More public awkwardness

[danielle]

[Continued from 'Yes, they're actually out in public']

Things were going well. Well, they were going alright, if you didn't count that lady that had tried to dispense relationship advice when she didn't know what she was on about. Also, if you didn't count the fact that Simon was following her toward the coffee shop, and she didn't actually know where it was.

Dani wandered, for a time, peering at the different shop windows and ducking into a couple to grab application forms. None of them were a coffee shop though, until Dani finally realised that she'd just walked right past one. It would have been comical, the way she skidded to a stop and turned around, except for the fact that she almost fell on her ass doing it.

"Uh, here were are." Her cheeks afire, Dani walked in and looked around, unsurprised to see that the place wasn't exactly full. Taking a look in her wallet, she ordered a coffee and a muffin, sliding into a seat that had a view out the window.

Not that much was happening out there.

"Soooo....."

She emptied the little dish of sugar packets and started putting them into bundles of five, with all the writing facing the same way.

"So..."

Well, this is awkward.

"Hope the coffee's good." She finished rather lamely.

Yep, this is going to go well.

[Simon Burkett]

Simon took the seat opposite her and ordered himself a coffee, he considered something snacky for a moment but changed his mind, instead opting to pluck up one of the stray packets of brown sugar. Without thinking he ripped open the top, emptied the contents into his hand and tipped it into his mouth.

Then he froze and blushed a little.

"S ... sorry," he said, "bad habit."

He watched her packet organisation for a moment with a small smile; was she as nervous as he was? The idea seemed slightly ludicrous to the inexperienced Simon. Looking the way she did she must have had boys chasing after her long before now.

He wondered why he made her nervous. What was wrong with him?

He fidgeted slightly and attempted a one-look self inspection using his reflection in the window.

Well he still looked like himself.

This, to Simon, was not a good thing.

He tried not to think about it.

"Yeah," he agreed with her, "it's a ... nice looking place."

He examined the rest of clientele; mostly old folks and workers on their breaks.

"Quiet."

During their slow walk through the town Simon had kept an eye out for anything that might have passed for the local night-spot. Not that he was an expert by any measure. He didn't even like clubs much. There had been a single bar on one of the street corners that he'd made a mental note of. Not that he could drink, but it was always good to remember these things.

"So ... you like the look of any of ... those places?" He asked, gesturing to the application forms.

[danielle]

"Mmmm?" Looking up from her sugar packets, Dani looked at the application forms slightly distracted. She was still embarrassed about almost missing the place. And then almost falling over. Her attempts at not dwelling on it weren't really working.

"Oh, yeah, I... I suppose. You know, a job's a job. Guess it depends on what's available... I don't do so well, you know, talking... to customers."

Now why had she gone and said something like that? Might as well start telling him about how she was fired from the clothing store for answering the question 'Does my bum look big in this?'

Well, it had. It wasn't like she'd just said yes for a laugh.

No-one had been laughing.

Snapping out of her reverie, she realised that they'd lapsed into silence.

"What about you? Anything interesting enough for you?"

Wait, was that a bad thing to say?

"You know, smart guy like you who was going to college and all."

Is that any better?

"Uh..."

Mercifully, a woman brought out the coffees at just that moment. She looked askance at the piles of sugar packets. Dani smiled and started putting them back with a slight look of embarrassment.

Then she started picking at the bits of blueberry on the top of her muffin, plucking them off one by one and eating them.

Then she remembered Simon, and wondered if he was going to think she was utterly odd with the way she was behaving. She took a sip of her coffee. It was actually really good.

"Mmmm, we should make this a regular thing."

Dani's cheeks reddened as she realised what she'd said.

"You know, if... you wanted to. Or..."

Not likely. Oh god.

[Simon Burkett]

"Well ... uh ... I'm not so good at ... talking to people either ... so I'm not sure I'd be any good ... at those." He gestured again to the small pile of applications. It had never crossed his mind that he might have to get a job for which he was over-qualified. Simon wasn't exactly a people person.

"I'll ... have to look around ... some of the other businesses might need ... someone to run their computers ... or something," he finished slightly lamely.

He watched Dani pick the blueberries from the muffin and second-guessed himself about something snacky. Perhaps a cake or something would have been a good idea.

