Victim of Circumstance(Open)

[Deleted]

A gloomy figure sat in the corner of the bar, isolated from the throng of patrons that came and went. While normally this person would be either dutifully scribbling in his notebook as he watched said patrons meander about or typing away on his laptop, the dark-haired man was doing neither. Though it was the latter he was trying to do whilst he sat there before his laptop, clad in a new set of clothing that would pay for half his portion of rent.

They weren't even that comfortable, nope. He should just...make that doofus take them back, because Zach certainly didn't want to wear them. He never wanted them in the first place.

Stupid Malachai, trying to take care of the penniless grad student. The way he was always insisting on buying him thing made it look like Zach had acquired some sort of sugar daddy.

Oh, god. Is that what people will think? Is that what he was? Just some money grubbing young....man, who was using Kai for his money in exchange for sex? Good God, no no no....

Zach let his head plummet to the table, resting his head on his arm while he tried to avoid looking directly at that unwholesome definition that he'd pulled up on the screen of his laptop. The laptop that he was supposed to be writing his paper on. The one that was due in two weeks one week ago. And now it was due in one week. And Zach still hadn't made any considerable progress.

Zach lifted his head to give a lazy applause to the last karaoke singer, trying to look like he was enjoying himself while working, or at the very least being polite. He took another drink of his beer and clicked the search window shut, changing the screen back to the nearly blank first page of the 10 page paper he's been trying to work on. If he managed to make any progress tonight outside of just more research reading then Zach would call himself caught up.

[Lennox Bessette]

Lennox couldn't believe she was going to a bar alone... had she really stooped this low? Had she really become the girl who got dressed up to meet... no one? Yes. And it felt completely horrible. She missed her friends, she missed high school, and for the first time she was wondering if perhaps she made a mistake by staying in Vermont. She learned quickly that college wasn't Hammel, and even though yeah, there were more meta humans in Pilot Ridge than anywhere else didn't mean you were guaranteed friends.

She entered the bar, flashing the fake ID she'd bought off of an acquaintance months ago. So far, it'd worked like a charm. Granted, her short skirt, blonde curls, and boobs seemed to help as well, not that the karaoke bar was particularly busy... ever.

Len scanned the room for potential friends frowning seeing her choices. Old man, older man, weird lady, hmm. Finally her eyes spotted a 20 something and she felt like the angels were singing. But shit, he looked busy... or dead. Stoned? It didn't matter.

Len slipped onto the stool next to the somewhat brooding looking figure. "I'll have a... Hmm... rum and coke." She decided upon, figuring keeping it simple was best. She was a barista and despised picky drinkers, she wouldn't do it to this bartender.

Resting her head in her hand she glanced over at the boy. Hmm... Her face twisted, why did he look familiar? Perhaps he went to school with her at one point. Hell it was a conversation started. "Did you go to Hammel? I feel like you look really familiar." Please say yes please say yes!

[Deleted]

Okaay….one sentence down. That was…more progress than he'd made in two weeks. Let's see if we can go for two!

Zach took another drink and clicked from window to window, scanning over the research websites and articles he was using as references and seeing how he could connect them all into one sentence. Then see if he could connect them into yet another.

He had one word down - "the" - when a girl slid up in the seat next to him. Zach paid her no mind, he usually drowned out whoever was around him so he could focus. And either way, he was already having trouble focusing, so what was one more distraction?

He almost didn't hear her question. Zach blinked then slighted his head towards her, obviously confused. "Are…you talking to me?" As if there was anyone else around them to talk to other than the bartender. He looked away, as if he expected someone behind him to answer, then back to the blonde. "Um…yeah. Yeah, I did. Did you…too?" Dumb question, right?

[Lennox Bessette]

The way her looked at her made her uncomfortable. He really wasn't interested in company was he? But then again that was his own damn fault because he had planted himself in a public place and what did people do in public places? Conversed. So there.... unless he really didn't want to in which case she'd walk away with her tail between her legs. 

