Shannon Murphy (shantastic) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2022-02-08 11:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | #june 2018, shan, shan x shane, shane |
Who: Shan & Shane
Where: Grocery store
When: Early Sunday afternoon, 6/24
Status: complete
Shane was kind of excited to get back home though he had no intentions of staying there. There was a carnival in town and he was stupidly excited about going there. Actual rides and showmanship to break up the monotony of small town living, it didn't even faze him that this was his life now. He just wanted to go home, get Reza and come back and have fun. Reza usually matched him nicely when it came to having fun, but it was going to be interesting to see how he felt about heights and speed. First Shane needed to finish shopping though, they were out of practically everything since neither of them had felt like going out the day before and he doubted they'd feel up to shopping after the carnival.
He was rushing a little since he would much rather be having fun already, and he wasn't the only one. Two cart collisions already but in both cases all parties involved could laugh it off and Shane tried to slow down a little, the carnival wasn't that important.
He turned into one of the aisles (carefully this time) and very nearly walked right by the woman standing there before stopping to do a double take. There was that tug of familiarity and his eyes widened a little when recognition kicked in. He barely knew her but they'd had a wild weekend in Atlantic City a couple of years ago and she was hard to forget. Her name was even hard to forget, considering they almost had the same one, though he wouldn't have been able to remember her last name. "Jesus Christ," he blurted out. "Shan?" He didn't need to ask, she was memorable and meeting her here of all places was nothing short of insane.
Shan loved to shop. Unfortunately, there weren’t many options for that in Point Pleasant, so she tended to take her time doing any shopping that needed to be done just so she could linger in that retail therapy. She was standing in the grocery store pondering different types of cereal when someone passed by her and then said her name. Shan blinked rapidly, her brows lifting, and she looked around, a bit startled. She was even more startled that she immediately recognized the man who was staring at her, standing in the last place she would expect to see him ... something she’d never expected to do again in the first place.
“Ohmygod ... Shane?” she also needlessly asked, a bright grin breaking out over her face. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Shan dropped the box of cereal into her cart and stepped in closer, arms lifting to hug him. It felt like the natural thing to do -- he’d been so much fun when they’d hung out.
It had been a couple of years ago but it might as well have been just a couple of weeks, so it came naturally to give her a big hug. She felt the same, all curves and boobs that could kill a man and Shane let himself linger for a few seconds, laughing in surprise. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" God, his life felt so surreal lately. Running into Shan of all people in Point Pleasant of all places was just another weird as shit thing to happen to him. He took hold of her arms to look at her when they stopped hugging, almost lost for words. "We're still in the middle of nowhere, Maine, right? I didn't accidentally teleport to New Jersey?"
Shan’s memory wasn’t always the best for obvious reasons, but some people just burned bright in her life, and Shane had been one of them. Their time together had been very short, but fantastically wild, and Shan truly valued some good hedonism in a person. And goddamn, he was still so gorgeous. She rubbed his back with enthusiasm during the hug, then had to laugh, because she was feeling the same bafflement as he was. “No? At least I don’t think so?!” she exclaimed, giggling. “Unless you somehow brought me with you, because I was just in bumfuck Maine, soooo ... again, what the fuck are you doing here?” Shan laughed again and bounced a little, feeling positively giddy at the moment.
"What the fuck are we doing in bumfuck Maine?" Shane exclaimed in pure delighted bafflement but okay, one of them had to go first and it might as well be him. He wasn't about to tell her the real reason he was here of course, but he could tell her what - or who - he was usually doing here. "I rented a fucking house up in Overlook, you know the place? Stupid fancy place. I'm kinda living with this guy. No, I am living with a guy. For the summer at least, I don't know, it's been a crazy couple of months. Now you, why are you here? This is so far away from anything fun! Unless you're here to make it fun, I could get on board with that." Of course that wouldn't involve drugs and he almost regretted that for a moment because their weekend had been insane but then again insane was probably not a great fit for Point Pleasant and he knew for sure drugs didn't mix well with the place. Meeting Shan made him regret that again. "Are you staying here for a while or just passing through?"
