Bitches Be Trippin'

[Lilly Love]

It was almost nine at night and the sun had almost completely set and night was just a few moments away. Live was on her way back from work. It had been a long day and she was more than ready for bed. She hated to admit it but she was honestly excited to be starting school again in the fall. Having something to do besides sleep, eat, and work would be nice. Oh, and drink. She definitely needed something else to do besides drink.

She had walked pretty much all the way home. She didn't use her shadow walker form at night because she enjoyed being out in the natural darkness as much as possible. Sure her house was dark every night but that was such a boxed in and contained darkness. The darkness of the night, out in the open world was so much more freeing and relaxing. Sometimes Live considered if she wouldn't be better suited to just sleep in the trees.

She was just outside her apartment building when the worst thing possible happened. Live had gone shopping at the craft store downtown on her break at work today. She had been watching a lot of random YouTube videos lately about jewelry making and she had wanted to give some of it a try herself. Live loved anything artsy or creative, however she couldn't draw, sing, play an instrument, anything. However, she could still make stuff with her hands. She liked taking things other beautiful things people had created and putting them together to make something even more amazing, like collages and other arts and crafts projects. She figured jewelry making could be right up her alley. So she stopped at the store and picked up some string and beads and an assortment of other things she had been told by an assortment of videos she would need or want. She had been carrying these things in a plastic bag in her bag the whole way back. The beads were in a plastic bag on top of everything else. Live had stopped paying attention to where she was walking, and an uneven spot in the sidewalk caught her right foot. Her body started falling forward but Live was quickly able to save herself before she hit the pavement. However, due to her sudden swing forward and even more sudden stop, the bag of beads was sent flying out of her bag. If she had noticed it sooner maybe she would have been able to grab it or something but it was too late. The bag hit the sidewalk and broke open. Beads went everywhere.

Live froze and stared for a moment before closing her eyes and clenching her firsts and letting one, decently loud word escape her lips, "FUCK!"

[Winter Rowley]

Winter Rowley was sitting on the sidewalk outside of his apartment, smoking a cigarette and minding his own business.

He didn’t usually smoke on the sidewalk; he preferred the balcony for its privacy, but the landlord had recently declared that bicycles could no longer be parked in the complex’s corridors, so Chris had moved hers to the balcony and it had taken up all the space.

He had made himself as unobtrusive as possible: his back was against the wall, and his thin legs were folded one over the other. His black clothing might have made him invisible in the dark were it not for the screen of his cell phone, which illuminated his dark-featured angular face in eerie blue-white. He heard footsteps, and paid them no mind; he was well-known for his apathy.

The footsteps drew nearer, but that wasn’t what caught his attention—it was the clattering of hundreds of tiny glass-or-plastic-somethings on the concrete—and on him—that did that.

Well, that, and the enormously loud FUCK!

He was momentarily stunned by the commotion, but it subsided. The cursing didn't faze him—he’d said worse in polite company, nevermind to a stranger on a sidewalk—but he was perturbed by the sudden dilemma that he now faced.

Help her pick up a shitton of beads in the dark, or slip back into the apartment and let her do it herself?

There was a beat of silence. He took a long, pensive drag of his cigarette. Leaving would be a dick move, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, he decided. It would.

Shit.

His legs had grown stiff from lack of movement, and he unfolded them with some effort. As he moved, a few stray beads rolled off of his clothing. He managed to pinch a few of them between his thumb and forefinger, aided by the light from his cell phone. He made a small hammock with the fabric of his shirt and began wordlessly collecting beads in it.

[Lilly Love]

Live hadn't even noticed the boy sitting on the steps; she was to busy watching her beads fly everywhere. She probably would have just ignored him and proceeded to pick up the beads on her own but before she could even reach down to grab one of them, the boy had started collecting them in his shirt.

Now, Live didn't take anything they way she should have. Most people probably would have felt super thankful towards the kind stranger for his willingness to help, however, Live was not most people. The first thing she felt rise up in the pit of her stomach as she watched the boy grab a couple beads was anger. Who the hell was this boy to just start touching her stuff? He hadn't even asked!

Live opened her mouth and started walking towards the boy, ready to tell him off when something in the back of her head stopped her. Right, she was suppose to be working on her people skills and yelling at random strangers who were helping her wasn't exactly the socially acceptable thing to do. With a huff she stopped and crossed her arms, staring at the boy, "Um, thanks, " the word felt unnaturally coming out of her lips. She bent down and started slowly picking up beads, putting them back into the bag that they had all spilled out of.

