Oɴᴇ x Oɴᴇ's discussion

Hey there! So, what do you want to do? I have tons of prompts. Want me to just post the link to a random list? Do you have a preferred age range for the characters? I'm all for junior/senior high school students, university, and the twenties range.

List of prompts I handpicked:
(view spoiler)[ • there’s an overnight IT person at school who always answers the phone when i call about a problem with my computer and i totally have a crush on their voice and their exasperation and ALSO the bakery down the street is always running out of my fave scones and the adorable person behind the counter can’t hide their amusement and i think it’s super rude but also super cute AU

• anything from here: theater/play/acting

• Can you help me sneak my cat into my dorm?

• “I’m a photography student and the light was just shining off your hair so perfectly I just HAD to take a picture and now you’ve found it online, I’m in trouble now” au

• “I was rehearsing lines for the romantic lead and I didn’t see you through that window, I had no idea that YOU were playing my romantic interest and now I can’t remember a single line” au

• i tried to call a crisis hotline but got one number off and started ranting for 10 minutes before you got to speak and tell me i got the wrong number but now you’re worried about me and telling me not to hang up (hide spoiler)]

I'd like:
• FxM
• To write the male character
• Preferably 3 paragraphs on both sides, but if that's excess for you, it's all good :) I applaud you if you're good at pithy writing, because I'm not xD

No problem!
Yeah, I want to experiment with MxM and FxF but I'm in a bit of a crunch right now in terms of inspiration, so I'm going with what I'm more familiar with. Great!
That's a relief. I look forward to it then~

I just finally finished updating my post. So, you might want to refresh the page now b^^d

Hey, you answered my barrage of questions! Sweet. usually a couple are missed haha

Wonderful, 'cause I like those, too :3
Aghh, it's easier to write the IT one, and it'll flow well.
But the second one requires sensitivity.
you think it'd be way off if we combined them?

Also, do you have any preferences? Like, which one of the two you like more?
For the IT/bakery one, it'd make more sense if it was a university, to me.

I appreciate it :)

Oh, i like the twist you put to it! I agree with your idea that the IT person = never gets their scones

Is it safe to assume I'm writing the IT character (who would be male if I do write him)? Or do you want to write the IT character?
oh my gosh what would be really adorable is if the person who works at the bakery wants to be a pâtissière
'cause when the two get to know each other more
maybe she brings him snacks late at night
and he grades them or something
and then she figures out his tastes

Right? I tried to pick the ones that really caught my eye >:3
Roger~

Okay, I'm gonna go now, but I'm definitely checking back tomorrow! Tell me what you think ^^

In case I mixed anything up, I'll be clearer: I want to be the male IT assistant who never gets his scones which I'll probably change to something else, probably castella or something But if you want to be the IT assistant, it shouldn't be too hard for me to readjust ^^d

Came back for just one more post because I'm looking forward to this.

Me too!

Awesomesauce.

I love the "attach name to voice" part. For the second part, IT could either: ask her for her name too but when he sees her at the bakery, he doesn't say anything for his own amusement OR doesn't ask for her name, she recognizes him by voice and does or doesn't say anything.

Yess, thanks! It'll be fluffy but also bittersweet (I like lots of angst and not all butterflies). If you have an idea what her later crisis rant is, don't tell me yet. ^^

Agghhh I like both ideas you pick! xP Maybe the second one would be better 'cause it was your idea previously, I just added to it :3

I mean, you could have a depressed character if you want, but be sensitive with it and all :) For me, it's kind of difficult to write one; I feel tired as I write how they're tired, and then I run into a block like they are in one ^^

I thought you said you liked the bakery and the hotline/crisis rant idea, so they're the only two ideas we're combining at the moment. The bakery & IT plot, if you look again, is one idea. If you click the link, it's under the title: "fic where they know each other but they don't know they know each other"

Yeah, the hotline/crisis rant is a different idea. We can take it out though, that'd be better, like you said. 'Cause that would be pretty out of the blue, you're right sometimes I hold back because I'm like "which idea which idea to keep" The ranting about something computer related should be every time 'cause that's hilarious

All right. If you're talking Pacific Standard Time then you're just 3 hours ahead of me, as in, you're in the past and I'm in the future :P Got it~

So, do you want to make character bios or just make them as we go along? I'm probably gonna keep you in the dark so I have the element of surprise if I get any ideas, but I'll have a few spots for my bios (side characters and main character) which I'll edit along the way. Sound good?