She had definitely heard of Overlook by now, and wasn’t at all surprised to hear that Shane was staying up there. He’d seemed like the type of guy who thrived on decadence, and he hadn’t hesitated to buy all kinds of shit when they’d been hanging out, so Shan knew he had some money. She took a second to scoff in her own brain at Caden’s family -- if she’d wanted to randomly marry some rich dude for his money, she would’ve picked Shane. Or someone else like him. “Uhh, I’m here for a while, maybe?” Shan answered first with a laugh and a wrinkled nose. She lifted her left hand to flash the gold wedding band there, wiggling her fingers. “I got married to a guy who lives here. It wasn’t really planned, just an impulse thing we did on a bender? But like, Atlantic City was starting to suck anyway, so why not give it a shot, right? He’s hot as fuck and has a great dick, so ...” Shan trailed off and shrugged like those were obvious justifications.
Shane almost asked why the fuck she'd gotten married but then she told him why and that made a lot more sense to him than the classic tale of falling in love and changing her ways - at least for Shan. "Oh honey, you're going to be so bored here," he said jovially. "Not this week, maybe. There's an actual fucking carnival in town!" He tilted his head and looked at her as he pushed himself back on track. "Who's the lucky guy?" Great dick and hot as fuck only went so far but they were a fantastic start. He wondered if he knew the guy - or knew of him. Probably not, but he could snoop around. He had a few locals in his phonebook now. "Who got you on the straight and narrow, Shan?" He laughed again because he very much doubted she was anywhere near that path, hell if he wasn't closer to it himself these days.
Shan laughed with him, an agreeable edge of sarcasm to it -- they both knew how likely that was, or Shane at least ought to have a good idea of it from the time they’d spent together. “Yeah, I’ve heard it’s not the most fascinating place,” she told him with a smirk and a shrug. “That just means more time to make my own fun, right?” Shan hadn’t heard about the carnival yet, or noticed the ferris wheel peeking up above the trees, but getting wasted and going on rides sounded like a blast to her. “His name’s Caden Lucas ... him and his brothers own this dive bar in town? The Back Porch?” Having been there, Shan knew it wasn’t Shane’s kind of place, but she couldn’t imagine him not hitting up every bar in this tiny-ass town just to see what it was like.
Shane had been to The Back Porch a few times by now and heard enough gossip to know roughly who was who of the Lucas brothers though he still wasn't sure about the names. He knew enough that he couldn't help the surprised and amused grimace that flickered on his face before he laughed. "Oh shit. Which one is he? The puppy, the grouch or the murder-face?" It was hard to suss out which of these guys was most likely to get wasted and marry a stranger in Atlantic City, if he was better with names and actually paid attention to things people gossiped about around him, he'd know a lot more about a lot of people in town but his interest in things was sporadic and selective.
She barked out another laugh at those descriptions, and even though she hadn’t been in this town or this family long, she knew exactly who Shane was talking about. “Murder-face,” Shan answered, still grinning brightly. “Puppy is getting married next month, and the grouch has a live-in girlfriend ... but Caden recently got single and ended up in Atlantic City to party away his sorrows or celebrate or whatever. We hit it off, and ...” She shrugged again, like the rest of it was self explanatory, since she’d pretty much already summed it up. “I know he’s got that kind of look, but he’s not that bad, at least not with me, so far.” Shan knew her standards for treatment in a relationship might not line up with everybody else’s, but she didn’t care. “Tell me about this guy you’re definitely totally living with.”
Shane groaned affectionately when she asked about Reza. "I'm stupid about him," he said with a pained expression. "He was supposed to be just for fun, you know? A couple weeks of vacation together turned into... I don't even fucking know. I'm in deep. He's too fucking hot, stylish, stubborn, gorgeous." He rolled his eyes and huffed softly. "I have pictures if you wanna see'em." He was already fishing out his phone, eager to show her and that spoke volumes about how stupid he was about Reza. Shan reminded him of his life Before and some part of him wanted to still be there while he was talking to her; cool and unattached and ready to have fun. At least it wasn't baby pictures.
