People Watching(Jade)

[Deleted]

It was funny how much time Zach actually managed to spend back home in Pilot Ridge despite the fact that he had his own place to stay around the university and had so for the past 3 years. At first, he stayed away like his house was ground zero for the bubonic plague. Then he started staying over on weekends. Now, as his course load had increased to the insane, he tried to stay away again. But he still found himself coming over for the day on his weekends, trying his best to relax during those days and not think about how much he wasn't getting done. Then again, he usually ended up working on something anyway, so there wasn't a whole lot of relaxing anyway.

He'd found a corner to sit by himself in at the coffee shop. While normal people would probably pull out a tablet or a laptop, Zach instead pulled out a notebook. He curled his legs up onto the cushion of the booth and leaned his back against the wall.

Sure, he was being a little stalker-creepy, but the owner of the coffeehouse was probably used to him by now.

Zach watched as the people came and go, taking quick notes of things wouldn't normally notice. A woman and the man she was with had pretty good eye contact, but the woman was picking at her cuticles on one hand. The man bit his lip every time the woman cut loose her shrill laugh. They were annoyed with each other, but were keeping quiet about it. For what reason, Zach couldn't tell, they were too far away for him to hear the conversation. But it looked like a date. Or maybe just a meeting between friends. The way she touched his arm made Zach think it was a date though.

They left after an hour, surprisingly, not noticing that Zach had his eyes on them the whole time. Then again, he was also watching other people. Like the dark-haired girl who just came in...had he seen her before? Zach thought maybe he had, maybe somewhere around campus? Or did they have a class together? He was certain it was one of those.

[Jade Parrish]

Black combat boots hit the sidewalk as Jade stopped to push open the door to the coffee shop in the Downtown area. It was closer than Starbucks and honestly, she really didn't want to be at work when she wasn't working. She had to work hard to meet her deadlines for the newspaper and it was getting to be crunch time.

So, she walked swiftly up the counter and ordered her coffee with an extra espresso shot. It was the only way to drink it. She knew today was going to be long. It was just how it was when you were a college student working a part-time job and being the editor-in-chief of the newspaper at the university.

Taking her coffee, she pushed a stray strand of black hair out of her face. It'd fallen out of the bobby pin and annoyed, she blew at it again as she set her backpack onto the floor, followed by her black purse on the table. Sitting down, she smoothed out her dress and pulled out her laptop, eyes drifting lazily across the small cafe to land on a dark-haired boy sitting at a table in the corner. She smiled, closed lipped at him, it coming off more as a smirk.

[Deleted]

There wasn't anything spectacular about Zach that would make him stand out. Jeans that hadn't been washed in three days and had long lost the color in their knees(and the fabric). And a blue hood zipped up a plain black shirt. Even his shoes were less than stellar, though they had been new at the beginning of summer before they went to the lake house.

Zach had his notebook propped up against his knees as he jotted down random sentences about the things going on in the coffee house. No, there wasn't anything actually interesting going on, but that was the beauty of writing. Being able to make dull, everyday scenes stand out and appealing to the reader. Because really, life was made of boring more often than not.

The young woman of only nineteen years brushed a strand of her black licorice hair away from her face with a dip in her brow so slight that it would take only someone as close as a family, or perhaps a lover, to notice her acute dissatisfaction…..

Damn, what the fuck was this dribble. Zach knew he could do better than that.

He crossed out the last sentence and started to try again, lifting his eyes again to watch the girl, focusing on her dress, how she was walking, and the thin smile she sent over his way….

Uh, oh…

He stared at her with a classic deer-in-headlights look, wide eyes and mouth gaping slightly. Then he looked away, hoping she hadn't noticed, turning his focus out the window.

[Jade Parrish]

He had a notebook in his lap, something that made Jade curious. Dark hair fell over his eyes and he was wearing worn clothes. He was an interesting character--and she couldn't help but think that she'd seen him hiding behind that hair on campus somewhere. He seemed familiar in that way--Jade usually remembered people more by their mannerisms and quirks than their actual names. It wasn't entirely useful when she was standing in front of someone not knowing what they were called but that they usually wrung their hands or bit their nails.

He looked like he'd been caught, wide-eyed and mouth agape--and then he'd turned away quickly to look out the window. She tried not to laugh, as if not to make it worse, but she couldn't help but find his reaction rather hilarious. Jade was rather curious of people and why they did things. She swore if she didn't go into journalism, it would have been psychology. Humans were just so damn interesting, even if they were stupid a lot of the time.