All righty then. And then she thinks herself an idiot because she never recognized his beautiful voice yes? xPPP nahh doesn't have to be a beautiful voice
actually I'd prefer it not to be

That's fine~ Yeah, I agree!!

Oh, it's a popular "concept" xP

Okay, then I'll just reserve a few spots for myself and get started on your format. But mine will be really really short, 'cause I want to keep it organic and see how it goes. Are you okay with that?

NOTE: My characters' appearances are inspired by the pictures of the people I put up on the bio but are not face claims. Usually I just like the expression that's in that particular photograph and that's the tone I'm looking for with my character. So, don't mix up the photograph and the character because it's really likely that they're entirely different.



No. 1 IT/never gets his scones | | Nathan Bly

(view spoiler)[disclaimer (view spoiler)[ Shad made this gorgeous template. Do not steal, because she's an amazing girl who doesn't deserve to have her time wasted. (hide spoiler)]

━━ [ N a t h a n   B l y ;; 20, ᴍᴀʟᴇ, ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴇᴅ ʙʏ yeo jin goo ] ━━

ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
When you brush by him on campus, you’re guaranteed to look at him twice, and maybe a little longer on the second time. He looks peculiar to say the least, and strangely enchanting to some. His short dark-brown hair makes for a normal-looking boy from behind, but his close-set eyes are hazel and framed by double eyelids. If he’s not wearing his preferred cardigan or sweater, you can see his lean muscles ripple underneath his caramel-colored skin. You can’t quite put a finger on his race or nationality.

His father is a Korean-American, born and raised in America by Korean parents. Nathan’s mother is a Belgian whose father had been African-American. There are many more branches in the family tree, of course, but he usually stops his explanation there. He never tries to divide himself into fractions of this or that, because he doesn’t think twice about how to identify himself. Also, he likes numbers, but not those kinds of numbers — the kind that tries to cut up a personality and put the slices in neat little glass containers. He’s been raised to accept himself and he has — although loving himself is quite a different story.

ʜɪsᴛᴏʀʏ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nathan has a knack for computers; he likes tinkering with code and even cryptography. When he was young, he dabbled with HTML and CSS on online blogging platforms, creating codes for others. He quickly grew into a very fast typist in middle school, and you can hear his fingers skimming over the keyboard like light, running footsteps.

Nate has never been bullied. He always looked “strange” to others, but they left him alone because they didn’t know what to do with him. He was relatively handsome, but more than that, his sangfroid personality usually told others not to touch him. He doesn’t display his emotions on his face unless he’s talking with someone or reading a book, so people often misread and misunderstand him. He actually gets excited very easily — talk to him about Caesar ciphers or his most recent Tumblr theme, and he’ll rant like a rocket firing off into the far-off stars. His rambling is one of the most endearing things about him, but he gets self-conscious about it sometimes — if he catches you giving him a weird look, he’ll go oddly quiet. Most other times, he treats the behavior as normal and accepts it as a way of expressing something he loves. But he’s never been one for verbal expression. His actions spell everything out for him, but he depends on you to read between the lines.

He’s been admired for his intelligence since seventh grade. Before that, he slacked off and played with computers. When he realized that he could take computer science to another level, he started paying attention to classes and recognized that he actually liked to learn. When he discovered this, he started taking a few more risks every now and then, testing the waters to see what he liked and what he didn’t. A boy had even kissed him once back in his freshman year of high school, and although it hadn’t been repulsive, it helped him realize that he was straight as an arrow.

ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He’s coltish half the time, rushing around the tech office answering emails, holding the phone against his shoulder while rummaging through the Internet for solutions when he’d never heard of a particular problem. That happens too often, to his irritation — all that was needed was a Google search. If Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and other social media were so popular, then why in the godforsaken world could they not look up their solutions? He doesn’t mind questions about computers, because sometimes people don’t understand the online solutions — he really did understand that; that’s how he figured out solutions on his own — but when he was flooded with easily solvable problems, his frustration is palpable. It’s the pet peeve of every tech expert.

Nervous Nathan walks like a newborn deer, unsure how to hold himself in the eyes of others — the many eyes of others. He may accept himself, but he doesn’t know how to act around people who only see him as a puzzle of possible nationalities. But presentations are something different for him: all he has to do is do as he practiced. He believes the “practice makes perfect” philosophy, having tried it numerous times before. His dedication and effort to his work — coupled with irritably fastidious perfectionism — makes him out to be a notably intimidating and formidable figure, and it also explains his fitting position in the honors program at Lysander.

Most of the time, Nathan Bly is an open book, but he only lets you read him, and nothing more. He won’t get you involved in his problems, and he shuts everyone out when he’s in a bad mood. When infuriated, he rarely lashes out physically, but words coalesce into poison on his tongue. You flinch from his caustic, quiet words — and he shuts up immediately. And then he tells you to get out. And if you don’t get out, he’ll push you out so he doesn’t hurt you any more than he already has. Nathan’s greatest strength and weakness is his empathy; he feels others’ hurt, but having never really dealt with his own pain, he doesn’t know how to comfort someone else besides lending him or her his company. He feels too much about the world around him, and he’s excited about it — but he also has a tendency to trouble himself to help others.

sᴛʀᴇɴɢᴛʜs & ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇssᴇs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
knowledgable + thinks on his feet + attentive + careful + sensitive to others’ moods [ ♤ ] easily surprised - dislikes verbally expressing his emotions - indecisive under pressure - rarely voices his true feelings

Nathan has been surrounded by a loving family his entire life; he has acclimated himself to open affection, but he doesn’t like to show his affection openly to others outside his closest friends and family, especially not by physical contact. With the exception of his family, he’s just not used to being touched besides extremely brief points of contact: a high-five, a “bro hug,” a fist bump. Anything longer than that will make him panic slightly, and he freezes like a deer in headlights when he doesn’t know what to do. He knows how to efficiently plug into formulas and fill in blanks — but if the entire paper is blank, he doesn’t even know how to use the pencil in his hand.

He has the savoir-faire that lets him quickly adjust to a temporary situation, but if larger changes, tangible or intangible, intrude into his life, he doesn’t know what to do with it. Once he notices the change, he’ll either appreciate it and hold it close or cringe from it, afraid of its unknown state.

Although he says what he thinks, he rarely says what he feels. He doesn't talk about himself much, because he doesn't find it worth saying, considering he already knows about himself and he doesn't see why others need to. He is responsible on the most basic of levels: he eats healthful foods, he takes morning runs and afternoon jogs, and he knows how to clean himself up. But he lacks in the more intangible field: he doesn't know how to take care of his pain besides repressing it into the back of his mind and busying himself with something else. He usually tries to make his personal problems figure themselves out, and he's just the observer. He dislikes participating in something that puts him in the spotlight unless it's something he's good at, prepared for, and practiced.

ᴍɪsᴄᴇʟʟᴀɴᴇᴏᴜs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He’s used to being called Nate or T-Nate, which is short for “Tech Nate,” by only those people who are really familiar with him. Step past the line, and he will be surprised — but he won’t mind. More likely than not, he’ll go along with it, and you won’t notice at first that he’s a little afraid and awed at the change.

He is an international student from Nice, France. He has a slight French accent, but he had lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, since he was eight till he was fifteen and moved to France. He visited America every other summer for his father's business trips and to visit some of his much extended family.