Shan’s brows gradually rose higher as Shane gushed, her grin growing at the same pace. She felt both highly amused and slightly jealous, because he was just glowing. Shan definitely didn’t glow about Caden yet, but maybe they needed a few more weeks. “No shit I wanna see ‘em,” she answered with a laugh, shifting in a little closer to Shane to peer at his screen. That was always a good way to accidentally see a dick pic, but she’d already seen his dick so who gave a shit. “So you met him in Chicago and not here?” she asked. “Does he have like, family here or something?”
She hadn't seen Reza's dick and Shane tried not to open up those particular photos, tapping open a recent one of Reza in the kitchen, shirtless with a slightly indulgent smile for the camera, verging on an eye roll. It was a recent favorite but he still didn't think it did enough to show off those perfect lips and bedroom eyes. He huffed softly at the question as he showed her the picture. "Him? No." I do was on the tip of his tongue, but that was fucking complicated so he bit back on it. "I have some friends here, one of them needed a pick-me-up so why the hell not. You'll probably need one too before too long or you'll run back to Atlantic City, so it's a good thing I'm around."
She peered at Shane’s new love interest and she could see where he was getting all those effusive adjectives from -- the guy was attractive. He was a bit too skinny for Shan’s taste, but she wasn’t the one fucking him, so her opinion didn’t truly matter. So she made an appropriately impressed sound and grinned at Shane. “Very nice,” she said. “People keep saying stuff like that to me ever since I got here ... is it really that boring? I think I’m still like, neon-detoxing from AC or something, because I’m kind of liking the quiet so far.” She had freedom to shop and drive around and even go to Bangor if she wanted to, so Shan hadn’t felt stifled so far. “I mean, it’s a good thing you’re around anyway, of course,” she added, giving him a little hip bump.
Shane put his phone away, even if he had this insane urge to show her more pictures, like he had something to be proud of in hooking a man this fine. It was kind of a dumb feeling. "Okay, yeah, it's not as boring as it should be," he admitted in a drawl. "Which isn't always a good thing but after the weekend we had I don't think much will faze you. Hell I'm surprised we didn't get married, it was a crazy time." He tittered and it was hard to find it in himself to actually worry about Shan here. She was tough as nails and she seemed to take things in stride. Bold assessments from only having ever spent a weekend with her but had been an epic one and he felt like he knew her pretty well. Of course she might have changed, people apparently did that even if Shane was shit at it. She was liking the quiet, that sure as hell didn't seem like the Shan he remembered. "I'm kinda liking the quiet too, but there's been some wild parties."
Shan considered herself multi-dimensional, and while she loved to party, she could get tired of it too. It had been a rough couple of months before Caden had happened along, socially speaking, and Shan was smart enough by now to know when she needed downtime. Maybe she would get bored in short order here, but Shan wasn’t going to bail before that even happened. She chuckled over the thought of marrying Shane instead, pretty sure that would have been immediately annulled instead of ... well, whatever you would call this arrangement with Caden. “Every small town I’ve ever been to knows how to throw some ragers sometimes,” Shan said with a grin. “They’re just usually out in fields instead of in clubs. Which suits me fine when the weather’s nice, I’ll throw down anywhere. ... Any wild parties you and your boy have hosted? In that bigass Overlook house?” Shan’s tone suggested that they definitely should do that, if they hadn’t already.
"How about you give me your number and I'll let you know about any wild parties, Overlook or not," he murmured and unlocked his phone again to open up his contacts. "Sad to say there won't be drugs at my parties," he added. "Unless you bring your own. I'm uh- kinda boring right now." He typed in Shan's name as he spoke, chiding himself for feeling embarrassed about that bit. Not doing drugs wasn't lame, he'd almost fucking died, but it was weird to tell a former party partner that he was all but sober these days. "Hit me with your number," he added when he was ready. "And tell me where you're staying. You anywhere near the Porch?"
