Shooting Star and Swallow's Song

At Odds

Alex fiddled around on the guitar a little more, imagining how great it would be to play with Steph, even if it made her nervous. The other girl was a professional as far as Alex was concerned. Now that she put it out there as an option, Alex felt the pressure and wanted to make sure she practiced as much as possible. She wasn't sure any amount of preparation would be enough, but it was better than nothing.

A few minutes later Steph came back up. Alex put the guitar down on the bed and said, "Hey you. What'd you eat?"

Alex thought she heard Steph exclaim 'shit' in a whisper to herself as she closed the door. Steph quickly recovered though and said nonchalantly, "Um...got distracted. I'm not hungry anymore anyways."

"You got distracted going downstairs?" Alex questioned with quirked smile.

"Uh, yeah," Steph replied, shrugging with what should have been embarrassment, but seemed like something else to Alex. She wasn't sure what it was though and just chalked it up to fatigue from all that has happened and talking about their shared experience of losing their mothers.

She decided to let Steph's odd forgetfulness go and said, "So what does the resident DJ usually eat?"

"I am the worst," she replied, stepping further in. Alex saw her eye the bed next to her, but instead of sitting there, Steph went to the support beam in front of it. Alex tried to hide her disappointment as Steph leaned back against the beam, settling herself in the spot.

"I snack all day and miss a lot of meals. The last thing I had that's close to a meal was a nacho plate from downstairs the other day or so."

"Was it good?"

"It was amazing. Fully loaded and spicy as hell."

"Remind me to stay away from your nachos."

"Can't take the heat, eh?" Steph said, wagging her eyebrows.

"I can take some heat, but your enthusiasm scares me," Alex said smiling.

"Uh, yeah...I guess I can get that way," Steph said looking down, almost sounding serious, which confused Alex, but she went on.

Steph reverted back to speaking casually and said, "What about you?"

Alex thought of her time at The Helping Hands and how little she was able to choose her food. It was fairly regulated. She could be a vegetarian or not, basically. Alex didn't want to explain this though.

"I'm pretty easy going. Whatever's there in front of me."

"You really don't have any opinion on food?" Steph asked skeptically.

Oh shit, better give a real answer. What's true but not weird to say?

"Well...I guess the classics are good. Burger, pizza, tacos, sandwich...so on?"

"Hmm, I'll have to find something to excite you. I may be a snacker, but I do enjoy some good Thai or sushi, curry...ah man...starting to make myself miss food outside Haven Springs. Ryan's been trying to get Jed to branch out, but it's been slow going. There is a killer ice cream shop that just opened up. They have the weirdest flavors. I love it. How about you? Favorite dessert?"

"Um...ice cream's good..."

Steph gave her an incredulous look.

"No dessert opinions either? Well that decides it. We'll hit up that ice cream place sometime and get you to try something new."

"Sounds good to me. It's just...I'm kind of light in funds, so maybe after I've worked a little more."

"No problem, I have decent disposable income. It'll be my treat."