Welcome to Gaia! ::

The local cafe was almost turning into a religious institution for Audrey Collins. Their cinnamon rolls were pure sin, and thusly couldn't be provided anywhere but at a place were total absolution was also readily available. It was also the only place in town where she'd run into Elzo Xanis without specifically going down to Hillworth and hanging around like some sort of doxy. So while the cinnamon rolls were good, her chance of particular company was even better. More and more she found herself abandoning the fictional worlds of the internet and of Azeroth and coming out more and more to spend time with people her own age. Real people, in fact.

So where the old Audrey might have stared mutely at the wavy-haired blond requesting a seat until she moved on, this Audrey flashed a shy smile and moved her things. "Go right ahead, I'm not doing anything too interesting." Lifting the book in front of her, it was yet again some dead man's literature assigned by the cool yet complicated Ray Gordon, and about as decipherable as Russian to the Meadowview student. Curious as to why her table had been chosen out of several occupied by lonely students, the smile warmed a slight bit and she held out her hand. "Audrey Collins." The red bow was in full-force, for once she hadn't bothered to go home and change out of her school uniform, the Barren Pines cardigan discarded over the back of her seat. "I haven't seen you around before, do you go to Meadowview?" Lame ice breaker, but it wasn't like she was trying to pick up a date!

When the girl had looked taken aback at the easy acceptance, the curly-haired teen had started to immediately worry that she was being too friendly, before that thought was immediately banished. There was no such thing as too friendly, unless you were crawling into the person's lap top introduce yourself. She'd never do that sort of thing, so overall they were both safe from the land of Too Much Friendly. Mentioning her name and school, Audrey couldn't help but grin. Apparently she drew Crystal girls like flies, sorta like Hillworth boys. The best of both worlds, that was her!

When Eve mentioned her silly crush, however, the gold eyes grew a little guarded. Elzo's reputation did suggest he had a thing for the flowers up at the affluent girls' school, and Eve was certainly pretty enough. "I do know Elzo, actually. He was teaching me to dance before I messed up my leg." The plastic boot was clearly visible under the table, if the crutches propped against a chair were no indication. "That's an odd question, did he mention me?" Why would he mention her? Had she done something ridiculous? Quickly, the teen scanned her memory and came up with nothing other than the fact that she was an abysmal dancer, which was not really worth mentioning at all. Very odd.

Knuckles rapped against the plastic of her boot, eliciting a grimace at it. "Yeah, it's a hairline fracture so hopefully I can take this thing off soon, but the crutches are a real killer. Our gym teacher doesn't really buy crutches an excuse and still makes me stretch and warm up and crap as best I can." Drew was a right b*****d, Audrey wasn't enjoying it. "Plus it forces you to wake up early. And that's a sin!" A laugh trickled out and the grin in Eve's direction was wide.

But that mention of her did not sound good at all. Was she falling prey to his reputation? Audrey'd been trying hard to avoid being seen as some Hillworth boy's one night stand for quite some time, even if it was one of her favorite places to make friends these days. She was the sort of girl who didn't relate well to other girls, and preferred the blunt honesty and roughness of boys. It was also one of the reasons why she had hot dreams about women, she was fully convinced of this. Smiling somewhat wryly, she pulled a mass of blue over her shoulder.

"I didn't think we were that common." Though she'd perked at the mention of Elzo, this nonspecific classification made her slump just a bit. Crushes were so painful, especially when you didn't have the courage to ask the other person how they felt. After the dancing in the club, and all that, she could've sworn he was into her. But who knew?! "So....there's a lot of bluenettes in his browsing history?" Wow kid, way to sound pathetic!

So his Juliet had also shared her hair color? Well, probably not the same shade, but that explained why he kept singling her out. Audrey knew that she wasn't an incredible looker, but her hair always called attention to itself. But no guy stuck around for just hair, she wasn't stupid. She was so smart that when 'friend zone' was mentioned, the hint was caught immediately. Obviously Eve had just turned into this bluenette's Very Best Friend because not only had Elzo confided in the Crystal student about his dream girl, but about herself was well! The book fell closed to the table as chin in hand, Audrey leaned forward, interested.