“We’re in Seaview, the trailer park,” Shan said with a hint of wry amusement, like she knew how that sounded. It didn’t bother her, she wasn’t one of those prissy bitches. The mobile home was decent enough and she was comfortable. All of this felt like a temporary situation anyway, and if it turned out not to be ... well, she could eventually convince Caden to elevate himself. Shan recited her phone number for Shane to put into his phone, studying his face a bit closer while he wasn’t looking at her. “And for the record, you couldn’t be boring if you tried, darling,” she added in a drawl. “Did you clean up for your boy, or what?”
"Hey, I have some friends in Seaview," Shane said with a smile and it was tempting to ignore her question altogether because it made him uncomfortable but it wasn't like he needed to tell her everything that had happened. "And nah, not really. This place just has a weird vibe all on its own, it really doesn't need drugs on top of it all." He sent her a text message as he spoke, just his name and a smiley, then looked up again and smirked. "I know that sounds crazy but uh, just watch your back out here. I'm not really superstitious but this town makes you question shit, that's for sure." He probably sounded like he'd done a little too much of his drugs by now but that was okay, he might not know Shan well, they'd partied and fucked, but he knew at least back then she hadn't been judgmental of lunatics and junkies so even if she thought he'd lost his marbles, she wouldn't hold it against him.
Seeing as how she’d been given some cryptic warnings already from other random people here, Shan didn’t chalk Shane’s words up to drugs. Her phone buzzed in her pocket from his text, but she didn’t reach for it, studying him with a furrowed brow instead. “What is it, like ... all built on an Indian burial ground or something?” she asked, her tone only mildly sarcastic. “People keep saying shit like that to me, I feel like I’m in the first part of a horror movie, you know? What shit have you questioned?” Shan wasn’t really sure what-all she believed of the supernatural. She definitely didn’t have any faith in God, the world was too chaotic and awful for her to buy into that ‘loving deity’ nonsense. But ghosts and shit? Maybe they existed, Shan didn’t know.
"It's hard to explain," Shane said with a little grimace because he wasn't about to jump into telling her all about psychics and magic but then again, maybe she'd need to know if she spent any real amount of time here. "I just know this town can affect your mood. There was some fog a while back that drove everyone crazy or some shit. Reza and me had a thing... He heard his sister screaming, his sister who's in Chicago. And it was in Arabic too so it wasn't just a mistaken identity kind of thing. He was rattled. And me? I..." He shook his head and huffed softly. "I'm a hedonist, you know that, but I kinda went overboard one day and apparently a bunch of people did too. Eating too much, sleeping too much, I don't even know. Indulging. It was out of control. I lost my shit that day, fucked up big time." He huffed again, then laughed it off like it hadn't really been a big deal. "Just a lot of weird shit happens here, maybe it's because people tell these stories and everyone believes them hard enough, you know? Mass hysteria."
Shan’s face went through a small journey as she listened to all of that, settling somewhere in the region of concern. She didn’t think he was bullshitting her, even though he laughed, and she didn’t think Shane was completely crazy ... but how well did she really know him? Though if his boyfriend had been involved in some stuff too, that was hard to completely dismiss. “Wow, all that’s ... interesting,” she said, unable to come up with a better word on the spot. It was stuff she kind of wanted to ask Caden about, fairly sure he wouldn’t bullshit her either. He didn’t seem like a man who joked around a lot. “Maybe there’s -- I dunno, some crazy chemicals in the water or something? Sounds wild, man. Are you okay though? From like, losing your shit?” Shane looked fine, but Shan had spent enough time around drug users to know that looks could be deceiving.
"I'm great," Shane said casually enough. "And yeah, maybe it's in the water. Let's start drinking imported stuff. Shit I sound insane, talk to me about it again when you've lived here a little while - if you last that long." That last he said with a cock of an eyebrow, because really he was curious to see how long a marriage like that could last. How good could that guy's dick really be? "Enough crazy talk, you got any plans? You gonna work at that little bar your husband owns?" God that was a weird thing to ask considering who he was talking to and he didn't try to hide the fact, tittering a little like he'd just said a naughty word. "You need to make some time to come party with me at Dragonfly, it's a much better bar."
