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 Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:21 pm
Virell and Kat might have been new friends, but Virell was glad she decided to take up his offer of showing her around for some of the really tasteful boutiques in the area. They’d only been out for a few hours but his arms were a bit sore from being laden with so many bags. Considering they still had a few more places to hit up, he was grateful for all that time he’d spent staying fit. He wasn’t just a pretty face, after all.
The walk from one plaza to another was not so great that it required the use of a car, though he had stopped to throw his bags in the back of a car. They’d been chatting idly as they walked; a thin layer of clouds and a cool breeze made for a pleasant day.
He was talking about a photo shoot he’d done recently, just idle chatter, but after a moment of silence paused to glance over to Kat as they were walking. She seemed distracted but he didn’t see anything particularly interesting in the direction she was looking—except a Waffle House.
He cleared his throat
“You still there, Kat?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:23 pm
It was a Waffle House. Kat remembered the first time she ate in a Waffle House. It was awful. The food was terrible and soggy and greasy and...and awful. But, for some strange, absolutely unknown reason…
She wanted to eat there again.
“Virell...we go? Mags loves Waffle House. But it is disgusting...I do not understand.” She was hungry though, her stomach giving a mighty gurgle. “The food is bad, but I want to eat it.”
Kat gave an almighty sigh and pointed at the waffle house. “We can eat there, Virell? Right now? We can go and eat soggy waffles?” Even saying it just sounded...bad. Gross.
But...she really just wanted to like what Mags liked, and she would try, even if it cost her a stomach ache.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:23 pm
Virell’s steps slowed and he side-eyed the woman next to him. He was searching her face for some sort of answer, trying to understand why she would want to eat at a place she acknowledged had bad food.
His immediate thought was that maybe she knew someone working there and was trying to be secretive but he wasn’t so sure Kat had the willpower to hide things like that.
He eyed the building warily and then returned his gaze to her. “Okay,” he said slowly. “But I really wasn’t thinking my cheat day was going to be spent at a Waffle House.”
He adjusted his path so they were heading towards the building. It certainly didn’t look like it was the worst on the planet—in fact, it seemed like it looked decent. At least, by Waffle House standards.
“Why do you want soggy waffles? –Or bad food in general?” he asked, figuring if he was going to eat it, he might at least know why.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:24 pm
Kat frowned, Virells words processing slowly through her mind and she turned to look at him, an expression of confusion mixed with slight impatience on her face. “Mags loves Waffle House. So I will eat there.”
It was a simple answer, and one that she had said just a moment ago…why did he not understand when she had said it? It was simple. Besides, perhaps there had been something she was missing before…some secret to actually getting a somewhat satisfactory waffle from this place…she doubted it though.
Kat took Virell’s hand and began dragging him towards the restaurant. “I do not understand what you mean by cheat day…who are you cheating? You are not cheating me out of Mag’s favorite food. We will try it and perhaps it will be good.”
Now that was a long string of words if she ever heard one. Maybe Mags did inspire her a bit. Perhaps she would start to practice her English a little better…if only to be better understood…though she thought people understood her pretty well regardless of how many words she was using…she always tried to be to the point.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:24 pm
Even Virell seemed impressed at the length of her sentence; he was used to Kat’s short sentences, or her strange way of speaking (at least, insofar as one could be used to it). He made a little noise as she dragged him towards the restaurant but he didn’t protest much. “Okay,” he said; he wasn’t getting his hopes up.
“You know—a cheat day isn’t cheating anyone but yourself. You—you’ve really not heard that phrase? You know, when you’re supposed to stick to a specific diet and then you take a day to ‘cheat’ it and—” Virell sucked in a breath. “You know, forget it, it means I’ll eat whatever I want today.”
He figured that was as simple of an explanation as he could give—but he was less interested in his explanation and more interested in hers.
“But, uhm—you know, you’ve brought up Mags a few times and—you know—I don’t actually know who she is.”
He watched Kat out of the corner of his eyes as he pulled open the door to the Waffle House. “She’s really important to you though, right?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:25 pm
She ignored his words, finding them rather boring and barged into the waffle house, nodding at the smiling server who sat them and plopped into a booth, making a face as the strange smell of the place and the overall...stickiness of the table and seat really came to her attention.
