Margo Hanson (highqueen_bambi) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-05-15 17:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, hanna marin, margo hanson |
Who: Margo Hanson and Hanna Marin
When: Backdated: End of April while Roman was in the hospital
Where: The mall
What: Margo needs some retail therapy and makes a new friend
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly.
Status: Complete
Things had not been going quite as Margo had expected recently; then again, the last few years since she’d moved to Orange County hadn’t really gone as she’d expected. However, if given the chance she wouldn’t have changed her decision to follow Eliot across the country, because if she was still in New York not only would she be separated from her best friend, but she wouldn’t be a Magician of own a legit crown nor would she have met Roman.
Of course it was what had happened to Roman recently that was really bothering Margo. When he’d come back to the OC and they had gotten back together, she’d assured him that contrary to what he feared, the dreams wouldn’t kill him no matter what happened in them and then she’d woken up to all that blood and had feared that she’d been wrong. Luckily Roman had been okay in the end, but it was still weighing on her mind.
Now that Margo had done the whole sorrow drowning with Eliot and his never emptying flask, Margo was ready to move on to the second stage of dealing with shit and that was retail therapy. She’d been out shopping most of the afternoon and the multiple bags she carried showed it.
Hanna was still completing the kind of retail therapy that was only truly finished when her parents froze her credit card. The clothes she had purchased recently were hardly necessary, even if she had convinced herself that a whole new wardrobe would make her feel a thousand times better about having moved halfway across the country, having a ton of course work to catch up on and struggling - already - to make friends. Her load today was relatively light, she’d decided to do some accessory shopping rather than anything else and had a couple of really cute scarves in a bag, along with two new pairs of sunglasses and a new bag.
She’d seen a strikingly beautiful woman (with beautiful hair that gave Hanna a distinct sense of hair envy) in the same store as her, completing a purchase at the counter. As she’d bundled up all of her bags and headed out, Hanna paid for her purchases before realising there was one bag left behind that wasn’t hers. She figured it had to belong to the woman so she snatched it up and hurried out of the store, looking left and right before finally spotting her.
She walked - she didn’t run because that was undignified and nothing about this situation required running - quickly to catch up with her and called out, “Uh- excuse me? Hello? Can you- hold on a minute?”
Normally forgetting a shopping bag was not something that Margo did. She was usually very aware of her belongings, but she had so much on her mind at the moment that she hadn’t realized that she’d left a bag behind until she heard someone calling to her. To be honest, she hadn’t even realized that the girl was calling her until she glanced over her shoulder and spotted the blond girl behind her. Stopping, she glanced down at her bags, noticing that the bag the girl held was the one she was missing, “Fuck. That’s mine, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Hanna said, holding it out and offering her a small, apologetic smile. “I don’t think the shop assistant noticed and I didn’t until I’d gone up to pay,” because that was a thing she was doing now, paying for the stuff that she wanted rather than shoplifting. Orange County was supposed to be a fresh start for her which meant using actual money. “But I’m glad I caught you before you disappeared too far ahead.”
She bit her lower lip, waiting for the other woman to take the bag before she asked, because she recognised the overabundance of bags, “Retail therapy?”
“Well at least someone was paying attention,” Margo reached out for the bag, which was actually a gift she’d bought for Eliot for putting up with her occasional outbursts over the last few days. Fear and guilt were not emotions that Margo was used to feeling and ever since Roman had been admitted to the hospital it was all she was feeling and Eliot had been there for her as usual. “Did all the shopping bags give it away?”
“I recognise the look of someone who just, like, needs to shop,” Hanna said with a sympathetic expression on her face. “I’m pretty sure I’ve had a similar look on my face at least once in the last couple of months.” Though she didn’t want to assume that whatever was going on in her life was comparative to this woman, but she did know the need for retail therapy and understood the sense of calm that came only from spending a lot of money.
Letting go of the bag, Hanna switched the one she was holding to her other hand. “I’m Hanna.”
Under normal circumstances Margo wasn’t exactly one for small talk, especially with strangers, but there was something about this girl and she was simply too tired to be bitchy right now. “It’s either this or drink more and I’ve already done enough damage to my live for one week.” One of the perks or really the only perk to Eliot’s bottomless flask was that they never even needed to get off the couch to refill drinks, but at the same time drinking the same thing all night did get a bit tedious, “Margo. Nice to meet you, Hanna.”
Hanna, who was partial to the odd addition of something stronger into her coffee when the occasion called for it, didn’t understand drinking so much that it damaged your liver, but then her issues were - comparatively to a lot that seemed to be happening here in a semi-regular basis - pretty tame. Family bullshit that seemed petty in comparison to the things she saw on the network.
“You too. If you’re still considering detoxing and giving your liver a break,” she said, “there’s a cute coffee place downstairs. Coffee and, like, cake is a good way to take a break from a retail therapy spree.”
Margo didn’t drink quite as much as Eliot usually did, so the last few days had definitely been in excess for her and now that Roman was likely to be discharged soon, she had decided to give the drinking a break for a bit, “I could go for a latte, now that you mention it.” Sleeping was something Margo had been doing restlessly for the last couple of days and had she not been wearing the very best concealer, it would have been obvious, “Cake doesn’t sound too bad either.” She adjusted her hold on her bags, “Care to join me? I’ll buy you a coffee. It’s the least I can do after you returned my bag.”
Hanna was never one to turn down the offer of coffee and company. She had been doing her best to try and expand her social circle since she came to Orance County and she had been doing a poor job of it so this was something that she was grabbing onto with both hands. Her lips quirked up into a small smile and she nodded her head, tucking her hair back behind her ear and adjusted her grip on her own bag again.
“You’ll have to tell me what you bought,” she added, tipping her head and leading the way towards the escalators. She loved hearing the shopping choices of others, and bonding over clothes and impulse purchases made in the throes of retail therapy was one of the best ways to make new friends.
Margo smirked as she followed Hanna, “It’s a vest for my best friend. He has more than I can fucking count, but according to Eliot, he can never have too many.” Not that Margo had any objection to Eliot’s wardrobe. As far as Margo was concerned, the two of them were usually the best dressed people in any given situation with the exception of when Felix and Roman were included in that situation because then the four of them were the best dressed.
“Despite having limited closet space,” Hanna offered with a Very Dramatic sigh, stepping onto the escalators that took them down a level and turning to glance up at Margo, “I’m kinda of the opinion that you can never have too many clothes? Or shoes. Or bags.”
“Oh, I completely agree.” Margo said as they stepped onto the escalator. “Especially when it comes to shoes.” Margo had had to downsize her wardrobe a little when she’d moved from New York, but over the last two years she had more than made up for it, “I’m almost out of room for shoes, but I have no plan to stop buying them.” Stepping off the escalator, they began in the direction of the coffee shop.
Hanna laughed, “Same,” she said. Buying shoes without anywhere to store them was the biggest Mood Hanna. She’d thought about giving some of her shoes away but the thought made her chest hurt. “At the moment, since I live alone and stuff, the spare room is one big walk-in closet. Which, I mean, I totally love. Even if I left a huge bunch of my stuff at home with my mom. Just… more room for new stuff!”
Margo nodded, smirking, “New stuff is always nice.” It didn’t take long to reach the coffee shop and they got in line, “But that’s probably obvious from my shopping bags.” Margo would worry about where to put it all later, but for now she was simply going to forget about everything else that was going on and enjoy a coffee and some cake with her new friend.