Count Down discussion
Los Angeles
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Classic Rock Cafe
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Des lounged on one of the sofa's, trying to tune out the music playing around her so she could focus on the text before her. She liked to meet up with her friend Alex here, but since Alex was constantly late she had some time on her hands. Alex had begged her to take a break from studying to hang out and to be honest, Odessa knew she needed some time to relax. But now Alex was twenty minutes late and instead of wasting her time sulking over being stood up, she figured she would keep on reviewing until her brain started to rot.((Good God, even in rps I'm studying >.<))
Liam skulked into the cafe and went up to the bar and sat. He didn't know what he was doing here but he needed a place to calm his brain after his long painting session. For some reason the sessions always took so much out of him. Like he was physically giving up part of himself when he made his pieces. He ordered a burger and fries, then scanned the cafe while he waited.
Odessa's phone rang in her pocket and she dug it out, rolling her eyes when she saw Alex's name on the screen. "Hey, I'm running a little late," Alex said over the raised voices in the background. Des could only assume Alex had gotten caught in a spat with her parents.
"So I've noticed. How late are you going to be?" Des asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Could we maybe do this tomorrow?" Alex asked.
"Sure, no problem." The conversation ended soon after and Odessa let out a sigh, closing her book.
Liam was scanning the room when he noticed a girl sitting by herself and studying. Who came here to study? He thought. He couldn't really judge though seeing as he was here just to get away from life for a little while. He practically jumped when the waiter brought his food. He nodded his thanks and then went back to staring at her.
((I can't stay but I wanted to answer the post before I went to bed))
((Okay, thanks for the heads up))Odessa was about to gather her things when she felt a set of eyes trained on her. Looking over at the counter, she saw a young man watching her. Ordinarily she would have felt uncomfortable to have a stranger watching her so intently, but he could just be staring into space and was using her as his focal point. Just to make sure, she raise her hand and gave a hesitant wave in his direction.
Liam blinked. Was she waving at him? He looked around him but no one else was around so he waved and turned back to his foo. He shouldn't have been staring. This is what happened after he painted. His guards were down and he forgot to make himself seem unapproachable.((Gonna go to bed now. I will be on tomorrow :) ))
((Okay, so will I :) ))Des couldn't help but smile at the stranger's reaction. Trying to suppress her grin, she stuck her pen in between the pages of her notebook. Odessa didn't usually make herself stand out to guys, she left that to the doe eyed girls searching for their soul mates. Des stood up to leave, but she found she was a bit reluctant to do so, her gaze traveling back to the starer.
Liam looked over his shoulder again and found the girl was still looking at him. He didn't know what to do. He normally didn't invite people over when he was coming down from his painting sessions but he found himself waving her over. He pushed his plate away and turned to face her fully.
Screwing her lips to the side, Odessa hesitantly tucked her books under her arm and walked over to him. She couldn't be sure why he had beckoned her over, much less why she obeyed. "Um, what's up?" she said, mentally cringing. What's up? That's the best you've got? she scolded herself.
Liam sat unsure what to say. Why had I called her over? Am I stupid? he wiped his palms on his black jeans and shrugged. "You were sitting alone. Thought I'd invite you over." He said in his low baritone voice. His mind was screaming at him Tell her to go away! Remember what happened to Lexi?
"I was actually just about to leave, my friend stood me up. But if you want company..." Des trailed off, trying not to sound to hopeful. He was nice enough to invite her to sit with him, but now it seemed like he might have regretted it. Odessa couldn't really blame him. She was just some kid too worried about her grades to bother being social.
He shut off the voices that were telling him this was a bad idea and concentrated on what she was saying. "Well you can sit with me if you want. I just came here to settle my racing mind." He said with a small smile. It felt weird to smile since he hadn't done it in so long.
"Thanks," Des said, giving what she hoped was a friendly smile in return as she set her books on the counter. She knew he said he was trying to clear his mind, but she couldn't help but ask, "Do you go to UCLA?" Odessa knew she shouldn't be trying to fish around for information, but she couldn't help it. Her curiosity was getting the best of her again.