(hide spoiler)]

No. 2 Brianna's friend | | Rani Nalin (view spoiler)[

{ notes } (view spoiler)[template created by shad; inspo from fie + aub + chrys + jenn (hide spoiler)]

( Rani Nalin ) ━━━━━ ʙᴜʀʏ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡᴇ sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ ғʀᴏᴍ ]
[image error] [image error]
[ ♦ ━ ❛ age ( 21 ) ─ female ─ mcdb major, philosophy minor ━━━ ]
          { ━━━ ᴘᴜʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟɪɴᴅs ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ━━━ }

━━━━━━━{ sᴏᴍᴇᴛɪᴍᴇs dreams ᴀʀᴇ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇʏ sᴇᴇ]━━━━━━━
Slim and dark-skinned, Rani is an energetic girl whose presence emanates from her very being. When she walks into a room, she commands attention like a queen, but she doesn’t heavily socialize. She has a particular liking for photography and, as a result, is more observant than you’d like. She’s also very judgmental and says things, whether they’re right or wrong, with absolute confidence; you feel a little smaller when you correct her. But she always apologizes if she’s off-target, and the conversation moves on smoothly. She’s lax and goes with the flow; she’d never make a good teacher, especially when she’s bad at explaining herself verbally. She likes to sing what she feels instead.

━{ ɪ ᴡᴀɴɴᴀ ɢᴇᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜʙᴜʀʙs ━ let my hair grow wild }━━
Rani is someone you’d call multitalented. Her photography is something to look at, but her singing ability is incredible. She doesn’t know whether to pursue music or physical therapy, which has been her dream since she was little. She had seen her friend struggle through physical therapy before, and she wants to help people recuperate like that: piece and glue themselves back together, no matter how broken or ramshackle they turn out to be for a little while. She definitely has the book smarts for the rigorous courses required for a physical therapy degree. But her singing also helps people: she posts videos on YouTube, and she’d received a message recently about how she helped another person fight through a difficult time in his life.

Her voice is something magnificent to behold — she likes to sing indie, but she also sings Korean pop as a hobby. Singing is the most fulfilling to her right now, but she doesn’t want to pursue the music industry due to the competition and consequences of being a female in that industry. She often consults Brianna about what to do with this situation, considering that she sees Brianna’s path neatly set out before her.

━━━{ ɪғ ɪ ɢᴀᴠᴇ ᴍʏ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ━━ would it be a lot to lose? ]━━
Rani likes to date boys, and she doesn’t give a care in the world that she rarely has a boyfriend. She’s only had one in the past, and that was from seventh grade to her senior year of high school. She is very against blind dates, having had a bad experience before with meeting a guy she had dated in the past; to say the least, she hadn’t enjoyed that date.

She’s currently learning how to play guitar, and she highly respects and admires people who can play and sing. Her guitarist idol is Trace Bundy.

{even in the light of day

━━━

ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ɢᴏʟᴅ ᴄᴀɴ sᴛᴀʏ}

•Note: Loosely inspired by Mackenzie Johnson’s story on her cover of Coldplay's “Fix You."
•Quotes: “Moving Out” & “Toe the Line” by The Narrative

(hide spoiler)]

And just in case reserved

Bakery, bakery! He won't recognize her voice until a little later, since she hadn't called him for computer help in a little while (like 3 days haha).

You know what'd be hilarious? If they attended the same huge seminars/classes, and they didn't even know it.

Wow, I am getting really carried away with my bio it's happened again... so you can start! Ack, sorry for the delay in reply xD

Wait! Question: What's the university's name? Let's make it up! Is it prestigious? And also, my character's in the honors program.

Baking is a minor? o.o I never knew that. Special school, I guess xD

Hmm, Strahan University? Lysander University? If we're going the prestigious route. Yours is nice, but I'd like to use a new name if you've used that before ^^ just in case you're reminded of the other roleplays in which you used that name, and I want to experiment

Okay, some have culinary arts programs. Maybe she could be in one?

