Jacob Davies (cryogenetic) wrote in instorm, @ 2017-06-27 21:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | damon reichenau, jaime davies, jake cooper |
Adventures in Foodstuffs
Who: Jake, Damon, briefly Jaime
What: Fair time!
When: Evening, July 1
Where: Fairgrounds
Status: Complete, gdocs
After engaging in a brief back and forth text with Cassi, Jake ran his cool hand over his equally cool face. Only the fact he had central air (an absolute must, he'd realized early in life) kept him from going crazy. What he'd like was a damn walk-in freezer, but he hadn't been able to justify that kind of addition to the house. The air was fine. The heat of day was problematic, though he'd developed ways to work around it - mostly icing himself up and drinking a gallon of water if he had to work outside. Fortunately, a lot of the summer jobs tended to be inside. And they let out early, which was why it was dinner time and he was rounding up a crew of people to head out to the fair. Why not? It was only here once a year, and the farmer's festival they had in September didn't even come close to the festivities here. So after finishing up with Cassi, who was dragging Jaime, he figured he'd see if Damon was up to anything. You're not busy in a couple of hours, right? Cassi and some friends need escorts to the fair =P Well, it was more a friend, but at the rate his sister moved, it probably would be multiple friends before all was said and done. She had a couple hours, after all. While he waited for Damon to reply, he flipped idly through the channels on the TV trying to find something to engage his mind while he considered if he wanted to eat dinner-dinner or snag a bowl of cereal and eat everything the fair had to offer later. Damon hadn’t been scheduled at his diner job today, so he’d spent the entire day working on the trailer. It had been a project of epic proportions, and honestly he’d expected no less six months ago when he’d learned that his mother had died and he was the recipient of her estate. Which consisted of a hoarded trailer and a bank account that had contained the princely sum of one hundred and five dollars. Growing up, he’d lived in an ancient farmhouse near the edge of town, the same one where the shed incident had happened. At eighteen he’d been gone, and several years after that he’d heard that the town’s codes department had condemned the house. He had no idea where his mother had lived after that before she’d received an insurance settlement that had allowed her to buy the trailer, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that when Damon had first opened the front door after the funeral, there’d been only the scantest path leading inside, both possessions and trash piled nearly to the ceiling. Some people thought that show Hoarders was funny, but he was here to tell them that it wasn’t. Damon hated filth, and he’d only been able to live in the place for about six weeks, after he’d gotten the majority of the crap cleared out and the bathroom and one bedroom set up to his standard of cleanliness. It would be a decent place once he was done, and it was paid for, which was his main incentive in choosing to move here. There was still a ton of work to do, though. When his phone beeped, he was lying on the faded but clean linoleum floor in the kitchen, a fan blowing on him as he tried to gather the energy to get up and shower. The phone was on the counter, so he reluctantly sat up to get it and then lay back down again. not doing anything but why do they need an escort? he sent. Jake regarded the text and laughed a little to himself. Why does any woman need an escort? he returned, amused. We probably won’t have to hang out with them. But it could be fun if you weren’t busy. Or even if you are. Get out, get some fair food. He doubted Damon would have a problem hanging out with them for a little while, but if he’d really rather not, Jake wasn’t going to push the issue; he just figured it could be fun, either way. That, and he wasn’t keen on being left alone with Cassi and her friends; he was pretty sure she had a blonde one that had a thing for him and it wasn’t anything he was interested in. She was nice enough, just … not someone who caught his attention. Since she’d never actually tried anything, there was no need to have done any sort of rejecting, but he wasn’t keen on the day it did maybe happen. So he’d prefer back up. But there were other guys he could ping; John probably wasn’t doing a hell of a lot tonight either. it’s fine i’ll go, Damon replied. meet you @ the fair or @ your place? Why not? There wasn’t a damned thing he had to do for the rest of the day; he’d worked on the place all he planned to until the next time. He wasn’t a guy who had a ton of friends, so he liked to be sure and spend time with the ones he had. It was important. He’d spent his earlier childhood years with essentially no one, he’d been the kid most other kids picked on, and he sure as hell didn’t want to end up like his mother had. A hermit, living alone, not having anyone who’d ever want to come around. He figured he could shower, get a second wind and then go do the fair with Jake. It’d be something different. +20 points for enthusiasm =P Don’t let me twist your arm. You can meet us there. 