Charlie drank half the smoothie before she reached her table, purely to give herself something to do, and to distract from the overwhelming idiocy she displayed in her conversation with... the girl whose name she failed to get. She'd made the grand mistake of planting her business card in the girl's possession, dooming herself to future embarrassment to boot. How long had she been at Mingle now? Certainly less than an hour. [i]Must be a knew record.[/i]

She didn't bother sitting back down again. Willow looked so giddy, she might as well have been drinking pure sugar all evening. “Look, I spoke to someone, and I made myself look like a massive asshole, so can we please go home?” At her best friend's disappointed, classic about-to-protest look, Charlie added, “I promise, I'll let you drag me somewhere again soon. As soon as I've forgotten today.” She tapped her heart. “Scouts honour?”

As Willow finally – [i]finally[/i], praise all the known Gods, demi-gods, and their freaky offspring – gave in, slipping off her chair as she sipped the dregs of her drink, Charlie's phone vibrated in her pocket. “Oh, hey, have you been hiding a little something?” Willow chuckled, winking.

“Don't be filthy,” Charlie responded, taking out her horribly ancient flip-phone and answering. 

[b]“Free books... good. Thanks... uh... hi,”[/b] came the voice on the other end of the line, strikingly familiar but distorted by the sound of music. It took Charlie long seconds to figure out who was calling, and then she was unsure of what to say in response, bewildered for a moment longer as to how the girl in pink got her phone number, before she remembered.

Willow kept winking and wiggling her eyebrows so much, she might have been unable to stop. Rolling her eyes, Charlie turned around to stare back through the crowd at the girl in pink. “Hey,” she said into the phone, then again, a little louder. “Sorry, we're about to get out of here. I'm too old for this whole... thing, that they've, uh... got going on, so. Um, look, did you say you hadn't eaten yet? Aren't you hungry?” How could anyone willingly go without food. Food was wonderful. “I made myself hungry. Do you have some way of getting food, 'cause we're gonna get food.” She only realised what she'd asked of the girl after the words came stampeding out of her mouth.