𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴— (o&a)

[doc .]

ＪＵＤＧＥ
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♂ - Jock - X - 24
Tags: Cafe

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He had felt his phone buzz but he ignored it seeing as he was in the cafe already. Sure enough his one and only stepped out from the kitchen with a large plate of food and brought it over to him. Delaney always knew the way to his heart. The man leaned forward and grinned, picking up a napkin and a fork and was ready to dig in. He glanced up and smiled nodding
'I'd like a cup of coffee, my dear. Medium roast please' he signed back and put his hand to his lips, before bringing them off his lips and repeated this action many many times, saying thank you to her over and over again. He scooted forward and began to eat what he had in front of him.
Minutes had passed and Nina was in the cafe along with Armani. Everyone was slowly coming in and he had yet to notice. The large man continued to eat his eggs and chew on his bacon until Nina sat down and began to sign. He straightened up a little and watched her silently, giving her a simple nod in acknowledgement. Because he was at the front counter he had to swivel his chair a little bit to see everyone. He didn't exactly want to sit at a booth with them all, he was just fine close to his girl rather than the others. The bacon was gone and so were the eggs as he began to work on his waffles. By then Renata had shown up. Almost everyone was here in the cafe, which was a little weird. It had been such a long time since they were all together like this. He had to remind himself that they were all there collectively because of someone's death.
Oliver was the last one in and he was obviously announcing his presence. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders. Oliver sat near him at the counter and he shoved a bite of waffle in his mouth, chewing and pausing on the rest. He wanted to pay attention to the others for now. When his coffee got to him he took it with another smile toward Delaney. She was the best at everything she made. The waffles were absolutely perfect. Anything she made was perfect, and he was sure to let her know.
Not wanting to be the first one to say anything, he sat back with his coffee and sipped it, looking among all of his peers. Change was obvious, though it wasn't a bad thing. He kept quiet and decided to let the others do the talking, as he was sure to pay attention.
x

[Elillium]

xx
𝘋𝘌𝘓𝘈𝘕𝘌𝘠 𝘌𝘊𝘒𝘔𝘐𝘌𝘙
x.xxxx location: neon bean cafe ╌ tagged: james, armani ╌ wc: 526
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x

Delaney smiled to him gently, nodding in acknowledgment towards his request. Behind the counter, she worked quietly, grabbing a scoop of fresh beans from the large metal tins that were built into the counter beside the bar sink, scooping them into the grinding press and turning the handle. While she mindlessly turned she watched over James' shoulder,
inspecting each person that came inside. As her friends poured in one by one, she struggled to feel any warmth. She knew them all to be her friends, but there was a dissociation. From her place behind the bar, they felt only like people, possibly distant acquaintances. She tried not to let the strange energy bother her, after all, she understood that they were a group of individuals that were being forced back together due to some seriously unfortunate circumstances. Her heart flickered with anxiety at the mere thought of it, and the smile slowly faded from her blushed cheeks. She poured the coffee into a large charcoal grey mug, placing it on a matching saucer. She added his preferred amount of sugar and cream; she devoted a lot of her time to remembering his preferences so that she could put a smile on his face without even having to ask. She set the cup down next to his place. She wiped the counter off with a red plaid rag, before tossing the rag in the sink, and winking at James. She walked past him, brushing her hand up his arm to his shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze of reassurance. She left a faint fragrance of vanilla as she crossed the cafe.