7 or so by the gates. Jake glanced to the clock, then texted Cassi to make sure they’d be ready by then, too, though he figured if no one wanted to wait for anyone else, they’d bump into each other at some point. It wasn’t like the place was really that big, anyway, and the odds were good everyone would have some other friend there to hang out with. Well, for the most part, he guessed. Mostly he was just looking for a chance to get out and unwind a little. Some beer, some funnel cakes or fried Oreos or something, maybe play some games and win some things for the girls. Despite the fact they were all in their 30s, he couldn’t help but still think of Cassi as a baby, and her friends by extension the same. Deciding he should probably at least look presentable, he figured he’d shower and shave and see if he had some clothes that didn’t have dirt grubbed permanently into the knees or concrete splatters on them. He was sure he could come up with something. k, Damon texted back, never one to use more words when fewer would do. It would get his point across. He spent another ten minutes or so on the floor, staring idly at the ceiling, before heaving himself up and grabbing a beer from the fridge to take with him into the bathroom. He’d found that there was something so satisfying about working hard physically and tiring himself out and then rejuvenating himself with a shower. His usual method was to use warm water until he’d soaped up and then turn the faucet to ice cold. His body temperature ran higher than average, and he’d found that that helped. Out of the shower with a towel wrapped around himself, he went into the bedroom to find something to wear. Damon was as meticulous about his clothing as he was about the cleanliness of his place, and he was also organized, so it didn’t take him long to pick out faded jeans and a blue t-shirt, socks, underwear and shoes. The fair would be fun. Now that he had the prospect of something to do, he was looking forward to it. A little before 7 he turned off all but one light and locked up the trailer to head out. Nothing in Stormvale was all that far away, so he was parking at 7:00 exactly. He ambled toward the gate, looking around for Jake. Jake wasn’t horribly surprised when it wound up being Cassi and a small handful of friends, but there was room enough in the truck to cart them all to the fair. They could’ve walked, sure - it really wasn’t that far - but there was free parking enough around the fairgrounds and they were likely going to walk themselves out during the fair. He found a place to park and fell in behind the girls, dropping an arm companionably around Jaime’s shoulders since she was lagging behind the main herd. Well, the other three girls - same thing. When he saw Damon, he lifted a hand in a wave before heading over to meet up with him. “S’up?” He greeted him. “Glad you made it,” he added with a grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly. Glancing over to Cassi as she headed off, he dropped his arm from around Jaime in case she was inclined to follow, but he couldn’t say he was all that surprised when she didn’t. “Hey,” Jaime said quietly, sliding her hands into her pockets. While Cassi had conned her into letting her do her make up, Jaime hadn’t agreed to dressing up. So she was in jeans, a slightly baggy tee-shirt, and sandals that revealed the slightly chipped polish on her toenails. It was a little awkward because she figured she should go follow Cassi but Jake had been walking with her and he’d walked over here and they were going to wind up in the same place anyway, so … it was fine. “Yeah, me too,” Damon said to Jake, his smile a touch warmer than average, an expression that was generally reserved for his two closest friends, of whom Jake was definitely one. He wasn’t all that surprised to see Cassi and her friends taking off. Well, most of them. “Hey,” he said to Jaime in return, giving her a nod and a smile. “Sure you ain’t scared to be seen with us?” He was joking, of course, maybe a touch surprised that Jaime hadn’t taken off with the other ladies. Most of them seemed to run in massive groups, and he’d sometimes wondered what they all found to talk about. He tended to do smaller groups, himself, or just one other person. Jaime snorted slightly. “The day I’m scared by things like that is the day I quit at life,” she replied with a quiet laugh. She shoved her hands deeper into her pockets, because while she’d always found him attractive, lately he’d been on her mind more and there was always some urge to reach out to him when she was around him. But she had issues and she wasn’t sure he was interested so she’d never