Alice was pressed up against the bar, eyes focused on the wall opposite her as she tried to concentrate on the movements of her tongue. She blocked out the voices of the men sitting in front of her, commentating on whether or not she could actually pull it off. She knew that she could, it would just take a moment, possibly longer than she first predicted but it was happening.
"Come on darlin', you don't have to impress us." One of the senior aged serpents told her in a sleazy way. She would have bit back at him if it weren't for the fact that she was trying not to swallow the cherry stem that was being twisted around in her mouth. She started to cough, and the worry on each of the men's eyes would have been amusing if her own eyes didn't start to water. She held her hand out in front of her mouth so she could spit it out. After wiping her watery eyes on her sleeve she picked up the stem between her finger and her thumb. "What did I tell ya?" She asked, watching as they all inspected the knot, making sure that she had in fact tied it like she had predicted.
"That's one fine party trick young lady." One of the men said with an impressed smirk.
Alice shrugged her shoulders and dropped the step on the counter. She wiped her hands and found the cloth she had been using to clean up spilt drinks with. "Not just a pretty face, huh?" She grinned, loving the attention. She wasn't blind to the fact that they were chatting up an underaged girl. She had no intentions of encouraging them further, but it was nice knowing that she could impress a group of people somehow, especially at the Wyrm which had been incredibly lonely for her. She took a few steps down the bar and sat a drink down in front of a man who had certainly had enough for the night.
"There you go, dad." She said with a sigh. It was non-alcoholic, but he was too drunk to know the difference at this point. She placed both hands on her side of the bench and watched as he went to pick up the glass. He took a short sip before setting it down and finally looking across at her.
"Ali, why are you working at a shithole like this?" He asked her in a slurred voice. He didn't know when his daughter got this job, but he didn't think it was a great place for a young woman to spend her time.
"You forgot to pay the water bill, and the phone bill, which is a good thing since we didn't pay for electricity anyway." She listed off. "We don't have any money since you got fired." She added, hoping that he would just drop it and not get upset with her over trying to keep their family afloat. All her dad ever did was drink and complain lately. He'd already given her this same speech last time he found out where she worked. He had forgotten all about it by now which wasn't a surprise to Alice at all.
"I didn't forget." He insisted, shaking his head. "I paid it. They're just assholes trying to take advantage of the poor."
Alice shook her head. She knew that wasn't true. Her father spent what little money he had left on getting drunk, and now he was trying to do the same with the money she was bringing home to pay their overdue bills. "Well, I'm sure that you'll be able to make sure that never happens again one you find yourself a new job." She said to him with a forced smile. He always knew how to stress her out, or tear her down when she was having a good time. "I have to go and get this man a drink, I'll see you at home." She said, leaning across the bar to press a kiss to her father's forehead. She pulled back and walked across to a paying customer.
After pouring drinks for a hours, Alice was finally given a short break. She picked up her purse from behind the bar and headed out the back door to get some fresh air out in the alleyway. She sat down on an old crate and swung her legs back and forth as she relaxed in the night air. A summer breeze was the only thing that made being outside more bearable than being indoors. Her eyes remained closed as her thoughts scattered between all of her current worries, and her trying to forget about them entirely. FP hadn't spoken to her since the afternoon he'd walked her part of the way to the bar. She didn't know what was going on with him or where his head was at, but she had already started to miss his company.
When she heard footsteps she thought for a moment that it might be her lucky day, FP might show up and want to be friends again, in her vision he would rock up and say something that made her laugh, and all awkwardness would be long forgotten. That wasn't the case at all. She opened her eyes to see a group of serpents shuffling past her to get to the back door. She didn't recognise any of them, but each and every one had a rougher exterior than the last. She'd been working in amongst serpents for the last two weeks, but that didn't mean she knew of all of them. There were men who were more friendly than others, and the women mostly kept to themselves. She knew there were younger serpents closer to her age but most of them didn't spend much time in the bar. At least not when she was working.
Alice pulled her legs up against her chest as if protecting herself until all of the men were inside the building and she felt safe enough to drop her arms and relax again. FP's warning for her to leave the gang alone rang in her ears. She knew that gangs were dangerous, but she never expected to feel that danger from sitting back and watching a group of people walk by her.
FP walked out the back door with an unlit cigarette between his lips. He knew Alice had slipped out the door not too long before him which was why he conveniently made a choice to go for a smoke break while she was still there. He reached into his back pocket to grab a lighter and walked over to where the bottle blonde was sitting. "You still want to interview a serpent?" He asked her teasingly as he sat down next to her.
Alice watched FP's fingers as he flicked the lighter on and the flame flashed before meeting the end of his cigarette. "Still want to ice me out?" She asked him in return. Her feelings were hurt after he stopped talking to her over something so meaningless. He was sitting beside her as if nothing had gone wrong, as if she didn't feel entirely conflicted about where they were and what the hell was going on. They were friends and it was hard for her when he did things like that. He would go through periods of icing her out to a point where she got so frustrated with him and would convince herself that if he stopped she wouldn't speak to him again.
FP shrugged. "Who said I wanted to do that?" He questioned after exhaling a small cloud of smoke.
Alice let out a sigh and turned her head away from him. "Actions speak louder than words." She commented, hoping he would just get the hint and she wouldn't have to explain how upset it made her.
"Yeah. Guess that's true." He commented, staring across at the hall opposite them. "I didn't mean to go cold on you. Just had a lot of shit on my mind lately."
Alice nodded her head. She wasn't sure how true that was, but she sure hoped that he wasn't just recycling old excuses. "Heard you have a girlfriend." She said, turning her head to look at him for half a second.
FP let out a snort. "I don't have a girlfriend. You need to stop paying attention to all that gossip, it'll rot your brain."
Alice didn't know why she felt relief when he told her that. She just knew that the thought of him spending time with some girl, while he kept shutting her out, it just made her feel awful about herself. "I don't have to work tomorrow if you wanted to hang.." She offered, hoping that he'd say yes. She didn't like putting herself out on a limb for anybody, and FP was no exception.
FP nodded his head. "Yeah, we can hang." He answered softly, leaning in closer so his shoulder would press up against hers. "On one condition."
"What's that?" She questioned with a quizzical brow.
"We don't piss each other off this time. I fucking hate not seeing you."
Alice smiled because that's all she really needed to hear from him.
