A Sweet Little Lie, I Cry Wolf, Cry

[Cicadan]

"Yo, Paris!"

Paris' neck tilted up a bit and he glanced the direction of the voice. Two tall dudes in sports shirts who were walking perpendicular to him, away from Central. One of them had a phone in his pocket, loudly playing a radio airplay tune Paris thought had no tone. His friend had a face, one Paris thought was vaguely familiar.

"Hit us up!"

The two dudes crooked their necks to one side and craned their heads into the skin of their elbows while they two-arm saluted the sky. Paris recognized the gesture from around school, from on TV. He didn't know what it meant, friends called it something like the... 'dub', as he'd heard it through half-attentive ears.

He copied the gesture. It was weird but it was kind of funny and silly. No harm in a passing shoutout. The two guys, one of them whose name was on the tip of Paris' tongue as quick as it was off again, whooped and then were on their way like Paris was on his.

-----

((Paris Ardennes continued from The Fox and the Crow))

A few minutes later Paris was lingering in a booth of Applebee's, reclining against the cold and plastic-y upholstery of the one booth he and Natali had used often enough to call home away from home. He glanced at his phone after yanking it out of his tightly packed jeans pocket. A ton of messages, some of them from Jasmine even though they'd broken up a week ago. He didn't figure he had a reason to talk to her again so he ignored the alerts. He scrolled up and down a bit. Nothing from Natali.

He hoped she showed up soon. He was hankering to order some ribs, had a spare pocket freshly lined with two twenties just for the job.

[Somersault]

((Natali stepped back into frame.))

Why was it so difficult to be friends with a moralizing religious playboy who dated a different girl every month?

Wait. That question probably answered itself. Ugh.

In any case, now Natali had to go help him clean up his own shit, and help him, and not get him into any deeper shit with Jasmine, who was someone she barely knew. Like, at all. She did violin, and that was the extent of all of Nat's knowledge on the other girl. Probably photographed her for an article about PJ Hobbs' music program or something. At least it wasn't winter yet, which was something she appreciated quite a bit. No need to bring out the sweaters. There was one lavender item that she really wanted to try, but it could wait.

The lighting at this time of day probably meant that any photo would come out a bit too yellow, anyways.

Still strolling through the street, she saw that she was rapidly approaching the familiar sign of Applebee's. Scrolling back to her phone, she checked if there was anything new from Paris. Nope, nothing. The last text was like 20 minutes ago when they actually agreed to talk about this, and so she instead shoved her phone into her messenger bag. Not much else to do other than continue on her merry way towards the joint, she supposed.

She got to the restaurant, poked her head in a bit, and yep. There he was, sitting at The One Booth where they pretty much always sat, looking at his phone. She hadn't been too late, had she? Pulling out her phone, she glanced at the screen, confirming that yes, she hadn't been all that late. Maybe five minutes or so? Within that small margin of error, although Natali definitely would've wanted to be the one here first. If you were the one waiting, you had the power, usually, and this was her time to go ask Paris about all the shady shit.

Walking towards The One Booth, she waved at Paris, a small smile evident on her face. "Hey, I'm here," She spoke, sliding into the side of the booth opposite Paris. "Sorry for being a bit late." Nat scratched her hair sheepishly. Starting with an apology hopefully made this all sound more peaceful.

But, peaceful wasn't what she was here for, was she? She was here for Jasmine, the girl she barely knew, because Paris, her friend, seemed to be unable to break up with someone amicably.

"Anyways, got anything you wanna discuss with me? School stuff, friend stuff, relationship stuff?"

He had to take the hint. He probably wouldn't, though. She could never be sure with Paris.

[Cicadan]

There was a flash of a face like Natali's pooling light reflected off the door, like a camera set to full exposure, then Paris squinted a bit and she was right there seated.

"Don't worry about it! Isn't it usually the case that I'm the late one?" Paris laughed. He thought about that for a second. He realized he tended to be the timely one, which somehow surprised him. Providence, he guessed.

"Let's discuss the menu," Paris grinned cheekily. "Check it out, they've got a new package deal on the appetizers. Not like the ones from Spongebob, I mean," and he tacked on the reference he thought worked right at the end. Paris offered Natali the menu that the waiter had reserved for her with a push of his hand. His fingers lingered on her side of the table drumming lightly, it was one of those awkward casually intimate gestures Paris was more sure about with Natali as opposed to most anyone else. "I haven't ordered yet so if you want to split something that sounds good."

[Somersault]

He was still smiling as if he owned the whole damn place, sort of lost in his own world. Probably. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen her fair share of maybe high, maybe just really happy people, but knowing about Paris' devotion to religion, she knew that he was almost always just like this. Kind of. Sort of.

Actually, perhaps it wasn't that accurate of an assessment.

Natali nodded as she listened to Paris discussing the food options, keeping her face in a neutral expression. It wasn't food that she wanted to talk about, no, but perhaps eating a bit, lightening the mood a little would help. Maybe she was just delaying the inevitable, trying to distract herself from the inevitable task of just asking about Jasmine. Maybe she didn't even really need to speak to him about it, maybe he knew already? But, no, he didn't. Couldn't have. Wasn't really like him, although she would've been loath to say that out in public.

Instead, she kept on nodding, starting to feel a bit like a bobblehead, before accepting the menu from Paris with a quick "Thanks." It probably would've been a good idea to bring up the topic just about then, do something about it. But, she couldn't be rude, couldn't she? They were friends, in that extremely platonic way because she swore Ms. Ardennes sometimes treated her like a daughter, but that just made this whole thing more awkward.

Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she looked at Paris. "Maybe the baby back ribs would be good? I mean, I am kinda hungry." Eating could get him to talk. Hopefully.

[Cicadan]

Paris smiled still, contently basking in the lukewarm light of the world as filtered through the dusty window of an Applebees. He watched Natali nod and nod some more. Agreeable mood today if Paris had to guess. He withdrew his fingers to his side of the table with a strong pointing gesture her way. "Take your time." Then he ordered without further preamble, calling over the waiter whose name and face were vague. Definitely the rib plate today for sure. Full up on the sides too.

"Mom's asking how NGP's going right now." Paris didn't often ask about Natali's photography biz. It was essentially old news, but sometimes inquiring minds wanted to know. "Holiday season's coming up so you must be getting busy. But yeah. Definite recommendation on the ribs." One of the dishes Applebees could work well on. Supposedly the place was all microwave but Paris liked to think that if it was good food it was good food, didn't matter if it was homecooked by a kindly old grandma or unpacked from the back of a freezer truck that traveled a couple thousand miles or whatever.

[Somersault]

The ribs came, Paris spoke, and Nat stared. She stared at the ribs, unsure of whether to be the first to get them or not. Well, Paris was the one who had arrived first, so she decided to help. It would only be polite, wouldn't it? Besides, if she was going to ask him about Jasmine, it would probably be better if she wasn't talking while chewing out of her mouth or something. That'd be pretty awkward, especially if she was trying to get Paris to actually explain to her.

She looked down again. The ribs still looked good.

But wait, Ms. Ardennes was asking how NGP was going? Like, the one person who was the reason that she knew Paris in the first place? But, she supposed there was no harm in telling the truth there. "Mmm, it's going pretty okay." She took a sip of water. "Like, people are starting to ask, but not everyone wants to get their holiday photos taken by a high schooler," Dad was still installing HVAC systems and stuff so they could keep living in Carrington Pointe, so Natali was pretty happy whenever she managed to make a bit of money for the family. Every little bit counted, right?

"What about you? Anything big happen over the last couple of weeks?" The ribs probably still were tasty as always, but they could wait.

[Cicadan]

Paris stared at Natali staring at his ribs, the ones on his plate, not in his chest. He turned his attention back to his food. He'd need to carefully plan his approach vector due to all the sauciness, after all. He needed to grab right at the ends, locking his fingers against the little bits of bone and digging them in so he could hold on for dear life. With a tight grip like so he could manipulate the meat so there was minimal sauce-slathered-to-lips action, or to chin or expensive shirt, or wherever. He dug in and enjoyed the rich flavor for a good and long second.

"A bunch of people definitely do though." Paris shrugged, his half gnawed rib laid crossways over his plate as he spoke with definitely clean lips. "My Mom says it's like, this whole business thing. If you have draw in terms of your appeal as a person you'll get yourself like, a niche of support or something." Paris shrugged.

"Everyone in your family works hard, it's pretty crazy. I respect how you guys all support one another as best you can, always have." What was it Mr. Greer did again? Paris couldn't quite put his finger on it. He put his fingers back to his food.

He ate as Natali asked him another generic question. He ate a bit more, picked one bone clean. Then he responded, slowly speaking as he tried to think through his past few weeks. "Hm, yeah. I topped the bracket at a small fencing competition we had, just an in-studio thing. And, uh, also my Mom and I went to Albany for the weekend. Hey, did you see any of the photos we put up on Facebook from that trip? They were pretty nice, it's a beautiful downtown facade. Like there was this one Vietnamese restaurant that was really good..." He trailed off, he was pretty sure that was it. He moved onto his next rib. "What about you?"

[Somersault]

"That's pretty nice of you," was all Natali could say, as she blankly agreed and listened to Paris' escapades. If this were a normal day, she would have humored him, but there were too many other things to think about to give him an amazing answer to his remarks. She sipped some water. It was true, though, the stuff about her family working hard. It'd been difficult at times, but until now, they'd mostly managed to push through and persevere. Always as the Greers, never apart.

The niche thing he had spoken of earlier though was probably a salient point, but that didn't really help with the fact that she didn't know exactly how to appeal to a specific audience and stuff. Photography was great, photography was amazing, but she had always pictured herself landing a job with like Nat Geo, not continuing the whole independent photo biz. Still, she guessed he had a point, and if Ms. Ardennes agreed, that probably meant it was a good thing to follow.

Still, she wasn't here for that, wasn't she? Had to go ask him about the whole thing in a subtle way, questioning but not aggressive, subtle but not too subtle, that hadn't worked, just go ask now -

"What happened with Jasmine?" Accusing tone, shocked look. It wasn't meant to come out like that, a garble of words escaping her mouth, but it did, just like that, and she was just staring at him now. Natali couldn't add anything to make it better. Could only watch as he tried to explain.

[Cicadan]

Paris shrugged. It was an odd time to bring up that sort of topic.

"We broke up, pretty much. I just think we pushed the thing to it's natural limit, you know, had our fun." Definitely. Paris had thought it had been a good time, Jasmine had emphatically confirmed that multiple times, in words and actions and everything. "Better to get out while the going's still good." Was that a bit too much of a cliche kind of saying? And Natali had some sort of interesting look on her face, like Paris had a stain on his shirt or something. He glanced down, checking to be sure. No stain.

With an unmolested shirt and a still strong appetite Paris set to working on his next rib. Careful grip, once more. "Yeah, I mean," Paris mused idly, not paying much attention to what he was saying, "it's really that simple, hah. Jasmine got pretty mad but that's one of those things I respected about her, I guess. All that passion. Wherever it ends up going after this." If Paris was accurately remembering how it had all gone down, at any rate.