She still looked nervous.

"A ... a regular ... thing?"

He sipped the coffee and wracked his brain trying to work out if there were any implications he should have picked up on.

"Um ... " he stalled hesitantly.

Hey, nice coffee!

"Yes!" He suddenly said in agreement, "I ... uh ... yeah ... that would be cool."

Smooth, real smooth! His inner-monologue inserted helpfully.

Oh shut up.

[danielle]

Smiling shyly into her cup, Dani looked out the window and across the street, noticing someone that really didn't seem to fit into the rest of the setting getting out of a car. The car didn't seem to fit either, but then she hadn't really seen many young people since they'd left Marie's place, so she couldn't be sure.

Returning her attention to the muffin, Dani picked some more before seeing that Simon was looking at it. Tearing off a piece, she gestured with it. "D'you want some?"

Then she wondered if that was the right thing to say. Would he really be interested in something she'd had her fingers all over? Would he say yes just to humour her?

It was pretty obvious that Dani was pretty much inept at life, especially when you brought other people into the equation.

Just shut up, then you can't say the wrong thing!

"Or, uh..."

She could feel her inner monologue shaking its metaphorical head at her.

[Simon Burkett]

Simon followed her gaze to the Lambourghini and raised his eyebrows. Such an expensive car was blatantly incongruous with the otherwise quiet town. Somebody clearly had more money than good sense. He had missed the cars occupant who would have looked even more out of place.

"Wow," he commented, "looks like someone around here ... isn't worrying about their money."

Compared to their own situation it seemed extremely unfair.

He gratefully accepted the chunk of muffin and began breaking it into smaller pieces. Then her started eating the bits one at a time.

"Thanks," he said between bites, "this is ... pretty good."

The whole place had a very home-made feel to it.

The decor.

The coffee.

The muffin.

He half expected a big gentleman in dungarees out the back barbecuing a huge rack of ribs and painting them liberally with sauce. Then he remembered the movie it reminded him of.

The secret is in the sauce.

Yeah, that sort of place.

"So ... " he said carefully, "what ... uh ... what sort of things ... do you like?"

Why was the simple art of conversation such a challenge?

[danielle]

He seemed to be enjoying the muffin, so maybe the fact that she'd pawed all over it wasn't such a bad thing. And he was still talking, so things couldn't be that bad, could they?

"Oh. I dunno. Stuff, I guess. You know."

She blushed a little. A girl who didn't hang around with peers had only a limited range of activities she could do.

He'd studied computers though, hadn't he? So maybe he wouldn't think she was a complete geek.

"I read a bit. Play a lot of video games."

She took a sip of her coffee before revealing what most people scorned her for.

"I used to play Guild Wars a lot, but I couldn't fit my computer into my suitcase." Some of the people she knew online laughed at the fact that she was playing Guild Wars instead of World of Warcraft, but Dani's grandfather hadn't liked the ongoing cost of WoW and she'd gotten attached to her characters.

Don't start talking about them! Her inner monologue was almost pleading.

"Not WoW, though. And you know, get on the net a bit when I can. What... What do you do?" She wondered if he'd still want to have coffee with her after hearing all that.

[Simon Burkett]

Simon grinned.

"Guild wars is better than WoW anyway," he said without hesitation, "it's free and it dosn't force to group with a bunch of idiots that don't know what they're doing. Sure, you can only be human-like characters, but they are pretty customisable."

He paused.

"Have you seen that Guild Wars versus World of Warcraft thing on the net? Some fat guy comparing the two games in stages. I only watched the first one where he is going on about character creation, but he comes to the conclusion that WoW is better based on the fact it has a 'randomise character' button."

He shook his head.

"What a moron."

Then he realised he'd lapsed into Geek.

Nice going.

Shut up.

"Uh ... yeah ... play some video games ... though I can't see that happening ... for awhile. Watch movies when I can. Saw that one about the four people that go to space ... and get irradiated and get special powers."

Time to shut up now!

"Like ... that would happen."

Geek.

I hate you.

Geek!

[danielle]

"Yeah, I saw that one." She was tempted to point out that they'd had special powers, but that wasn't quite the same. And she didn't think he liked to talk about it, anyway.

