LCU, life in present tense, part 2.5

LCU, spring semester, 2083 (part 2.5 of 3). Where we left off... part 1, part 2.

*soundtrack (for all three parts), "Lifeboats," by Snow Patrol*

April reports to Lucky's Card Bar for her first shift as a bartender. It's a Tuesday night, and there's a reason they train the new girl on Tuesday nights. They're long and slow, middle of the week and barely a trickle of customers through the front doors. Underneath the bar is a sort of "beverage recipe manual," thick as a novel, and April gets it out for nearly every drink she makes.

Except bottled beer. Bottled beer appears to be common sense.

But Heather insists it's this hard on everyone's first day.

"Well aren't you just the sweetest little thing?" she says. "You look like a good girl, what are you doing in here anyway?"

"I'm not sweet," April says with a smirk.

"You remind me of bubblegum."

April smiles, and her cheeks flush pink with glee. "I love bubblegum," she says. "This one time, I blew a bubble as big as my head! I couldn't get it out of my hair for a week, I swear it!"

"That doesn't surprise me," Heather says.

Then more seriously, April adds, "And I'm putting myself through college."

Heather smiles. "Been there, done that."

April spends the night observing Heather's every movement, as she whips up glassware from the drying rack like they were extensions of her own fingertips. She seems to know all of the regulars by name, calling out to each of them in her strong sultry voice as they pass through.

"Hey, James," Heather says, as a young man sits down at the bar. She makes a small gesture toward April with her eyes. "You like blondes. Isn't she cute?"

"Adorable," he says. "Can I drink something, or what?"

"April, you can handle this one," Heather says. "He's easy - Jack and Coke, double shot, not too much ice. That's all there is to it."

Heather leaves then, walking away to the back rooms of the bar. April reaches for her beverage manual - she can't recall, how do you measure a double shot exactly?

James starts to laugh at her. "Just wing it," he says.

She wings it, and places the finished drink in front of him. He cracks a smile finally - she was wondering if he would, or if he was just planning to sit there all quiet and brooding.

"Are you always so serious?"

"No," James says, straight-faced. "I'm not that serious, why does everybody say that?"

April laughs. "Okay..."

"I'm not that serious," he says again, with the slightest off-centered smile. "I'm the funniest guy you'll ever meet."

"Oh," she says. "That kind of funny."

Their conversation flows naturally. He isn't the chattery type, but he talks a little. She talks more. She brings him another drink or two. She tells him about her art classes, and he says he always wanted to take art in college. He studied business instead. He tells her that it isn't really very useful to the kind of business he's in now, though he doesn't say what.

"So why aren't you on spring break?" he asks.

"I can't afford it this year," she says. "Maybe next."

"I never went either. My ex-girlfriend did. Once, a long time ago." He says this as if he'd been alive for centuries. "I probably wouldn't have liked it anyway. I'd rather go camping or something."

"Ex-girlfriend, huh? What was wrong with her?"

"Nothing," he says. "Except that you can't trust people."

"You can trust some people," she says.

"Yeah?" he says. "Maybe I'll meet one some day."

She feels herself inclined to soothe him, to reach out and touch his cheek, but she doesn't. She wants to fold him into a hug, but he doesn't look like he'd be up for it.

"You can't trust Max," he says.

"Oh?" she says, laughing it off. But he doesn't smile with her this time. This isn't a joke.

"You might think you can - he'll make you think you can. But you can't. He screws everybody, and I don't just mean fucking. Whatever he says, he's lying. If he says he's going to take you places, he's lying. If he says you're his right-hand man, he's lying."

"Why do you hang out with him then?"

"He's kind of my boss too," he says. "If you know what I mean."

Heather comes back then. "How was the drink?"

"She did okay," he says.

"Just okay?" April flashes him a flirty smile. "You said it was great."

"It was a Jack and Coke, let's not get carried away," he says. "But it was pretty great."

"Last call," Heather says.

James passes on last call, and Heather assigns April to finish putting away the glassware before she leaves for the night.