tried anything. Didn’t stop her from hoping some day he required her professional services, in or out of the spa. “Jake dragged me over. Figure I’m just a prisoner,” she added, a grin on her lips. “Kicking and screaming,” Jake agreed with a quiet laugh before he reached over to clap Damon on the shoulder. “C’mon, before we lose the herd. We should at least get in the gate before we all scatter.” He arched his brows lightly before he headed off toward the ticket booth so they could all find their way inside. After that, he figured he’d at least try to pin Cassi and her girls down so they knew when and where to meet up afterward so they could all get home without anyone having to walk. Damon had two categories of women (and men): hook ups, and those he didn’t generally try with because he didn’t figure he’d have a chance. Jaime was one of the latter, honestly. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t have confidence or boldness but that hooking up was easier. Less complicated. “Such a horrible fate,” he joked. “Imprisoned by two blue-eyed men.” Objectively he knew that both he and Jake were considered attractive by most people, and he supposed that was a good thing. Better than the alternative. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” he said, grinning at Jake. “I gotta eat some cotton candy STAT or I might explode.” He fell into step, patting his front pocket to double check he’d put his keys there. “Or maybe a hot dog first. I dunno why theirs are so good.” He just wouldn’t think about the fair’s sanitation practices or maybe lack thereof. “Yeah, could be worse. One of you could have brown eyes,” she teased. And wondered a little what it would be like before she shook her head slightly. No, better not to go there; she was barely coherent around Damon as it was; if she let her thoughts drift along that path … she’d lose what coherence she did have. Jake grinned, glancing briefly to Damon before shaking his head and leading through the ticket line. He realized once they were through Cassi and her friends were already gone, and he sucked in his cheeks hard so he didn’t laugh. “You might be stuck with us, killer,” he teased Jaime as he glanced around, trying to spot his sister or any of the other girls he’d brought in. Well, he’d text her, he guessed. He got it, too; he wasn’t an idiot. If matchmaker was a profession, Cassi would have presidential awards in it. Jaime shook her head slightly. “I’ll … find them. Wouldn’t want to crash boys’ night out,” she replied, folding her ticket stub to put it in her pocket. “I’ll … see you guys later,” she added, glancing briefly up to Damon before shoving her hands into her pockets again. The laughter wouldn’t be stopped, though Jake did his best to stifle it against his shoulder before he nodded toward what looked like a likely place to get a hot dog. “That way,” he said to Damon with a gesture. “Later,” Damon agreed, giving her a slight wave and a smile. He jammed his ticket stub into his front pocket with his keys, raising his eyebrows at Jake as he wondered what was funny. Eh, his friend would tell him or not. Right then he was intent on having a fair hot dog, the likes of which could not be recreated at home. He’d tried. It had been such a novelty to him back in the day, when he’d first moved out, to realize that he could work and buy food and make anything he wanted. He’d spent so many years being hungry growing up that it was nice to know there was another way of life. “I’m tryin’ to decide if I wanna go basic ketchup, mustard and cheese or pile on some onions and chili,” he said to Jake. It felt like an important decision when he was this hungry. “Well, there are a lot of options,” Jake pointed out, glancing toward the crowd to see Jaime disappearing into it. “I’d pace yourself. Lots of places to hit,” he pointed out, and he definitely wasn’t against sharing food, either, to help balance out the taste of everything parade. There was still a deeply amused expression on his face before he wiped one hand down his mouth as if that would help. Falling into line at the food place, he glanced around again before leaning over to regard the menu chalked on a board on the side of the truck. “You ever thought about asking her out?” He asked, and wonder of wonders he managed not to laugh his way through the sentence. Not because the idea was funny - and frankly, Cassi would probably kill him for violating some statute of secrecy for even mentioning it, but he wasn’t really sure how much longer he could watch and listen and not say something - but because of just how ridiculous everything had gotten with everyone apparently oblivious. Deciding he’d probably settle on a hamburger since he was in line here to start, he looked around to see what came next. Ice cream to cool down, some games maybe, rides if they weren’t too kiddie, and then back to the food. Priorities, he had them. Damon blinked. It took a lot to startle him, but that did, at least a little bit. “Why would I ask Jaime out?” he said. “One, I don’t date.” Jake would know that, knowing Damon as well as he did. Very very rarely had he done more than hook up with people, and that had been years in the past. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t thought about what it might be like to have a relationship, now that he was out of his twenties, but… yeah. “Two, I highly doubt she’d be interested in me.” Highly doubtful, he thought. She wasn’t someone he’d hit on just to hook up. That would be overly complex given that her best friend was Jake’s sister and she was also friends with Jake. Shaking his head a little and smiling ruefully, he examined the menu board, a tiny bit distracted from food now but still in the game. “I’ll give you one but I have it on if you tell anyone I’ll kill you authority you’re wrong on two,” he laughed. But he shrugged and lifted his hands with fingers splayed in a gesture of surrender. He wasn’t going to push; squishing people together like that was Cassi’s territory, not his. He just thought someone had to do something before somehow all the doors closed. If nothing happened, fine - no harm no foul. If they tried and it failed, well, shame on him and next time he wouldn’t butt in. But if they tried and succeeded, hell yes was he taking credit for sparking it. Even if it was total chance he’d overheard anything at all. Amusement still crinkled the corners of his eyes as he shuffled forward with the line until it was his turn to order. Moving aside to wait for his food, he looked around for other people he knew that might want to hang out with them. But he figured anyone here already had come with whatever group they were hanging out with. Suited him fine; Damon was good company and fairs were fun. “Huh,” Damon said, and that was all. He was a man who liked to think things through before discussing them in depth, if at all, and that was something he definitely hadn’t expected to hear. He ordered, going with a standard ketchup and cheese dog simply because the chili and onion one would be too messy to eat while walking around. Grabbing a handful of napkins, he stepped over next to Jake to wait, hoping he didn’t look like a guy who was mulling over his last few encounters with Jaime and trying to find clues. Damon had a pretty good neutral expression, at least, so maybe he didn’t. “Did we ever miss a year of this fair, once we got to high school?” he asked idly. He didn’t think they had, or at least he hadn’t. He’d found any odd jobs he could to be sure he had enough money to get in, every year since he’d been about fifteen. Jake grinned, but given that grin was pretty much his default expression, no real surprise there. Still, he wasn’t keen on poking and prying and harassing the issue. He’d dropped the information, and he was fine with that; if Cassi got wind he’d mentioned, well, he’d deal with it. Honestly though, he thought they deserved a chance at a chance or something. “Nah. Pretty sure I started a rumor it was illegal to skip it that accidentally caught on,” he laughed. Though he would’ve come anyway, rumor or no, because it was fun, it was food, it was a break from the schedule and the fireworks show always seemed more impressive than any fireworks show had a right to be. He’d seen a few on TV in other places, and always wondered where their firework dragons were. “You hittin’ the fireworks?” Tuesday night was hardly the best night but it wasn’t like they went real late; everything was usually cleared out by 10. And he was pretty sure he could get it going around it was illegal to miss that, too - but most people could see them from the house. Still, it was nicer to go out to the beach to watch them, or even to the high school if one preferred bleachers to sand in their pants. “It should be illegal to skip it,” Damon said, amused. It might seem odd for grown ups to be excited about the fair, but it was a small town. Not like they had a ton of options for entertainment. When Jake asked about the fireworks, he said, “I work ‘til 7 but I’m gonna come out after that.” Too bad he had a job at a business that wasn’t closed on the fourth, but such was life. He was used to working and wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he went too many days without it. He received his hot dog and immediately took a bite. Just as good as he expected. Things could change, but hopefully these never would. “Where to?” he asked once he’d swallowed his mouthful. He was easy. Even people-watching was fun when half the town had turned out for the fair. “Bet making you work through it would be illegal,” he replied thoughtfully as he picked up his burger before turning to survey their options. “Could go see if there’s anything to watch while we eat,” he reflected. “Or wander and see who else is here.” He paused, trying to stifle a grin. “Or we could go shopping at one of the booths.” Kidding, of course. Aside from the fact he didn’t think either of them were much for shopping, in his experience it was mostly homemade goods or quilts or things he wasn’t interested in buying. Unless the tee-shirt place was here … he’d look through that. Rolling his shoulders lightly in a shrug, he started off deeper into the fair. “Or we can look at what else is available for food and figure out how much we actually can stuff in ourselves.” He was pretty sure they could both eat and walk, and he was fine roaming until something caught their eye to look more closely at. Damon rolled his eyes at Jake for one of his suggestions. “Yeah, I think I might need to pick up a jar of honey with the comb still in it. Or maybe one of those fucking knit dolls that goes over the toilet paper roll.” He wasn’t into having a lot of stuff to sit around and collect dust Simple and utilitarian was where his home decor was at. He walked along with Jake, happily eating his hot dog as he glanced around. “I already know I’m gonna need an Icee and a funnel cake at the very least.” For a guy with a lanky build, he could put away a lot of food without any adverse effects. Summer was his least favorite season because of the heat, but he’d get through it. He always did. At least it was less warm now that night had fallen. “Shopping it is then,” he agreed with a laugh. Jake personally didn’t get clutter and knick-knacks either. Well, he had a substantial comic book collection but that was different. His own place was pretty barren as far as decorations went. There were a few posters tacked up on the wall - literal posters with literal thumbtacks - and one framed print that an ex had put up and he hadn’t bothered to take down. His second ‘bedroom’ had been converted into a workshop where he fucked around with woodworking or electrical stuff and where he had stashed appliances he intended to repair when there was nothing interesting going on or on TV. He did have to grin a little when Damon mentioned the Icee. He didn’t get how they had opposing powers but were both heat sensitive; it seemed so wrong to him that Damon sparked fire but didn’t like ambient heat. Go figure though; in a place like this, that probably wasn’t as weird as he was trying to make it out to be. “Maybe we’ll get snow this summer,” he reflected. It had happened at least a couple of times in his recollection, and it was always the best day of the summer for him. Nudging his shoulder, he nodded over toward a Hawaiian ice stand. “Shaved ice,” he crowed. “The one with all the flavors.” Well, it was the little things, right? Angling in that direction, he stood in front of the board with the sixty or so flavors listed, studying it while he finished his burger. Damon had a loathing for excess. He was intelligent enough to understand why that was, and he didn’t see it as a thing that needed changing. Some might consider his bed excessive: expensive cushiony mattress, high thread-count sheets made of cool materials, a lot of pillows. He felt that was different, because he enjoyed comfort. He always felt at ease at Jake’s place, possibly because it was a lot like his as far as aesthetic went. Whatever worked for a person, he’d always thought. “Hey, I could be down for some snow anytime,” he said, smirking at his friend. It was odd to him that Jake both generated and craved cold, but who the hell knew why the quirks worked the way they did? Not him, and he had better things to do than to try to figure it out. Stuffing down more of his hot dog, he changed directions when Jake nudged him, also on board with the notion of shaved ice. Once he wasn’t chewing, he said, “I like the way you think.” Jake chuckled quietly. "Fingers crossed. A solid mid-summer blizzard would be nice." He wouldn't have minded one during the fair, either, but he also didn't want anything to interrupt the fireworks display. Or make people crash on the way here. Like most places, people tended to forget how to drive in the snow. He laughed softly at Damon's words. "Figured there must be some reason we've been friends so long," he agreed before settling on his flavors and falling into line. Even as he waited, he people watched, looking for people he knew, or people he didn't know. In a town this size, with as many jobs he'd done at businesses and homes, he could recognize a fair bit of the population. He was also trying to keep an eye out for Cassi, figuring if he didn't touch base with her in person he'd text her, but he wasn't worried. They'd just gotten here and they had a whole night of fun, food, and adventure before them. An amused grin played briefly over his lips, but that was pretty standard for him. Shaking his head slightly, he ordered his shaved ice when he got up to the window and then moved over to the side to wait so he wasn't holding up the line. He did wonder a little if they were going to be here every night, but ... maybe not. Tonight, then he'd swing back again the last night with whoever else wanted to go, and that'd be good. |