Stalker Creepy (Vicky)

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So Zach hadn't done this in a long time. More accurately, Zach had been in far too much of a funk to be able to do it. His people watching. The creepy stalker kind, where he observed and jotted down what he saw in people. As in what they were doing. Habits. Expressions. Body language. Clothing style. It was a good exercise, but hard to concentrate on when one couldn't even string together a few sentences for the sake of work or classes. He was...feeling a little better these days. Probably. Maybe.

Hopefully.

Zach needed to get his concentration back and this was just yet another attempt at him trying to do it. The fact that he was willing to try at all spoke volumes about his emotional state. Kai would be relieved to hear of it, Zach was sure.

The diner wasn't terribly busy, but also not completely empty. Which was just perfect. Too many people and there was just too much to pay attention to, too little and there was nobody to observe in the first place. Or it was far too apparent what he was doing and he became self-conscious.

They were in the warmer months, so it was a very comfortable 65 degrees outside, but the temperature inside the diner was somehow even chiller than that, forcing Zach to keep his blue hoodie donned and zipped up almost to his collar. The hoodie had holes in the elbows. At least he shaved(at Kai's 'request') and looked a little bit less like a hobo today.

Zach leaned over his notebook, his computer open slightly off-center with an assignment pulled up to it that he was procrastinating on, and a cup of hot coffee set to the other side. Zach glanced up at one of the waitresses, a pretty Asian girl that...he was sure he'd seen her before, once or twice, but couldn't quite place it. But she had a bit of style to her and as her style was the most interesting in the room, she quickly became the subject of Zach's stalking observations. Zach put pen to paper and started writing. He reached over to grab his coffee as he wrote and set the hot liquid to his lips.

Very hot liquid.

Zach jerked reflexively, pulling the cup away from his face, but the motion was too sudden and the coffee splashed over the rim of his cup and onto his notebook. And a little on his pants. "Fuck!" he exclaimed a little louder than intended, reaching for the napkins to try and soak it off his pants before the heat got too far through. "Shit..."

[Xiomara "Vicky" Eogeum]

Vicky thought herself to be a very tolerant and flexible person. This also applied to working hours. She could cope with not succumbing to death by boredom when hardly anyone was about, and she could most definitely usually manage to make it through a busy day without pulling her wig off and throwing it at someone.

....that was one time! And it was her friend, they were being a douchebag anyway, they deserved it.

Getting the ketchup out of that wig sucked, though.

Anywaaay... she was in her usual attire. Nice and clean and smart and still managing to be fashionable. She was damn hot stuff, yes siree. She would tap her own ass if she could, mmhmm. She glanced around the diner for a moment, as she had nothing much to do. One of the people who caught her eye was a guy here who seemed to be working on something important or whatever - he was doing what she used to do. Go somewhere away from the madness, get a lot of coffee and get shit done. Now she didn't need to do that, heck yes. For now, she just waited on people, got coffee, and had fun doing it. She liked her coworkers, she liked her working hours, it was perfect! So if she radiated confidence, she had good reason to.

Out of the people in the diner currently, she recognised most of them, but the majority only vaguely, and one such person being the one she had considered earlier. Maybe... maybe Hammel? Maybe university...? She wasn't certain. It was as she began sauntering past that she heard the outburst and jolted at it, turning her attention to the situation quickly, but calmly, putting multiple napkins over anything with coffee on and moving that laptop away without a word, before going off to get some more useful paper towels. "Distracted?" She asked cheekily. Maybe she should have had more service with a smile, and not such a cheeky one, but hey, it was how she worked.

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As Zach reached for the napkins to soak up the coffee, another hand nabbed them first, a much more feminine hand, to do the exact same thing. In the exact same place that Zach was aiming for. His pants. His lap, rather. Because regardless of how well they cleaned it, he was going to look like he just wet himself for a decent amount of time, but that was inconsequential in comparison to having your junk burned off by hot coffee.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t incredibly uncomfortable, watching(and feeling) her pat him down as he waited for her to finish. Because Zach was just too awkward to force her hands away otherwise.

That discomfort was apparent in the look he gave the waitress. The one he’d been eyeing earlier for his writing. He still couldn’t place her name or where he’d seen her before, though. “Yeah….just a little,” he said blandly, then sighed. “Thanks for the help…I think.” Being casually felt up by your waitress in an emergency situation was a hard thing to be grateful for. She left briefly, but came back a moment later with more cleaning supplies. At least she was attentive in her job, he’d give her that much.

Still…

“Do you always….touch your customers so….casually?” He was going to be more direct in his accusation, but…he was afraid it would sound too much like an accusation.

