Sparks Fly {the flash}

five

Izzy

I stared at my reflection in my full-length mirror, carefully critiquing my outfit for tonight's outing. Even though it was a simple black V-neck tucked into a pair of ripped jean shorts with my high tops, it had taken me upwards of an hour to put the entire outfit together. I wanted something that didn't look like I was trying too hard to impress anyone but I also didn't want to look like I was on the way to a concert or anything extremely casual like that. I had no idea why it took me so long to decide on an outfit, but I really wanted tonight to go well. I already saw Barry as a friend, but it would have been nice to befriend some of his so that I wasn't dependant on one single person. Plus, it would be nice to be able to make another girlfriend since all of mine are either back in New York or Starling City.

After brushing through my hair to calm the frizziness from the rain, I grabbed my purse and raincoat. I made sure that my phone and my keys were in my purse as I pulled the coat on, locking my front door behind me as I left. I took my time going down the stairs, careful not to slip on the wet surface. I hadn't noticed a leak in the past couple of days, so I assumed that it was from everyone tracking in all of the water from outside. It was annoying that it reached all the way to the fifth floor, but there wasn't anything that I could do about it, and I was almost positive that the lax maintenance staff in my building wouldn't do anything about it either. There were two things that I had learned about my building in the week that I had lived here: the maintenance staff seldom did their job correctly or at all, and the manager in the lobby was crabby all day long.

When I walked out onto the familiar street, I saw that it was raining pretty sparsely in comparison to earlier. I very vaguely remembered the way to the bar from the map on my phone, and I was trying my hardest to make my way there without the use of the device. I wouldn't find my way around the city if I was always dependent on my GPS, and I needed to learn my way around as soon as possible since I knew that I was going to be called out a lot once the rain let up. That was when I was going to be heavily dependent on Barry's knowledge of the city, and I was hoping like hell that he wouldn't mind it too much. Knowing him, though, he would be more than happy to help me out until I got the hang of things.

After fifteen minutes of wrong turns and stopping to ask directions twice, I managed to find the bar Barry and his friends were at. I was glad that I was able to make my way there on my own, but I knew immediately that I was going to use my phone to find my way home. I ducked inside the bar as quickly as I could, the rain starting to pick up. I hung my coat on the rack inside door, making sure that I hadn't left anything in the pockets before stepping into the actual bar itself. The familiar sounds of AC/DC's Hells Bells was playing somewhere in the spacious room but with someone quite tone deaf trying to hit all of Brian Johnson's notes. It took every fiber of my being not to laugh as I wound my way through the somewhat crowded bar, trying to find Barry in the midst of all of the people. I spotted him with Cisco and whom I assumed was Caitlin at a table near the dart board, and I weaved my way over to them. Cisco had been the first one of the three to notice me, and he smiled brightly up at me.

"Nice to see you again, Izzy." He greeted, Barry's head whipping around and a smile appearing on his face.

I smiled at all of them. "You too, Cisco." Barry moved a chair over so that I could sit, and I thanked him, looking at the girl across from me. "You must be Caitlin." I smiled, reaching out to shake her hand.

She shook mine with a small smile. "And you must be Izzy. Cisco and Barry talk about you quite a lot."

I chuckled lightly. "Really? What do they talk about?"

She was about to answer when Barry interrupted her nervously. "Izzy, can I get you something to drink?" His voice shook slightly, obviously not wanting me to know he talked about me when I wasn't around. It was cute, so I decided to let it slide.