[b][@BCTheEntity], [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN], [@SilverPaw][/b]
[h3][b]Alina Sanford, Nick Waller, Caelum Harrington[/b][/h3]

Thoroughly off-put by how his morning had been going, Nick trudged to the campus cafeteria, only paying enough attention to his surroundings to avoid bumping into people. His mind was reeling, and though he’d regained enough of a hold over his mental state to avoid a total spiral, his heart was still beating heavily, his breaths came shakily, and he was sweating just a little from his forehead despite it being the end of November. The adrenaline rush from his close call earlier hadn’t quite faded yet, and he was suffering for it.

Caelum was unaccountably pleased it was lunchtime. His latest class hadn’t been entirely bad, but he’d been late and stared at unfavourably by the professor. An experience he didn’t care to repeat, certainly. As he made his way to the cafeteria, his quietly grumbling stomach gave him another reason for his relief and anticipation - he was hungry. He’d not eaten a proper breakfast, just a small snack from a vending machine. It’d been enough then, but the lack of proper nutrition showed now. It was only a shame there were so many people during this time slot. But there was nothing to do but line up.

Alina was glad to be out of the class. Sure enough, she’d had to ask Mary about what she’d needed as extra notes, and they both pointedly avoided the topic of what she’d said earlier. Maybe she should have taken Guy’s help... oh well. It didn’t matter, anyway. It was lunch now, and she had her small lunch to unwrap. It was honestly better than trying to get anything from the college cafeteria - the lines were always... lengthy.

She should really have known better than to try and unwrap the sandwich whilst walking. It usually wasn’t an issue, but she still needed to get it open- but, like clockwork, she wound up tripping on a chair, spilling the whole thing over a couple of the people lining up. Especially the cheese. Go figure, now she’d need to line up too- and what could she say to them?

‘Sorry.’

Nick could only sigh as he felt something ‘plop’ against his side and he looked down, only to see bits and pieces of grated cheese all over his jacket, with a few slices of ham to boot. “[i]Oh come the FUCK on…[/i]” he thought, and apparently said, only noticing after the fact with a cringe. On reflex, he went to wipe the offensive debris off of his jacket, only to smear it into the fabric. “Ohhh god fucking dammit....” He muttered, deflating. “...probably gonna need to dry clean that.” [i]And today was going so well[/i], Nick mused. [i]Just figures it’d keep getting better.[/i]

There was movement from the corner of his eye, but before Caelum could react properly, sandwich bits were flying into him, getting smeared into his shirt and vest. He whirled in the direction of the offender, seeing some hapless girl picking herself up, apologizing quietly. “Do you honestly believe a ‘sorry’ is going to cut it?!” he fumed, barely restraining himself from outright shouting, but anger clearly lined his tone. 

Gritting his teeth, he went to grab a bunch of napkins, stacking them on his tray, and using one by one to pick bits of food off himself carefully. All the while he sent heated glances at the offender, and eventually, after getting the immediate urge to cause an even larger scene out of his system, addressed her again. “If you want to be anywhere approaching useful, you may want to think about compensating us for the cleaning,” Caelum waved a hand to encompass himself and the others who’d been unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of this mess.

“Though,” he continued, without waiting for an answer, looking up and down her scruffy appearance with disdain, “as I suspect you are unable to afford that, you should at least help mitigate the disaster.” Then, he returned to saving his clothes, as much as he was able to with only a few napkins. 

Caelum was close enough to notice a man dealing with his jacket, and shoved the napkin-full tray in his direction. “Use those, if you like,” he offered harshly.

Alina blinked as the scene unfolded in her direction. Go figure. You spill food on people, they get angry. Angry enough to demand repayment for cleaning costs, even, or at least to demand she help them with cleaning up. Was one of them about to cry, too? Or... was that from before now? Now she felt bad. She should do as she was told.

‘Okay. Sorry.’

Grabbing a napkin, she began picking pieces of cheese off of the more upset person, with the puffy eyes. Smearing cheese and ham water into it wouldn’t help, they needed pulling off. And butter, now that she looked at them both.

Nick barely paid attention to Caelum’s little rant, tuning it out like he’d tune out his mother’s yelling. He took the napkins with barely a nod and plucked off a few bits of cheese, only to notice that the girl who’d dropped her stuff also grabbed a few napkins was helping. He tried to smile at her, but he imagined it only came out as some kind of pitiful half-whimpering look, given that he was, actually, about to start crying again out of frustration.

[i]What a jackass[/i] he thought of Caelum, but didn’t say anything, unwilling to provoke the well-dressed boy’s ire and definitely break down into sobs right here in front of everybody. Because that was what he needed. Instead, he focused on getting more of the crap off his jacket, glad that he bought a backup before leaving Oklahoma. It would be coming in handy while he got this one cleaned.

When Caelum was done with the hasty cleaning, he was still a mess. Not unexpected. But at least there was nearly no more cheese or ham anywhere in sight. The stains remained, of course. And who knew what was in the places he couldn’t reach, namely, his back? God, and everyone was staring. Some had laughed, many more were whispering to each other, and a majority of the strangers were so pointedly [i]not[/i] looking their way, they may as well be announcing their interest. 
“Maybe some water and soap?” Caelum muttered, fingering a stain on his cufflink. But then...did he really want to go like this to a bathroom, wandering past who knew how many people? Sure, he’d have to bear with that regardless of where he went, but in that case, it’d be much better to just go straight back to his flat. At least then, he could get a change of clothes, and get these immediate professional attention. Hopefully they wouldn’t shrink, or something.

