i like where we are // open

[mitchell leigh michaels]

^{_{I fell in love, in love with you suddenly
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms}}

Midnight was always an interesting time to be out and about. And it was a time reserved for certain kinds of people. There were the crazies; the possibly homeless, possibly addicts who stumbled around muttering to themselves. The late-night shifters were also around; truckers or nightshift gas station employees who kept mostly to themselves, refueling their coffee cups to stay awake. And then there was Mitch.

He hadn’t always stayed up so late, practically all night. But once he did, the teen realized just what a perfect situation it was for him. It had probably started two years ago, after his mother had died. For a while, Mitch just didn’t want to sleep. Two nights of starring at the walls led him to search for other ways to fill the hours, and a habit began. He could do homework (in theory at least), work on his drawings, watch hours of TV, and sit at his favorite 24-hour diner.

Normally Mitch would bring some kind of activity with him to the dinner for his midnight coffee break. Tonight, however, he was feeling particularly apathetic toward his schoolwork, more so than usual, and too distracted and anxious for any leisurely work.

Mitch stared down at his half-empty cup. The diner was nearly empty, one of the workers was playing a radio in the back and the muted Spanish radio station was the only noise. The teen’s face was impassive, but he was feeling completely depressed. His sister hadn’t been home in two weeks, a new record. Of course he knew where she was, at her best friend’s house, and he saw her everyday at school. But she’d never stayed away from home for so long before. They used to be so close, closer than anyone. Now they barely talked. The house was feeling more empty and cold than it normally did, and now Mitch was starting to feel the urge to leave and never return. And then there was his father. The teen couldn’t ignore the growing number of bottles and cans in the trash whenever he took it out. At least his father’s drinking meant the man hadn’t noticed Mitch was failing two classes.

A late-night city bus rolled by outside. The brunette wondered where it was going, who was on it. He often had thoughts like this, when he saw planes or cars with out-of-state license plates. Part of him wished he could just climb in and go with them. Mitch pulled out a pen and began sketching on a napkin, becoming rapidly frustrated with the brittle paper that insisted on tearing with every other mark made to it. He considered just shredding the thing into a neat, little pile but the waitress returned with a refill. For a moment, she seemed to pause as if to say something to the teen, but a trucker came in at that moment and she immediantly turned away to attend to him.

[désordre chaud]

^{click
shaye yanked on the key that was lodged in her door knob, but it refused to budge. she let out a quick sigh and yanked again. she wasn't exactly a patient person, and she hated when things like this happened. the hallway outside her apartment was dark, a few lights glowed softly from the ceiling. although it was a nice apartment, that didn't make it any less creepy to stand in in the dark. shaye jumped up and down, pulling on the stupid little key the whole time. finally it came loose and she stumbled backwards, her sharp heels clicking on the tile rapidly, like staccato beats in a piano piece. she steadied herself, ran her hands over her hair, and continued down the hallway.
i hate keys, she grumbled softly, stepping into the elevator and pressing the L button a few times. which reminded her of a very similar situation that occurred about six months ago. shaye shook her head and ran her slender fingers over the raised scars that spelled words on the underside of both her wrists. time to stop thinking about that now.
shaye really had no plan on where she was headed, but she couldn't sleep and thought maybe a club would help that. the door man held open the glass door for her and she nodded to him, clacking down the steps and onto the sidewalk.
a few blocks later, a quaint little diner popped up to shaye's right. she barely glanced at it, continuing to head towards her favorite club, but something about it captured her interest. she turned her head and speculated about going in.
hmph! shaye puffed as her shoe caught a crack in the sidewalk and down she went. after all, she wasn't exactly known for her balance and level-headedness. she found her feet again and brushed off her slightly offended knees, not at all embarrassed of her tumble, although a few late-night bypassers had begun to stare at her. she decided against the club and headed into the little 24/7 diner. why not, right? maybe they served shots here. [hah, good luck shaye.] it was cute, in a weird, not so nice part of the city way. there were only two people in the diner, a trucker and a boy that looked about shaye's age, staring at napkins. spanish music emanated from a radio somewhere in the diner. shaye giggled at the odd choice, and decided to go introduce herself to the boy. truckers weren't as fun, as far as she was concerned.
she slid into the padded booth, knowing that it might seem kind of odd plopping down opposite of someone she'd never met in her life. but what the hell, it was fun meeting new people. she locked eyes with him, "hey." she point-blanked, giving him a flirty half-smile. he wasn't too shabby looking, kind of cute. her eyes were drawn to the marked-up, half-shredded napkins sitting in front of him. she raised her eyebrows.
"is butchering napkins like you're nightly hobby or something?" the thing about shaye was that she couldn't process the concept of sarcasm at all, she was dead serious. but it wasn't exactly a bad quality... some people found it endearing.}

