BAD LUCK: This could take a while

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner was catching his breath as he opened the door into McDonald's. Today really hadn't been his day: he'd gotten caught up in rehearsals over at the House, which hadn't gone terribly smoothly, and in fact had been so busy that he hadn't gotten a chance to eat lunch. Now it was dinner time and he was starving, too hungry to wait until he got home to make something for himself. So with a fast food joint on his route home anyway, he decided to stop in for a burger to gorge himself on as he tried to forget about the past several hours.

Of course, had he known just how crowded this place was going to be, he probably wouldn't have bothered.

The restaurant was packed. Evidently some local football team - Pilot Ridge has a football team? - had just finished a game, and one of the mothers was buying dinner for all of them. That meant Tanner had to wait in line while this woman ordered thirty separate meals. He was already in a bit of a mood, and this was just exacerbating the situation. The pyrokinetic was about to turn around and head home after fifteen minutes of waiting when it was finally his turn at the counter.

He placed his order, handed over his money, and took his number. Thirty-two. Okay, that wasn't so bad. I mean, it wasn't like they were starting at-

"Number one," came a muffled voice over the microphone. "Number one, your order is ready. Number one?"

Tanner released a sigh at hurricane-level force as he turned away from the counter; this was obviously going to be a bit of a wait. But he'd already paid, so he had to just suffer through it. Finding most of the tables occupied with teenagers in football uniforms, he ultimately found a booth with an empty seat. There was a time when he would've opted to just stand, but he was far too tired to worry about bothering anybody.

"Uh, this seat taken?" He asked somewhat meekly as he approached the booth. He could only hope it wasn't, since he really wanted to get off his feet.

[Gabriel White]

Normally, fast food wasn't quite Gabriel's thing. He was more one for home cooked meals and classy foods, but it wasn't like he wanted to walk a million blocks just to get something other to eat. After all, if he did, he'd be just as hungry again when he got back to his apartment. So, fast food at McDonalds it was.

The crowd didn't really bother him either. He was used to having a lot of people around at all times. Sure, most of the time they all completely ignored him, just like now. He could eat in peace and maybe even get some good material from his writing. So, if he looked apart from the crappy food, it was more or less a win-win situation.

Hey, at least he couldn't get blamed for not being positive or anything, so there was always that.

After finding himself a booth that was free, and a little further away from the worst chaos, Gabriel sat down and pulled out his regular notebook, just in case something magnificent decided to stir up his brain and give him some great ideas for writing. It was quite facilitating really, watching all the jocks goof around as if they were zoo-animals in the middle of mating season. They were loud, they were obnoxious and they were incredible foolish. Maybe they seemed annoying to most people, but not Gab. He had never really been a part of any high school click. He was always the outsider looking in. Not that he complained or anything, because if his life hadn't ended up like that, he might not have gotten all the material he had for his writing.

Brought back to reality by the sound of someone's voice, Gabriel turned his head towards the source of the sound. A little perplexed at first, that someone would actually talk to him, he simply sat there for a few seconds, wondering if perhaps the -incredible good-looking- guy was talking to someone else. But since the boy clearly looked at him, he quickly pushed the thought away and offered the boy a smile. ''Oh please, make yourself at home.'', he said with a smile and gestured for the boy to sit down.

''Quite crowded here today, isn't it?''

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner expected something along the lines of "Mm." as a response, mostly because a lot of the people he knew, particularly at the House, were very caught up in their own lives and rarely gave the time of day to anyone they didn't already know personally. (As an aside, this would have been perfectly fine with him in this case, as he was in a pretty rotten funk and wasn't sure he was in the mood to talk to anyone, anyway, especially when he was so hungry that his stomach would likely be doing much of the talking.) So when this stranger looked up at him, that was already more interaction than he had been anticipating.

And then there was silence. It was altogether brief, but it was still there, and it made Tanner a bit uncomfortable - so much so that he wondered if perhaps this man was formulating some excuse as to why this seat was unavailable even when there was clearly nobody currently using it. (No matter how much Tanner grew up, part of him would likely always remain that insecure little boy who always expected the worst.) But then the other male was beckoning him to sit down, and he returned his smile with one of his own.

"Great, thanks," he replied, a bit more confidently this time, as he slid into the booth bench opposite the stranger. This was good: at least he'd have a more or less comfortable seat while he waited. He nodded his head at the other boy's next remark. "Yeah, a lot more crowded than I would have thought..." he replied, taking a moment to look around the space. These kids were certainly rambunctious, but at least they weren't too annoying or Tanner probably would have turned around and walked out just as soon as he'd spotted them.

He turned back towards the stranger. He seemed nice enough, so why not practice the fine art of conversation when he had nothing better to do? Lord knew it was a skill for which Tanner needed improving. "I'm Tanner," he offered with another smile. "Number two? Number two? Now serving number two." He let out a short chuckle at the sound of the microphone again. "I'm also number thirty-two, so... this could take a while."