[Xiomara "Vicky" Eogeum]

Vicky wasn’t subtle with her actions. How could one be, when they had their hand in a man’s crotch? But it wasn’t just there for the sake of putting it there. No, she was doing her job, that was all. Service with a friendly smile and delicate, manicured hands. She could be cheeky about it if she wanted. And it wasn’t for that long anyway. Poor guy was so shy too. Awh, what a sweet thing~

Any looks she received were casually ignored. Unless she actually offended him somehow (she couldn’t even fathom how she might possibly have made him uncomfortable anyway), she was going to remain cool as a cucumber. She chuckled warmly at his comment and then smiled sweetly, “No problem, sweetie.”

The kitten vixen laughed delicately at his question, which she would have done even if it had been more direct and harshly driven. “Only on slow days, darling.” Which was a casual way of saying ‘I am not attracted to you in the least bit’. She didn’t go for the emo types. She had once or twice - wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. She took a moment to pause once her cleaning up was almost done, glancing at the customer a little more boldly, with a scrutinising eye, “...do I know you?” She asked, collecting up the coffee stained tissues.

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If Zach weren’t completely gay, he might’ve had more of a problem with where she put her hands in her effort to ‘help’ her dear troubled customer. But, you know, since he was gay and didn’t really like girls like that….no…just no. That rationalization wasn’t going to work. It was the principle of the thing. She shouldn’t be touching customers there regardless if they were straight or gay or somewhere in between!

Zach took a breath, not satisfied with her reply. “You…you probably should be careful of…of that even on the slow days,” he retorted with a slight look of disapproval. Though…he had to admit, at least she was thorough. And not lazy. So he had to acknowledge her for that. Maybe only that.

“Um…I don’t know…do you?” Great response, Zach. He sighed at him and rolled his head back impatiently. “I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve been…I’ve been thinking the same thing since I got here, so….I don’t know, maybe you can help me out with that?” The request was lazily made, somewhat annoyed, and clear that he probably didn’t care one way or the other. Maybe. He really didn’t expect her to help him out in the slightest, so was prepared for her to say ‘no’ so he could get back to his writing.

[Xiomara "Vicky" Eogeum]

This guy was a snooze. Why couldn't she just help? There was nothing wrong with it. The crotch was like a finger (definitely was, with some guys), it was just another part of the body, another limb. Why were people so touchy? Psh, he wasn't much of a looker anyway, that was probably why he seemed so bothered by it. Baby not used to it, poor thing.

Besides, it wasn't like she hadn't gotten action at work before. She could thank a certain gorgeous coworker for that.

She sighed quietly at the slow comment, "It's not really hurting anyone. Besides, you could've burned. If it's such a problem, I'll call someone else over, Dracula." Service with a smile was out of the window then. Hey, this was just gentle, friendly teasing (kind of) between waitress and customer. Besides, who didn't like nicknames? Boring people.

...she wouldn't be surprised if this guy didn't like nicknames then.

Vicky made a face as the question was bounced back at her, "Honey, do I look like I know?" Some people had the slowest brains. Though at the question, she thought... well, she had nothing much else to do. She collected up the tissues and dumped them in the bin before returning, resting comfortably on the table, "Hm..." She tapped her lip in thought. She'd nicknamed this guy before, maybe? What about schoolmates? University? No, she would remember university friends. Probably. If she wasn't drunk when she met him. "Hammel?" She said simply, as if it would answer everything. "I'm Vicky, by the way. Eogeum." She signalled to her name tag with manicured, but practical enough hands. "Ring a bell?" Hopefully not his bell.

Apparently, her gaydar was faulty today.

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So Zach didn’t like nicknames? Was that a crime? When most of the nicknames he got were “gloomy”, “spiderman”, or some variation of the two, could you blame him? If people thought to give him something cool, or rather, something that wasn’t….an insult to his…his aura or something, then maybe he’d be okay with it.

As such, he glowered over her own nickname for him. ‘Dracula’. Great, as if he hadn’t heard that one before…though granted, he hadn’t since high school, when he dressed about 100 times more emo than he did these day. Zach wasn’t even dressed in anything specifically emo or goth, he was just wearing…clothes. Was that a crime too? To have a preference for dark colors? “Thank you, then,” he said with a heavy drop of sarcasm. “Thank you very much for keeping my dick from burning.” Sheesh, this girl reminded him of Claudia. The way she said things just made him want to snap at her…now that he thought about it, Kai did the same thing…but no, she was nothing like Kai! Kai would never give him such a nickname…!