Liam turned in his seat and faced her fully. He shook his head in answer. "Nope. I go to Coburn." He knew most of the people around here went to UCLA but he had never felt the urge to apply there. His interest was in art and music and Coburn offered the best classes for that.
Odessa raised her eyebrows. "Oh, cool," she said lightly. Colburn was an Arts school and she was a little surprised that he would go there. He didn't really look like someone who would even go to college of his own free will, but she knew she was only judging him on his appearance.
"I take it you go to the LAHS?" He asked. She looked like she could be a freshman in college but the fact that she thought of UCLA first made him think she was at least a senior at the high school. He picked up one of his fries and popped it in his mouth while he waited for her answer.
"Unfortunately, yeah. I'm a senior," Des sighed. She was ready to be done with high school but she was dreading what would come after graduation. Though her mind had been made up, her parents were still planning on sending her off to become a surgeon or CEO.
Liam's thoughts turned to his own senior year but before they could get too far he shut them down and made his mind blank. "Senior year is supposed to be your best year. Make it count." He said. He knew from experience that if you didn't you would have regrets for the rest of your life.
"I have to say I hope you're wrong," Dessa admitted. Odessa planned on having a good life, not just a good year. If this was as good as it gets, that would mean this is her last year of freedom. She wanted to hold onto that as long as possible before her life was taken over for her.
"I may be wrong, considering my senior year definitely wasn't the best." He said eating another fry. His stomach gurgled, remembering the tragedy that struck 3 years ago. He pushed away his plate, unable to eat another bite. "Are you planning on going to UCLA after you graduate?" He asked trying to change the subject.
Des wondered what had made his senior year so bad, but when he chanced the subject she let it drop. Reliving the past couldn't be fun, especially if the memories weren't good ones. "My parents are. They're trying to keep me close so they can make sure I'm following their plans to the T," she explained. "The furthest they might let me go is Sacramento," she added, keeping her tone neutral in an attempt to hide her bitter attitude.
"But you're an adult. You should be able to make your own decisions." He said. He was glad that his foster parents never forced him into things. Especially college. He didn't know how he would deal with being forced to do things he didn't want to. "Sacramento isn't that bad." He offered even though he knew that wasn't the point.
"I may be an adult, but they're the ones who have the money. They said they would help pay for school if I went where they want, but I don't want to go to UCLA, I don't want to go to Sacramento, I don't want to go to a single school in this damn state. The only way I can get out of here, though is if I practically get full scholarships for all four years. I mean, I like to think I'm smart, but I know I'm not that smart," Odessa said, only stopping when she ran out of breath. Realizing what she sounded like, she gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to rant like that."
Liam shook his head. "No. Don't apologize. I would be thinking the same way if that happened to me. Have you tried talking to them about it? Making it known that you don't want to go to any of the colleges here? They might listen if you make it convincing enough." He suggested. He didn't know why he was giving her advice when his life wasn't anything to scream over but here he was.
"Unfortunately I inherited my stubbornness from my father and my mom wants to keep her company in the family so I can't change my dad's mind, nor can I change my blood. They've tried to control my life for as long as I can remember and I get the feeling they won't stop now," Des said, propping her head up in her hand. "Sometimes I wish I wanted what they want for me, but then I just wish they had had more kids so I wouldn't have to deal with it at all."
A small smile flitted across his face. "Well then it seems like your shit outta luck." He joked, there had to be some way to change there minds. "You're an only child?" He asked. So was he but he had always had kids around living with him in the foster home so it didn't feel like being alone.
Odessa wore a sardonic grin. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she replied. "Yeah, they were hardly home enough to take care of me so mass procreation was never part of their agendas," Des explained, running her finger up and down the wire on her spiral notebook absentmindedly.
He smirked. "My pleasure." He quipped. "Oh sorry to hear that. My parents aren't around either." He said staring at her hand. He didn't say they were dead. Only certain people knew that and he wasn't sure he was comfortable sharing it with someone he just met.
