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If Paul wasn't in a hurry, he would have never entered a McDonalds. It wasn't just because he possessed anti-monopolistic sentiments or anything so high-minded, and he wasn't particularly sure if he cared about the animals who were exploited in order to make people money. He wasn't particularly arrogant enough to think fast-food below him; he frequented the local Subway and didn't mind Wendy's. It was just that, well...

Well, McDonalds? Didn't have very good salad. And that was really the only thing he'd ever dream of purchasing there. He was in a hurry, though; he was late for a holiday party his mother wanted him to attend. Though he didn't want to actually go, there were certain things he would have to do to keep the peace. Especially now that he was rooming with one of his gay cousins--his mother certainly saw plenty of things wrong with that.

Now, though, the line wasn't so long. He was actually second in line, in front of a grouping of at least ten people; they were starting to look a little rebellious at this point. And Paul... Paul didn't really mind, it was an excuse, but. If you had to count pennies to get something off the dollar menu... He stepped forward and set a five dollar bill over the small pile of coins, smiled at the pretty female cashier, and turned towards the white-haired man.

The fact that he recognized the face gave him pause. "Ever," he said, his voice lilting to make it a question.

Paul was surprised by the change--he'd always imagined that Ever had just transferred up to DCU, not... completely left higher education. It was almost unthinkable that one of his peers could end up like this, counting pennies to get an apple turnover off the dollar menu. "Is that all you're getting," he asked, his tone light and cheerful.

There'd been hints, of course, that things weren't all okay near the end of the single semester he'd known Ever. But he'd always assumed... well, it didn't matter now, did it?

"No, seriously," joking, joking, keeping his tone light and cheerful, "Get at least a cheeseburger or something."

It worked for Paul; he waited until Ever's order was in front of them before buying his own salad. To go, in case someone called and he had to run, because while Paul could completely use this as an excuse for lateness, if his mother noticed she'd probably pitch another fit.

Sometimes he really envied his cousins, with their incredibly lax parents.

"So," he said, picking a booth and sitting down. "I gather the reason you vanished wasn't as..." Normal? Pleasant? Safe? "...ordinary as we all thought." We, being the other students in their shared bio class freshman year. Ever had been a good student, as far as Paul knew; they weren't roommates, but Paul had helped Ever out with biology. He hadn't asked for help with anything else. "What the hell happened?"

Made sense. Funding issues, it made sense. Anyway, the long silence meant it was a subject that should be dropped, and as he always did, Paul dropped it like it was hot. Very hot. Burning, perhaps, and then he tried to smother the feeling of guilt that came along with having made someone else uncomfortable.

Instead, he switched to a topic of conversation he hoped would be much more palatable. "You seem... happier, though," he said, tilting his head. "That's good, at least."

He stopped eating for a moment, very shocked at being called out. It wasn't exactly polite, but then, not everyone was as well-mannered as Paul was. (Ignoring the murder/energy theft thing, anyway. He wasn't very polite about that.) Still, he forced himself to relax; his shoulders leveled from where he hadn't even noticed they'd hunched. A slightly nervous laugh was his only response verbally, but his expression as he stared at his salad was a little self-deprecating.

"Oh, it's all right. I'm very much on the path to becoming a neurosurgeon and making my family proud," he said, his free hand coming up to fuss with one of the long locks of his hair. "I've graduated from Sovereign and am starting at DCU at the end of February. If I work hard enough, I should be able to go to medical school within a year."

It'd have to be a local school, but Destiny City did have a fairly good teaching hospital, so it wouldn't be a problem. "What about you? What have you been up to?"

Not bad. It sounded... alright. He smiled a little bit, a lopsided smile without any real meaning behind it. It had been a little enthusiastic--before the comment about med school, when it seemed something had... broken and settled in the structure of his face. Hollow, that was the word.

That same pained smile as he bobbed his head. "Nothing like it, yeah," he said. Except the fact that the thought of it made him painfully... well. Angry was a good word. Not quite strong enough, not quite what he would assign to the emotion, but really. He couldn't let Ever know that, could he? Appearances were everything. Ars longa, vita brevis... or something like that.

At that moment, his phone chimed and the smile turned into a legitimate grimace. "Probably my mom. I'm late to a party, you see." Compared to house-hopping, a party full of eligible women and medical school seemed tame. At least he wasn't on his own. But it loomed. "I should go," he decided, pulling a face and putting the lid on his barely-touched salad.

Paul sighed. It'd be embarrassing for both of them if he explained, so he tucked the cell phone into his pocket and picked up his bag of food. "Don't mention it." Really. Don't. It wasn't that Paul didn't like being seen as a nice guy. It was just that it made him uncomfortable to think about things like that, so he didn't really want to...

He paused and turned back after taking barely a step. Once, Ever had been his classmate, and they'd been friendly, if not friends. One good turn deserved another, he thought... "Be careful. There's all kinds of danger out there... not all of it's as obvious as you think." For a moment, he fussed with the handles of the plastic bag; then he turned on his heel and left, all before Ever could say a word.