Delaney walked silently across the hardwood floor, her heart dancing with excitement and dread as more of her friends poured into the cafe. Some looked rugged, beaten almost, while others had a tinge of optimism and life. And of course, Ollie, who was fashionably late but still so welcomed. Delaney greeted Armani with a gentle hug, her chin resting on her shoulder for a moment as the two were the same height; short. She had missed her dearly. "Oh my god hey," Delaney said quietly, stepping back from the hug to look at her almost solemnly. She studied her face for a second, the apprehension in the air was thick. Delaney struggled to break the tension before she chimed quietly, "can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, juice, water?" She was still in hospitality mode, but she had in fact invited them all to meet up, so she figured it was her duty as the host the get them anything they desired. Delaney glanced over to Ren, who entered quietly and found her place along the wall. Delaney wasn't going to force a welcome on Ren like she had Armani. While Armani was typically unpredictable, Delaney could guess how she would react to a running hug. Ren, however, had grown almost more unpredictable. Delaney wasn't even sure if unpredictable was the word. She did find Ren to be almost that of a stranger now. She managed to quiet the many swirling thoughts and questions inside her head before drawing her focus back to her best friend.

[limerence!]

𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧
𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙚|𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮-𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚| 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙮 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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when armani walked into the cafe, she let the aroma of various breakfast foods wash over her. james was already here, and she perked up upon seeing delaney. the petite female took her sunglasses off, instantly reeling from the amount of light that hit her eyes. wincing, she squeezed them shut for a few minutes. when she opened her eyes again, nina was in the cafe, with renata not far behind. one look at nina and guilt wound itself around armani’s stomach. fidgeting with her sunglasses in her hands, she tried her best to put a friendly smile on her face. “hey, nina. good to see you again.” she spoke gently, trying to come off as harmless and nice.

the blonde looked over to renata, who was lurking on the wall. this time there was a perfectly authentic smile, renata and armani had always been close. she also knew that the former sweetheart had gone through so much in only a few years, and armani was no stranger to addiction. armani wouldnt force rae, she would just offer a smile. while she hoped that the two would be able to catch up a bit, she wasn’t here to make anybody uncomfortable.

and then she heard oliver’s voice. with a grimace, she slowly turned to look at him. unable to stop it in time, her jaw dropped at his disheveled appearance. oh my god. he’s homeless now because of me. what have i done? she thought frantically, but was temporarily calmed by the sight of delaney approaching her. armani learned into the hug, warm and reminiscent of the good days in highschool. when delaney stepped back, armani almost wanted to shrink under the chef’s stare. she wanted to scream that she was fine, that she wasn’t the one who had died, that ophelia was in her past and she didn’t even care. but she swallowed the urge, no more lies and especially no more screaming fits. “im fine, luv” she replied. “the cafe looks stunning, how has business been?” she inquired as she moved to sit down beside james, setting her birkin bag on the counter.

[kieranwilcox]

━━━━━ [ ✵ ] ━━━━━━━ N I N A ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

more and more of nina’s friends came rushing into the cafe, her anxiety was through the roof and she felt so awkward. judge was nice to her but, he simply nodded at her. the brunette bit her lip, she didn’t know if the group still thought she was a stuck up rich girl. she didn’t expect much from judge either way, she was still a little hurt over their dilemma in high school. as much as she hated to admit, she held on to grudges. nina is still a little hurt that her friends left her, excluded her from the group. nina looked down at her phone, looking at the time. she nervously tapped her foot looking around the small diner.

a part of nina wanted to run away and go home, she would pretend to have an emergency back in New York and leave. catching the first plane back and climbing back into her comfort zone. the woman realized that it was probably too late for that anyway, a small sigh escaped from her lips. nina took her phone at again, ollie still hasn’t texted her back. she would literally shoot the guy if he bailed. a ring at the front door caught nina’s attention, it was rae. nina offered her a smile but she wasn’t sure if her old friend noticed or not. being the introvert, she was renata found her place leaning against a wall on the other side of the cafe. nina’s eyes drifted back to her own polished black nails, this must be just as hard for rae as it was for her. after a few seconds, nina decided to stay in her place, she didn’t want to disturb renata, she knew that when she was ready, she would come over and sit next to the rest of them.

minutes passed and nina watched armani and delaney, the two seemed like they were on good terms. the brunette looked down again, feeling extremely nervous. her heart was beating out of her chest, she couldn’t calm down. nina regrets not having a martini at the hotel bar before meeting up with her old posse. after all of these years! nina still didn’t know what her friends thought of her. it was odd that ophelia’s death brought them together. Nina shook the thought out of her head.