Oh, neat! Then let's definitely not use it, because then it has a definite influence on your mind :) Wouldn't want to confuse it or anything.

Great! I like that one, too. So I'll be working on my bio and you can start whenever you have the time ^^d

That's okay~

Awesome! I'm almost done with his bio. Almost.
almooost

I'll work on side characters, too :3 could I also make a friend for Brianna? Do you want guy friend or gal friend? :)

(view spoiler)[Do you mind using spoilers for OOC-speak while writing? (view spoiler)[my phrasing reminds me of Newspeak now, haha, if you've ever read 1984 (hide spoiler)] Sorry, it's just my preference for organization >.<

I noticed! I only watched a couple episodes though. Heard some stuff about her coming back as another character or something. *shrugs* I don't watch TV. Besides Sherlock, for the win!!

1. All right, gal it is. I'll get started on her, because I'm in the mood for character-making! Awesomesauce.

2. Thanks!! But they'd have to be pretty close, as in (if his friend is a girl) she could sit on his bed without any romance feelings and stuff. By the way, he's up and his bio is long hope you don't mind! TT TT there's a lot of info So, if you could take a look at him and adjust accordingly? b^^d (view spoiler)[https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... (hide spoiler)]

3. Totally okey-dokey. Go, you! Studying or reading at the library! I hope? Maybe not. I don't know. I should go to the library later today to study! Thanks for accidentally reminding me~ Kind of random, but what kind of coffee? I like instant milk coffee the best; I recoil from bitterness ~__~

4. And I shall now work on my post! (hide spoiler)]

His fingers were aching.

Nathan frowned at his glaringly bright phone screen as he read: Get me a macchiato. Make them do that pretty leaf thing. Subtly rolling his eyes, he tucked his phone into the back pocket of his faded blue jeans, breathing into his cupped hands to keep himself warm. He should have been nothing but warm in his fluffed lavender scarf, blue men’s peacoat, and green sweater, but he never was very good with the cold. His breath coalesced into thin, white mist before his face as he pulled open the door to Harvey’s, the bakery only a short six minutes’ walk from his dorm.

His phone rang as soon as his maroon Converses stepped past the neat threshold. He sighed and pulled out his phone again, picking it up without looking at the caller ID. He reveled in the welcome warmth as he strolled over to the counter, drumming on it as a phone directed, “Get me a macchiato.”

Ignoring the voice on the other end, he said, chattering slightly, “Hi. Can I have a coffee and…” He closed his eyes briefly, hoping that the coveted prize would be there today; he had come half an hour early to take it, and… his eyes met the empty tray labeled “Triple Chocolate Brownie.” The curly letters taunted him, told him he was too late again. When was the last time I ate the goddamn thing? he thought, his eyes disappointed as he still stared at the tray. Why do you have to be so popular? he asked it silently.

“What, is your favorite treat not there, Nate?” The voice on the other end of the line teased him relentlessly, and Nathan sighed and promptly hung up.

Then, noticing that the blonde girl behind the counter was staring at him expectantly — he tried to ignore the slightly strange look she was giving him — and added, “And this.” He swiftly pulled out an iced peach tea from the open refrigerator next to the counter and placed it on the counter. He tried to hide his disappointment from her by averting his eyes from her deep gaze; his eyes flicked up to hers once, and then he glanced away. He pulled out his wallet to have something to do with his sore fingers.

He flexed his hand once, a little frustrated that they got so weak so easily. He worked at Lysander’s tech services from seven to midnight, but his fingers had been particularly worn out since last night. All those people probably had some sort of presentation or essay due today, and he cursed them silently as he stared at his hand.