[mitchell leigh michaels]

^{_{I fell in love, in love with you suddenly
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms}}

Mitch was more than a little surprised when a body suddenly occupied the seat across from him. He wasn’t normally a shaky, nervous person but late at night, in a more sketchy part of town, he could lean toward the jumpy side if somebody surprised him. If it had been some crazy-looking, smelly cat lady he probably would have gotten up and left. It sounded rude, but Mitch wasn’t a social person by nature. Putting him with another social reject didn’t really help matters.

Thankfully, the girl didn’t look at all like a cat lady, nor did she smell. The teen racked his brain, wondering if he was supposed to know her from somewhere but coming up blank. One of his sister’s friends? Possibly, she was much more of a social butterfly than himself. School? Again, possible. The girl could have had several classes with him, he rarely noticed who was in the room with him. Mitch had a dislike of school, and spent the majority of it starring at the clock or sketching on his half-finished worksheets.

The girl looked down at his torn-up napkin and his eyes followed, glad that the drawings were unrecognizable among the rips and tears. ’Is butchering napkins like you're nightly hobby or something?’ She didn’t sound mean when she spoke, but her tone still made Mitch want to defend himself. “No…” A lame answer but once he said it he realized going into detail about the fragility of napkins as drawing paper and the combination of boredom and insomnia that had led him out to the diner would just lead to him rambling and Mitch tended to avoid such situations.

The teen looked at the girl’s face again, still trying to place it. “Do I know you?” he finally asked, hoping the question wouldn’t lead to embarrassment at learning that the girl WAS somebody he should have recognized. He pushed the napkin out to the side to be forgotten, then occupied himself with a long sip of coffee.

Mitch had no intention of scaring the girl away. In fact, a little company sounded really nice. But his lack of social skills were sure put a strain on the conversation, so he tried to think of a topic that might spark enough discussion to get through the awkward first-meeting phase. The teen’s eyes landed on the girl’s arms and he quickly looked away again. He couldn’t see the entirety of what looked to be an elaborate wound, but he didn’t really want to. He may not have the social skills of lots of his classmates, but he knew enough to understand observations like that were not to be brought up. He looked out the window instead, his hands grasping the sides of his mug.

“Do you…um…live around here?” A safer question, but not one to initiate a better conversation. He looked down awkwardly at his coffee.

[désordre chaud]