It was hard to see where all the beads were but the light from the boys phone helped. Live took out hers and shone it on the ground. "Damn they went everywhere..." She grumbled, clearly pissed, as she moved towards the gutter where a bunch had collected.

[Winter Rowley]

Winter didn’t mind the silence between them—he wasn’t exactly the poster boy for socialization. In fact, he would have preferred silence instead of the girl’s undeniably brusque um, thanks. He accepted it anyway, though. Conflict was rarely the path of least resistance.

“Yeah,” he said. He didn’t say no problem. He prided himself in only telling good lies.

He collected beads in his shirt until the pile grew large enough to be unwieldy. He paused, then, and studied his grumbly companion: she had strong features, like he did, and her anger was apparent in them. She didn’t seem especially approachable. He wondered, briefly, if that was what people thought about him.

“Can I see the bag?” he asked, motioning to the pile of beads rolling around atop the fabric of his shirt. He was trying to hold his lit cigarette and his glowing phone in the same hand, and only managing it by sheer force of will.

“I think I got most of ‘em. I might be sitting on a few.”

[Lilly Love]

Live got most that had rolled off the side walk. She noticed a few that had rolled father into the street but had decided not to chase them down. If they were still there in the morning then she could get them then. She wasn't about to go searching the street in the middle of the night for every last bead.

She was just as pleased with the silence between the two. She was silently glad for the boys help though. It would have been ten times worse had she had to do this alone. She might have not even done it alone.

Live was grabbing a last few from the side walk when the boy asked to see the bag. She picked up the last couple beads within arms reach and then walked over to the boy so he could empty his shirt full of beads into the bag.

"It's fine. I think we got about 90% of them which is more than enough for me..." Live said with a huff as she stood up fully and stretched out her back from being all bent over.

"Any chance I could bum one?" Live said with a nod to the cigarette in the boys hand as she carefully put the bag of beads back in her bag, and closed it so there would be no chance of them flying all over the sidewalk again.

[Winter Rowley]

Winter silently funneled the beads he’d collected into the bag, taking care not to spill any. He was pretty sure that neither of them wanted to do that shit again.

He replaced his cigarette between his lips and flexed his fingers to keep them from cramping. He might have tried to excuse himself if she hadn’t asked for a cigarette; of course, now that he’d helped her, he was obligated to see the social interaction through… or something.

“Yeah.”

He pulled a half-empty pack of Marlboros from the pocket of his jeans and held one out to her in the dark. He had his lighter in the other hand, ready to strike.

“So… you doing a project or something?”

[Lilly Love]

Live took the cigarette from the boy and placed it between her lips. She wasn't sure if he would hand her the lighter or light it for her. Some guys were real weird about not letting a lady light her own cigarette. Thankfully Live wasn't that much of a crazy feminist and would allow the boy to either light it for her or she would light it herself. So long as she got her smoke, she really didn't care.

She wasn't a fan of social interaction either, and if there hadn't been a cigarette option, she would have just given another awkward thank you to the boy and headed inside. She would have been fine to stand in silence until one or both was done and headed inside.

Live took a puff from her cigarette, letting the smoke fill her lungs. She knew how bad smoking was for you, but she also drank so much that her liver was probably dying ten times faster than everyone else's, so she only really cared for her health so much. Besides, she needed that nicotine buzz to help calm her nerves after the bead incident.

"Uh, I'm gonna try bracelet making.." She said with a shrug. It was weird telling someone else about stuff she did in her free time.

[Winter Rowley]

Winter relinquished his lighter and let the girl light her own cigarette, because it seemed safer and easier than trying to steady his perpetually shaky hands in front of her face in the dark. He took it back when she was done and slid it back into his pocket with some effort.

For a little while, they smoked in silence, as people who savor their nicotine are wont to do.

“Oh,” he said, in reply to her comment about bracelet making. “My sister’s into that sort of thing. She uses needles and tiny spools of thread and shit. One really long bracelet, you know, and then you wrap it around like three times.”

He lazily pantomimed wrapping something around his wrist. Then, he paused to fully appreciate how stupid he sounded right now, talking to some stranger about the sort of bracelets that his younger sister liked to make.

Well, whatever.

