts itself in the process it had it coming," Sparkle replied, vehemently.

So, there was that.

"Stupid island."

Seriously, this place. Seriously.