InsaneJournal

Who: Haleb + Emily
What: Emily meeting Caleb to make sure he’s good enough for Hanna
When: 12 September
Where: Coffee shop because where else would it be
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete

So Hanna’s grand plan of having Emily and Caleb meet had totally failed thanks to Orange County being itself and making her boyfriend get sick. Add in how pissed off she was at Katou and well… it had been interesting. But with things back to normal, it was time to once again set something up so her best friend could finally meet her boyfriend. (Had it really been nearly a year already? It felt like longer and shorter all at once.) Which meant picking a neutral location of sorts. Mostly coffee shops just tended to be a good choice for these sorts of things. And it was familiar.

And Hanna was definitely more nervous than she probably should be given the fact that she was folding and tying knots into the wrapper of a straw. Caleb had already met her parents, but sometimes the best friend test could be even more nerve wracking. Especially when said best friend knew your very bad history with guys.

But it worked out in the dreams. It would be fine.

Oh god, this was so more nerve wracking than it had any right being.

Hanna wasn’t the only one that was nervous. Caleb was too. Although not quite on Hanna’s level of nervous given the way she was attacking the wrapper for her straw. But it was a bit nerve wracking to meet someone from his dreams for the first time. Especially someone he knew Hanna was close with, in both worlds.

“Han,” Caleb said wrapping an arm around her as they waited for Emily. “Leave the poor wrapper alone. It didn’t do anything to you.” What? He joked when he was nervous. Just then he heard the door open and spotted a very familiar face. Emily. He gave Hanna’s shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t worry, I’m sure this will go better than when you met my friend.” Okay, maybe that was a bad joke.

Emily had been looking forward to meeting Caleb at the beach party, but unfortunately Caleb had gotten sick with whatever had gone around that weekend. That was something that Emily didn’t quite understand, because sicknesses didn’t usually only go around for for a specific length of time. She had seen people on the Network talk about the sickness as if it were something that just happened, which she didn’t understand, but she also didn’t understand how more than one person could have the same dreams either.

Luckily, Caleb was no longer sick and they were getting a second chance to meet. Hanna had arranged for them to meet up at a local coffee shop and Emily was looking forward to meeting the guy that Hanna had been dating for awhile now. She’d been wanting to meet him for awhile, but being on the opposite end of the country had made that difficult, but now was her chance.

Reaching the coffee shop, Emily glanced through the window first to check if they had arrived yet and upon seeing Hanna and Caleb, at least she assumed it was Caleb, she went inside and headed straight for their table, “Hope you guys weren’t waiting long.” Taking the empty seat, she smiled at Caleb, “So, I’m assuming that you’re Caleb.”

The light admonishing for her abuse of a wrapper had Hanna stop self consciously and take a breath. Caleb was right of course. There was no way this was going to end badly. Or okay that was a bit of a stretch. Plenty of things could happen because Orange County.

“I know…” Or he could make the joke about her meeting his friends. Between the gang from New York and then freaking Katou from earlier that month? All the comment earned was an annoyed glare. That was beyond a bad joke. But no matter because suddenly there was Emily, which caused Hanna to turn her attention to her best friend and smile. “Nope, not waiting long at all.” And making sure to try and hide the poor straw wrapper.

To be fair Hanna had also met Neal and Garrus who had helped save her. Not all his friends were horrible. But yeah, still bad joke. He couldn’t take it back now, but Hanna really should have more faith in him. He wasn’t a horrible guy, at least he didn’t think so. Meeting Emily would be fine.

“That’s me,” Caleb confirmed. He wasn’t sure if he should stand up and shake her hand or something but she was already sitting down. “Nice to finally meet you, Emily.” Because he knew she was Emily and they had been expecting her. “Hanna’s told me a lot about you.” Which was mostly true, plus he dreamed a lot about her. “I feel like I know you already.”

Emily smiled as she looked from Caleb to Hanna, “And I’ve heard a lot about you too.” Probably not as much as Hanna may have told him about her, but that’s only because Hanna would have spent more time with Caleb then she would have spent talking to Emily and that only made sense since Emily had lived on the other side of the country until recently, “But lets see if everything Hanna told me was true. So tell me about yourself.” She didn’t doubt that Hanna told the truth, but it was easy to embellish when you were in love with someone. Or leave things out if you wanted your friends to like someone.

And Emily knew about the dreams, so there was that as well. She might not have started them yet (and hopefully she wouldn’t even though she knew it was inevitable), so that at least wouldn’t be so complicated to explain or try to dance around. Especially since she had told Emily that Caleb shared them as well.

So far, so good though. Grinning, the blonde just sat back. She was just there to play mediator, not that it was going to be necessary.

There were things Caleb had told Hanna that were a bit more personal. Even though he was more open about his past now that it had literally came back to bite him in the ass, the family situation was something he’d prefer she kept to herself. Mostly just the ‘my mom’s a bitch and has a whole other family now’ part. And not knowing who he dad was. But foster care was no big deal, Hanna could share that which is where Caleb started.