"Breaking friend zones usually means that you have to show you're interested. I've never seen that sort of thing from him, unless you count some incredibly interesting dancing." Interesting was a word for it, certainly she'd been daydreaming about it in hazy moments in-between classes or interesting topics otherwise. "I mean, usually you have to tell a girl you like her, or kiss her, or something. But you probably mentioned that, huh?" Dearly she hoped so. Very, very dearly. So maybe she was on the rebound from the most painful breakup imaginable. She comforted herself with the fact that she'd gone on that strange date with him previous to said breakup, so it didn't count. "So, is that how you met Elzo? I mean, you don't seem to know him the 'typical' way." Her fingers made the little signs in the air with a grin. "So you must be an actual friend!" Hopefully it wasn't Eve's friend zone he was trying to break!

Had either girl known who they were really talking to, the Shufflepuck Cafe would probably have erupted into something that looked a bit like a bar-room brawl straight out of Hollywood. Especially as Audrey was, in fact, Elzo's Negaverse crush! But no one knew that, and no one would ever know that, so this hilarious and bizarre dance continued on its track.

Remembering one of the first conversations she'd ever had with said interested boy, she laughed and blushed a bit. "I told him something similar before when we just met. He was having a hard time with his crush, and I told him how to show her he cared. Either it backfired horribly, or she didn't care as much as he did. I didn't really want to ask, yanno?" Reminding someone of another girl when you were trying to slide in yourself was bad. "He's always been really nice to me though. I hear he can be crude but...I've never noticed. Maybe that's me though, I know much rougher guys than that." Or maybe he was special? Who the hell could tell anymore. One finger reached out to stir her drink with a straw before taking a drink before talking again.

"That bugs me. Just because someone is a dork and flirts a lot, and okay, even sleeps around a lot doesn't mean they're not a nice person." Somewhere, Ursula Killingworth was feeling a sense of incredible justice, Audrey just knew it. "So if you can tune that sorta thing out, I'm sure you can be friends! Or maybe you flirt too?" The bluenette's voice grew teasing. "Should I perhaps guard my heart from your adorable charms?" Audrey didn't think it was likely that was the case, some people had friends that they just didn't cross the zone line with. She really didn't want to be one of those though. At all.

Had Audrey heard Eve's thoughts and opinions on her personal relationship with the Senshi of Hail, things probably would have degenerated even faster than learning that Flora was the girl she was giggling with over boys. But she was trying her hardest to suppress those feelings and move on, you couldn't spend forever moping and crying in your bedroom. That didn't stop her from sleeping every night wrapped around a certain penguin, however. Nothing would make her give up that tenuous connection to someone that had, for a brief time, made her immensely happy.

So now she was moving on, and trying to make the best of what she had, which admittedly on its own was pretty fantastic. If she could get him to notice, at least. The club had been minorly disastrous in its own way, so 'interest' didn't probably come across well while grinding on a girl. Things were muddy in that area, because sometimes it was just an atmosphere thing. Why was it all so complicated? "He should be, but I guess boys are just thick in the head like that. I know it took my friend (used very loosely in Ursula's case) a very long time for her husband to even realize she was female, let alone that she was interested. Now they are blissfully married and you never see them apart. It would be cute if they weren't so weird." And if she didn't hate the b***h. "How do you do that though, without being all...I dunno, trash about it? What do you buy a boy to show your interest?" Audrey was very, very new at this. Khal'd never expected anything other than lunch!

Pondering this, gold eyes lit on the cinnamon rolls displayed in all their gooey, delicious glory behind the counter in the cafe and a smile slowly blossomed. Okay, so maybe there was a bit of ulterior motive on the bluenette's part, she didn't have to give him everything she baked. And she could frost them discretely with extra icing in a lopsided heart that wasn't really a heart so it wouldn't embarrass her. Gnawing on a lip, she beamed at Eve with sudden excitement.

"That should work! I mean, maybe if I do that I might get a date or something out of it!" Did dancing count as a date? It seemed a bit too scandalous to be counted as a proper date, and nobody could really know about it. No, it didn't count. "Like a date...oh dear. I've never been on a real date." Curls were tugged and twisted around fingers as nerves emerged. She was telling people fairly obviously that she had a crush on Elzo Xanis. She was telling his friend that she liked him! Would this backfire horribly? I mean, she'd just met this girl! "Oh gosh, Eve, you can't tell him okay? I'm so new at this, my only boyfriend was a total joke so we never did anything." Anything but make out behind the theater, that was. Definitely did not count as anything substantial in the weird little courtship rituals of teenagers.

"I would die if he knew. Do you think he knows already?" Oh lord. Histrionics were not attractive, and poor Audrey was on the verge of them. Normally she would have never indulged in such an emotional display in public, but her nerves and psyche had been running fast on the rails since her accident. Emotions were hovering close to the surface and boiling over in unpleasant ways more often than not anymore.