Then again….that guy did call him ‘Crystal’ when they first started….going out..ish….

Zach vowed to punch him for that when he got back to Kai’s place tonight.

“And somehow…you expected me to know instead….because clearly I’m….you.” Awkward as hell comeback, but at least he go it out more coherent than he usually did. Apparently being irritated helped clear up him constantly stumbling over his words. Kai knew about that firsthand. When she left, Zach was hoping, honestly, that she would just go help another customer already. His interest in her had dissipated upon them interacting. But then….of course she would come back, sitting on the table like some cabaret girl.

At the familiar name of his high school, Zach nodded. “Yeah…Hammel.” That would explain it, why he thought he knew her but couldn’t quite place it. Tons of kids went to Hammel, he shouldn’t be expected to remember every single one of them perfectly. “Vicky….” he repeated, covering his mouth in thought. Vicky….Eogeum….hmmm…. “….I vaguely remember a rave queen in my class by that name.” At least, that’s what the rumors said about her…at least, the ones he heard. He had no idea if any of them were true...they were rumors, after all.

[Xiomara "Vicky" Eogeum]

Weirdos just needed to get lives and stop being so boring. Speaking of Dracula… hadn’t she used that nickname before for someone? Huh… probably a weird coincidence. She’d probably called Finn a vampire once or twice on his bad days. Sometimes the humour helped, sometimes… well, not so much, but the times it helped were the ones that mattered, right? “You’re welcome~” She replied brightly, “And you might want to mop up the sarcasm you’re seeping out, it’ll make the seats all yucky.” She had noticed. This guy was so uptight.

Vicky raised an eyebrow at his clumsy words and after a long interval of quiet, she pretended to have been shot in the heart and dramatically jolted and swooned, “Oh, my~ That hurt soooo much!” Before just raising her eyebrows again, “You make no sense, darling.” If he was trying to be clever, Vicky had completely missed the smart part.

Because there wasn’t one.

Okay, so he was a meta too. Lovely. And he was creepy, so he probably had a creepy ability. Double lovely. She listened, legs crossed, as he thought. His response made her smile and chuckle, “Hell yeah, rave queen. Man, people make up the best names sometimes.” She swivelled off the table and into the seat opposite him in one smooth movement, studying his face a little bit, “Hmmm….” And then it clicked, and her face lit up, pointing casually with a smug smile, “You were that… that guy!” Didn’t remember his name, but she remembered he existed. That was worth something. “No wonder I couldn’t remember you, you never said anything, just scowled at people.” Perv. “So what you been up to?” She left off any nicknames that came to mind. She was being nice.

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“Well—!” he started, as if he had some clever comeback to throw back at her. He didn’t. Instead, Zach glared more. Because that would show her, nyeeeh!

Zach just wanted to be left alone now. She done her duty(whatever that was) and cleaned up the mess(‘cleaning’…right), so why did she have to linger around and continue bothering him? Zach liked her better when they weren’t speaking to each other and he could make up stories to himself about what kind of person she was.

He stared at her, face blank and unamused, as she dramatically took damage from his ‘clever’ words. “Yeah, or my sense is just….too…yeah, whatever, know what? You’re annoying. Don’t call me Dracula. My name is Zach, and that’s the only thing I’ll answer to, okay?” Forget the attempts at being clever, Zach obviously wasn’t good at it and was just making a fool of himself trying. “And if you touch me like that again, I don’t care if my dick burns off, I’m filing sexual harassment of a customer with your employer.” His eyes narrowed. “Do you understand me?” Maybe that was taking it to the extreme, but….no. No it wasn’t. He shouldn’t have to feel like he was just molested by some Chinese bubblegum harlot.

Zach didn’t care that she wasn’t Chinese.

So what if he had a creepy power? How was that his fault? He gave her yet another incredulous stare. In what way was ‘rave queen’ the ‘best’ name? This girl had a weird concept of what a compliment was. Aaaaand now she was sitting with him. Vicky, or whatever her name was, had little concept of manners. And privacy. And autonomy. Zach had a rather large personal bubble, and she just wasn’t taking the hint that he’d rather be left alone. “Yes….I was ‘that guy’,” he confirmed to the extra vague description. “As opposed to…that ‘other guy’.” At least she did seem to get one thing right in her memory, though there wasn’t any proof that the scowl she remembered was his scowl. “You mean…like this?” he asked slowly…scowling at her from across the table.

Zach sighed. He didn’t want to talk to her, so kept his answers painfully short. “College. Graduate school. Newspaper columnist. Gay.” That basically summed it up. “That enough, or do you need my shoe size too?”