Johanna Mason (district7victor) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-12-27 16:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, johanna mason, stefan salvatore |
Who: Johanna Mason and Stefan Salvatore
When: Backdated: Wednesday, December 9th. Afternoon
Where: Mall Starbucks
What: Random Encounter
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Johanna wasn’t really in the whole Christmas spirit, exactly. This wasn’t her first Christmas without her family, but that didn’t mean it was any easier than the previous December had been. This year she at least had her friends around to help this year. Despite not really being in the Christmas spirit, Johanna was still planning on buying Christmas gifts for her friends and that was what had brought her to the mall today. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to get her friends, but she figured doing a little window shopping might help her get some ideas.
Before she started though, she decided to grab a latte from the Starbucks in the mall. The Christmas season was the only time one could get a Caramel Brule Latte, so she decided to take advantage of it while it lasted. She had just placed her order and had gone to wait for it to be made.
Stefan pretty much had four Christmas presents to buy this year. Damon, Lexi, Caroline and Anna. That meant one day at the mall and he could be done with all of his shopping. He was thinking about getting silly presents this year--it wasn’t important to him what they got, so long as they were all together. That was the important part to him.
He turned into the Starbucks, thinking he’d need a little pick me up before heading further into the mall and meeting the throng of shoppers, and ordered a Venti Cappuccino. He stepped to the counter to wait for it to be ready.
Johanna glanced up at the guy who came to stand behind her and slid her phone into her pocket, “You have the look of a person who is dreading Christmas shopping.” She too was dreading it, but she wanted to get it done early, before there were little to no options left and just in case a blizzard blew in a prevented her from getting out again.
“At least I have a list.” Stefan said, holding up a crinkled, folded piece of paper, torn from a legal pad. He’d brainstormed a few ideas for each of the people he was shopping for this year. “Hopefully it won’t take long. There’s only four names on it.”
“A list is good. I tried to make a list, but I’ve never really been good at planning ahead when it comes to Christmas shopping.” Johanna turned her head towards the barista when her name was called and she took her latte from her with a thanks, “I’ve got about four people to buy for too actually.”
“Shouldn’t take too long, then.” Stefan said. His drink came up almost immediately after hers--an Americano for Stefan. He gave the Barista a thanks, and then picked up his red cup. Blank, red cup. A tribute to Satan and a slap in the face of Christians everywhere, if the internet was to be believed.
“Where are you headed first?” He asked, just making conversation.
“I hope not, but somehow I think I’ll be here for awhile.” Johanna wasn’t usually one to start a conversation with random strangers, but there was something about this guy that made him easy to talk to despite not knowing him. Perhaps it was from being on Valarnet that made it easier to talk to strangers, “I’m not exactly sure, to be honest. My friends are, a baker, a jewelry maker and a former soldier.” Okay so both Gale and Peeta were former soldiers, but it was easier to refer to them separately. “What about you?”
“I’ve got my brother the history teacher slash nightclub mogul, my best friend who is friends with princesses at Disneyland, my other best friend who’s studying theater at UCI, and our roommate, a spunky redhead who spends far too much time studying.” That was possibly a bit more than she needed to know, but Stefan was apparently talking now. Sometimes when he got started, it was just best to let the sentences go. “...so I’m thinking books?”
They certainly had a unique group to buy gifts for. “Your brother is a teacher and owns a club? Isn’t that a little irresponsible?” A teacher who owned a nightclub seemed really strange to Johanna, “Do his students try to sneak in?” She would imagine that if he taught high school and they knew he owned a club they’d want to try and get in. Isn’t that what teenagers did? Want to act older than they were. “And exactly what sort of books were you thinking of getting your friends?”
Stefan lifted his hands and his shoulders in a shrug, a don’t ask me sort of gesture. “I have no idea. I’m not all that involved in that part of his life.” He was definitely ready to drop that subject. Thinking about presents was a nice change in conversation. He thought for a moment, lifting his coffee cup to sip. It was scalding hot, but that didn’t bother Stefan much. “Well, Anna’s a bookworm, so I could pretty much get her anything. I know Lexi’s tastes, so I thought I’d wander. And Caroline? Well…” He paused. “Maybe I’ll get her a magazine subscription.”
Johanna could be nosy quite often, but she knew when someone didn’t want to talk about something and when not to push them so she let the whole teacher owning a club thing drop and instead took a sip of her own drink, “A magazine subscription? Does she read magazines?” Johanna had never really been one to read Cosmo or Glamour or any of those super girly magazines.
“I’ve just… never seen her with a novel.” Stefan realized. He’d seen Anna reading in every room in the house, and he knew Lexi like the back of his hand. But Caroline’s tastes were different from both of the other girls. He’d have to figure something else out, maybe. “What about you? Do you have ideas for what you’re looking for?” He asked, lifting the coffee cup. He should probably get to it. He didn’t want to be at the mall all day.
“I’m guessing she’s a real girly girl?” At one time Johanna had been more tomboyish, but over the years she’d become a little girlier, but wasn’t the typical girly girl. She enjoyed dressing up and doing her hair, but didn’t wear much makeup and didn’t really do much shopping except when she had to. “I don’t really know. I don’t want to get Peeta anything baking related, cause he probably has everything anyway. I’m not very good at the whole shopping for gifts thing.”
Stefan thought he recognised the name ‘Peeta,’ but it could have just been a misheard ‘Peter’... there were other people in the cafe, espresso machines and steaming wands making all kinds of crazy noise. He didn’t think too much of it.
“They say you’re supposed to get them something that they would love to have, but wouldn’t buy for themselves. I have no idea what that means, really,” Stefan admitted. “So I’m pretty much flying blind. I have to buy gifts for the people who would help me buy gifts for anyone else.”
“I know, which is why I don’t want to get him anything baking related.” She had wondered a few times what Peeta would think about something like a knife or axe or something considering almost all of them, in the dreams, had their own signature weapon except for him and Annie. She knew Annie wouldn’t want a weapon, but Peeta had been pretty impressed by the axes she’d gotten from the dreams, “Annie is a little easier cause she’s all princess mermaidy.” She didn’t know if that would make any sense, but it did to Johanna.
It didn’t really make sense, but Stefan didn’t mind that part. They’d just met at a Starbucks, they didn’t really need to know each other’s life stories. He sipped from his to-go cup again then lowered it once more. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to go on the safe side, with books or chocolate or something, or the extravagant side, with jewelry? Or… incredibly thoughtful, though I’m not sure I can do that, either. It’s a mess, really.”
“I don’t think you have to get all extravagant. I mean, unless you’re her boyfriend. So the safe side is probably best, but if you don’t know what magazines she already gets, I wouldn’t go with that for your one friend.” Johanna took a sip of her latte then moved aside for another customer, “And speaking of shopping, I probably shouldn’t keep you too much longer otherwise neither of us will get anything done.” And she was really hoping to get her shopping done in one go before the mall got too crowded for that day.
Stefan chuckled, shaking his head. “No, definitely not a boyfriend.” Though, he couldn’t help but think about Elena. That was the friendship that he’d had closest to a relationship, even though that was really far off. It was mostly due to his dreams that he thought about her as more than his brother’s ex-girlfriend, and those feelings were strange to reconcile. “Yeah, I should head out.” He paused for just a moment, though, and gave her a nod. “It was nice talking to you.”
“It was nice talking to you too.” As Johanna gave the man a little wave, she couldn’t help but hope that she ran into the coffee stranger again. He’d been extremely easy to talk to and that wasn’t normal for Johanna. However, right now she had to focus on shopping.