there was another ring at the door, nina turned her head to see ollie. nina laughed as ollie entered, it was the first time she seen him in awhile and did he make an appearance. her friend still had his signature brown curls, but he was covered in sweat and looked as if he just ran a mile. “what the hell?” nina asked, looking at him up and down. the brunette sat on the barstool and had both of her hands on her face, her elbows on the clean counter, holding her head up. “oh my god ollie....” she paused looking at him once again. “you look terrible.” she added. the relationship between the two was odd, they used to poke fun at each other since they were kids. she recalled the time where the two would get in arguments on whose hair was shinier, it was comforting to see him at the cafe.

[ethium]

𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧.

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rae(n) -- she/her -- the sweetheart -- 24
independent & quiet -- feeling: anxious
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Armani watched as the group finally fully arrived, sucking in a breath she swirled the monster in her palm and took another sip before peeling herself off the far wall. She approached the group quietly, but gave a soft smile. Rae’s eyes combed over each of her old and current friends. After a moment, a soft chuckle came from her. An amused expression brushing her lips she turned to the primary circle that had been forming and spoke softly, but firmly.

“You all look great. I’m glad you all could come. Even if just for her funeral. It’s nice, to catch up.”

She swallowed at the word her, not strong enough to say ophelia’s name aloud or add that that she too would be leaving the first chance she got after the funeral. That, and she didn’t want to start anything. But the reality of why they were here, why they were congregating in this small indie-cafe. Was a heavy truth. Ophelia was the glue, and though she herself had fallen apart after moving away, she would forever be grateful to Ophelia for the brief, but lasting impact the girl had had on her. Now she turned her gaze to Armani and with a playful grin opened her arms in an inviting gesture, “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to give me a hug?”

She embraced Armani, grateful for her familiarity in the room. Armani had more than once been her life line, and though she would never tell her, she owe a lot of her sober journey to Armani. She hadn’t had wanted to lose the only friend she still had, the only positive relationship that had remained past high school. Her own parents didn’t want to see her, but Armani would. She refused to lose Armani too, and thus whenever her clean streak began to be threatened, she reminded herself of what she could lose.

Now her gaze traveled to the few others in the cafe. With her hug and slight introduction of the way she felt a bit better about being there. That being said, she was far from comfortable and turned her attention towards the counter, of which she opted to lean against. She took another swig of her energy drink, and then with a sour huff realized she was going to finish it soon. Which alarmed her, because she had just gotten it.. must be more anxious than I had previously thought. She dismissed those thoughts the moment they came, not wanting to encourage any thoughts of anxiety. Running a hand over the back of her head she let her eyes wander towards the two of whom she had yet to introduce herself to. Ollie, had tumbled in disheveled, which felt almost like a typical thing for him that she had suppressed laughter at the absurdity of it all. Life hadn’t had been kind to him had it. Then again, life hadn’t had been kind to her either, so she was in no shoes to judge him for his situation.

She then turned her eyes to judge. She hadn’t had spoken with him a whole lot, and her knowledge of asl had dwindled since high school. When she had taken the class out of an effort to communicate better, now she hoped she could remember the basics, but decided she wouldn’t embarrass herself now because she was certain she would mess up. Her gaze drifted from judge to Delaney and she felt her eyebrow arch slightly as she assessed their relationship. Though it probably wasn’t a secret, Renata had never been big on keeping up with the drama after high school. She was too caught up in her own to care about anyone else. When she had been in high school every piece of gossip she could get her hands on was like figurative gold. She was dangerous with that kind of stuff. Not anymore though, she had no use for such information. Instead she now thought the whole concept trivial and a waste of time. Probably a sign of maturity, though she would never consider herself that. Especially with her being so young. She had a bit of experience is all.



─ mentions: friends, Armani
─ tags: everyone at the diner