ArchivedLogs:Two Parts Catching Up, One Part Commiseration, One Part Pleasant Distractions

Two Parts Catching Up, One Part Commiseration, One Part Pleasant Distractions
Dramatis Personae Anette, Natalie	2016-07-18 "It's like a small town, everyone knows everyone."
Location <NYC> Alleycats - Little Italy
A throwback to an older era, Alleycats has been around in some form or other since its days as a private bowling club in the early 1900s. Still low-tech, bowlers are given pencil and paper scorecards to keep track of their score and their pins are only cleared and reset when they actually push a button to do so. There are no lane bumpers and the popularity and small size of the bowling alley -- only a dozen lanes with brightly blue and green lacquered wooden tables and cracking upholstery on their benches -- means that on evenings and weekends especially, wait times can get very long for a free lane. Most people opt to do their turn waiting in the adjoining cafe. Often noisy with the spillover from the adjacent lanes, the pizzeria looks more modern than the bowling alley itself. There's an industrial feel to the room's exposed architecture, solid blocky wood tables and benches, a long bar at one end with a very wide beer selection. The pizzas are all baked in full view of the dining room -- with a specialty in locally-grown organic flatbread pizza the dichotomy between the gourmet flatbread pizza and the old-fashioned alley alongside has made this locale a popular one with an unusual mix of company. Monday evening, and it's early enough that Alleycats isn't all that packed yet. The restaurant tables are half-full and Happy Hour means there's not an empty stool at the bar but there are, at least, open lanes to be found. In one lane at the end of the row, a quartet of teenagers are chatting cheerfully to each other over their throws; two lanes down from them a harried-looking middle-aged man is shepherding a small flock of small children who are only intermittently interested in bowling and more preoccupied with the table full of pizza and fries and soda they sit at. In between these two lanes, Natalie is just setting a pitcher of beer down beside the fresh hot pizza that's just been delivered to their table. In deference to the heat, she is wearing a strappy red tank top, short black cutoffs, and Teva sandals, fingernails and toenails both painted deep red. Her hair is tied back in a high ponytail; she tucks a stray wisp of it back behind her ear as she plops back into her seat. "-- Oh man, if you get the next round don't talk to that blond bartender he's an absolute skeeze." It's been a rough month for Anette and tonight might be the first time Anette's actually looked happy. Even more so when Natalie arrives with the beer. Tonight she's decided to be openly mutant, wings and talons are out and visible but she does try to keep them, especially her wings, quiet and subdued. It's just too damn hot to keep everything covered. It's slow enough they haven't been kicked out yet but she has gotten a few dirty looks and then mostly ignored. Her hair is loose about her shoulders and she wears an old 80's hair metal band t-shirt with black cut off shorts and laced up gladiator sandals. When Natalie arrives with the beer, Anette already has a half-eaten slice of pizza in one hand and once the pitcher is free, she uses her free hand to refill her glass. "The tall one? Thanks for the heads up," she says, lifting her glass in a pseudo-toast before taking a large gulp. "Man, have I been overdue for a night out," she says, setting her glass down and taking a large bite of her pizza. "Eyup. But the other chick's a sweetheart. Don't really envy her her coworkers." There's a faint wince that accompanies this statement. Natalie fills her own glass after Anette, lifting it in answer to the other woman. "Yeah? Island life getting to you?" Though now the slant of her smile skews just a little lopsided. "-- Or old boyfriends?" "Hmm...half-tempted to slip her my number. See what happens," Anette says, subtly stretching her neck a bit to catch a glimpse of the other waitress, currently wiping down recently cleared tables and chatting with a group of teen kids. When she returns her attention back to the table, she presses her lips back together and takes another large gulp of beer before she responds. "A little bit of both. Mostly the latter. You see him?" Natalie shrugs a shoulder, taking a swig of her beer. "Most likely she'd take it. Kind of a job requirement to be pleasant to everyone when you're in the service industry." This comes with another faint wince. It evens out as she sets her mug back down, picking up a slice of pizza for herself. "Yeah, met him a couple weeks ago. Seen him around a fair bit since. Hard to avoid running into people, in a small group." This last she says with some small amount of sympathy. "How you handling it?" "Yeah, but the question is whether she'd call it," Anette says, before shrugging lightly and leaning back against her chair. "I really shouldn't, seeing someone and all. Still, old habits..." She takes a bite of her pizza slice, taking her time chewing before she answers Natalie's question. "It's like a small town, everyone knows everyone. I suppose the entire island knows by now. But I'm doing alright." She crosses her arms on the table, resting the pizza holding hand on top of the other. "Actually, I'm not handling it that well. But what're you gonna do? I can't exactly kick him off the island. Not that I really want to." "No, you really can't." Natalie's fingernails drum idly against the tabletop as she takes another slice of pizza. "Suppose the best you can do is just ignore him and move on. Have pizza. Chuck some bowling balls. Have a good time without him." "That's more or less the plan at the moment," Anette says, grinning and setting her pizza down to pick up her glass and raise it. "To good times without him," she says, taking another, more moderate sip. "Besides, I've got Killian now and he's fantastic. I moved on, not my problem if Akihiro can't. Or won't." She gives a faint sigh before looking Natalie over. "Enough of me, what've you been up to?" "Fantastic sounds like a step up." Natalie's smile is quick. "Plowing my way through ten million bandits in Dynasty Warriors with Dusk." Natalie chomps down another bite of pizza, setting it aside and wiping her hands on a napkin. "Partying with Ion. Lamenting the shitty state of politics in this country. And now," she plucks up a pencil to lay it neatly across the paper bowling scorecard, "about to decimate these bowling pins. Not a bad summer, compared to some others I've had." "Hey, at least one of us is having fun," Anette says, followed by a grin that suggests she's actually genuine in her sentiments. "I should party with Ion more often. Though last time I did, I might have been labelled a terrorist," she says, finishing off her slice of pizza before wiping the crumbs off on her shorts and standing up. "Oh I'm about to /cream/ you in bowling," she adds with a smirk. "Everyone's a terrorist these days. It's losing its cachet." Natalie's grin only grows broader when Anette stands. "Yeah? It's /on/."