"Wonder if there's a cinema around here. Probably not." She got back onto the subject of video games.

Dani spoke geek. She didn't realise that it was supposed to be a bad thing, either.

"What about console games? I mostly play Xbox, but I've still got my old N64 back home. Some of those old games rocked. Flimsy controllers though - I bet the TV at Marie's is always taken by the kids though, right? Cartoons, you said?" She watched some cartoons, but not religiously or anything.

"Does anyone have a decent computer in the place?"

Bet he could build one if they don't. She ignored the fact that she clearly didn't have enough to build the kind of system that she'd want. Maybe there was a net cafe around the town somewhere. She kinda doubted it.

[Simon Burkett]

"Not sure," he said in reply to the cinema inquiry, "they ... might have a little local one." He shrugged and filed it in the list of things to ask Marie when they got back. A cinema would be good; there wasn't exactly much in the way of entertainment otherwise.

"They do have ... a computer, but it is an old dial-up thing that's not good for much." The idea of a world without broad-band was actually mildly horrifying. Simon had all but forgotten the ancient days of waiting for dial-up and the idea that you actually had to wait for a web page.

Guild Wars was right out the window.

"If I can get a job ... I might get an Xbox in for the place," he'd have to make sure he kept it safely away from the kids though. Like in a safe somewhere.

The memory of his sister saving over the Crimson Skies save-game file still stung.

"Would be better than ... watching cartoons anyway. I wouldn't mind but ... they don't even watch the good ones." He shook his head at the sad state of affairs that was the youth of today.

"I mean ... that thing with the meat guy?"

He quirked an eyebrow.

"Honestly ... "

[danielle]

"Oh, come on, Meatwave isn't that bad!" She grinned at him, popping another blueberry into her mouth before adding, "Though I always thought Side Salad was cooler." The sidekick was a bit more dorky, easier for her to relate to than the big strong hero type. And she liked his jokes.

"But yeah, there's definitely better stuff to watch. Nothing like the cartoons from when I was a kid though." Maybe it was rose tinted glasses, but it seemed like your usual saturday morning cartoons were nowhere near as good anymore. The good stuff was on cable - or you had to get it off the net, and she winced to think about doing that on dial up.

Drinking down the rest of her coffee, Dani wondered what to do next. She picked at the quick of her fingernails for a while before realising that she might look bored doing that. And she wasn't bored, she was just unsure.

"So...." She gazed back across the street. The car was still there. She wished for a moment that she had a car, but she'd never saved enough money up.

She dumped out the sugar packets again.

"Guess we should head back soon-ish." She peered at his coffee, unsure how much he had left.

"Might change before we head back, I'd rather be carrying my jeans than wearing them. Aren't you hot?"

Wow, Dani, that was... Just fantastic.

[Simon Burkett]

No baby, you're hot, let's get out of here, find us a club and dance the night away.

Simon mentally bludgeoned his inner-monologue before giving her a slightly pink cheeked smile. If she changed it would mean she would be putting those shorts on again and Simon wasn't sure how he was going to cope with that all the way back to the house.

Fortunately it was still very hot outside; he would have an excuse to be breaking a sweat. He wondered for a brief moment how to avoid staring.

"I'm ... a bit warm," he thought about the shorts he'd bought, it would be nice to get them on instead of the unsuitable jeans.

"Maybe I can change somewhere ... before we head back."

The afternoon was starting to wear on and Simon didn't want to miss dinner.

He knocked the rest of his coffee back and pulled some cash from his pocket. He dropped enough into the dish to pay for them both and leave a tip. It seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do.

"I ... I've got it," he said a little hesitantly.

[danielle]

"Oh. Ok."

She blinked for a few moments.

"Uhm... I'll pay next time."

Dani's cheeks reddened.

"Thanks."

She wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to respond, but that seemed to cover all the bases. Asking the waitress, she was pointed to the toilets out the back of the store and decided that changing would definitely be a good thing - the day may have been wearing on, but it wasn't getting any cooler or less humid.

"I'll be back in a sec." She emerged after a few moments, delayed by taking off her boots and putting them back on again. Her jeans, she'd folded and put into the bag the shorts had come in. She was still wearing the same orange tank top, but felt much more comfortable now that her legs were mostly bare as well as her arms.

