Who: Davina & Astrid What: Coffee meet up. When: Backdated to early August. Where: Random coffee shop. Rating/Warnings: Low. Status: Complete!
Astrid almost second guessed her destination when she arrived at the coffee shop. She should be at a bar, drinking and judging everyone in the network from her phone, but there was the whole issue of being ‘under 21’ to take into consideration.
She placed her order and sighed impatiently, waiting for the barista to finish preparing her drink. When it was finished and she finally got it, she realized he’d misspell her name as ‘Asteroid.’
“...how does someone mess that up?”
Davina had just gotten out of her art class at the nearby Art Center and had decided to go grab a cup of coffee or something before Marcel came to pick her up. She texted him as she’d walked over to let him know where she’d be at the coffee shop, which she was no stranger at any more. She’d just gotten her drink before the blond girl behind her and upon hearing her question, which she was sure was simply asked out loud to no one in particular, Davina turned and smirked, “Did he spell your name wrong? He does that on purpose actually.” She had been coming to the coffee shop quite often after her art classes and despite being rather shy at times, the first time she’d noticed that the barista had spelled her name, ‘Davita’ she’d corrected him and he’d told her that sometimes he liked to write the next closest word to the person’s name.
“Yeah, he did,” she answered sourly, glaring daggers at her cup before glancing over at Davina. “Thanks for the warning. Next time I come here and he does this, I’m going to throw this right back at his face. There’s only one way to spell my name. I’m not some floating rock in space.”
Seriously. Asteroid?
“How bad did he butcher yours?”
“Davita.” She said, taking a sip of her own drink, “I mean, it’s not that much of a difference from my actual name though,” Davina didn’t really mind the changed names, partly because she understood freedom of expression, which was what she assumed he was doing with the names on the cups, “What’s your actual name?” The girl looked familiar, but Davina didn’t want to assume she’d seen her somewhere before.
“Astrid,” she answered immediately, although her thoughts seemed to be mirroring Davina’s unintentionally. Davita sounded close to a name of a person she met online, so she squinted at the girl and tilted her head to the side. “Da...vina? Right? Is that it?”
Davina nodded, recognizing the other girl’s name as well, “Yeah, I’m Davina. We talked on Valarnet, right?” It seemed like most of the people she met in person these days were all from Valarnet. Aside from the people in her art class. She was tempted to ask her if she’d dreamt yet, but she was sure that that would be rude in one way or another.
Astrid’s annoyance seemed to have slipped away from now, and she smiled at the girl. “Yeah, actually. Well. Nice to meet you in person. Ever found a hobby to do?”
“It nice to meet you too,” Davina smiled at the other girl, “Well, there’s art, but I’ve been doing that for a while now. I keep thinking about that one woman’s suggestion of a book club, but I don’t even know where to start with something like that.” Davina wasn’t the one who usually organized group events like that.
“Wish I could give you advice there,” Astrid said, sheepishly grinning. “I’ve helped with sports teams and the kind. Never with books. But this place is so big, there’s probably an existing one that lets you avoid the headache of actually organizing one.”
“Maybe. I know there’s a lot of bookstores around. Maybe I could check in with them,” Of course that’d be easier if she had her license, but so far Marcel drove her around when she needed a ride or sometimes Henrik. She liked hanging out with Henrik and wanted to do more of it, but she also didn’t want to crowd him even if she was pretty sure that he liked her too.
“That’d be a good start. Guess it’s too late for that summer job, huh?” Astrid motioned over to one of the empty tables. “You in a rush or anything? My original plan was to sit by myself and play on my phone.”
Davina nodded, “Yeah, it just would have been too difficult for me to get around for a job since my foster father drives me around right now and he works too.” She was going to have to get her permit soon so that she could learn to drive and not have to depend on Marcel quite so much, “No, I’m just waiting for my foster father to pick me up. He’s going to be a while though, so I came over here to kill some time.”
“Well, if you ever need a ride, I can help with that,” Astrid offered after taking a seat, sipping her drink. “Eventually I’m gonna save up for a motorcycle, but I need to drive my car into the ground and get all it’s worth.” She paused, noting the word ‘foster’ right before ‘father,’ and it had her morbidly curious. “So...you’re in the foster care system?”