She looked back at her laptop for a moment. It was still booting up and so she took the opportunity to slide out of her chair, marching over to him and planting herself in the chair across from him, crossing one leg over the other. "Watcha doing?" She asked. The question was innocent, but there was obvious intent in it, as she raised her eyebrow at him.

[Deleted]

Zachary tried to maintain a calm facade of having not noticed that the girl had noticed him...or maybe she hadn't noticed and he was just being paranoid? That was very likely considering people's eyes tended to wander and might occasionally meet by pure accident for no other reason than coincidence. Hopefully, she had that same train of thought and went about her business as usual, whatever usual was for her, and he would just focus on another subject...

Or considering he'd caught her attention once, he should probably just book it the first chance he got. Yeah, that was a plan.

"Was" being the operative word there, because as soon as he decided it was safe to look again, Zach was met with a very inquisitive face, a raised eyebrow, and a question.

To which he responded with, "Uhh.......I was just..." For all his flourishing ways to spin words on paper, Zachary had not the articulation necessary to answer such a simple question. He lifted his hand and waggled his fingers in a sort of half-wave. "Hi..." he said with a hesitant smirk.

[Jade Parrish]

Jade enjoyed the look on his face, like he'd been caught. He obviously wasn't the best with words and so she decided to help him out. "You were watching me. Creepy talker, or broody guy who writes what he observes?" She posed it as a question, leaning forward to tap a finger with chipped black nail polish on his notebook.

She grinned at him, closed mouthed. It always somehow turned into more of a smirk, like she was always up to something. "You look familiar," she pointed out.

[Deleted]

"You were watching me. Creepy talker, or broody guy who writes what he observes?".

"Ah...you..." Zach had no idea what to say or how to respond to that. When in doubt, be awkward...which was much different than how he was now, but just go with it.

"Yoouuuu....caught me, red handed." He managed, kind of rolling his eyes and holding his hands up in surrender. Zachary stayed like that for a moment before relaxing with a simple "sorry."

Yeah, he thought she looked familiar, but he still couldn't quite place her. "Are...you in one of my classes?" he asked with an inquisitive look, pointing a finger in her general direction. "At the University? Maybe?"

[Jade Parrish]

Jade only grinned. "Caught you red handed at stalking or being broody? Because I would prefer the broody type...although I'll probably talk to you no matter what." It was true.

She shook her head when he apologized. "Don't be sorry." She tried to peer over at his notebook. "People like you are interesting. They have layers."

She leaned forward on the table, propping herself up on her elbows. She scrutinized him when he'd asked if she was in one of his classes. "Well, I go to U of V, if that's what you're asking." He did seem familiar, like she'd often stared at the back of his head, and that mop of hair he had. "What's your major?"

[Deleted]

He raised an eyebrow, then switched eyebrows as he considered her question and answered. "Both?" Blunt honesty probably wasn't the best policy in this situation, but this girl didn't seem like she was about to stone him for being a creeper. At least not yet.

"Well, I am wearing three shirts," he mumbled looking down at the zipper of his hoodie. It'd been cold this morning.

Zach nodded. "Um…English…creative writing."

[Jade Parrish]

His answer made Jade's grin grow wider. "Good answer," she told him and she shook her head at the other thing he said. "I just meant that you actually have depth to your personality as opposed to a lot of the mindless drones I meet."

She regarded him with a questioning look and then it clicked into place. "Ah, okay. Yeah, I'm a Journalism major with a creative writing minor. I dabble in depressing poetry." She winked at him, holding out a hand with a chunky ring on her finger. "That's right, you're one of the Bishops...that huge family. Man, your parents must have had some crazy sex drive."

[Deleted]

He grinned awkwardly. "Yeah, I knew what you meant. That was just..." He averted his eyes, "A lame attempt at humor. It sounded a lot better in my head." Zach laughed nervously. He never was very good with on the spot humor. Most of the characters he wrote were 10 times more witty than he would ever be.

"Oh...well, then. That makes sense." She was in journalism and creative writing. Zach may not be terribly social with his classmates, but he did look at their faces sometimes. Now he remembered seeing her before.

And apparently she had a better memory than he did. Zach made an irritated face and averted his eyes up to the corner. "Yeah. Haven't heard that one before," he snapped unconsciously at the mention of his family. It was like that was the only thing that defined him to anyone else. Didn't even ask for his name anymore it was just, "Oh, you're a Bishop?" and suddenly they thought they knew him(and everyone else in the family too). "...Sorry," he added after a moment, still looking away.