“So much about lunch,” he scoffed. He briefly glanced at the slip of a girl who was now helping the other man, but barely felt a spark of ire. Honestly, Caelum was suddenly just so [i]done[/i] with it all. And it’d been barely half a day. Shaking his head resignedly, he cleaned up his tray, sorting out the various items where they belonged. 

There was nothing for him here, anymore, not if you didn’t count the onset of mortification, which had started to seep into his awareness to fill in the gaps left by his now departed rage. Jesus, if anyone asked these people, Caelum was sure they’d identify him as the worst of the lot, rather than the sandwich-hurling menace. Now all he needed was some idiot deciding this debacle was school-paper worthy. He smiled twistedly as he considered what his father would have to say about such an [i]accomplishment[/i].

Alina, meanwhile, had already been part and parcel to any such mortification already. Or she would have been, if the incident mattered at all. It was another bad thing to add to a bad mood. What could be done about it?

‘I’m sorry.’

Well apologising more wasn’t going to help, was it? She’d not even helped the other guy out, he was clearly still angry, she couldn’t just...

‘Is there anything I can help with to make up for it?’

Hell. Why make that suggestion? She didn’t have time to help people do things, she was... well, no. She had far, far too much time to do all manner of things, which was the actual problem. Courses didn’t do much for her, and she didn’t get out a lot. But luck would probably preempt any studying with Mary later…

Nick nodded a few times absent-mindedly when Alina apologized, still mostly focused on cleaning the last bits of sandwich debris from his jacket. “It’s alright. Not like you decided to yeet your whole lunch on some random guys on purpose.” He couldn’t help but let out a little sigh, then shook his head when she offered to help. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like it’s gonna cost a lot to get this thing cleaned anyway.” 

Content that he’d done a halfway decent job at managing the disaster that was his jacket, he bent down to grab some pieces that had fallen to the floor and bundled them up in the ever-growing pile of napkins that he was holding. “And now you gotta buy lunch, too. Still, where the fuck does that guy get off talkin’ shit like that?” The little bit of fire in his voice surprised Nick, who shook it off and shrugged. “‘As I suspect you are unable to afford that’ God, it’s dry cleaning, not an entire new suit. Dumbass.” 

Realizing that he was rambling to the floor, Nick stood back up and walked over to a trash can to deposit his collection. “To answer your question, you don’t have to do anything, no. It’s gonna be like twenty bucks, if that, to get this dry cleaned. I’ve had to do it a few times here and there.”

Since Caelum had to go back and forth at least once while cleaning up, he was unfortunate enough to hear the jacket-man disparaging him to that daft girl. Though he’d begun feeling embarrassed for his outburst, he couldn’t help but be slighted by the offense. Indignation coloured his cheeks, and he bit out, “Where do [i]I[/i] get off?” The words weren’t as heated as his previous one, though he was still clearly displeased. 

“I simply berated her for her negligence, that’s all,” defensiveness coloured his tone. It was a poor excuse, and Caelum knew it. As he’d suspected, the moment he’d reacted with vitriol to what people perceived as a minor accident, he’d been the one painted as unreasonable. He had no allies here. Perhaps, in this, he would have them nowhere. The man’s recrimination twisted his scowl into a grimace. “I am sure you believe [i]your[/i] anger is justified,” Caelum challenged.

Alina wasn’t keen to be in the middle of a fight between people over a mistake she was responsible for. And she’d spilled her food on them, after all. She deserved a bit of berating for it.

‘You don’t need to fight. It’s my fault.’

She stayed quiet other than that, shuffling backward to keep out of their way.

Nick just raised an eyebrow at Caelum’s defense of his outburst, before shaking his head. “Dude, I’m not [i]angry[/i]. This isn’t my angry face,” He joked, pointing at his face. “It’s... I guess casual disdain would be the best way to put it.” He looked back at Alina, clearly uncomfortable and sighed. Truth was, he hadn’t expected the other guy to hear him, and was actually feeling pretty awkward himself. 

“She tripped. It happens, man. It’s not worth blowin’ up over. Treating people like that really just makes you look like the asshole.” He put a hand on his head, rubbing his eyebrows. “Whatever, just call me an asshole and do whatever you were gonna do, I need to eat.” With that, he turned away from the other boy and went over to the line to wait for food.

Caelum quirked a brow at that, briefly tilting his head. Casual disdain, was it? “Well, the feeling is certainly mutual,” he lied smoothly. If anything, he was fairly indifferent to the other male at the moment; for one, his skills at deflection were decent enough, and for another, he’d retreated, so the pressure of being backed into a corner receded as well. “At least the advice was sensible,” he commented with a shake of his head. He did as he’d intended to, and departed from the cafeteria. 

By now, Alina had started to walk off toward the back of the line, the job of tidying everything up done largely by the two guys. And largely not her. Go figure.

‘...thanks.’

She should say thank you to the person defending her before leaving him, at least. That was what people expected, appreciation, even though he hadn’t needed to say anything for her. She wasn’t worth that much.

Turning his head back to Alina, he gave a visibly half-hearted smile and shrugged. “Uh... you’re welcome I guess? I dunno, just... don’t feel like I did anything worth thanking me for. Kinda just feel like I made it worse…” Nick admitted, his half-smile turning to a half-frown before he shrugged again. “Oh well. Something tells me that stick is firmly up his ass anyway. Probably wouldn’t get along on a good day.” 

‘Right. Well, see you.’

She didn’t want to inconvenience this guy any more than she had. Best to just get in line and wait to get lunch, now.

Nick turned his head back to the line and nodded. “Sure.” It wasn’t much, as far as goodbyes went, but it was something. [i]Well that fucking sucked.[/i]