[Lilly Love]

Live was glad the boy handed her the lighter instead of wanting to do it himself. She sort of noticed that it took a bit of extra effort for the boy to put the lighter back in his pocket but didn't pay much mind to it. She wasn't really the type of person to get that extra interested in other peoples stuff.

She took a puff of her cigarette and then gave a small nod as she exhaled the smoke, "Oh. That's cool.." She always felt awkward when people started talking about their families. Her's was a giant shit mess to the point that she didn't really believe that whatever her mother, father, and brother were even counted as a family anymore.

There was some more silence as the two continued to smoke their cigarettes.

After a moment, Live figured she should probably say something else. "You live in this building don't you?" She said with a nod to the apartments behind them. "I mean, I think I've seen you around before." She figured if they were neighbors or something that there was then some kind of friendship they were suppose to have. Not that she really wanted a friendship but she thought she might have to fake some pleasantries at least, especially since he had just helped pick up her beads.

[Winter Rowley]

Winter had always considered himself to be the token mess in his own family. His sister, Luna, was intelligent and well-adjusted. Their father was a well-respected figure in the community, a long-time police officer and the paragon of solemn, hardworking masculinity. His mother, by the grace of her power, could hold a conversation in every language on earth.

And then there was him… a community college dropout, a convenience store clerk, and, occasionally, a big black grumpy bird.

He’d much rather talk about his family than himself. It made for better conversation. She didn’t seem interested, though, and he didn’t blame her for that. Were their roles reversed, he wouldn’t have cared, either.

“Yeah,” he said. “I live in 2B.” He gestured upward, using the red-orange glow of his dwindling cigarette as a pointing device. “My best friend and I share it. You’ve probably seen her, too. Her name’s Chris. On the short side. Does a lot of exercise. I work third shift, so I don’t get out much.”

He paused, then, and smoked, and waited for her to complete her half of the small-talk ritual that they were now committed to.

[Lilly Love]

It was funny to think that Live was probably one of the most stable people in her family. Her mother was jobless and drinking herself away to nothing. Her father, well, he vanished when she was eight and she hadn't heard from him since. And her brother? Well, he just got out of jail and that was more than Live cared to know.

The opposites between the two strangers families was sort of ironic. Not that either of them had any clue that they had such drastically different upbringings.

Live gave a small nod as she glanced up towards where the boy pointed. She wasn't really sure she wanted the boy to know where she lived but now that he had shared, she supposed she should too.

"4A." She said wish a shrug and another puff from her cigarette. She tried to think if she knew his roommate but nothing came to mind. It wasn't surprising. Live kept to herself pretty well. "I live alone. Makes rent a pain in my ass." She said with a grumble and a another puff of her cigarette. She still had about half of it left.

[Winter Rowley]

Winter nodded. He probably would have nodded at anything she said.

“Cool,” he said.

He’d finally finished his cigarette. He ground it out on the sidewalk, stood up, and disposed of the butt in a nearby cement ashtray.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” he said. He didn’t say it was nice talking to you. If they did see each other again, someday, maybe he’d say it then. “I’m Rowley, by the way.”

He thought it had gone pretty well, for an impromptu social interaction. Nobody was yelling, insults hadn’t been exchanged, and he hadn’t made any promises that he couldn’t keep. That was the kind of conversation he tended to prefer.

“But, uh, I gotta get ready for work. Good luck with your bracelet thing.”

[Lilly Love]

Strangely enough, this was the most pleasant conversation that Live had had in a long time. Then again, usually Live only talked to people when she had to, like at work.

Since the boy had already started smoking before Live had even arrived, he finished his cigarette as she was getting to be about half way done with hers. She took another puff and gave a nod at the boy as he introduced himself as Rowley.

"Live." She said with a sort of awkward gesture at herself. It was one of the first times in a while should could remember not minding giving out her name. She supposed this was what social interaction must feel like to most people on a regular basis who didn't hate people. She wouldn't go so far as to say it was her favorite thing, but the short exchange had been almost enjoyable.

"Damn, this is a shit ass time to have to go to work." Live said with a shake of her head. Thankfully her work closed ten, so even if she got a late shift, she wasn't stuck there much past eleven. "Oh yeah... Hopefully it doesn't suck... And uh, thanks again for the bead thing and the cig." She said with a shrug, trying not to make it feel to awkward, though she couldn't remember the last time she honestly had thanked someone.