Shan wasn’t sure that she believed he was great, or even okay, but she couldn’t really contradict him. She minded her own damn business as a personal rule. He would either tell her sometime or he wouldn’t, but she did hope he was really okay. Rolling with the subject change, Shan huffed a little at the H-word herself, then shook her head. “Hell no, I’ll never waitress again. I don’t think he wants me there anyway, hanging around all the time. That would probably fuck this up faster than anything,” she said. “Since there’s nowhere decent around here to dance for cash, I’m kind of thinking about teaching classes? I need to find a space I can install some poles, though. I definitely need something to do with my time.”
That perked Shane right up and his brows rose - more sincerely now - as he 'oohed' quietly. "That sounds like a lot of fun. Fuck, I'm picturing Reza on a pole... Fuck that'd probably kill me. You gotta do that, sign me up with a plus one." He loved watching dancers, whether they were stripping or not, and pole dancing was like a circus act, magical and otherworldly when done right. "Please don't tell me this is a plan that'll take months to set up, I'll install a fucking pole in our living room and hire you for private lessons." He didn't really have permission for that, but it was easier to pay for mistakes than it was to get permission so screw it, he'd do it if he wanted to.
Her brows rose at that and she laughed. “No shit, you would do that? I don’t have a timeline yet, this is all kinda impulsive.” That didn't feel like much of a confession, considering what other major life decisions she’d spontaneously made lately. But maybe if Shane was providing the space, she wouldn’t have to involve Caden at all. Depending on how generous Shane wanted to be for private lessons, of course. “I have no doubts you could rock a pole, but you think your boy would even be interested? Is he much of a dancer?” Shan asked, her tone bemused. It would no doubt be hot, and she was sure that’s where Shane’s mind was, but if Reza didn’t want to learn at all, then it was kind of moot.
"Oh he can dance," Shane all but purred. "Pole would take training for both of us but it looks like a lot of fun." He just barely kept himself from ordering one right now on his phone, it was hard not to act on his impulses immediately but he supposed it could wait until he got back to the house. He'd do it before he told Reza, his boy was more grounded and might try to talk him out of it. "And yeah no shit I would do that, hell we could go into business together, I think this town needs something like that, something to spice things up in a good way." He had seen Shan dance, and while he didn't remember all of the details of their weekend together, he did remember that part. He also wasn't terribly afraid of going on a failed business venture, it was just another way to burn money.
Shan wasn’t too surprised that Shane’s boyfriend would be into it -- he wasn’t the type of guy who would settle with someone boring. She wasn’t positive that he was settled, exactly, but he definitely seemed into this guy. “Man, teaching pole in like, a private home would probably be ideal ... I’d need big full-length mirrors and more than one pole,” she said, her tone slightly hopeful. If Shane wanted to build a little studio in his Overlook place, who was she to stop him? Especially if she got to use it to make some money herself. “I’d cut you in, of course. For the space.” Maybe it was a crazy stupid idea, but since when had Shan been opposed to those? A crazy, stupid idea had led her here, after all, and look who she’d found! The universe was a weird place. “No pressure though, it might be a pain in the ass to maintain for like, classes. I’ll teach you and your boo though, for sure.”
That sounded like a lot more hassle than just one pole and Shane wasn't loving the idea of getting other people there at some set hours. Privacy was a good thing and he liked being able to fuck Reza where- and whenever he wanted. He hummed, narrowing his eyes as he thought about it. "How about you find a little space and I'll rent it. You give me free lessons instead and take over the rent when you start making lots of money." It was probably a terrible idea but Shane happened to like 'crazy, stupid ideas' too. He was just going to have to make sure some of his money went to her too if he croaked during the AIR kerfuffle if she wasn't pulling in enough cash by then. It was probably time to talk to his lawyer again anyway, maybe he'd make the trip to Chicago when he knew more about when they were striking. Maybe he'd take Reza with him if it was shortly before and ditch him there to keep him out of harm's way. Reza would hate him for it but Shane preferred that over causing his death.