Leaning against the side of the building to wait for Simon, she peered across the street and saw that the car was still there. Scratching her ear, Dani wondered what kind of person would have a car like that in Caldecott County.

[Simon Burkett]

Simon watched her reaction and hoped he had done the right thing. Perhaps she was one of those girls that liked to pay their own way all the time? Maybe she had been insulted by his paying without even asking?

Why did girls have to be so complicated?

She hadn't seemed offended though, more slightly puzzled or embarrassed. Simon watched her disappear into the ladies bathrooms and shook his head; he simply wasn't designed for this sort of thing, nature had clearly intended him to be a bachelor forever.

Once she had gone he made his way into the gents and after an uncomfortable moment in one of the cubicles managed to change out of his jeans and into the baggy shorts. He also opted for one of the new shirts to complete the look.

He left the stall and looked at himself in the mirror.

Loser.

Simon sighed; yes, yes he was.

He wandered back out and saw Dani leaning against the wall with her back to him outside. His eyes traveled up from her boots, up the lovely tanned legs, up ...

Simon squeezed his eyes shut.

Wuss.

He tried to ignore the urge to stare; it was surely some cruel and unusual form of torture.

"Are you alright there son?" The nice lady behind the counter asked him, "or the heat getting to your head?" They saw cases of heatstroke around on a fairly regular basis.

Simon popped his eyes open and shook his head.

"Uh ... no, no I'm ... I'm fine."

It's just that the girl I'm walking with has a really nice ...

SHUT UP!

"Thanks for the coffee," he waved, took a deep breath and stepped outside.

"S ... sorry to keep you waiting," he apologised.

[mickey]

((...can I jump in? I'm taking repeated references to his car as a good enough excuse. I can delete it if you'd like to continue your awkwardness uninterrupted, and I MEAN that, I'm not just saying that because it's expected.))

The lady in the Girl Supply, it turned out, was ridiculously unhelpful. Just because he'd smoked at her scrapbooks. Jeez.

She wouldn't give him directions and neither would the twentysomething with a baby on her hip that came in a few minutes later. The twentysomething said she didn't know, though. That might've been the case; all Mickey had to go by was an address and "Rogue's Place" scrawled on a torn-off piece of yellow legal pad. Even after years of having to keep up with everyone else's cases in the debate world, he still could barely read his own handwriting unless it was in an attempt to debase someone's Kant card or accuse them of dropping an argument.

So he'd wandered out of the scrapbooking store and bumped into some dude in a work coverall who looked like he should've died at least forty years ago. Seriously. Small-town people somehow just got older than everyone else. Older and more ornery. Mickey came back directionless here, too.

He leaned against his car and was in the process of lighting up a new cigarette from the tip of an old one when a distinctly out-of-place (and fairly cute to boot) Indian girl came out of the little cafe across the street, the one he'd snubbed on basis of its not being Starbucks.

Hmm. Maybe he should've given it a shot.

A guy, skinny in a rolled-out sort of way, came out after her and spoke to her; he didn't really look Caldecott County either.

Sure, maybe they were anthropology students who, for some reason, were specializing in small-town America. But maybe they were something cooler.

"HEY!" Mickey shouted across the street, deciding that, at least while he felt like he was about to melt into a little pink puddle in the street, things couldn't get much worse. "YOU GUYS KNOW WHERE ROGUE'S PLACE IS?"

[danielle]

((Course you can!))

She'd started tearing her receipt into a long strip, working around the edges in a spiral, when Simon's voice surprised her and the carefully controlled width ballooned out.

"Oh! That's ok, don't worry about it." She looked him up and down, examining his new clothes with a smile.

"You look good. I'm glad they fit." Dani had wondered what he would do if they didn't, but apparently it was actually easier for guys to just pick something up and put it on.

Tucking the receipt back into the bag with her jeans, Dani stuck her hands into her pockets, the bag dangling from her wrist as the little denim shorts tugged down to reveal a strip of skin.

"So...." She was just about to suggest heading back when someone started yelling in their direction, and her head swivelled around with surprise to see someone that fit with the car, if not with the town.

And he looked like he was about to die in the sunshine, wearing those tight jeans. Squinting at him, she noticed that he was wearing eyeliner, and elbowed Simon gently.