(view spoiler)[ By the way, that text is from his friend. I don’t care if you make a guy or a gal, but could you write him or her relatively soon, after Nathan leaves the bakery and returns to his dorm? Sorry for the short notice! But it won’t be for a couple more posts. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ Just in case you didn't see it, I replied b^^d we respond to each other very quickly :)

All right, that's completely okay then! You don't have to apologize :)

Huh. Okay. :)

2. Check out the spoiler on my reply. Either gal or guy, I don't care which~ Thanks very much!! :DD Thanks for reading his bio; I know he's a little long. I hadn't expected this for some reason.

3. Oh, whoopsies. xD My bad.
Me too! I don't like bitter things.
What kind of books do you read? Which ones did you pick up? haha I am so nosy at the moment but you said "books" first so

By the way, do you want me to stop using spoilers or anything?

UPDATES:
• Added to "Miscellaneous" section under Nathan.
• Brianna's friend is done! She's one year older than her. I just need to change the pictures so ignore them, they have nothing to do with Rani xD (view spoiler)[ https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... (hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]

(( Welcome! Nice~

If you want to, go ahead. You don't have to, but I guess it'd be cool. Up to you.

By the way, Nathan didn't ask her what treat was her favorite. That was his friend from the other end of the phone ^^" And since he comes regularly to the bakery, could you add the macchiato as a regular thing? Since he's a regular, he wouldn't make that kind of mistake. Want me to change the kind of coffee?

Sure, I'll stop using spoilers for OOC. But I'm gonna keep bios in spoilers because the page takes a while to load otherwise.))

(( Jason is already waiting in Nate's room. They met in college freshman year; is that good with you?

Whoa, that's a lot of apologies. It's all good; I'll change my stuff~

Claudia Gray sounds familiar. I'll check out those books later :3 Ooh, same~ Though I've moved away from the fantasy nowadays. Ahh, Raven Cycle's good - the style is a little too slow for my liking, but it's pretty good. Leaves some of an impression. I like that series :3

Thank you for looking~ I'll work on fixing up my replies now.))

(( Ah, no, they're not. He just let himself in and stayed there while Nate had some errands to run. Like borrowing a movie from the library. Unless you think it's better if they're roommates?

It's okay. I understand :)

Really? I didn't know that!

Okay. I didn't see the notif for this for some reason ~__~

I've been wondering for a while, but what should I call you? Chy? ^^

I'll have my reply up either in a couple hours or by tomorrow noon. I'm just a little stuck where to go next, because all I see is him leaving the store and meeting up with Jason back at his dorm. ~__~ ))

(( Okay, then. ^^

Right?

Like the Cheyenne tribe. ^^ I got it.

Okay~ Then let's do the Brianna and Rani / Nate and Jason idea! This way, I can put up my reply much sooner. ))

“Cream. Lots of cream,” he said, thinking of his friend’s strange preferences with coffee. “No sugar, thanks.” Feeling strange just standing around at the counter, he lightly bumped a fist against the counter then hit it with an open palm; only quiet taps on the wood reached his ears, and he hardly paid attention to it.

When she set the coffee on the counter, he had exactly four dollars and two quarters ready for her. He dropped them onto her hand, inadvertently avoiding direct contact as he picked up the coffee. He lifted it a little and thanked her again before turning to step outside into the bitter cold again. He didn’t look at her once, recognizing her blonde hair; she happened to be there eight times out of ten when he wanted that damn brownie. He’d only eaten that once this entire year.

He shivered and trembled his way over to his dorm building, his fingers numb as he swiped his card at the entrance and slipped in. A few minutes later, he let himself into his dorm room and saw a boy lounging on his reading chair. Without preamble, he walked straight over and handed over the coffee cup. His own peach tea was still cold; it was something about cold that made Nathan want to eat cold things. He ate frozen yogurt throughout the year, regardless of the cold winters at Lysander.

“I have to go to tech services in two hours, so let’s get this finished.” He picked up the DVD he’d borrowed from the library, tossing it over to his friend to put it on.

(( Yup, took it back, as you can see since I’ve deleted the comment. I was like, I gotta write even if I have homework because i haven’t written in a while.

