Friday evening, Niagara Falls

[fates_jaye]

Not long after getting to the house, Jaye's frowning. There's a cow creamer on the table, which is the first thing she notices, and while she hasn't had to worry about the animals for a little while now, the additions of them still stick out.

"Jaye, don't squint like that. You'll get lines," says Karen, breezing past her into the room.

"Maybe I want lines," Jaye mutters, and glares harder at the cow creamer like it deserves it.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

Karen sighs. "Do you have to argue about everything?"

"Yes."

When the phone rings, Jaye needlessly runs to get it. "House of Pain," she answers.

"You're home!" Mahandra shrieks into her ear.

"I'm home!" Jaye shrikes back.

Karen clicks her tongue. "Tell me how that's necessary," she says, and leaves the room.

"How's it going?" Mahandra asks.

Jaye takes a seat at the table, turning the cow creamer away from her. "Oh, the usual. I have lines."

"Good to know. Want out?"

"Yes omg," she replies immediately.

"Good. I have something to show you. Want to come over?"

"Yes omg."

"Stop that."

Once she's done making arrangements with Mahandra, Jaye stands up and starts to head out.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Jaye turns at the door. "Hey, Dad," she says. "I was just..."

"Haven't you been here five minutes?" Darrin asks.

"Seven and a half, really..."

"You're not going out already. You just got here. Your bag is still on the floor. Sit down. Have dinner with the family."

Jaye doesn't want to say no, that they're all kinda scary. "I ate before I came here," she lies.

"You can at least sit down," presses Darrin.

Ack. "Fine," Jaye sighs.

Darrin gives her a smile. "Good. Sharon should be by soon. Glad to have you home."

He's not even out of the kitchen before the cow creamer looks at her and says, "Go on."

Jaye's eyes go wide. "No," she hisses.

"Go on. You know you wanna," the cow creamer insists.

The truth is, Jaye would rather go. Hanging out with Mahandra definitely wins over trying to fit in with the family. The cow creamer nods at the door, and Jaye heads out.

*****

"They didn't card me," Jaye hisses, sitting down at the bar with her beer.

"Best place ever," says Mahandra, toasting her. "The bartender's not that good. You just can't say anything about it, because they might frown on the high schoolers coming by."

Jaye looks at her. "Who am I gonna tell?"

"...Good point," she says.

Halfway into Jaye's next sip, she hears a voice say, "Chat him up." When Jaye looks, the fish on the wall repeats it. "Chat him up."

"Chat who up?" Jaye asks.

"The guy over there," says Mahandra, apparently actually on topic. "He's not bad."

Jaye looks over, noticing the guy Mahandra's gesturing to. "Nope, not bad at all," she says.

"Hey, you have a boyfriend. Mine."

"Not boyfriend. Date. There's a difference. And I can still look." And she's looking. Hey, he's cute.

And now he's smiling and raising a glass to them. "Yay," Jaye grins. "You should talk to him."

"No, I shouldn't," Mahandra says. "He's probably looking for someone... I dunno... legal."

"Chat him up," the fish says again.

"Fine," says Jaye. "I will."

Mahandra waves her on and holds her drink like she's waiting for someone to take it away from her at any second. Jaye takes a seat next to the guy. "Hi."

"Someone could have been sitting there," he points out.

"Well, unless I just sat on your invisible friend, they can be seatless for a minute or two," she says.

The guy grins. "Maybe Barney over there just likes the company."

Jaye gets comfortable in the seat.

"I'm Jason," he says.

"Jaye," she introduces herself. "Come here often?"

"Once or twice," Jason says. "You?"

Jaye shakes her head. "I'm off at school. It's my first time here."

"Yeah, same here. I'm going to college downstate. I'm just here for the summer," he says.

"What are you studying?" Not that she cares, but she's supposed to chat him up and this is chat.

"Accounting," he nods.

Jaye raises her eyebrows. "Wow. That is..."

"Boring," Jason admits. "I know."

"Then why do you do it?" she asks. "If it sucks and you know it..."

"Because my father was an accountant, like his father before him, and his father before him.... You know how it goes," he says.

Yeah, Jaye kinda gets it. "What would you do if you weren't an accountant?" she wonders.

Jason laughs a little.

"What?" Jaye asks.

"You're going to think this is weird."

She sighs. "You have no idea how much I don't think is weird."

He's blushing a little when he says, "I want to juggle."

Jaye boggles.

"Told you," he says.

"Juggle? Professionally? What, like... balls? Or bowling pings, or geese...?"

"Not geese, that's..." Jason gives her a weird look.

"Sorry, don't know where that idea came from. Seriously?"

"Seriously. I mean, there are things like clown colleges and stuff where it's easy to... Yeah, you think I'm completely weird, don't you?"

Jaye manages not to nod, but she's silent for long enough that Jason says, "Forget it."

"No," she says. "I want to hear all about... juggling." No, she doesn't. Wow.

Lucky for her, that's when Mahandra tugs at her sleeve, holding up Jaye's cell phone. "You're getting calls. We should go, maybe?"

"Yeah," Jaye says, and totally pauses long enough to finish her beer. Yes, that's stupid of her. "Listen, it's been cool," she tells Jason.

He's looking a little more self-conscious now. "Yeah."

"Bye," she says, and stands up to follow Mahandra to her doom. Jaye's doom, that is, not Mahandra's.


[NFB due to location.]

Comments

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

[ooc: Geese Juggling! Woot!]