Finally it seemed she was ready to answer his question about Mags and she frowned slightly. “Mags is important, yes. She is wonderful. My best friend.”
When the overly friendly waitress returned asking for a drink order and a food order, Kat ordered a Coke with vanilla in it, and a waffle, one of those soggy, awful looking waffles. But…
It would be worth it. Maybe. Eating this waffle would be worth it. She was doing this for Mags, after all.
When the woman left again to get the orders started, Kat looked back at Virell, frowning slightly. “Sometimes she gives me indigestion.”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:25 pm
Though Virell kept a taut smile plastered on his face, it was not difficult to tell that he wasn’t a fan of the stickiness. He was very careful to keep his hair both off the ground and off the seat.
Virell did not have a preference for what he ate and ordered blindly, telling the waitress to just surprise him.
His brows knit. “Indigestion…?” he prompted.
Sometimes, he figured Kat was using the wrong word; right now his mind was racing to try and figure out just what she might have meant. “I think you can only get that from food,” he finally said, somewhat reluctantly. “What do you mean—she makes you sick, or…? Is she a poor cook?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:25 pm
“Yes, indigestion. Heartburn? My chest feels uncomfortable and I feel ill. My stomach also feels very uncomfortable too.”
Kat reached for the drink when it was brought out to her and took a long pull of it, draining half the glass without taking a breath. When she resurfaced from the overly sweet beverage, she pulled another face and sighed.
“I made dinner. Waffles. For that holiday a few months ago. It was nice. The romantic holiday, but, when she arrived…”
She shrugged hopelessly, waving her arms a little and sighing. “My stomach felt funny. I was working a lot in the kitchen. Perhaps I was just ill. But…”
Kat stopped herself from saying what she wanted to say. The other night when she was Tinaksite, Mags had run from her...and that had hurt her feelings something awful. “But Mags gives me indigestion. That is all.”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:26 pm
For a long moment, Virell just stared at her. “Kat,” he said blankly. “That’s doesn’t really sound like indigestion. You have to eat something to get indigestion. Heartburn, too. You don’t just get indigestion by being around someone.”
His lip twitched and, sticky plastic table be damned, he propped his elbows up on it and leaned forward like there was some juicy secret involved.
“Did you feel all warm, kind of dizzy? Maybe like there was a tickle in your stomach, or like someone reached in and grabbed all your insides and twisted it up? And your heart was a little sore, like it was just working too hard in your chest? A little anxious, but also maybe like you’d just downed an energy drink or two?”
He was chewing on his lip, tapping his fingers on the table as he watched her. They might not always speak the same language, but he liked to think he was pretty decent at reading people even when they weren’t saying anything.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:26 pm
Kat frowned, the expression making her look very disagreeable and she huffed, not bothering to answer for a long moment, mulling over the question as she drank the rest of her soda.
Finally, almost unwillingly she nodded. “Yes. That sounds right. Is that not indigestion?” It was what she always perceived as being indigestion...what else could it be, after all?
“Could I be sick? Is it something worse? I have tried antacids. They do nothing.”
She sighed heavily and shrugged, waving for the waitress to bring her another soda.
“Why do you ask? Do you have this too, Virell?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:26 pm
A smile was trying to force its way onto Virell’s face and he had to work very hard to try not to laugh. It wasn’t as though he meant to be rude to Kat but he wondered if there might have been more to this whole ‘Mags’ thing than she was saying.
He steepeled his fingers on the table and started with a long, “Well, I can say I have a little bit of experience feeling like that, Kat. It might be sick. I’m not a doctor, don’t get me wrong, but it sounds like you’ve got a pretty stereotypical case of lovesickness. I mean, that’s textbook. You’ve got a crush on her, it sounds like.”
Combined with the shopping to pick out things Mags would like, trying to eat things Mags would like…Virell couldn’t really think of anything else it could be.
He cracked a sly little grin. “Like, maybe, you like her?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:26 pm
What. That made less than no sense what so ever. She didn’t have a...a crush on Mags...she just had indigestion. Though…
Her frown deepening, Kat reached up, placing her hands on her cheeks. They were warm. Very warm. And if she had a mirror she would see that they were red too. “No.” The denial wasn’t a strong one, however, and she sounded rather unsure of the answer, looking away from the blonde and at the cook piling a glop of...of something into the waffle batter.