By the way, how does Jason have “straight A's but a mix of A's and B’s”? ))

“If you would recall, J,” Nate said, as he unraveled his scarf, folded it neatly, and draped it over his desk chair, “there is no macchiato within ten minutes of campus.” He had his head turned slightly so his amused smile wouldn’t be caught; he’d been very close to hitting Jason’s face. He’d done it before, actually. Freshman year, Jason had been lying on his back while reading a hardcover, and Nate had slapped the book straight down onto Jason’s glasses. Nate hadn’t stopped hearing an endless stream of curses till almost half an hour later. And then earlier this year, Nate had dog-eared every single page of Jason’s precious copy of Catcher in the Rye, making sure to crease deeply and leave a permanent mark on the old pages.

Nate kicked the bean bag over to where Jason was sitting in Nate’s reading chair, and he unceremoniously plopped down on it. “And I have nothing else to do,” he finally answered, stifling a yawn with a lazy hand. “You said this movie was something about aliens. Or was it sex? I don’t remember. You have a weird taste for romantic comedies and action.” He laced his fingers behind his neck, physically propping himself up as if to say, “I won’t fall asleep, but I’m just getting myself comfortable in case I do.” His iced tea rested on his stomach, cold enough to keep him somewhat awake. He wouldn’t leave his friend alone to watch a movie by himself, even if he was in the same room; he’d tried that before, and that hadn’t gone down well.

———

Rani Nalin brought her water bottle to her lips as she jogged up the stairs in her yoga pants and runner’s jacket. Coming back from a run and still blissful from her runner’s high, Rani had almost forgotten to meet up with Brianna. She liked to busy herself as much as possible, so she’d been singing, practicing guitar, and running since school let out. She’d neglected some of the studying since it was a Friday, and who studied on Fridays?

“Annabel, open up!” She firmly pounded her fist against Brianna’s door, as if it were a matter of great urgency that they meet up as they usually do on Friday nights. A passing girl gave her a strange look, most likely due to the fact that there was no Annabel on this floor; Rani grinned back at her, which caused a tentative grin on the other girl’s part, while she wracked her brain for the girl’s name. Was it Tracy? Ah, no, that wasn’t it; Rani was still thinking of Trace Bundy, one of the best acoustic guitarists living and breathing. Helen? Heather? Macy? Maybe it was —

The door clicked open, and Rani whirled around, rolling onto the balls of her feet once before walking straight into the room like she owned it. “Phew, just came back from a run, and today was a good day,” she said, by way of greeting, her pristine white teeth shining as she turned around to face her friend. “How was your day?”

(view spoiler)[Sorry, I got in a writer's block. It'll take me a while to come up with something... (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Sorry for going missing for a while! School was really, really hectic and stressful this past week. I'm going to try to add some more surprises here to make up for it if I can ^^ (hide spoiler)]

Nate smiled as a matter of habit when it came to Jason’s profuse interrogations. He teased his friend lightly as he raised an eyebrow and asked incredulously, as if he couldn’t believe it, “You don’t?” Could’ve sworn you did were the words that hung in the silent air between them, and Nate laughed out loud before Jason could react.

At Jason’s request, Nate answered, “Yeah, sure. It’s in the back of the room. Get it yourself.” Also, look at the DVD yourself before popping it in, he thought quietly, but he knew he didn’t have to answer that question. Sometimes Jason filled in silence just to fill it in.

“Hey, are you dating right now?” Nate suddenly asked him. He didn’t know where the question came from.

***

“No!” Rani exclaimed indignantly. “No way. You save that damn brownie for me. Friends before not friends, remember? You don’t even know the guy.” Then she added, as if the point hadn’t already been made: “That brownie is mine.”

She collapsed onto the bed for only a second before shooting back up, her back ramrod straight. "Which reminds me," she said, without explanation, "you, missy, need to go running with me. How does Saturday sound?" Speaking of brownies had reminded her of healthful diets, which reminded her of exercise, which reminded her of Brianna's hatred of exercise.