Participants:
| Scene Title | Friend Date |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Toru and Keira can has one. |
| Date | October 8, 2010 |
The desk at the front accepts players' money and rents out the flat-bottomed shoes used in bowling alleys anywhere. Plaques from past tournaments held at Kingpin's line the posts on either side of the counter, along with an assortment of pictures and posters.
Thin red carpet covers the floor as far as the broad, shallow stairs leading down into the bowling pit. An assortment of vending and arcade game machines line the back wall; a counter and corresponding line of stools provide places for people to watch the games while they eat. Snacks are not, of course, allowed on the floor.
Below the stairs are the computers controlling the lanes and the games, with groups of chairs clustered about. Beyond them are the hardwood-paneled lanes, just waiting for pins to be set; behind, in the shadow of the counter, are shelves and shelves of bowling balls in all sizes and colors.
Toru— has arrived early, or maybe he was already here when he texted Keira, who knows!! But either way once she arrives, Toru is sitting at a two-seater table that looks over the bowling lanes, and he's got a small pizza on the table in front of him. It's plain cheese, because he's boring and doesn't like pepperoni. A few slices are gone, but his soda is still about full. He's sitting in a table facing the door so as not to be taken by surprise, and his feet are propped up on the seat opposite his. He's being pretty ridiculously loungey. And eating a slice of pizza. Drippy and oozy, just like in the cartoons.
Keira almost looks modest today, though not quite. The petite woman steps into the bowling alley, wearing a pair of loose, somewhat torn jeans, a black tank top that cuts off above her belly button to show off the tattoos that cover even her sensitive abdomen, and a grey hoodie jacket, which the sleeves are rolled up on. She looks comfortable, at least. The heavily tattooed woman slowly makes her way over to the table that Toru sits at, and promptly nudges his feet off of the seat with a toe. "I'm here."
Toru would've put his feet down himself! But once they're nudged off, he slides into a more upright position, elbows on the table and looking across at Keira with pizza pointed. He's got a brown shirt on that says 'BROOKLYN' in sport-style lettering, with parrots nesting behind the text. Hoodie is draped on the back of his chair. "I see that, lady." Eyebrow raised, he scoots his chair in closer to the table, gestures to chair across from him. "Well? — Though I guess if you wanna drink you should go up and get somethin', they don't really do tableside service here, y'know?" There's a bit of a smirk with that. "I woulda got you somethin' but I dunno what you like."
With a smirk, Keira promptly makes her way over to the counter, ordering herself a nice big soda. Once the beverage is obtained, the petite, inked woman plops herself down in the seat across from Toru, crossing her legs and snatching a slice of pizza up for herself. "So, how you been, Toru?" She tilts her head toward the Asian, her brows raised slightly. "We gonna fling a ball at some bowling pins?"
"I don't really got anybody to talk to, y'know?" It sounds kind of pathetic the way he says it, especially since he's trying not to. There's a bit of a long pause after the remark, before Toru finally continues. "… This is kinda a weird time of year and I guess I figured I wanted somebody to talk to. Madcat ain't really the talkin'-to type unless you wanna talk about bitches and you're pretty much the only other person I talk to besides him. So." So, he takes a bite from his pizza thoughtfully before finishing up the rest of the slice in a few more chomps, gulps down some soda and lets out a sighing sort of noise. "I just picked here 'cause they pizza's aight."
Keira tilts her head toward Toru, a thoughtful look on her face. As bitchy as she can be, he does kind of appeal to her motherly instincts. After a moment, she smiles, taking a bite of her pizza and chewing thoughtfully. "Amadeus might get fuckin' boring. He and I are like dating and shit." She shrugs, chewing on her pizza. "Unless he lied to me, which I don't think he did." She leans back in her seat, peering at Toru. "So what'd you want t'talk about? I can talk about me, but that's probably not very fun."
Toru waves a hand dismissively. "I figured. Good. You're a lot more his type than that De…" his face goes a bit awkward there when he realizes he's probably about to say something bad, so he hurriedly shifts into, "…other chick. He was startin' to drive me nuts, I mean when Toru can tell a dude's barkin' up the wrong tree you know shit's messed up." He sips from his own cup thoughtfully a moment, picks up a new slice of pizza, noms. "I'm startin' to think I need to do some shit with myself. If I can't find somethin' to make a few bucks I pretty much spend every day drinkin' Slurpees and hauling my life around in a duffel bag. It's gettin' kinda.. stagnant." Nice two-dollar word there.
"I hope you're right. I just…well, after six years, I finally said fuck it, and put my foot down. Told him he either dates me for real, or I'm gone. He's been…good, since then. I kinda like it." She tilts her head to one side. "He's not allowed to go see my half-sister any more. Delia's my fuckin' blood, I'm sure of it, so I ain't gonna let him fuck it up." She takes a bite of the pizza, peering thoughtfully at Toru. Then, she grins slightly. "You know, Toru, I got some shit that could use sellin'. I pay based on commission, but if you work hard enough, you can fuckin' make bank."
