D A Y 9

[founds]

CHAPTER 2

NOV 08TH | 47℉☂

▸ --*CHSKSSS--*-Breaking News! In the light of yesterday's hunt on Black Rock Lake, a body has been found. It has not ye--*CHSKSSS--*-n identified, but has been confirmed to not be either of the missing children.

▸ Another fall storm is roaming through today,--*CHSKSSS--*ed to pick up after dark so stay safe or stay insi--*CHSKSSS--*-

▸ Blackwell's First Methodist Church is holding its annual Thanksgiving food drive from now until Thanksgiving. Donate now! Anything but turkey,--*CHSKSSS--*-pped over on the interstate the other day and donated hundred--*CHSKSSS--*-urkeys to feed people for the holidays. What luck!

▸ Back to our regular--*CHSKSSS--*-uled programming

HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT

Comments

[singlestrand]

[ her forced customer service smile fades. almost immediately. there's an urge to slap the cup out of her hands, but she has done enough breaking dishes for one lifetime. this one would come out of her own paycheck, too. ]

There are twenty different restaurants in a one mile radius of here and you chose this one. You're really something.

[ex_typea255]

I wanted to see you.

[waggles cup. she also wants coffee.]

[singlestrand]

In a place you know I can't leave.

[ this is some kind of torture, noah. she shoves her little notepad into one of the pockets on her apron and disappears to fetch the coffee pot. just like old times. those are the words that come to mind as she finds herself pouring coffee into noah's cup instead of smashing her over the head with the glass. she can't really get away with ignoring her, considering it's saturday early-afternoon and there aren't exactly a load of tables expecting to be waited on.

isabella sets the pot on the table. knowing noah, she'll want the rest of it. ]

What do you want? [ don't just say you wanted to see her again she'll just. oooh. ]

[ex_typea255]

[raises eyebrows in lieu of a thank you and works a pill out of a little foil sleeve in her purse while she talks]

It could have gone better. The night at the bar. [well, for izzy. her night was pretty rad. but anyways shes getting bracketsidetracked that was her way of saying sorry. kind of.]

[singlestrand]

[ she takes a seat across from noah, setting her hands in front of her on the table. sitting up straight. ]

Yeah, I don't see any way for that night to have gone better.

[ unless she wasn't at the bar at all. isabella would have been totally fine with still being blissfully unaware that noah was back in west virginia. in fact, she wishes that were the case. ]

You going back home any time soon? Like, tomorrow, maybe?

[ex_typea255]

Don't worry, I'm not planning on moving back.

[chill your tits, you're giving her bitchiness a run for its money. pops the pill and takes a swig of coffee before leaning over the oversized purse in her lap to check her phone, pulling a momentarily irritated face at whatever was displayed]

I thought you hated it here. [feeling aggravated, she switches from placating to defensive. she makes a floppy hand gesture at her overall state of disheveled] What happened? Find a skirt that makes you hate it less?

[singlestrand]

[ ah. looking at her phone. the memories. isabella pretends to be more interested in her fingernails than talking to noah. it's for her own sake. can't lose the dignity she still has left. ]

Well, I thought it was the last place I'd ever see you. [ and she had zero money and no friends outside of the ones that noah had, if you'd call them friends. if she wanted to make a run for it, it wasn't going to be on the couch of someone on noah's phone directory. she wanted out of noah's circle, not to be stuck within it. ] Look at me, always wrong.

[ex_typea255]

Don't pout.

[it's highly unattractive. glances to her over the cup and cuts off a sigh. she's already bouncing a knee under the table. good morning noahmerica it's time to work and also berate your ex]

I'm here for a week, tops. It doesn't have to be unbearable for both of us. You've clearly moved on to bigger and.. [well better is not applicable since noah is the betterest better anyone could ever get so she'll just leave it there]... things.

[singlestrand]

[ she's not pouting. okay, maybe a little. and what does she mean unbearable? it's noah. when has she ever not enjoyed herself? ]

Oh shut up. I'm miserable and you're loving it, aren't you? [ truly. these past few months have been nothing but awful and she has missed noah and new york city every second of them. not that she'd admit that. ever. except to sophie who would never betray her secrets. ] You're still all gorgeous, high and mighty and I'm a waitress living with my parents looking like I just rolled out of a dumpster.

[ today, anyway. she hates that she gets to see noah yet again when she's not at her best. a curse. ]

[ex_typea255]

Tell me more about how I'm gorgeous.

[leans elbow on the back of her chair and wipes at the corner of her mouth with the other. what she's fabulous and she knows how to pick a compliment out of a mire of misery]

[singlestrand]

[ her eyelids move over her eyes. slowly. she's blinking. so slow. isabella's arms cross over her chest as she watches this woman before her. ]

Really.

[ REALLY? the tone of her voice makes it clear that if the movie purge were to really happen, something terrible may happen to noah. and it may or may not be caused by izzy. just saying. ]

[ex_typea255]

Come on. It's been months. You aren't over it?

[shifts in chair to take up her coffee cup again and smiles at her over it knowing well she isn't, just for the fact that she's being a prickly bitch. it takes one to know one]

[singlestrand]

Most people with feelings need more than a few weeks to get over someone.

[ especially someone they dated for four long years. and lived with. and had lots of great sex with. and still had feelings for because for some reason, her emotions liked to give her hell.

isabella tucked some hair behind her ear before setting both her hands on the table, tapping chipped nails on the wood. ]

Glad you're doing well.

[ she's not. ]

[ex_typea255]

Do you need help?

[shrugs the insult off. being accused of not having feelings is in the kinder spectrum of shit people have to say about her, so it's not a difficult task. tilts her head at her pityingly. honey if you need a check just say]

[singlestrand]

"Need help"?

[ excuse me? how exactly does noah plan on helping her in any capacity? isabella's eyes narrow, scanning over her face. that calm, seemingly interpretable demeanor that she's displaying now was once a quality she admired in the woman. now she just wants a sign that she's suffering, too. or something.

and that look noah is giving her. ugh. ]

How could you possibly do that?

[ex_typea255]

You're stuck here because you don't have money. [lifts her hands up to eyebrow height, cup in the one hand. it's a just sayin gesture. she was her sugar momma in practically-lesbian-marriage, so it's a simple thing to throw it in her face now that they're practically-lesbian-divorced]

[singlestrand]

No.

[ the word came out even before she could decide if that was the answer she wanted to give. it was. she got lucky. her fingers curled into her palms and she pulls her arms back, hiding her fists beneath the table in her lap. ]

I was fine on my own before I met you and I am quite capable of getting back on my feet without you.

[ex_typea255]

Forget I asked.

[smiles graciously and finishes off her cup. she won't forget, it'll always be there as an option now when shit gets too rough, and she'll have to keep saying no and that's the kind of inner turmoil she can get off on. that's what you get for breaking your glass in my face]

[takes up phone and gives it a little shake to draw her attention to it] Busy busy.

[that's her cue to excuse herself. go on, bus your tables or whatever it is poor people do]

[singlestrand]

[ oooooh.

isabella pushes herself up from the table, giving noah one last look before she leaves to the back kitchen. she's not going to make the situation worse by giving her her two cents-- the last time she attempted that she made a fool of herself. something she doesn't enjoy doing. at all.

but she will get the waitress she's making finish noah's order overcharge her for that damn coffee. it's the little things. that's all she has left. ]