Tandy Bowen doesn't have to pick between (cloakndagger) wrote in repose,
Re: [Tandy & Holly: the good diner]
"I'm still way more into Roy Lichtenstein than either of those." Which wasn't a comment on Marilyn. Tandy had no strong feelings about Marilyn, either for her position in the arc of feminist theory or for her appearance in Warhol. He was actually not that into Warhol, which was big picture not that important given the current context. Holly ordered more stuff on fries and Tandy felt a little of the clenched fist around his gut un-clench. Which was pure metaphor for what he knew was smooth muscle contraction and constriction given the high likelihood of uncertainty as to whether he needed to GTFO of there but it made him weirdly more comforted to think of it like a fist.
"You do. But other people are way less into the fry plus sloppy sauce scenario, except if it's a regularly scheduled condiment. It's a textural thing, maybe, I don't really know." Which was so toe-stepping the real conversation but Tandy was logging all the differentials that could possibly be taking place right now that distinguished this Holly from his friend back home, but there weren't many making a grand appearance. Maybe they were minimal? Sub-surface, and this felt a lot like grasping at anything vaguely scientific sounding to keep from an overly-emotional reaction.
The doodle wasn't his best work. Tandy looked down at it, and looked up at the guy across from the booth, the guy who looked like the guy he had eschewed climbing trees with, in lieu of watching a series of movies they were definitely under the age-rating for. But Tandy wasn't a guy big on expectations. He didn't weight them, he was looking at Holly fry-dip with the kind of divorced attachment that was cultivated over years and years of watching his mom fuck up over and over, irrespective of what he did. It was a coping mechanism.
"I did. Kinda. He wasn't super talkative. He said he was from here and also from where you're from? Where I'm from? There was a coma, he woke up and he's here."