[wb] Who: Robert Baker + Margaret Pruitt What: Sharing a cuppa. When: 6:00 PM of 2013 September 7 Where: Recreational Center Cafeteria Rating: tbd Status: Ongoing.
"Now there's a sight!" said the cafeteria lady upon his approach.
"A sight for sore eyes, maybe," said Robert with a small smile as he reached her counter. "Hullo, Isabella."
Isabella Dizon was one of the first people he met when he crashed in Willowbrook. Her father was Filipino, her mother Mexican and she was born and raised completely in New York. The first morning he woke up in his room, she knocked on his door and came to him with porridge and coffee. He remembered crying over it as soon as she disappeared.
"Well at least you're smiling now. What'll it be for tonight?" she asked.
"Um," Robert ran a hand tentatively through his hair as he looked sideways to check whatever she had on display, as if he hadn't made up his mind yet although he gave his decision just as soon, "I'll just have a cup of tea, please. And," well, he did find a bag of chips that caught his fancy and he took this with his right and shook it to Isabella. She only grinned her white grin and nodded. "I'm waiting for someone else, could you just..." he gestured to a table, one of the many empty ones, behind him.
"No problem," she said and even raised a thumb to Robert.
"Okay. Thank you," said Robert as he started backing off and then mouthed for the hell of it, "Everything on me." With whirling gestures of his finger and all.
Again with that grin and that thumb up.
In all honesty, he was actually feeling much better than when school started! He could walk more fluidly, his gashes had done great improvement and his cheeks were looking more like cheeks and less like bones. Activity and exercise were great distractions for the idle mind and the closer he got to the weekend...in a way, the more excited he felt, too. It was not for want of a break, though. Robert had a plan on Sunday night that would set his thoughts at ease...in the way that prayers in quiet places of worship do. Which was funny, he wasn't even religious but he really was excited for it.
He found a space in the middle of the room and sat there with a soft sigh, zipping down his Willowbrook hoodie and shrugging it off when it proved too stuffy for a jacket. He set it beside his bag of chips, on the table, before he ripped the bag open and popped his first bite in. He looked around the empty cafeteria, drinking in the barrenness of it like some tourist in a stopover.