[Jade Parrish]

"No worries. A lot of shit sounds better in my head. I won't repeat any of it to you," Jade said with a smirk in his direction. "And yeah, I've seen you around. Broody writers get to me, what can I say." Plus, she was on campus A LOT. If she wasn't in class, she was hard at work in the newspaper office, editing or writing articles. Speaking of that... She was about to ask him a question when he'd snapped at her comment of him being a Bishop.

"My bad. Must be rough. That's a lot of siblings. I only had one." She barely flinched at the past tense and felt a little victory at it. "It's Zach, right? I'm not bad with names, I promise. You guys are just ridiculously well-known in Pilot Ridge. I graduated Hammel the same year as your brother, Gaige." She realized that maybe she was talking too much for his liking, but brushed it off before shrugging at his apology. "Ah, fuck it. Doesn't bother me."

"Anyway..." she slammed her hands down on the table. "I was thinking about starting a creative section in the newspaper. Thoughts?"

[Deleted]

"I'm not doing it on purpose…well, the brooding thing. The writing is though, completely…on purpose…." Now that just didn't flow right and he knew it before he even said it. Yet Zachary Bishop still said it. The boy should just stop talking.

Indeed she was talking too much. About his family. Which he hated. Not his family, but the fact that his family so easily became the topic of conversation. His unamused glare should easily have sent that message but apparently it took her a while.

Zach sighed. "It's not that, sorry I snapped, but….there's just so many things wrong with what you said." He managed an awkward smile then shifted himself to sit properly at the table, leaning forward to her. "First, I'm not "a Bishop", I'm Zach…just Zach. My family, no matter how….famous or….weird… they don't define me. Second, it's just really easy for my family to take over a conversation. It kind of gets old." Zach took a breath, loosing a bit of stamina from speaking so much in such a short amount of time. "Third, and this is the most important…..you just gave me really, really disturbing images of my parents that I didn't need to know about…." He chuckled, looking down at the table.

"I was thinking about starting a creative section in the newspaper. Thoughts?"

Zachary simply looked at her, confused for a second. Why would she be asking…oh! His eyebrows shot up as he realized what she was asking. "I think it'd be great! It'd be…practice….good practice, you know, for people…." He wished he made more sense when it came to critical responses. "Sorry…"

[Jade Parrish]

"I would hope that you write on purpose. One would think it's not an accident," Jade mused, tilting her head to the side, as she looked at him, her dangling earrings jingling.

When he leaned forward, she did further as well, to meet his gaze. Jade enjoyed the intensity of it. She nodded when he finished. "Got it, Zach," she said with a wink. "I don't mean to be a typical person and go on about your large family. I assume it gets annoying because people probably tend to care about that more than who you actually are. The difference between them and me is that I care very much about who people are. People are very interesting, and you sir, seem very interesting." She grinned at him. Most of the time when Jade spoke to someone, she went all out. It wasn't as if she flirted with everybody she talked to, but she just really cared to have a genuine conversation that left them reeling with something to think about. "And I'll tone it down on the images about your parents. I'm kind of a pervert."

When he replied with his thoughts, she smiled. "I'm...the editor in chief...of the newspaper on campus. I guess I should have prefaced with that. But yeah, I think it's a wonderful idea. And I was looking for someone to head it. Perhaps you'd know someone?" She smirked.

[Deleted]

Luckily, Zachary maintained at least some level of humor towards himself and the things he said even when other people went out of their way to to point it out themselves. "I don't know. If you look at history, a lot of really important breakthroughs in science were found on accident. And a lot of literary masterpieces were on accident. Well, the writing itself was on purpose, but I don't think the authors expected them to be so popular decades and centuries later."

Zach found it somewhat amusing when she leaned in and responded to his tirade with equal intensity, so much that he just had to smile. "Why thank you. I aim to please." He pulled back as she followed up with one finally assertion. "I appreciate that." Mental images of his parents banging like rabbits was not something he needed to dwell over, though unfortunately, the words had already been said and damage already done. He seriously thought he might need therapy after this.

"Oh, ok, now that makes sense. You know, because before it sounded like you were just one of those….I don't know, like a drunken political debater who always says what should be done, but doesn't actually have the power to do it yeah, that analogy died somewhere back there and I'm just going to stop talking now." And he did. At least only for a moment as he considered her question. "I….can ask around the English department." She was smiling at him very pointedly. "Um….." Maybe if he played dumb, she wouldn't talk him into it? Because Zachary was definitely a pushover and would do it if she forced him. And he'd probably be good at it... Damn it all.