Toru looks Keira over hesitantly. Eyes narrowed a little. "I dunno." He rubs the back of his neck. "…Maybe I oughtta. Straight work ain't really my gig." And he means that in the legality sense, before you get any ideas. Which would also be accurate. "Delia ain't his type and she doesn't wanna see him. I ran into her the other day and she pretty much said as much." There were other choice words that he isn't going to bring up for the sake of discretion. "But yeah, that's good, sure. Make him less of a mope," not that Toru's any better lately, "stop him chasin' impossible dreams. All that shit." Shrugs, sips soda, swishes it around the cup a little. It's one of those huge ones, so he's nowhere near done yet, but swishies nonetheless. "I kinda fucked up with this dude I was with. Ran out 'cause of family shit and never really tried to get in touch until I got back. I dunno why, but I just.. dropped the ball." He bites the inside of his lip, looks across the table at Keira. "Then I went and said some shit and my parents pretty much disowned me but he doesn't want me back and I don't know what to do anymore."
"Man, straight work never gets you fuckin' nowhere. You just end up in a fuckin' dead end job, gettin' your fuckin' soul sucked out every day. That shit ain't for me." She shrugs. "I make good money, and I treat any employes I got well. Just don't fuck me over, and we be cool." She smirks, slurping at her soda. THen, as he begins talking, her brows raise slightly, and she finishes off her pizza as she listens intently.
Once he's done talking, Keira offers a faint grin. "Man, you gotta stop mopin' like you been doin'. Every time I seen you, you've been depressed. Fuck all that shit, man. You can't let life get you down, because if you do, you'll never get back up." She beats a fist against her tattooed chest. "Lookit me, man. My fuckin' mom beat me all my life and told me she didn't fuckin' want me, and my fuckin' dad didn't want me from the start, 'cause he wasn't there when I was fuckin' born. In school, I got beat the fuck up by the older kids, made fun of and shit. All my life, I never got love from anyone."
She leans back in her seat, slurping from her soda. "Do you see me bein' all depressed about how much my life fuckin' sucks? No, I ain't depressed at all. Y'know why?" She raises her brows, peering over her soda at Toru. "It's because I say fuck that shit. I make my own fuckin' life, and I take care of myself, 'cause nobody else is gonna. You gotta take care of you, my man, first and foremost."
"I ain't mopin'!" Toru snaps, though he's totally lying. "You don't know what it's like, ok? I like— This guy, man, I don't even know if I'm into dudes and this guy comes along and.. I dunno, it wasn't bad, and I always kinda had trouble gettin' with ladies. But there ain't really ever been other dudes I been into. I don't know what I'm into, I just know I miss havin'— somethin' stable. I ain't got that, and I ain't got a family anymore, and all my life I been friggin' ostracized for bein' a damn halfbreed, if we're comparin' trauma notes." He bites his lip, looking away a little. "My parents were always pretty good but my mom's parents weren't ever very quiet about hatin' me.
"Dammit, forget it. I am takin' care of myself, I'm tryin' to do that by gettin' my shit back together. Showering at the friggin' YMCA and sleepin' in some cat guy's rapevan isn't gettin' me anywhere." He slumps back in his chair, crosses his arms across his chest huffily, and holds his soda close to himself, almost like a kid would hold a teddy bear. Siiip. "So I'll think about it. Crime's harder off Staten but I don't wanna go back there again."
Keira smirks quietly, watching Toru thoughtfully. "You come on over to hide under momma Keira's wing, I'll fuckin' take care of you, my man. I won't even fuckin' make gay jokes like everyone else does, promise." She slurps at the soda again, thoughtfully clicking her tongue piercing against her teeth. "I got some good fuckin' contacts. You'd be surprised how happy the wealthy are to hand me their fuckin' money in exchange for their next high. Rich straight folk ain't always as straight as they seem. Most of them are fucked up, corrupt in one way or a-fuckin'-nother."
The woman grins. "I can't give you much advice about findin' fuckin' guys, but I always got shit that needs pushed. You think about it, and remember that I take care of my peoples."
"I don't even want another dude right now, I just want.. I want some kinda closure or somethin', I guess. I know I fucked up but I figure he coulda.. didn't have to be such a dick about it. It's hard to explain." More to the point, Toru doesn't really want to go into detail. It's personal~ So he jumps topic abruptly. "If it's just delivering shit I can do that fine, that's what I been doin' forever anyway. Packages and shit, flied lice two dollah, whatever. Just as long as I ain't goin' around makin' cold sells, I don't wanna mess with that shit, I ain't got no idea how to spot a narc. Probably oughtta work it out sometime, but it ain't a good idea makin' me jump into it." He shakes his head, waves a hand vaguely, chows down on his pizza slice and sips some more soda. Nom nom. "I'll talk to you about it later, I really just wanted to eat for now, I guess. Maybe grab a snow cone later if anyone's got 'em still this late in the year."