Peter Kimura Whelan (itakunai) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-10-21 18:00:00 |
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"I can't believe we went three years without stuff like this." Pete took a seat outside in Savannah's enclosed backyard patio, doughnut and coffee from the Doughnut Hole in hand, next to two of his oldest friends in Austin. It sort of felt like he was a kid skipping school, not reporting into work until the next day, but he wasn't yet ready to go back. And if he had friends who were willing to meet up with him around lunchtime while he was crashing at Savannah's place, well. He wasn't going to complain or tell them to go to work. "Outdoor seating, kind of… dogs playing in what passes for grass these days. It's almost enough to make you think society's back to normal." He took a bite of his doughnut, only too aware that all of them had been affected by what had happened over the last month, then added, "It beats living out of an office, at least. And we could even post this on Instagram when we're done." On cue Rose leaned over Pete’s head, letting her hair flop over his face as she snapped a quick picture of his sugar-filled lunch. “Yours is prettier.” Was the only reply she gave before taking her own seat with her own bounty of sugar. Sliding her shoes off she curled her feet underneath her, tossing a look towards Finn and Harper; probably the most carefree creatures in the entire city. Turning back she looked at him with a smirk. “Office living was like...weird college dorms without the frat parties but everyone was fraternizing. This is much roomier, though. We can even have frat parties now.” Grinning at her own sarcasm she took a bite, humming in pleasure at the sweet but tart taste of strawberry on her tongue. “Pass on the frat parties,” Savannah said, her wrinkled her nose at the idea. She was too old for that and though she had two teenagers (okay, well technically one but it was easy to lump Liv into that category) living with her, she wasn’t quite ready to relive those days. If only because the cleanup was like hell. Pete laughed, glancing between the two women. "Are you sure? I remember once upon a time you kinda liked those kinds of parties." Austin before 2016 had been full of that kind of stuff, even after he and Savannah had split and they only saw each other when they went out with the rest of the others: Demi, Rose, Reese, Nick… "I guess times change. But at least we have doughnuts again." “What’dja get?” Rose mumbled quite successfully while shifting her gaze to look for the other blonde. For how big of a bite she took it was a wonder Rose even knew what she had said. “Maple and bacon,” Savannah responded, her face shifting to a grin, both from the donut and from how amusing it was watching her friend talking with her mouth that full. At least it was obvious Rose was enjoying herself. “Don’t think I’ll ever get sick of bacon now that we have it again. Lotta people say it’s overhyped, but I just don’t agree with ‘em.” Rose nodded enthusiastically in agreement, still trying to manage her food. "Those people don't know what they're talking about, or they've never lived through what we have," Pete declared. “My favorite is wrapping a seasoned, boneless pork chop in bacon and broiling it.” She wiggled to show her enthusiasm at the idea. “I think I asked for it like, every week as a kid.” They'd all been through the wringer, but things kept going on. Pete wished he could spend more than five minutes on something without thinking back to his own mortality, and that of his friends, but he was beginning to see that was par for the course now. "We should do more of this kind of stuff. Hanging out, I mean." “Mm..Will it involve doughnuts every time? I’m not saying that’s going to make it or break it, but it is an incentive.” She shot him an affectionate smirk before taking a much more manageable, nearly nibble of a bite from her treat. “Or pork chops.” "We can do pork chops. Walker's sells them, right?" Not that Pete necessarily wanted to go to that hot mess of a grocery store, but if they wanted to eat non-UMCB food -- which was better than it used to be, with fresh meat and vegetables, but still not that flavorful -- they didn't have much of a choice. "Maybe we can do something with the whole gang some time," he said carefully, aware that not everyone would be able to attend. "Us, Reese, Demi, Nick…" He glanced over at Savannah, then added, "Nathan…" Rose’s eyes went to Pete, though for an