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 Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:58 pm
From noon until 2:30 every afternoon, Nacho Neighbors parked their well-used, well-abused food truck on the corner of Fifth and Strait street. Like clockwork every day, they would open their window at 11:58 and take their last order at approximately 2:28, give or take how many still lingered in line. By 2:40, they had closed up shop and moved on to either their next location or, if they were lucky enough to be hired for a catering event, would dedicate the remaining hours of the day by serving as a private venue. At exactly 2:41, Ashley Dalton was racing down the sidewalk on Strait street, barreling past any unfortunate pedestrian that might have unintentionally found themselves in her pathway. She'd been too busy playing her phone game to pay attention to the time, putting her need for nachos on the figurative backburner until she realized she was forcing herself in a race against time to get some of her favorite gooey, cheesy, drippy nachos for her late afternoon lunch. She made it minutes later to the corner of Fifth and Strait, just in time to see the cloud of exhaust puff out of the tail pipe of the large food truck as it rumbled its way down the street. Oh, crap. Really???
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:25 pm
Every day at approximately 2:15 PM Austen Stella Rue left her tattoo shop, made the five minute walk down the street to the corner of Fifth and Strait, stood in line for ten minutes, and then placed her order for a giant, steaming plate of nachos at 2:31PM, give or take a few minutes. It was a routine that sometimes had used to make Blue give a startled shout as she bolted from the shop, but now he didn't even react, even as some of the newer apprentices all looked around in alarm.
She'd gotten the special, which included pulled pork, Austen's favorite. It had been passed to her from the well worn hands of Pete, one of the Neighbors' truck drivers, and she had accepted it with all the awe and care of someone being handed a Golden Globe.
This was better than a Golden Globe. This was a Golden Chip.
Or rather, a lot of them. And she'd gotten there late today, which meant she'd almost missed her spot in line.
Almost. Austen had been breathless, sweaty, and a little careworn by the time she'd stumbled to a stop beside Buisness Lady Number One and Manbun Boy. As it happened, the delay put her behind Buisness Lady Number Two (the one who always smelled strongly of mint; Austen suspected she was trying to quit smoking) instead of in front of her.
Business Lady Number Two had smirked but Austen hadn't mind. She'd perservered. And now she had nachos.
Which apparently couldn't be said for everyone. The sound of galloping footsteps drew nearer and nearer and a girl came into view, looking at the trailing end of the truck as it trundled out of sight; and judging by the way she was breathing, Austen thought she must have been trying to run here as fast as possible.
"Bad luck," she said sympathetically, glancing over at her. "You trying to get to the truck, then?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 3:17 am
Watching the food truck rumble off was like watching Prince Charming gallop away after forgetting to scoop up his True Love for their happily ever after. The fairy tale had turned into an instant tragedy and Ashley looked to be the star role of the poor, forgotten heroine. "More like tried." Leaning over, she gulped a swallow of air, trying to slow her breathing down after the sprint she'd just run for absolutely no reason at all, apparently. She was feeling cross and irritable because not only was she now tired but she was --- Wait. She looked at what the other woman was holding, having caught a sudden whiff of heaven on Earth. "Is that..." Oh god, it was. The most delicious looking pulled pork smothered with all of the good stuff on top of it with even more gooey, amazing cheese drowning the contents of the paper bowl-plate- whatever they were called. Her brain raced at a mile a minute, though the contents of the race weren't worthy of any marathon medals. She was out of breath, she was sweating but most of all, she was starving. "I want your nachos." Her hand flew to her wallet, which possibly had something in it worth the girl's eye, depending on which wallet she'd remembered to tuck away in her pocket before leaving. Chances were that she'd pulled the old velcro one that still had a few gift cards with varying balances on them (all under two dollars in worth, tragically) but it was also possible she'd grabbed her Disney one that she'd gotten on clearance because one of the princess's eyes were amusingly crossed. A bargain for a humorous piece of artwork, in Ashley's opinion. That wallet had a free ice cream code she'd received from doing a survey from a thrown away receipt she'd found outside of the trash can at the local creamery. Nope. It was neither - her water-stained leather one had made it into her pocket today. Crap. Yet still, she reiterated herself, tacking on: "I want those nachos. I'll pay you more than they're worth."
