[center][h1][b][color=DarkSlateGray]A Y A[/color][/b][/h1][hr][b][i]• Monday Night, Swan's Songs •[/i][/b][hr][/center]
[b]"I am [i]so sorry[/i] for keeping you waiting Aya, look, traffic's been more hectic than usual and I've only just gotten off the main roads. I'm literally, like, ten minutes away, I promise I'll be there soon.[/b]

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]What, like how you promised you would actually be here on time?[/color]”[/b] Aya hissed through her phone, ignoring the escalating commotion going on nearby. She heard a nervous chuckle from the other end, and she simply sighed.

[b]"Heh, well when you put it like that—[/b]

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]It's been an hour Mari, I've been sitting here for a full [i]hour[/i] waiting for you to come through that stupid door! Shit, it's been so long someone's already gone and asked me to join them for drinks because they thought I was pissed from getting stood up or something.[/color]”[/b]

Mari burst out into laughter through Aya's phone speaker, and she had to pull herself away from it for a couple of unfunny seconds. After her coworker finally stopped cackling, Aya heard the sound of a turn signal and soft, tired giggles. A few seconds of silence passed, and Aya began to tap her long fingers on the wooden tabletop, letting out a tired sigh.

[b]"So why didn't you join them?[/b]

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]I would've said something, but then you decided to call.[/color]”[/b]

[b]"Ah... Then what would you have said?"[/b]

Another couple of quiet seconds. Whatever row was going on in the background, Aya wasn't paying any attention to it at all.

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]...No.[/color]”[/b]

[b]"Why?"[/b]

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]Some people just aren't into drinking fermented grape juice on a late Monday night, [i]especially[/i] when they have the stupidly early shift at their workplace the next morning.[/color]”[/b]

This time, it was Mari who let out a long, drawn out sigh from her phone. Once again, Aya heard the clicking noises of the car's turn signal through the speaker.

[b]"Good point, good point. I guess I [i]was[/i] only looking to enjoy some sweet jazz music tonight. I think it's about time I lay off the whole 'going out with friends on a Sunday evening only to wake up the next morning too dead to go to work in thirty minutes' thing."[/b]

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]Well, maybe if you did get here on time you would be able to enjoy some of that jazz music and, oh JESUS—[/color]”[/b]

From Mari's phone, the coworker would hear a lot of running, a lot of screaming, and total panic on the other side. She frantically called out Aya's name multiple times, but it seemed the loud background noises prevented her from hearing any sort of response. A swift but muffled 'call you back' was heard, and the call abruptly ended.

Then Aya suddenly found herself outside, shivering from the cold, mascara running down her cheeks, and clothes drenched in fire sprinkler water.

Although it was a small venue, it seemed that there was a [i]lot[/i] of people gathered here this evening. And when a lot of people are trying to force themselves through a single door because of a possible fire hazard, things can get quite chaotic. Aya, of course, had found herself in the very middle of it all, managing to gracefully trip over her feet as she was flung outside the building. She noticed the stains of the pavement on her jeans as she scrambled to her feet, and at this point she just wanted to kick something.

A can coincidentally found itself by her right foot, and being in the moment and the mood, Aya did not hesitate to kick the damned piece of metal with all the power she could muster.

Only to have it coincidentally hit someone's leg with quite the amount of force, making her face go from an angry flushed red to a pale horrified white.

[b]“[color=DarkSlateGray]Oh, fuck, shit, I mean... Sorry...[/color]”[/b]