entirely different reason, but she did her best to just retreat further into her chair and focus on sibling drama. Savannah wrinkled her nose at her brother’s name but after a moment she gave a nod. “Yeah, we can invite my stupid brother. I’m goin’ to pick him up tomorrow, so I guess he ain’t entirely on my shit list anymore.” Being mad at him and fighting with him was easy, but it wasn’t the same as when they were kids. There weren’t any parties she was trying to tag along to and it wasn’t like she needed to blackmail him and threaten to tell their parents about something stupid he’d done if he didn’t give her her way. It just left her feeling sad and empty. The sooner they got back to being okay, the better. “What kind of get together are we thinkin’? Thanksgivin’ will be next month. Which reminds me I’ll need to order a turkey soon for it to get here in time from Denver.” Having finished her doughnut Rose threw a hand into the air. “Friendsgiving!” she nearly squealed the idea. “Let’s have Friendsgiving, celebrating friends here and...not here.” Much to Rose’s own surprise and pride her voice didn’t break, she even managed a smile. "We can have it here, or at my place. I’ve got a pretty big space and it’s just me and puppers over there.” She motioned absent mindedly to the dogs throwing down behind them somewhere. “Finn can come if we have it at my place, but I want to take a family photo. I haven’t had one of those in a while.” She looked back and forth between her friends, almost anxious for an approval of the idea, though she didn't have to ask twice; Pete was busy nodding his agreement. "We can even do a joint birthday and Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving thing," he suggested, taking Rose's idea and snowballing further. "Savannah's big 3-0 is coming up on the second, and I'm 32 on the 6th. Isn't Maizie's birthday coming up soon?" He vaguely remembered it from last year, anyway. He grinned encouragingly at both of his friends, hoping Rose was feeling good about this idea considering everything. "It'll be fun. All of us in one place for one awesome celebratory day." Nodding as well, Savannah said, “Didn’t know you even remembered that but Maizie’s is on the fifth. I’m all on board for combinin’ as many things together as possible and distractin’ from the fact that I’ll be thirty.” She groaned while Rose rolled her eyes so hard it might have made her dizzy. It wasn’t even that thirty was so bad but when she thought of how her life would be at this age and compared it to her reality, she just didn’t feel ready to be reaching this milestone in her life. “Well, thirty isn’t that bad. Trust me, I’ve already done it once. Like fine wine and ignoring text messages from people, it all just gets better with time.” Rose added lightly, trying to forget she was old. "Yeah. Exactly." Pete made a show of rolling his eyes at Savannah, the youngest of the three of them, though he followed it up with a grin. “Besides,” Savannah added, “Plannin’ that many parties and wranglin’ everyone up that many times is a nightmare. I think we’ll have better luck fittin’ into everyone’s schedule if there’s just one day to plan for.” “Well, it sounds like we have a plan--and a lot of baking to do.” Raising her eyebrows she looked at the remnants of her doughnut napkin. “Or we could support local business and buy in bulk. Birthday-giving doughnuts. We will be having pumpkin and pecan pie though. I don’t negotiate on those.” A serious look was shot at them both. “Pie is serious.” "Thanksgiving friendsgiving pie and birthday cake." Pete paused to finish the last of his doughnut, nodding his head in approval. "This is already shaping up to be quite the party. Do you guys think they still have turkeys around? Maybe we'll get some shipped down here." Rose made a curious face at the legitimate question. “Uh--well I hope so unless we want pigeons or squirrels, and despite popular belief, I am not that southern. Though I bet the dogs could probably catch squirrels…" Letting out an exaggerated groan and a shudder, Savannah shook her head vigorously. “No way is any Thanksgivin’ in this house servin’ pigeons and squirrels as the main course. I think I actually heard about some turkey orders happenin’ so I’ll fight whoever in that grocery store to make sure I get one,” she laughed. Having a day like this to look forward to already had Savannah more than excited and she couldn’t wait to get started on all the details. “Just you wait and see. It’s gonna be great.” |