“Really? Thanks.” It wasn’t everyday that someone offered to drive around someone they just met. Well, not someone who wasn’t trying to pick up that other person, “Oh, yeah. Well, I’ve been with Marcel for a few years now.” Marcel might have been her foster father, but Davina didn’t really consider herself in the system any more.
Davina seemed nice enough, and Astrid wasn’t really opposed to making friends. And she seemed a year or two younger; ultimately harmless. The whole foster situation had got her a little interested, but she’d just met the girl face to face. “No problem. You’re probably due for a driver’s license soon, huh?”
Davina had never really shied away from talking about her experiences in the foster care system if asked, but she didn’t usually bring it up herself with the exception of calling Marcel her foster father. So if Astrid had asked, she would have answered whatever questions she had. In response to the question she did ask however, she nodded, “Yeah. Marcel and I have started talking about it and we’re going to decide soon on the right time to start lessons.”
“The world is your oyster when you learn how to drive.” Astrid couldn’t imagine not having her car, or any form of transportation, really. “You get a lot more freedom. And you probably wouldn’t be so bored, either.”
Davina nodded and took a sip of her drink as she listened to Astrid, “I know. I’ll admit, it kind of scares me. There’s so many other cars out there and people. I don’t know what I’d do if I hit someone.” Realistically, she knew it was unlikely that she’d get into an accident, but it still scared her.
“You can hit and run,” Astrid said, and then realized how bad that sounded and suddenly stopped in mid-sip. “That was a joke. Don’t do that. Just get really good insurance coverage and possibly a lawyer, and you should be fine.”
Davina’s eyes widened at Astrid’s comment for a moment, before she realized that she was only joking, “Right. That’d probably be a really bad thing.” She took a sip of her drink, “And Marcel is actually in law. So, if anything ever happened…” Of course Davina never wanted to do anything that would cause her to need Marcel’s help like that.
She looked impressed and raised her cup. “Nice. Looks like you might be getting out of your first couple tickets scotch-free. Always a good perk. So, what is he? Cop?”
“He’s a paralegal.” Davina said, glancing at her phone, expecting Marcel to text her at that moment since they were talking about him, but there was still no text, which meant she still had some more time to sit and talk to Astrid.
“Oh, cool.” She watched Davina for a second before curiosity finally got the best of her, and she gathered the balls to ask. “So, if you don’t mind my asking...why are you in a foster home? And if this is out of line, just tell me. I know it’s a personal question.”
Davina sat up a little straighter as Astrid asked the question and she shook her head, “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind talking about it.” She played with her cup a bit as she spoke, “I was put into the system when I was a baby cause my mom just couldn’t handle a baby,” Davina knew very little about her biological mother. The woman had never really tried to contact her, but it didn’t bother her now as much as it had when she was younger. She used to wonder what her biological mother was like and what she was doing now, but Davina had learnt not to dwell on those thoughts and had been much happier since.
‘Couldn’t handle a baby’ could mean many things. Could have meant the mother was poor and couldn’t support her the way she should. Could also mean the mother was a drug addict, or something even worse, and the more Astrid thought about it, the more of a horrible person she felt for even inquiring about it. It’s not like she had forced the information out of Davina by any means, but Astrid had asked and it was too late to take it back.
“You seem happy with Marcel, though?” Astrid said, although her sentence came out more as a question, wanting Davina to confirm that herself.
Davina nodded, “Oh yeah. Out of all my foster families, Marcel has been the best one.” She wasn’t going to go into detail about her various foster families, because she didn’t want to bore Astrid. “I’ve been with him three years now and there’s no doubt in my mind that this will be the last one.” It was strange to think that in her dreams, Marcel was a vampire and had saved her from the ritual which would have killed her and she worried what would happen if Marcel actually became a vampire in real life.
“Three years? Wow, that’s pretty impressive.” Astrid finished off her drink, and then discarded it into a nearby trashcan. “So he’s pretty much adopted you, huh? Just not officially?”
“Yeah, pretty much. I know he wants to make it official, but with the move out here, we haven’t had time.” Davina nodded just as her ringtone went off, signalling that she had a text message. Picking up the phone, she saw it was from Marcel and that he was just down the street, “Speak of the devil. He’s gonna be here in a few minutes.” She sent a text back, telling him she would be waiting outside, “It was really nice to meet you in person.”
"Likewise!" Astrid said, all smiles. "Guess we'll see each other around? If you ever need a ride anywhere, hit me up. I'm safe. Promise."