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 6:49 pm
The poor girl. Austen knew only too well the pain of having something beautiful snatched away from you last minute. Only last night she had almost managed to get that last bag of Cheetos from the work fridge before Blue had snatched it out of her fingers and reminded her that he did not appreciate orange Cheeto dust all over the tables, Austen, and oh yeah, did she forget that these were his and he had bought them specifically for himself?
Her fork was sticking out of the top of her plate, although Austen had no intention of using it, because nachos were things meant to be eaten by hand and meant to get all up in its grill, messy or otherwise. She poked at it experimentally, feeling a distinct sense of delight, and then realized the other girl was staring at her.
"You want - pardon?"
Austen possibly had heard wrong, but the girl was already fishing around in her pockets, producing a wallet, which she was now holding in one hand while she stared meaningfully at the mouthwatering plate in Austen's hand.
"You want to buy my nachos from me?" Austen asked, eyebrows raised. "I mean...they are delicious, but..."
She trailed off, considering.
"I don't know if I could just sell them..."
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:03 pm
"What do you want for them?"
Ashley was putting on her best business face, which consisted of what she at least thought her manager looked like, the few times she'd ever seen him trying to sell some of the helicopter spinny things they sometimes sold at their knick-knack shack in the mall. He was heavy duty EFFECTIVE with his salesman tactics - it was just a shame, really, that Ashley rarely paid attention to anything he actually said. The leather wallet was opened up and out came precisely two dollars and a gift card to Shoes Unlimited. Granted, the card was anything close to unlimited - it probably had a buck fifty on it, if even that. But... it's not as if the girl needed to know that. "I don't have much cash on me but I do have this gift card." She waved it in front of the girl's face, inadvertently wafting the smell of delicious nachos towards her own nose in the process. She really wanted those nachos.
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 6:41 pm
Under ordinary circumstances, Austen might not have been so hesitant to give away her spoils, because she was of the mindset that sometimes people just really liked some things and it was okay to help out with that. She was always happy to help a new friend out.
But...well...these were nachos. Not only that, but they were the best nachos in town.
Austen squinted at the gift card. "I don't need a lot of shoes," she said apologetically, thinking. The smell of the nachos was wafting up towards her, filling her nostrils with the glorious scent of cheese and meat and everything else perfect about them. She really, really wanted to eat them.
But she also didn't want to make someone else said. Austen brightened.
"What if we ate them together?" she asked cheerfully. "We could share, and you wouldn't have to pay me a pound!"
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:48 pm
Ashley paused. She... she hadn't expected that sort of offer. Frankly, she fully expected to have to dig in her heels and plead with the woman, shoving every coupon and used up gift card to her disposal in an attempt to cajole the best nachos in town over from the other girl. But she... just wanted to share? Without being paid? Ashley probably should have been suspicious but she wasn't about to look a British gift horse in the mouth, especially when she was offering her free nachos at the cost of half of the container. " Really?" She offered a quizzical look but nodded her head, her stomach letting out a long growl at the strong waft of BBQ meeting her nostrils. "I mean.. sure, if you're really okay with that." A free half lunch was better than no lunch at all!!!
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 4:48 pm
She was being given a suspicious look, as though this was something totally out of the ordinary. Austen raised her eyebrows, considering, then decided that this girl probably had had no friends to share food with and that was why she was so confused about why Austen was volunteering to share now.
Well, them. Austen was just going to have to fix that little detail.
Beaming brightly, her smile stretching widely across her face, she stuck out a hand towards the other girl.
"But first," she said, "Friends. You can only share my nachos if you give me your name and you say you'll talk to me, and then we can eat. They're pretty delicious, I can smell them, and I'm sure you can too."
Especially because she was staring at the nachos like they were some offering to the gods. Austen felt her grin growing, if possible, even wider.
"Well?" she said happily.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 3:21 pm
She paused for a moment, looked at the extended hand... then slowly reached out with her own and took the other girl's, shaking it firmly. "I'm Ashley. Ashley Dalton." And with that, the girls wandered off together, in search of a place to take a seat and share the world's most amazing nachos with together. kuropeco WOW RUDE, FINE /SLAPS DOWN A FIN!!!
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