"She went to open her mouth when he asked if she'd been talking to him but he quickly continued. "Yeah..." She answered deflated. "I graduated last year... I thought you looked familiar... I"m glad i'm not going crazy." She jested awkwardly as she searched for the bar tender with her drink. How long did it take to make a two ingredient drink? 

"I'm Lennox." She said, needing to fill the air with something. "Sorry... You look busy." She should have said that before introducing herself... she was a mess. So much for the social butterfly she was in high school, that girl was dead. 

[Deleted]

Zach wasn't used to being approached randomly in the bar, so that accounted for his confusion. The fact that he was more or less sitting alone with a computer in front of him generally gave the message of "stay away". Though if he were really wanting isolation, Zach definitely would have retreated to his room in his apartment and locked the door behind him, but that's what he'd been doing the past couple weeks and it hadn't been working. The purpose of him being in public was a trick for himself. He wasn't allowed to work on anything that wasn't absolutely necessary for fear of people looking over his shoulder and reading/seeing what he was up to.

Also, he supposed he'd be allowed a break every so often from the intense concentration to converse or sing a karaoke song or something like that.

"Ohh," he said a little dumbly. "Just last year?" he asked. That would make her….young. Not necessarily too young to be drinking, but statistically a lot younger than him. "I….really, I haven't been a student at Hammel for…about 4 years, so….well, I do..have gone there, still, sometimes…for people…" He had his little brothers and sisters there right now, and his best friend started this year as a dorm monitor, but if she graduated last year then that'd have no bearing on her seeing him around.

"Zach," he returned. He looked up at her, then back down at the screen of his computer, the white document still with only one line of prose, then back up at her. "Uhh, no…I'm just…just taking a break, now, actually." He closed his laptop and turned to face her. "So…..come here often?" he asked awkwardly.

[Lennox Bessette]

She nodded slowly. It was possible he was there when she first got there, Hammel wasn't exactly a four year school... well for some people but not most, not her. She bit her lower lip as she nursed her drink. 

Len smiled when he offered his name back. She half expected him to go back to ignoring her seeing as he didn't seem particularly thrilled to have company. But he was coming around. And why shouldn't he? She was a hot blonde all alone at a bar. 

A smile crept onto his lips. "Couldn't think of a better line?" She teased as she rested her head on her hand. "I don't... well.. I"m starting to... I actually work most nights." She explained. "The velvet tone coffee shop down the street... I don't know if you've ever been there." Seeing as he was a local there was a decent chance but she didn't want to assume. If he had been there it'd explain further why he looked so damn familiar. 

[Deleted]

While Hammel wasn't exactly a four year school, Zach had only the "pleasure" of going there for 3 years. He manifested late, in his sophomore year, excelled academically, and didn't have a terribly complicated power. He hadn't involved himself in clubs or socializing so he had extra time to focus on the things that got him out of there as quickly as possible. But if she was happened to arrive just as Zach was leaving, then it was possible that she would at least recognize him. He hadn't changed much since senior year.

Zach blinked at her response, legitimately confused. "What? Line?" It was slow in coming, as were most things that had to do with flirting and attraction, but he finally got it after a few moments and his face turned a fast red. "No! I wasn't---! I'm not trying to--- Really, I'm not! ….Sorry." What else was he supposed to say?

He just sat there awkwardly as usual and hoped that he wasn't making too much of a fool of himself. Luckily, she seemed to have a handle on things. "Yeah…yeah, I know that place. Been there…even." He went there sometimes, but only when he was in town and even then only every other few times he was in town. "I mean, it's pretty far from…I live up near the University so…not….often." Which was supposed to be a clever way of telling her he was a University student. Maybe he should just grow a set and ask her straight out. "So…you're a college student now, huh?" And of course that didn't sound creepy at all. Not from the creepy person in the room, oh no!