It wasn’t a shock that Shane didn’t want a whole publicly-accessible studio in his house -- was it even his? Had he said he was renting? She couldn’t remember now. Shan knew to take all of this with a grain of salt, since she didn’t truly know how Shane would be as a business partner, and this talk was all happening in the middle of a grocery store aisle when they hadn’t actually seen each other in years ... but she wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity when it was presented to her. She would find a space and follow up with him, and try to manage her expectations in case he changed his mind in the interim. “Okay,” she said, giving him a grin. “You’re so crazy, I swear. I dunno how much money I’ll actually make, but bet your ass I’ll try.” Shan definitely wasn’t thinking this business would make her rich, but she hoped it would at least be a bit profitable. If it wasn’t, she could ditch it and do something else. That was the beauty of renting.
Was he crazy? Probably. If so, Shane preferred it that way. He could try to be more responsible if he ever made it to forty, right now it just seemed like a waste of time and energy to hold back on things he wanted to do. "I'm not really worried about money," he admitted with a little shrug. "I just wanna learn to swing around on a pole. You got my number, see if you can find a good place for this and text me the info. I could ask around too, Reza's gotten to know our neighbor who's in the house business, she might have contacts." He wasn't even sure Shan could get a studio up and running while he was still alive, but he could hope - and maybe buy a private pole in the meantime. "Did you see there's a carnival in town? I was kinda rushing to get home and drag Reza there, you should drag your hot dick with you."
Now that she had an investor, Shan was even more excited to look for a place to actually give this a shot. She had never given much thought to owning her own business, though she’d taught some dance classes here and there in other people’s studios. But hell, she had kind of smashed the reset button on her life, so she might as well try something bold and new, right? She had an inkling that Caden might not like where the money was coming from, but Shan felt like she could deal with him. Shane referring to him as ‘your hot dick’ made her laugh, and she shook her head. “No, I didn’t see, but that’s cool,” she said. Shan hadn’t been to a legit carnival in years, downtown Atlantic City had been enough of a carnival for her. “I would try, but he’s working today.” She shrugged, then gave Shane a grin. “You have fun with your hot dick though, both of ‘em.”
"Yeah I'm lucky I got two," Shane said as he laughed. "And you should go, maybe I'll see you there." He was going to have to remember to check his phone or call her back soon so she wouldn't get lost in the vast ocean that was his unanswered messages and missed calls. Shane had more often than not wondered if he should have two phones but the thought of trying to organize who got to be on his more personal phone always got too complicated in his head and he for sure would fuck it up in no time; there were always going to be people he felt close to one day and didn't want anything to do with the next. "Just look around for a ferris wheel or head to the marina, you'll find it in no time," he told Shan before opening his arms again in an invite for a hug. "You gotta come visit me sometime too, I'm on the corner of Rosewood and Magnolia."
Shan chuckled, sure that a carnival worth anything wouldn’t be hard to find in a town this small. She wasn’t sure if she would go alone and end up third wheel with Shane and his boy today, but it was nice to have an option on the table if she got too restless later on. Shan stepped in to hug him, squeezing tight with a little groan. It had been so good to see him again, bonkers as the coincidence was. It was nice to know she definitely had a friendly person in town, unconnected to Caden’s family. “You’re gonna have to text me that, ‘cause I’m sure I’ll forget,” she told Shane with a little smirk as she stepped back. “But yeah, maybe I’ll see you. We’ll definitely get together soon!” It was an easy thing to say, but Shan meant it. She stepped behind her cart again and gave Shane a small wave with one hand. “Take care ‘til then, don’t behave yourself too much.”
"I never do," Shane drawled and winked at her. "Go be your bad self." He pulled back to let her get on with it, heading down the aisle to grab the things he'd come in here for though he could barely remember what they were now. Thankfully he'd had Reza text him some of the things he needed so he wasn't completely lost in there, but right now he was thinking of pole dancing and wondering just how much hassle it'd be to actually find a place to rent. It tended not to be too much of an issue with enough money involved, dollar bills greased the wheels on most transactions and he had plenty of those to go around.