Euch. Disgusting.
“I do not….I do not think it could be that...I have never…”
She swallowed, looking back at Virell, seeming rather helpless. “I have never had...feelings like that before. I do not think…” Kat finally lowered her hands, looking utterly confused. “You think I like her?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:27 pm
Virell had to struggle to keep a straight face. “Well—that’s better than indigestion, isn’t it? You’ve really never had a crush…? Not even like, in high school? Or on the Backstreet Boys?”
He leaned back just slightly, more convinced now than ever. No one blushed like that over indigestion. “I used to have a new crush every week. I’d have wild fantasies of all these cuties just dropping in, rescuing me,” he cut himself off abruptly and turned his head so sharply in either direction that he cracked his neck twice. He stood up a little straighter when he’d finished and directed his gaze back to her. “Everyone gets crushes. It’s a part of life And it sounds like you’ve got feelings for her.”
He reached for his water and took a sip, smile still teasing at the corners of his lips. “I think that’s cute. Do you think about her at strange parts of the day, for no reason?” He already knew the answer was yes—Mags slipped into their conversation at strange times fairly regularly. “You shop with her in mind. You eat with her in mind.” Trying to find something to bond over, trying to like what she liked. “So—it sounds like a crush.”
But, just to make sure, he asked, “What do you feel when you think about doing things like, I don’t know, holding hands with her?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:27 pm
Kat didn’t know what to say. Was having a…a crush on someone better than indigestion…? It didn’t seem as though Mags had any sort of crush on her so what did it even matter how she was feeling, right?
“I do not know, Virell…” After a long moment of silence, Kat opened her mouth to say more when the plate of hot, rather soggy waffle was placed before her and she took the opportunity to stick her fork in and take a large bite…over a quarter of the waffle went into her mouth.
Clearly she didn’t want to go on, and the waffle had come at the best possible time…even if it tasted like soggy cardboard.
When she managed to forced down the overflowing mouthful of dougy…ick, she looked at Virell and tried to flash a smile, though the best she could do was a grimace. “I would like to not talk about this anymore…we eat now.”
She couldn’t have a crush on Mags…and even if she did…she wanted to think about it first before committing to anything with her new friend…
He didn’t need to know if she did or didn’t have a crush….ugh.
Quickly, Kat stuffed more waffle into her mouth and looked away, hoping that closed the subject forever.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:27 pm
Virell could take a hint, even if she hadn’t shoved more waffle into her mouth than should be humanly possible. He sighed and leaned back once more, eying the platter the waitress had picked out for him. He’d ordered an extra chocolate milk and reached to stir it as he considered her words. “All right, all right,” he said, playful smile still lingering.
He’d made up his mind on the matter, anyway. Now she just needed to figure things out for herself. Still, he was a little jealous; his expression was one of fondness and he showed no trace of hostility. It was sweet, that someone could be so naive to the ways of the heart, and in his mind he’d already imagined Kat and Mags running away to live happily ever after—even if Mags was a waffle textured silhouette in his mind.
He poked at the food on his plate and struggled to maintain an expression other than horror. His smile was akin to Kat’s grimace, though he put quite a bit of effort into trying to maintain his pseudo-smile.
His mind began to wander; he didn’t mind eating in silence or summoning some offhanded topic, but for just that moment he was still thinking about crushes. He didn’t have to fake the smile that showed up on his face when he thought about Nick. He prodded at the eggs on his platter and thought for a few moments. Naturally he’d entertained a few thoughts about Nick but crushes were different for him. He might have liked the idea of a steady relationship, but it probably wasn’t something either could commit to. Nick had other people in his life and Virell wasn’t looking to complicate things.
Still, it was a nice thought.
But sometimes that’s all crushes were, especially when they concerned him.
If things went well with Kat, maybe he could just live vicariously through her. For now though, he’d let the topic rest. He’d had too much fun today to chase her away by pushing at a sensitive topic—and they still had hours of shopping to get to.
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