[b]Lynn and Natalie[/b]

Lynn blinked, a jolt of annoyance passing over her before she even looked up to see who it was. If it were possible for a scowl to scowl, the ensuing expression would’ve been named after Lynn’s face in that moment. Spoons was there, looking put-together in her own trainwreck way. She’d grown her hair out and there was still the bags under her eyes - Lynn wondered if they were the sort that never really went away, that after a certain number of sleepless nights, they just wouldn’t come back - but she had everything else put together well. She looked put together. [i]Why?[/i] Lynn thought. It roiled her, twisting that feeling in her gut she could not place but didn’t like. It was the Che feeling. Sorta. Some days.

“Spoons,” Lynn said idly, rolling the candle over in her hands. “Although, I guess if I look like a stalker, it means I’m not a good one.” Lynn considered something a bit more barbed in response - she didn’t particularly appreciate Natalie’s jab, but wasn’t about to start any shit. She had too much else going on at the moment. Lynn said nothing more, waiting to see what Natalie wanted to talk about.

[color=silver]”I...”[/color] Natalie trailed off. No. She felt she had to at least broach the subject. She suddenly looked apprehensive and sheepish, and more than a little sorrowful.[color=silver]”I saw your face that day, after the breakout. I don’t know what happened. It’s all hazy in my head, but...are you okay? I didn’t know when the right time to bring it up was, but I know that look. I know you...probably don’t want to talk about it. Maybe just forget I said anything.”[/color]

Lynn’s fingers dug into the candle, a faint shimmering heat dancing up around the candle wick. Lynn did not know what game Spoons was trying to play here. She had enough to deal with, what with Archie calling them to a brunch with one of Gennedy’s attack dogs, the fact she had evidence of the Promise’s crimes in her backpack, and just - everything else. Lynn looked up at Natalie, who seemed shivery and shaky. Was this a shakedown? Was she trying to blackmail her? Very few people had attempted to blackmail Lynn, for reasons obvious to most casual observers. Lynn didn’t think that was what she was going for her. Spoons would go and tell the cops what was going on before she tried to make a buck off Lynn herself. No, this was some sort of mind game. Lynn started to tell Natalie to fuck right off, but held her tongue. [i]If I piss her off, she goes crying back to the rest of the Breakfast Club, and then the cop knows something up. Damn her. Damn this whole place.[/i] As she looked back down at the candle, keeping her heat steady, for a moment she thought her hands were glowing, burning like magma, like melted stars running down from under her rolled up sleeves. She blinked and they were scarred and pale. “The lizard smacked your head around too hard,” Lynn said calmly. “I’m fine. Just another fight.” Lynn kept her tone level, but her words were picked carefully. Nat had been the one to call the cops when they’d found that corpse - she may have suspected what happened with Salamandra, but since Gennedy hadn’t come knocking yet, she figured there was no proof. Lynn wasn’t about to give it to them. Lynn opened her mouth to say something more, a jab about Archie throwing her around, but the image of the lizard cradling Natalie and snarling at her flashed into her head and she shut her lips. Lynn smoothed the candle wax out and put it back on the shelf. 

Natalie did notice Lynn stop and start talking a few times, and not looking very happy, but at the same time not exploding. Whether that was a conscious choice or something to do with Radvi, Nat couldn’t guess, but it was clear from her reply it was not something she had any intention of talking about. Nat scratched the back of her head and shrunk a little, eyes pointed down. [color=silver]”Sorry. That’s been bothering me and I had to ask. Our first one on one conversation and I fuck it up, huh? Sorry...So….How have things been?”[/color]

Nat felt herself wincing after asking that.

Lynn walked through the store idly, needing some way to let loose her jitters. Lynn could be cold as icewater when she had to be, but this situation was eight different kinds of twitchy and Lynn had patience for none of them. “Yeah,” she said neutrally, trying once again to figure out Natalie’s angle on all this. [i]If she asks me what my sign is, I’m going to tell her to grow a pair and just ask me out. This feels like speed-dating.[/i] “I mean, no ten foot tall lizard has tried to kill me in the last few weeks, so, you know. Decent.” Lynn did not particularly want to bare her heart to anyone, least of all Natalie. There was some angle here Lynn could not pin down, and she did not like it. [i]She knows something,[/i] Lynn thought. [i]She’s got some kind of power here and I don’t like it. [/i] Her gut nodded. “Been working. Going to classes every now and then.” Lynn tried to keep it shallow, letting her eyes glance back to the exit. Was Keaton coming to rescue her from this? Lynn didn’t know how you were supposed to have small talk with someone, least of all in this situation. She expected, just at the rate this day was going, for Archie to walk in with three more cops at any given moment. [i]The sooner I can get clear of this place the better. [/i]

[color=silver]”Cool, cool,”[/color] Was Nat’s quiet reply. [color=silver]”Same here, without the work...”[/color] Nat trailed off and let that conversation thread die a death. Instead she walked out the store, saw that Radvi was still with Archie and the other girl and groaned, before heading back into the store and stuffing her hands in her pockets. [color=silver]”Probably not what you expect me to say given what I think you think of me, but I wish that guard would piss off. Wonder who the girl is, though. Never seen her before.”[/color]

Lynn raised an eyebrow. Spoons was pretty much spot on with that one. [i]When did she start hating the cops?[/i] Lynn wondered. [i]In the interrogation, maybe? Or just that guard specifically?[/i] Lynn couldn’t shake the feeling Natalie wanted something from her, that this was a slow subtle trick to wear her guard down and get her to let loose about something. “Agreed there,” Lynn said. “No idea who the girl is. She’s pretty, though.” There was no calculus to the last few words, and they seemed to stumble out Lynn’s lips before she realized. They were true. Lynn’s hair was shifting subtly from sunflower yellow to a bright orange, streaked with blue. “She’s no fish, though,” Lynn said, something she didn’t know until the words came out. The girl looked older than them - at least a bit older than Lynn, she wasn’t sure what it said on Spoon’s driver’s license - but she had that casual look to her, like she was home when all the rest of them looked like visitors. “Hope she minds her manners. Been a whole month, the lizard might be hungry.”