She'd never seen a guy wearing make up before. At least not just walking down the street, the movies were a bit different.

Rogue's place was what the lady had called Marie and Lee's house, though Dani hadn't seen - or met - any rogues when she got there. She made a note to ask about it, but her vision of a rogue was taken straight from books and RPGs, so it was pretty unlikely that she was going to see any of them at the house any time soon.

"Yeah." She didn't quite yell, but she raised her voice enough to carry across the street. It wasn't like she needed to be heard above busy traffic or anything.

"We live there." If he was looking for the place, he was probably an ex-mutant, too. Restored human! She wondered curiously what his power had been, but that was the sort of thing Marie had cautioned her against saying.

[Simon Burkett]

Simon resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. The day had been going so well! Ok, it had been going well since they'd left the house. Except for the incident at the checkout.

Alright, it was mostly going well.

The pleasant feeling of being told he looked good by somebody as attractive as Danielle had evaporated almost instantly when he heard the shout from across the street.

He glanced over at the probable owner of the expensive car and let out a quiet sigh.

Remind me to get a T-shirt made up with "Former Mutant, Please Kick" in big red letters.

"Uh ... "

Simon didn't really know what to say.

He looks like an explosion in a rivet factory.

Well, yes, but that thought was unkind.

Dani answered for both of them, though happily not at the same volume as the smoking guy with the dangerous hair. Simon silently tried to work out the odds on him having taken something like poetry or philosophy at college.

He figured they were pretty good.

"It's just over a mile down that way," he added to Dani's statement and pointed off down the street.

[mickey]

"Yeah."

Oh, yeah, this wasn't New York. You didn't have to scream your lungs out (or what little was left of them) in order to be heard across a street.

Also, yay!

"We live there."

"Sweet," Mickey said. This time, he remembered that he was screeching across Queens Boulevard no longer, but rather a Quiet Country Main Drag, with the echoes of banjo music and the muttering of a diesel motor somewhere in the distance the only audible distractions.

"It's just over a mile down that way."

Mickey followed the point, being a visual person, before turning back to the pair. Thankfully, he'd long ago broken himself of the habit of just staring at the finger. It made him look like a big dumb (pierced) puppy.

"Awesome," he reiterated. "And you guys live there? Do you want a ride back or something?"

They might've planned to stick around town for a while yet, but Mickey couldn't see anything in sight you could actually do. Maybe he was spoiled by the cultural epicenter of the universe, but seriously. There was a bar, a cafe and a grocery store. Culture shock or no, that was lame.

[danielle]

"Uhhh..." Looking from the guy to his car to Simon and then back to the car, Dani was undecided.

It's a nice car.

It probably has air conditioning.

If he's going back there anyway...

But walking with Simon...

Actually, wait. That last thought was probably a bad thing, because the longer the walk the more likely she was to just blurt something out that was totally stupid.

Looking right then left then right again, even though there was absolutely no cars on the road, and none to be heard in the immediate vicinity, Dani put out a hand to tug on Simon's shirt sleeve before remembering that he'd changed to a t-shirt. Which meant that she kinda ended up grabbing his wrist for a moment, then looked a bit awkward, then let go.

With a slight redness in her cheeks, Dani strode across the road toward the car and the stranger.

"I'm Dani. This is Simon. You're... looking for a place to stay?" She'd almost said 'You're cured too?'

She tried to give Simon a look that asked him if they did want a lift, but just ended up looking like she was totally weird.

"And yeah, a lift'd be awesome." At least that way the guy wouldn't get lost.

[Simon Burkett]

Simon reluctantly crossed the road after her and nodded acknowledgment of his name. He gave the car an appraising look; it certainly was a very nice machine and must have cost a small fortune. He looked back at the newcomer and wondered if the guy was some sort of alternative rock star.

He sort of looked the part.

"Uh ... yeah ... a lift would be ... pretty cool."

Probably.

He wondered if the guy was a cured mutant or if this was some sort of attempt at an out-reach program; spend some time with the former freaks, try to get along.

Simon tried to spot the hidden cameras.

Then he realised that the car only had two seats. Big ones admittedly, but two none-the-less.

"Uh ... will we ... fit in there?" He asked uncertainly.