“I grew up on the East Coast, mostly in Pennsylvania,” ironic since that’s where their dreams took place. “Was put in foster care when I was six, ran away at sixteen and ended up here.” That was basically Caleb’s life story give or take a few details. “Now I work at Stark. Caleb Rivers in a nutshell,” he smirked. “Your turn.”

“I was going to school on the East Coast. Otherwise, I grew up here, was on the swim team in high school and got a scholarship, which was why I went out East.” There were quite a few times that Emily had wished that she’d staying in California, especially now that her father was gone, but she’d had good experiences at school, “Now I’m back and going to USC. There’s really not much to know and I’m sure Hanna has mentioned all of that already.”

Were the two determined to give the shortest type of answers ever? Rude much? Though Caleb really didn’t need to worry about Hanna telling Emily everything. They weren’t her stories to tell in regards to his home life growing up. Just like she hadn’t mentioned the entire getting kidnapped thing. No. Whatever either wanted to divulge to one another was up to them. Obviously Caleb had gotten more information on Emily just between being around more and then the whole dream thing. Which she had already told Emily even if not in detail.

Still though. This was annoying. The blonde just looked between the two before sighing in annoyance.

“I’m not mediating and giving topic starters. In fact, I’m getting another coffee. While I’m gone, come up with your own conversations.”

There was no need to worry about it getting contentious, so Hanna had absolutely no qualms in giving the order then getting up to get another iced coffee. It was important that they got along here since she knew they got along in the dreams. But she also knew hovering and the like just led to awkward conversations.

Really, it was all part of some master plan she didn’t now she had come up with yet.

Caleb raised a brow as his girlfriend got up and walked away. Not that he needed her there but that was blunt. But then he wouldn’t really expect anything else from Hanna.

“What are you studying?” Caleb asked Emily since that seemed the common topic for college students. Plus he honestly didn’t know. Even in the dreams Hanna was in fashion, Spencer in politics, Aria in publishing. But Emily? He had no clue what she did or what she studied. Other than swimming.

Emily couldn’t help but laugh softly as she watched Hanna as she walked towards the counter then turned her attention back to Caleb, “I’m actually undecided. I know I should probably have a major by now, but it’s not as easy as some people make it seem.” All of her friends seemed to have their lives together in high school while Emily had no idea what she wanted to do in the long run. She had been so focused on swimming throughout high school that there wasn’t much time to think about anything else. “Are you going to school or just working?”

It was difficult for Caleb to relate. Yes, he had always had a passion and he was good at it. But he had never thought about studying it. Majoring in computer science or whatever. Hell he had never considered the possibility of going to college. So struggling with a major wasn’t an easy concept for him to grasp. He tried though. “Makes sense. I don’t know much about majors but it doesn’t seem like something you should rush. Wouldn’t want to be stuck doing something you hate for the rest of your life.” Seemed logical to him at least.

“Just working. I never actually finished high school,” he replied honestly. In the dreams he had gotten his GED and while he had briefly considered it here he didn’t see much of a point. He had done just fine for himself without it and he had a good job now.

“I feel the same way. How people know at eighteen, what they want to do forever, is beyond me,” She took a sip of her drink, “If only all of us could get jobs at places like Stark without finishing high school.” From what she’d heard, Stark Industries was one of the biggest companies in California.

He was lucky that Tony cared more about his skill than a high school diploma. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. If you want I could even put in a good word with Tony for you. Although you’d have to want to work with technology on some level.”

While Caleb and Emily actually talked and weren’t ‘all ‘let’s be super awkward with intros’ now that she was gone, Hanna had gotten in line and ordered herself another coffee. Then went to pick it, making sure to keep an eye on the two. Not that they needed it but she did want to see if they would relax and talk. Which they did. Good! So coffee in hand, the blonde went back to the table and sat down.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.” Emily smiled and looked up as Hanna finally returned with her new coffee, “Did they have to go get the coffee beans?” She smirked and turned back to Caleb, “So what else do you guys have planned for today?”

“We didn’t have anything set.” This was the main event of the day. Meeting Hanna’s best friend. “Probably a movie. You’re more than welcome to join us.” And he met that. Caleb honestly wanted to get to know Emily better. Be on good terms with her. Not only because of dreams but because of how important she was to Hanna.

“I’d love to go to the movies with you guys. I can’t even remember the last movie I saw in a theater. Been busy with school and swimming this past year so I haven’t seen anything,” Emily also wanted to get to know Caleb better; especially since she’d heard so much about him from Hanna for the past year or so.

“Whatever, there was a line.” And there had been. Just because it happened to coincide with her goal to make the two talk without her there didn’t change that fact. It just happened to work in her favor! But then Caleb was mentioning the movie and her eyes lit up, completely prepared to try to drag Emily along with them but luckily she didn’t have to do any sort of convincing.

“Yay!” And then she noted the time on her phone. “It’s in about a half hour so we should get moving. This is going to be so much fun!” She had her boyfriend, had her best friend. Yep, things were definitely going well.