Dutch (notfromthegreen) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-05-18 00:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kala dandekar, yalena yardeen |
Who: Lena Yardeen & Kala Dandekar
What: Beachside meetings
When: 16th May, afternoon
Where: The Beach
Rating/Warnings: PG / None
Status: Complete
Lena couldn't ever have really been called a team player. Most people rubbed her up the wrong way on a regular basis to the point where she snapped at people who irritated her just for existing. It wasn't as much of a lonely life as it was one that she just had little interest in expanding the horizons of. Three of her dance team had hurt themselves and that meant that for a little while, at least, the team was benched. She had spare time on her hands, so surfing was her best bet to get rid of some of that wound up tension. But even a day on the waves wasn't quiet enough. Mouthbreather McNasty might have been rather forcefully moved on by Lena's new female crush but that didn't make some of her other customers any easier to deal with.
Honestly, sometimes she thought she would rather work in a call centre than an actual honest-to-god shop. At least the arseholes who were dicks to you over the phone with the benefit of anonymity weren't up in your face. She wondered, sometimes, if she hadn't brought this upon herself, the idiocy of overgrown man-children who spend more time yelling a prepubescents down a headset than living their own lives... After all, of the limited options for employment she had when she came here she did decide to work at a video game store. And though she wasn't a gamer herself she knew enough about them and had played one or two with old boyfriends and just boy-friends to know her way around a few first-person shooters (and if she happened to have a console or two tucked away in her apartment and a headset that she yelled obscenities into when she was feeling stressed out so be it, it was better than just throat-punching her problems).
Stabbing her board down into the sand, Lena peeled her wetsuit off and dropped it to her waist, leaving her in a relatively simple black bikini top, her hair tied away from her face in a messy bun that was loose and hanging around her features. The lack of wind had meant that the waves weren't as good as she had been hoping they were, nor had the guy she occasionally saw surfing at the same time as her been around. Which was a shame; she hadn't had much of a chance to make conversation with him and she rather wanted to.
She rubbed her hands over her face and looked around to see whereabout she'd stashed her things. The small marker - nothing but a few stones - was still in place, but there was now someone seated not too far from it. Lena didn't really have a problem walking up to a stranger, so that is exactly what she did, surfboard back under her arm to be dug back into the sand a little closer to where she'd hidden her things.
"Don't mind me," she said, grimacing a little at the thought of sticking her damp hands into the sand, "just trying to grab my stuff before some little shit removes the marker I left."
Kala had been in Orange County for months now. And it still didn’t feel like home. But she couldn’t go back to Mumbai. She didn’t want the life that was waiting for her there. Though she was sure by now Rajan had moved on. And although the place, in general, didn’t feel like home there were people there who made her feel that way. Like Will. The man had basically become her family now. She knew deep down that Orange County was where she was meant to be.
Kala also knew she needed to see more of it. Other than just work, her apartment, and the coffee shops in between. She had been to the boardwalk a few times now but she had never just spent time at the beach. Being so close to it she figured it was probably time. Plus she did enjoy the ocean.
Dressed in dark blue shorts and a flowy red top gold sandals on her feet, Kala sat on the beach, right in the sand. She even removed her sandals t bury her feet in the sand, feeling the warmth on her feet. Kala watched as the waves came to shore, went back to sea and came to shore again, finding the rhythm soothing. Not quite as soothing as praying to Ganesh, but soothing all the same.
She was lost in her thoughts when someone approached pulling her back to reality. “Hm?” Kala said looking over at the other woman. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize.”
Lena’s eyebrow raised and she waved her hand, toes poking at the sand before she just took a breath and crouched down, knees hitting the sand softly. “Sorry for what?” she asked, carefully digging underneath a thin layer to reveal a sealed bag of her belongings. She tugged it out and shook it off, careful to do that away from the beautiful woman reclining on the sand. She might have buried her feet in it, but no one wanted to be dusted in the face.
“It’s pretty lucky, actually. Someone sitting right by my shit means that it’s less likely to get stolen.”
That was a relief. Kala had been worried she had stolen the woman’s spot or something. She didn’t go to the beach often enough to know that people just hid their things in the sand coming back for them later. It made sense though. Especially if they were in the water the entire time.
“Well in that case,” Kala said giving the woman a small smile. “I’m glad I could help.” She paused for a moment before continuing the conversation while the woman got her stuff together. “Were you surfing?” The answer was probably obvious given the board tucked under her arm. But Kala asked anyway.
“No,” Lena replied only a little sarcastically, one eyebrow lifted, “I carry a board around to smack people in the face with as an Orwellian form of entertainment.”
She cleared her throat a second later and glanced back at the board stabbed into the sand, standing on end. Her board was a dark blue with purple and black swirls in the shapes of galaxies over it. She’d saved for months to be able to get it and had put down a ludicrous deposit just so that she could keep it to one side.