Des just shrugged. "I've learned to deal with it. Most of the time I'm just adopted into my friends' families, so I've actually got, like, four sets of parents," she said with a small smile. Following his gaze, she knotted her fingers together. Odessa usually wasn't this fidgety most of the time, but then again she didn't usually spend this much time talking to strangers. "I'm Odessa, by the way."
Liam laughed. "Same here. Except they actually acted as my parents for a short period of time." He said remembering all of the families he was with. Both good and bad. "I'm Liam. You're name is cool." He complimented.
She forced her smile to stay on her face as it dawned on her that he was a foster kid. She could only imagine what that must have been like. "It's nice to meet you, Liam. And thanks, I guess," she said a little sheepishly. Why her parents had named her after a foreign city, she would never know.
Liam smiled. He finally felt himself winding down. Normally it took him longer after the kind of painting session he had had today but for some reason talking to Odessa helped. He didn't want to look to closely at the why so he just let it fade from his mind and continued talking to her. "You study when you meet your friends?" He asked looking at her textbooks.
Des wrinkled her nose. "Not usually. I have some tests coming up and since I need to keep my grades up, I've kind of been obsessively studying. My friend Alex was trying to save me from myself, but she got caught up," she explained.
Liam made an Ah motion with his head. "I get that. Even though the only class I really had to work hard in was art." He said giving her a cheeky smile. Coburn didn't care much about academic grades as long as you were a talented artist.
Odessa's eyes narrowed. "Gee, I wish I had that problem," she said. If she had it her way, she would have all history courses, not ridiculously complicated Calculus or Physics. It was bad enough she had to double up on her courses to appease her parents.
Liam laughed. He hasn't felt this light since Lexi. "I bet you have perfect grades though. You could probably get into any college you wanted with a full scholarship. Are you going to apply at other one than what your parents want?" He asked.
Des screwed her lips to the side. "Almost perfect. 3.95 GPA. Oh, I'm definitely applying, whether I can get in or not. I need to get out of here," she said, pulling her fingers through her hair.((okay, hope to talk to you later!))
((I'm back for 20 minutes))Liam whistled. "That's better than I ever got. I think my highest GPA was a 3.0. But that was in my freshman year." After that he sort of stopped caring. Even Lexi couldn't get him to care about anything but art and music.
((yay!))"I guess I just like knowing stuff," she said with an almost embarrassed shrug. She had always been curious, frightened of the unknown. She liked being in control more and more now that her parents were trying to take her choices away. It was her determination to choose her own path that had kept her curiosity at bay all these years otherwise she would probably spend most of her time staring at the clock on her arm.
Liam smiled. "There's nothing wrong with that." He said. He never felt the need to go out and read because he knew he would never need to. He had music and painting to occupy his time. They were the only things that kept him sane.
"I don't think there is either, most of the time. It's when people try to monopolize my knowledge is when it starts to piss me off." Odessa fell silent for a moment. Thinking about school and her future was starting to give her a head ache. "Anyway, what do you do over at Colburn? Anything specific?" she asked, trying to turn the topic away from her education.
Liam completely agreed with her. He hated when people tried to dictate his life. "There's so much you can study at Coburn, but I take a painting class and have free reign of the music studio. I play the guitar." He said going along with her subject change.
"Are you any good?" she asked with a grin, propping her chin up in her hand. She had never been very good at art, she could hardly draw a straight line let alone make anything decent looking. Des would always get impatient when she tried her hand at crafts because she could never quite get her creation just right and she would end up getting frustrated and breaking some pencils.
Liam shrugged. "Everyone says I am but I don't really see it. I paint and play guitar to escape. No other reason." He confessed. "But I wouldn't have gotten into Coburn if I wasn't at least semi decent." He had been drawing and painting for as long as he could remember. He only recently picked up guitar when he started school.
It's a cafe, a bar and, a place to come and see new band's that aren't so popular yet preform. A great place to hang out with friends after school or just on the weekends.
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