They turn down the bar lights at close, all except two dim lanterns over the bar. This is practical, she learns. It lets any late stragglers know that they're finished for the night, leaving long, deep shadows in each corner.

She'll have to get used to the dark quiet though. The karaoke machine is turned off, a notable silence after listening to wanna-be rock stars all night. There is only the dull hum of the freezers, the repeated ping of newborn ice dropping in the machine.

It isn't his footsteps that announce his presence, because she doesn't hear anything but the clink of ice, and the glassware in her hands. It isn't even his shape she sees, looming behind her, blending into the shadows of the room. She feels his presence first, the feeling of being watched, the feeling that she was placed here in the cove of this bar, on display, for the very purpose of being watched.

She stands.

"I didn't see you there," she says.

He disregards her comment, moving closer. "Heather said you did okay."

"Thanks," she says. "Maybe I'm getting the hang of it."

Again, he takes the conversation in his own direction. "How are you only nineteen?" he asks her.

"Because my birthdate was October 15th, 2063," she says. "Do you wanna see my driver's license?"

He points a finger at her, vaguely. "You're very charming."

She can't read him, his expressions are heavily guarded. She doesn't know if he's taken by her charm or annoyed by it. She feels drawn to him like a car crash, a disaster waiting to happen. No good can come of this, she knows, but she just can't peel herself away.

"I'm not charming," she says. "I'm just a girl."

"A girl," he says, stopping, pulling back from her. "What devil brought you here?"

"I don't know what you mean," she says.

"Yes," he says. "You do."

The door opens. She doesn't have to look to know it's Beau, hearing his goofy voice behind her stammering, "Uhhh..."

The tension breaks, the trance is broken, and only now she realizes how overwhelmed she feels. She crosses her arms over her chest. She starts to go.

"Your boyfriend can back off a little," Maxwell whispers as she slides past him. "You'll get better tips if the guys think you're available."

She doesn't accept or decline his suggestion, but only lingers there, caught in his gaze for a moment longer. And though Beau isn't her boyfriend, for some reason, she feels eased letting Max believe that he is.

She doesn't even realize that she has stopped breathing until Beau's arm wraps safely around her back and she begins again. She breathes in deep and lets out a heavy sigh. Beau watches until she's finished. He's not her boyfriend, but her best friend, her traveling partner, her lifeboat in a green sweatshirt.

After the doors swing closed behind them, Beau says, "He's kinda weird!"

Overwhelmed as she is, she manages a little laugh. "Yeah, kinda."

Beau returns her safely back home to Frosh Hall. This is respite, with the swipe-card security doors, the campus police, the overpriced grocery store selling certified organic produce. Here they are a community of students not yet venturing too far out into the real world. Here they won't ruin their budding young lives before they've even had a chance to begin them.

But they're nineteen, and they'll do what they want to do. Even when somewhere in the world there are people they shouldn't trust...

At least those people aren't here.

*******

notes: for my April-lovers, a whole update devoted to April ;)

I'm finding my freshman very disjointed from what's going on with Keri and Justin right now, so after Keri graduates, I think the LCU updates might be a little more cohesive again. But anyway, I appreciate the shortness of breaking things apart, given the current sogginess of my brain and all. We'll get through this LCU semester eventually. There's one part left.

I was surprised to find April has chemistry with James - low three-bolts right now, about 91 with a couple more turn-ons they could probably fulfill in time. She's in the low 90s with Tyler (hence her ever-present crush...) She's 125 with Beau and 135 with Max! Max is her number two, by the way. Her number one attraction is Beau and Tyler's dad, with 139, lol!

Her ACR One is still Beau though, that hasn't changed.

But April's love knows no bounds, and she has chemistry with ALL kinds of people. One or two more you'll meet in time ;)

LOL, Max! Even he has a bad feeling about this one - as soon as he meets April, he rolls up this fear that Valerie might hate him. He's never worried about that before, lol! As if she'd like any of his extra-curricular activities.

Outtakes: their pictures for the wall in Frosh Hall: