ifiwereking (ifiwereking) wrote in mcdermott_game, @ 2010-09-02 16:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | amelie, amelie/chris, chris |
WHO: Chris and Amelie
WHAT: A first meeting
WHERE: Le The
WHEN: Wednesday August 25th. (Backdated)
RATING: PG
STATUS: Complete
It was odd for Chris to be in Le The, but Matt and Olivia had suggested it, and today was particularly rainy which called for something warm. As he walked in he was a bit overwhelmed at all the choices he had. He could straight tea, in what looked to be a wall of different flavours, green, black, white you name it. Or he could have something called a ‘london fog’ or other mixtures with milk, or cream. Not to mention the numerous side dishes along with it, crackers, cookies, pastries. All he could was scratch his head while looking at the menu.
Amelie was bored which wasn’t unusual but on this particular Thursday she was even more bored than usual. The place had been fairly quiet and at the moment she was sitting on a stool behind the counter flipping through a copy of “Vogue” that she had hidden under the register. It was two hours until quitting time and she was counting the hours. She was meeting Jared for pizza when she got off, it was their first date, and she was looking forward to it. They’d been talking daily since he’d gotten her number but between her work schedule and hers this had been their first chance to get together.
When Chris came in, she was happy to see him because at least he was someone to talk to. Amelie wasn’t good with names but she recognized his face from somewhere and while he looked at the menu, she studied him, trying to place him. It hit her just as she caught his eye and she got up to walk to the counter. “Hi,” she said. “I remember you. We were in Summer and Smoke together. Sorry I can’t remember your name though. What can I get you?”
Chris was confused to begin with and then all of a sudden a girl leaned over the counter and talked to him, once he clued in her face seemed familiar, “Um... right, Chris.” he said holding out his hand, “I’m terrible with names, you are?” The girl was blond and would stand out in a crowd, Chris wondered how he never noticed her before, most likely because he was so wrapped up in KJ at the time.
She was amused that he held out his hand, it was an old fashioned gesture and Amelie was charmed despite herself. “Yeah, Chris,” she said as she took his hand. “I’m Amelie and I’m not surprised you don’t remember me. I was one of the extras, I didn’t have any lines so I stood there a lot but I remember that you were very good.” Her words were sincere. Although she didn’t know much about theatre, she knew when someone was talented and Chris was.
Chris couldn’t believe what he was hearing, did a girl, who is pretty that attends his school just tell him he was good at acting? Was that a compliment? He just blinked for a second, “Oh thanks, but I doubt it, I’m not a senior student or anything,” In his head Chris was saying ‘oh yeah I know I’m that good’ but he knew girls didn’t like that kind of confidence.... or did they? Maybe he wouldn’t act so confident so soon, that was a good way to settle it. “Well you know the show couldn’t go on without the extras, you guys really help make the show.” This was true to Chris in the least, to him every part of a play was important.
“Well that doesn’t matter,” she said. “I mean whether you’re a senior or not. If you’ve got it, you’ve got it.” Amelie certainly felt that way about her dancing. She was good and she knew it although she wasn’t going to tell Chris that. No, she’d just try to pretend that she was modest even though she really wasn’t. “and thanks. I confess that I just tried out because my teacher suggested that we do it for extra credit. I’m a dance major and we had to take the intro to acting class. It was a lot of fun though.”
All of a sudden this all clicked, he recognized her from somewhere, “Are you friends with my brother Justin?” he asked randomly, it wouldn’t be a surprise Justin was so popular, unlike Chris. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore what you said... that’s really cool dancing, I caught one of your departments shows, you must be very talented.” Come to think of it Chris could have even seen her dance before he kicked himself for never noticing. He couldn’t believe how much KJ must have plagued his mind for so long.
“My roommate is,” she said. “Deanna Sykes. You’ve probably seen her around. She’s done the costumes for the past few theatre productions. She’s really good.” Amelie didn’t mind singing Dee’s praises in the least. She loved her roommate and besides she was speaking the truth, Dee was an excellent designer. “She works in the bookstore too so you might have seen in her in there. Works with Justin a lot.”
“That’s so weird, you know you guys actually look quite a like.” To Chris they were both pretty blonds and that was similar in his books, hopefully she didn’t take offense by it, he thought they both looked good. “I do remember Deanna now that you mention it.” Chris looked behind him to see that there was a line starting.
“Not that I’m not enjoying our conversation but, I have no idea what to order and you have a line growing behind me.” Chris felt completely helpless in this situation, why would you go somewhere when you have no idea on how to order? And it didn’t help that a pretty girl was taking that said order.
Amelie hadn’t noticed the line and even if she had, she wouldn’t have really cared. “Hmm..let’s see,” she said and glanced behind her shoulder at the menu. “Do you want something hot or cold? If you want cold, the iced tea lemonade is pretty good, so is the bubble tea once you get used to the tapioca balls floating around in it. I thought it was gross at first but I got used to it. If you want hot, the chai is good.” She had the menu pretty much memorized by now but looking at it made her seem more efficient. Or so she believed.
Chris was now left with a couple of things to choose from and he still didn’t even know where to begin, then he realized he had extra change in his pocket. He placed the amount that would cover any of the drinks on the menu plus a hefty tip. “I’m sorry I’m so indecisive, but can you surprise me with something? I’ve never really drank... tea before.” Now he must have sounded incredibly stupid, but he didn’t know what else to do, besides he didn’t mind giving her an extra tip for being so nice.
She laughed, thinking that he was pretty cute and wondering why she hadn’t noticed him before. “Okay but be warned, I’m going to surprise you.” Smiling she took the money and put it in her pocket before she turned to the machine. Over the summer she’d gotten pretty good at making the drinks although she still had a few issues with the bubble tea machine. Deciding that the iced tea lemonade was the way to go, she mixed up a green tea with lemonade and cherry syrup and prepared it for Chris. Once she was done, she counted out the money that was due, and gave his his change along with his drink. “There you go. I hope you like it. It’s my favorite thing to make for myself. It’s not on the menu either because I made it up. You’ve got an Amelie original.”
Chris smiled wildly, “I like that, I’ll try and come up with a suitable name for it while I’m enjoying it... I’m a writer you know,” he held up his notebook, this is why he had come to relax and write after all. He realized that must have sounded corny, but he took a table close by to where she was, as well as a newspaper for a quick read. He sipped it and the drink of delicious, he offered her a thumbs up before diving into the paper letting her finish serving the customers behind him.
As hard as he tried Chris didn’t get much reading done, he was too busy continually looking up and watching Amelie work, he was kicking himself for never noticing her before.
She knew he was watching and truth be told, she was getting a huge kick out of it. Amelie loved being noticed, she always had and as she worked, she stole glances at Chris, wondering why she’d never paid any attention to him. He was cute and he seemed very nice. While he might not be the kind of guy she usually went for, maybe it was time to try something new.
When her shift ended two hours later, Chris was still there and she found herself wishing that she didn’t have to meet Jared. While she was in the back getting her purse and things, it suddenly hit her. She didn’t have to meet Jared. It wasn’t as if they were serious and she didn’t really owe him anything. Deciding that she’d much rather go out and talk to Chris, she pulled out her phone and sent Jared a quick text, telling him that she wasn’t feeling well and asking for a raincheck. Thankfully he answered her quickly and she breathed a sigh of relief as she returned to the front. Seeing that Chris was still sitting there, she bounced over and sat down in the chair across from him. “Hi,” she said. “You’re still here. I’m glad.”
After some time Chris finally got down to writing, he would listen to the crowd around him, which sparked his imagination. He made a note to himself that he would come back here again, it was a great atmosphere his drink was fantastic, and a pretty girl worked here.
Now that said pretty girl sat across from him, clearly off of her shift, “Oh,” he closed his notebook, “Hi... yeah, just doing some writing.” he smiled at her, and lifted the empty cup from which he drank the drink she made him, “Great drink by the way.”
“I’m glad you liked,” she said with a smile. “I got bored one day and started messing around with the syrup and that was the result. I tried putting vanilla in it once but vanilla lemonade kind of tasted like shit so I abandoned that idea.” Amelie glanced at the notebook, curious as to what he’d been doing. “What kind of stuff do you write? Poetry, short stories?”
Chris shook his head, “Well you managed to come up with something pretty tasty.” Clearly there was barely anything left in his cup which meant he really liked it. It took Chris a second to process that she had asked him about his writing, the only other person that cared to do that was KJ, but she was friends with him before that happened. Did girls actually like writers?
“Right now its nothing special...” he flipped through the pages of his small notebook, “It’s a play actually, I was a writer before I started acting.” Writing had always been Chris’ stronger passion, and he never denied it, you couldn’t find him anywhere without a pen and paper.
“That’s cool,” said Amelie, propping her hand on her chin and looking at him. “I wish I could write. My friend, Keira, that’s what she does. I used to read her stuff all the time and she’s pretty good. Me? I do good to put two words together that make sense. Now if you told me to dance it, that I could do.” She loved creating stories with movement, with listening to what a piece of music told her and expressing herself that way. It had never crossed her mind that she was writing too, just with movement and not words.
Chris couldn’t believe that he was having a conversation with a girl for more than just a couple minutes, with a pretty one at that. He had secretly been writing about her in his play, she became a new character of his, part of this was because he was taken with her, and found that her confidence was very attractive, and a good attribute for a female character. “You must dance lovely,” he said making an assumption as to what genre, “Ballet?” he asked curiously, her limbs were made to dance ballet, he could tell.
“Yeah, how did you guess?” Amelie was impressed that he figured it out so quickly. “My parents are figure skaters, ice dancers to be exact, so I guess it comes naturally. They wanted me to skate but I didn’t like it so I started dancing. I love ballet. I would love to choreograph a ballet of my own one day.”
Chris smiled slyly, the reason he had guessed was because of her beautiful figure, and well the long legs at which made him loose his breath-- they were his weakness. But he wouldn’t tell her that, “I guess I have an intuition when it comes to that.” he was impressed when he heard her talk about her family, surely she must be a great dancer if it ran in her bloodline. He decided to crack a joke, “Maybe you and I should team up and do an Opera.” he shot her a wink. Why did he always have to be so corny?
Amelie laughed and shook her head. “Oh no. I mean I can choreograph something to just about anything but I can’t write music. If you can find someone to do that, you write the book, and I do the choreo we might have something though.” She was enjoying talking to him and not in the least sorry that she’d cancelled her date with Jared. Not that Jared wasn’t hot because he was but so was Chris, just in a different way and besides there was a lot to be said for conversation which was something she would never have thought a few months ago.
He bit his lip, “Yeah, a friend of mine does music, so I might need your contact information.... you know if it ever pans out?” Chris was looking down at his notebook, and when he was bold and asked her for her information, he looked up to her expectantly. He hoped that he didn’t mess this up, this was the first time it ever felt natural for him to do so.
She knew what he was doing. It was his way of asking for her number and Amelie found herself completely charmed by it. “Oh of course,” she said. “I’ll be glad to give it to you.” She grabbed a napkin from the holder on the table and dug in her purse for a pen. When she found one, she scribbled down her phone number and email, handing it across to him. “You have to give me yours too. I might think of an idea that I just have to text you.” Amelie didn’t have to wonder if he’d actually use the information. She knew he would.
Chris shot her a charming smile, so she had caught on to what he was doing, but she had wanted his information too? Inside his mind, a small Chris was running laps around a large city as fast as you could imagine. He was overjoyed, there was no other point in his life that he asked a girl for their number and succeeded. Chris was about to write his on a napkin when he thought of an excuse to text her, and get them in conversation sooner, “Why don’t I text you my number and email later?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
He was entirely too cute, Amelie thought and gave him her most winning smile. “That sounds perfect. I’m never without my phone so I’ll be sure and get it.” It would be fun getting to know him she decided and found herself looking forward to getting to know him better. Glancing at the clock, she sighed. “I hate to run but I need to get home. My roommate is probably wondering where I’ve gotten off too.” That wasn’t exactly true since Deanna knew that she was meeting Jared but she wanted to play at least a little hard to get with Chris and besides she was curious to see if he’d really text her.
Chris pulled the napkin towards him and smiled, “Sure, no problem,” He opened up his notebook, in preparation for her to leave, “I’m going to stay and write some more, but it was really nice to meet you... Amelie.” His grin was charming, in his head his mind was reeling as to what he should do next, should he text her tonight, or the day after... he was going to have to talk to Matt about this-- he had a girlfriend after all.
“Nice to meet you too, Chris. I’ll look forward to your text.” With a smile, she got up and waved at him, heading out the door to the parking lot. She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Deanna about this!