“You can’t really live here and not surf,” she said a moment later, to soften the cutting sarcasm. “It’s a waste of a bloody good ocean. I’m guessing you’re not a fan?”
Kala was a bit taken aback by the sarcasm. Of course she knew what it was, but she wasn’t used to people using it quite so freely. Especially with people they didn’t know. She tried not to take too much offense to it. Just because she wasn’t used to it didn’t mean others weren’t.
“I’ve never tried it,” Kala admitted. “My friend,” at least she assumed that’s what Kyle was. “Was going to teach me but then I hurt my ankle,” she explained. It was almost all better now though, so maybe she could finally learn.
Lena nodded, “Your friend probably still could have taught you; you don’t actually stand up on the board for a while, you need to learn to read the waves first, and that’s all done on your stomach.” She turned her gaze out to the water again, resisting the urge to just re-zip up her wetsuit and go back out there for a while.
“I’ve never found anything better to just… calm me down after a bad day.”
“I’d rather not risk it,” Kala replied. She had just wanted to rest her ankle until it healed. It still wasn’t a hundred percent but it was getting there. She knew it could have been so much worse though. She could have been shot if it wasn’t for Will, so she wasn’t complaining.
“I does seem rather calming,” Kala admires with a small smile. “But so is just watching the waves.” At least for Kala.
With a lift of her shoulders, Lena shrugged and peeled off the rest of her wetsuit, her towel held between her teeth so it didn’t touch the sand. Not that it was possible to avoid getting absolutely bloody covered in the scratchy shit when you were on the beach.
“Watching the waves isn’t active enough for me. I have to be doing stuff. Never was one for sitting on my arse and contemplating existence.”
Kala gave a small nod. Though she was fine with just sitting, thinking, praying, she knew others needed more to unwind. Surfing sure sounded like a good option. Especially with the healing properties of the ocean. “I’m glad you found something that works for you,” Kala said giving a small smile. “I think of all the sports, surfing would be what I gravitate towards most.” Which was why she had agreed to learn. She definitely couldn’t see herself playing like basketball. Kala wrinkled her nose at the thought.
“There’s nothing like it,” Lena said as she scrubbed the towel over her hair, “there’s a freedom I’ve not really found doing anything else.” Except for sky-diving, she’d always enjoyed that. The reckless abandon and thrill of throwing oneself out of a plane and hoping everything worked out okay, in the end, to stop you from becoming a person-pancake on the ground to be scooped up with a shovel. Lena knew well enough that she had an adrenaline problem. “Not really a sporty person?” she asked, tilting her head. She tended not to play team sports as she got far too competitive; winning was something she was good at and she enjoyed it probably a little too much. “I’m Lena, by the way, but most people call me Dutch.”
“Not really,” Kala replied answering the woman’s question. “I was always more interested in academics.” Science specifically. Which was why she was now a pharmacist.
As the woman introduced herself Kala stood up offering a hand. “Kala,” she replied. “Most people call me Kala.” Like everyone. “It’s nice to meet you, Dutch.” She figured she’d go by what most people called her, since she had gone out of her way to say it.
“You too, Kala,” Lena replied with a small smile, resting her towel over her shoulder and shaking the offered hand. “No need to stand on ceremony, though.” She tilted her head, “Academia, huh? So are you a brainbox or just a regular person that likes math?” Her lips curled up and she shook her hair out, pulling it free from the tie she had it secured with. Errant waves fell around her face, damp from the water.
“Just a regular person that likes science.” Which she supposed meant math too but science had always been her passion. She dusted some sand off he shorts with her hands. It felt rather good on her feet, but she knew it was going to be a pain to get off of her clothes. Oh well that was just the price she would have to pay. “What about you?” Kala asked curiously. “What do you do?” For a living she meant.
Lena’s nose wrinkled a little. “Just a regular retail worker, nothing fancy, but I do have to deal with the general public every damn day which is quite possibly the worst thing in existence.” It wasn’t, far from it, and she knew it, but it certainly felt like it when she was confronted with the dregs of humanity.
“Yes,” Kala sympathized. “People waiting in lines never seem to be in a good mood.” Kala herself tried to remain positive and pleasant whenever she was waiting in line for something, but she had experienced people shoving her out of the way or cutting in front of her. She could only imagine how chaotic it could get in a retail store. Not only was there the line to deal with but people searching and fighting over what to buy.
“Well,” Kala continued. “I should probably let you get going. It was nice meeting you.”
Lena’s eyebrow arched and she wondered why she felt like she was almost being dismissed, but it was a fair point. Goosebumps were prickling across her skin with the cool breeze and she nodded. “That it was, Kala,” she said, shouldering her bag and draping her towel over it.
Stepping away, she hauled her board up out of the sand and tucked it under her opposite arm. “See you around,” she said by way of parting before bare feet padded away up the sand as she headed back up to her car.