Lynn’s comment about the girl being pretty got an eyebrow raise from Nat, but she couldn’t say it wasn’t true. She was pretty. And she was sitting next to Archie. As much as Nat had tried really hard to not think about her feelings for Archie, she couldn’t deny that seeing a pretty girl sitting next to him and smiling made her feel...jealous? Was she jealous? Is this was jealousy felt like? She wanted to know who that girl was and what she was doing there, but she didn’t want this group reunion to happen while Radvi was there.

[color=silver]”I want to know who she is,”[/color] Natalie stated flatly. [color=silver]”Is she with Radvi or with Archie?”[/color]

“Too young to be a cop,” Lynn said, feeling strangely as though she was the first time actually progressing a conversation with Natalie in a way she could comprehend. [i]Not too late to make a necklace joke, though. If only I’d ducked into a jewelry store.[/i] “But probably old enough to be a narc. My money is she’s there with Boat Farmer.” The idea ruffled Lynn’s feathers a bit as well, although she wasn’t quite sure why. Archie, for his idiocy, like calling them to a meeting with a cop, seemed to Lynn like a decent person. [i]And you still have those dead flowers in your room, don’t you, [/i] a voice nudged her, one with a lazy Argentine drawl. Lynn shook her head and grabbed a cheap candle and gave the employee some money, mainly to prove that, this once, she wasn’t stealing anything from anyone in the shopping mall. She didn’t even know what she’d need a candle for. “I only got a look at her for about three seconds, but I’d call daddy issues.” Lynn had seen leopard print shoes before, and usually not on well-adjusted individuals. At least, such was the trend in her old stomping grounds. “I’ll tell you that much.” Lynn was surprised she remembered so much of the girl’s outfit. Lynn normally had a sharp memory - it was necessary to not get jumped - but usually not things like that. Whether somebody was walking with a holster limp, or whether they kept their hands in their pockets, or whether they had tweaker eyes. She didn’t care about what brand someone was wearing. Did she? She couldn’t shake it. The girl was taller than her by far, smiling and...ugh. [i]Christ, if this station is making me go soft, that’s one more thing I’ll kick Gennedy’s ass for.[/i]

Natalie exhaled a reply, and tutted as her brow furrowed. After a second, she took her hands out of her pockets. [color=silver]”I’m gonna go over there. I can’t take this. I want to know who she is and what they’re talking about. I’ll try to get Radvi to move along politely. Where’s Keaton?”[/color]

Lynn was pleasantly surprised by this turn of events but didn’t want to needlessly piss off Spoons. Sure, she thought it would’ve been really funny, but she needed to mosey on away from here, and that necessitated being nice for a while longer. “No idea,” Lynn said, with half truth and total confidence. “I’m probably heading out.” There was no way she wanted to go to this meeting now. Not if a cop was sniffing around. Lynn would make her way for the far side of the mall and then make the hell away from all this craziness. This mall was a deathtrap between Archie and Natalie, and Lynn was starting to get tired of blowing holes in restaurants - [i]in a flash incinerated, all four, burned to [/i]. “Tell the new girl hey for me.”

Nat stopped and turned to Lynn. For a little while the two of them had kinda gotten along. It was a little bit sad that Lynn wouldn’t meet up with the rest of them, but Nat understood why she wouldn’t want to meet up. [color=silver]”That’s a shame but ok. I understand. I really hope this isn’t the last time we’ll talk on kinda good terms. See you.”[/color] Natalie replied, before heading off in the direction of Panda Express.

“Later,” Lynn muttered, watching Natalie leave. As per usual, Spoons was bending her expectations around about the same way she bent spoons. A part of Lynn wanted to go along and hang with everyone, but the rest of her was louder. [i]They’re already going back to a Chinese restaurant together, for fuck’s sake,[/i] Lynn thought, thinking of [i]fists reaching up, smashing your side, your hip, your leg, your - [/i] the last time, and not particularly wishing to relive any of it. She stayed in the candle store for a minute more, figuring by now Keaton had either gotten scarce or went on ahead. Denim would keep her mouth shut, but she was sure Natalie would tell them Lynn was around. “And then they’ll rope me into whatever bullshit’s going on this time,” Lynn muttered. She wasn’t sure how she’d dodged a hit from the Promise yet, but she was not looking for another shitshow. There was too much at stake. If she’d been able to ditch the doll back at her dorm earlier, then maybe, if Archie hadn’t called them to a meeting with a cop, then maybe. But not now. [i]Don’t be weak,[/i] Lynn told herself, walking out the candle store and moving away from the food court casually but quickly. [/i] It won’t end well, anyway. [/i] The twisting feeling in her gut had been intrigued by Natalie’s curiosity, and wanted to know more about this new girl as well, but Lynn’s mind stomped it out. [i]There’s already too much shit I don’t understand with Archie and Nat without adding a new person to the mix. [/i]

Lynn’s stomach rumbled with hunger, prompting a string of profanities. She’d just polished off those leftovers thirty minutes ago. Lynn shook her head. Well, Keaton had said to be normal. She had to admit it looked suspect as hell if she walked in, met Natalie in a shop neither of them had any business being in, and then bounced.

“Son of a bitch,” Lynn muttered, rubbing at her forehead and stepping in line to the pretzel store. She was going to take out her anger on these pretzels, and then Auntie Em herself.