[ all of these ghost towns I keep traveling through ] [ OPEN log ]

[ohgollygeewhiz]

WHO: Tom Raymond and you
WHAT: Tom. Coffee. Be his friend?
WHERE: A scuzzy diner in TorC
WHEN: ANY MORNING THIS WEEK
WARNINGS: uh. tl;dr?

Comments

[freakinsweethat]

Frankly, coming back to Truth or Consequences was uncomfortable, and Molly couldn't say that she has happy at all to be here again. She'd been selfish and left to Manhattan to be with her family for a while, and not even a three days later, Chase just disappeared, and she hadn't even been there for him when she knew that he had felt alone and out of place, that he needed someone to stay with him and keep him from falling into the habits that made Chase, well... Chase. Even though she still had a home here, and Warren and Alison were still around, this place just didn't feel like home anymore. It didn't even feel real. Still, she needed to come back to go through Chase's things, to help Warren, and to check on the people that she did have here.

The fact that she was awake this early in the morning, normally, was a bad sign for all of those that knew her. Molly Hayes was anything but a morning person, and it was never a good idea to get in her way before she had breakfast. However, she'd managed to sleep, albeit uncomfortably, on the

[ohgollygeewhiz]

"Oh, just about everyone's been telling me that," Tom said, exhaling away from her and snubbing out the cigarette in the ashtray that the waitress had procured especially for him. If she felt all that strongly about it, he didn't want to upset her by smoking around her. It was strange to him, since back home he knew more people who did smoke than people who didn't, but it was just another peculiarity of the future. "But the way I figure it, there's a whole list of ways to die that are worse by far."

It'd been weeks since he'd seen her face to face, so he couldn't help but smile. She was a doll, even when she looked like she'd just rolled off the wrong side of the bed. He folded his paper neatly and set it aside.

"Imagine seeing you here. S'been a while. How're you holding up?"

[freakinsweethat]

"It's true. They used to show us the lungs of smokers back in school. It wasn't pretty." She stopped once he set down the newspaper and she recognized who she was speaking to, flushing faintly. She only just then realized how inappropriate she had been, if only because Tom was her friend, sort of. She'd been expecting another trucker or some asshole that the owners were too intimidated to mess with. It was stupid for her to have maybe been looking for a fight, just because she was cranky.

"Oh man, that was really rude of me, wasn't it?" Her tone and expression softened almost instantly and she rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed. "I'm really sorry, Tom." She slid into the seat across from him, at least Tom didn't seem too upset over the whole thing, so...

"I didn't expect you... I mean, I wouldn't have said what I did had I-... I don't do that often, just so you know." She smiled sheepishly. "I've been doing as well as anyone can here. I just got back into town this morning. How about you? Were you able to find a job?"

[ohgollygeewhiz]

She was obviously flustered about reprimanding him, which made him feel awkward in turn. He liked that she had it in her to sass him, so he didn't take it too much to heart. There'd been an edge to her tone, sure, but it'd melted just as soon as she'd seen it was him. He took a sip of his coffee, then offered her the crooked edge of a smile.

"Don't apologize, Mol. I know it's a nasty habit. I tried to quit when I first got here," he admitted. "Just on account of how expensive cigarettes are nowadays. But I've been smoking for longer than I'd like to say and I s'pose everyone has to have at least one bad habit. Besides, I don't think I can end up with ruined lungs. I mean, I heal. If I get a cut or somethin', it closes up as soon as I go on fire. It's kinda handy, I guess

[knowsallaboutit]

If the various doctors and nurses who Death occasionally remembered to go see ever knew the exact ratio of sleep verses coffee intake Death indulged in, she suspected they would have had her committed on the spot. Or did they still do that

[ohgollygeewhiz]

Tom always read the whole paper, even if many of the issues and articles went over his head. It was the principle of the thing, the further expression of ritual and habit. He was just the type to finish things. It would have been wasteful to buy the paper and the only read half of it.

He looked up at his name, folding over the unfinished paper with care. Didi was a plain kind of girl, but she stood out in a crowd. He couldn't put his thumb on why she was so different, since most of it was dug down deep in his gut, but she just seemed to...float. It wasn't the type of floating that came from a bubbly personality or too much energy; she just seemed to drift just outside of normality, enigmatic.

Tom didn't try to figure her out. He simply enjoyed her company and accepted her smiles that reflected meanings he would never ever get.

"'Morning, Didi," he said warmly, sipping his coffee. "You're up with the birds."

[knowsallaboutit]

"It depends on your birds," she told him, almost flopping down into the seat across from him with a soft "oomph." Normally, she'd ask or wait for an invitation, but she was a little too tired to be perfectly proper. "I think I beat the early bird, today. I may have even beaten the worm!"

She rested her elbow on the table, leaning her cheek against her palm. "I'm trying to decide if I like dawn or early morning better. I can't make up my mind yet. You're up pretty early too."

[bringeroffun]

Bobby had never really learned the intricacies of coffee machines, so even if there weren't any cute waitresses to be had, he still stopped in for a coffee most days. Today he had also run out of microwave waffles, and so he decided to splurge on a real meal. When he spotted Tom he grinned and sped over.

"Gross," he said, waving away the smoke and sliding into the booth opposite him. "I didn't know this restaurant had a smoking section."

[ohgollygeewhiz]

"Nah, it doesn't have one," Tom said, grinding out the cherry of his cigarette in the chipped, slightly lopsided ashtray. "But I'm a regular, and Rachel doesn't mind. I'm usually the only one in here before seven."

He crinkled a teasing grin at Bobby, an eyebrow arched. "You gonna tell me that smoking's gonna kill me, too? 'Cause I do a lot of smoking, being a firebug and all."

Usually, Tom spent his first hours of the morning alone. He liked the quiet before his thoughts woke up and started tugging at him. He didn't mind company at all, though. It was a welcome surprise.

[bringeroffun]

"Hey, if you want to smell like an ashtray and make your teeth all yellow, that's your problem," said Bobby. "I'm not one of those people that cough every time they see a cigarette."

He leaned back a little and peered at the menu.

"Man, how early do you get here?"

[ohgollygeewhiz]

"Five, five-thirty-ish," he said dismissively, finishing his third refill of coffee and scrutinizing the yellowish ring it left at the bottom of the once-white mug. "I got in the habit of crack of dawn reveille, mostly 'cause Bucky used to give me hell if I slept in. And by hell, I mean he'd push my bedroll in a river if he thought I'd sleep through it."

And he had, more than once. Their friendship had been different before Bucky had gone into the big drink. It used to be that Bucky had been the leader and he'd watched out for Tom. Now, Bucky...well, he needed help. There wasn't any other way about it. He needed to be cared for, so the little tug of war between them had gone slack.

[misschocolover]

M'gann didn't often linger after work in Truth or Consequences. Though she flew in from Seattle to work at least a few mornings a week the obligation of going home to let Nilla out and take her for a walk had kept M'gann from exploring the city very much in the last few months. This morning however she had mixed up her days and arrived down in Truth or Consequences only to be confronted by a closed Doughnut Shack