shaye settled into the [most likely fake] red leather seats that were supposed to look vintage. she dumped her valentino tote next to her, placing her jewelry layered fingers on the table and glancing around the diner again. it was only because all the present staff were staring at her did she realize she wasn't exactly diner-clad. her five inch heels barely made her 5' 7", and the petite girl's light pink corset top over a sparkling juicy tank weren't all that subtle. but who could blame her, she'd though she was going clubbing. she stared at a lanky guy waiter and he shuffled over, pen and pad at the ready.
what can i get you he mumbled, staring at the floor. shaye smiled sweetly, mostly because what she was asking for was a little odd.
do you have anything, like, vodkaish? she tilted her head to the right a bit, hoping whoever ran the world, god or karma or whoever, would like her and grant her alcohol craving. the waiter stared at her like she'd grown horns. shaye waited.
ummm, no? he sounded bored. shaye pouted and shooed him away.
her face was a flipbook of emotions, it changed with every observation or statement this new boy made. he seemed shy, which bothered shaye. she was bad with shy people, something about her tended to make people uncomfortable. or atleast, in past experiences it had. she hoped he wouldn't be. shaye wasn't really the kind of person to worry about other people's feelings.
she giggled at his offended tone in reply to her napkin comment, shaye just figured it was funny. why not laugh?
"do i know you?" her attention was recaptured by him.
nope. she said simply, playing with a chunky ring on her index finger.
and if you do it would be nice for you to refresh my memory. shaye had more than one drunken incident where she'd taken home guys who's names she still didn't know. so it could be very possible they'd run into eachother before.
she caught his gaze as it flicked down to her arms and fast as lightning back again. she made no attempt to cover up the scars that spelled wicked on one wrist and lovely on the other. there was no point in covering them up. her mood rollercoastered from bubbly to somber, her naturally hazel eyes[sea green thanks to a pair of color contacts] glazed over and she turned towards the window. the sky was dark, it seemed endless, like she could fall in and keep on falling. maybe it would be easier to do that.
"do you live around here?" she smiled flatly at his awkward tone. she didn't bother looking away from the window.
yea, a few blocks. she laughed, trying her best to recapture the mood she'd been in. though once an idea came to her it was easy, she turned back to him and her eyes refocused. how fun would it be to take this new guy to her night club? maybe it would loosen him up a bit. and then shaye could finally get her vodka. she tilted her head again, smiling.
do you know how to dance? she said, her smile taking a turn towards naughty, with one side curled up higher than the other. she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door, snagging her bag from the seat.
you know what? it doesn't matter. let me show you someplace. by the way, what's your name? i'm des... well actually you can call me shaye.

out of cOFFEE,,
my muse ran away x.x sorry bout the suckishness. clubbinggggg anyoneee?

[mitchell leigh michaels]

^{_{I fell in love, in love with you suddenly
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms}}

Mitch wasn’t really doing a good job with the ‘not being social awkward’ thing. But what was a teenage boy supposed to do when approached in a slightly-sketchy coffee shop at such a late hour by a girl who looked more appropriately dressed for some hip party scene? When she tried to order vodka, the teen’s mind went back to the ‘crazy’ theory.

Mitch shook his head. “No…I didn’t think you looked familiar, I was just wondering…” he trailed off, looking down at the table top and tracing the scratches in the linoleum with his eyes. It made since that she only lived a couple blocks away. He couldn’t imagine somebody walking far in those shoes. He didn’t understand how girls could wear things like that and still be able to walk daily. But he did like her outfit…not in a pervy ‘oh she’s hot way’ but more in a….well, he really wanted to draw her. Mitch didn’t have much experience drawing realistic portraits, but he was starting to get more into them. He wished again that he had some decent paper.

Did she just something about dancing? Mitch’s head snapped up, he’d kind of zoned out for a moment. She was smiling at him in a way that girls didn’t tend to smile at Mitch. It was kind of scaring him. Before he could answer, she’d grabbed his hand and was pulling him out of the booth. They were going someplace? He didn’t even know this girl! Well, apparently her name was Shaye… “Uh…I’m Mitch…” Wait, where were they going!?

They were suddenly outside, where the Miami air was warm and stale. The sudden change of scenery had kind of shocked him, but the teen managed to get hold of himself and stopped, pulling his hand out of the girls’ grasp. “Wait! Um….I’m not sure…I…uh…” What exactly was he trying to say? Wherever they were going, it was probably a lot more interesting than sitting in the coffee shop all night, but that wasn’t the point. “I don’t know…um…I’m only seventeen…” If it was a bar or something, there was no way they’d let him in. But if it was a part or something, there really wasn’t an excuse if they weren’t carding at the door.

Mitch didn’t party, and he certainly didn’t drink. It wasn’t that he was some prude, him and few friends got together to smoke pot and watch MASH re-runs or have Star Wars marathons…but he’d never been to a dance or a party involving dancing. And dancing and drinking couldn’t end well. He didn’t want the girl to think he was being mean or anything…but she should know where he stood if she was going to start dragging him around town at night.

OOC: sorry it took so long....