geed | clairo

four

in order to nurse my headache induced by my hangover, i decided to grab coffee from a shop about a half mile away from the house. my mom once described it as being quaint but i just thought it was a nice place to get cheap coffee that tasted pretty good. thankfully, the shop looked empty, except for a light blue volkswagen beetle parked nearby on the street.

i walked in and waved at the sole barista working today and began looking at the menu. i decided on a medium iced coffee with one cream and one sugar and gave my order to the barista, who began making my order quickly. i gave him five dollars, let him keep the change and i turned around to find a seat.

the angry geed girl was there, sipping an iced coffee and lightly tracing her pencil in her sketchbook while sitting alone in a booth. how fucking stereotypical. i walked towards her, taking a sip of my coffee while waiting for her to look up.

"do you need some help with that?" i asked, causing her to look up at me. her eyes were still as fierce as they were about an hour ago, but they were a friendly fierce now, almost as if she had a playful dare to offer me.

"no, i'm good, frat boy," she finally replied. i sat in the booth facing parallel to her and placed my coffee closer to me so there was no chance of the condensation ruining her sketches.

"god, when you say that, it's almost like a slur. frat boy," i retorted with an emphasis, causing her to crack a small smile.

"well, if i can call you frat boy, you can call me geed."

"i'd rather call you by your name, actually."

"fine. you can call me lara, lara holland, lara katherine holland or lara kate if you wanna get snazzy with it," she joked, taking another sip of her iced coffee. i grinned at her and mirrored her sipping.

"well, you can call me frat boy, or paul. paul joseph francis," i said, returning the sass she gave me.

"paul joseph francis. what a name. god, you sound like my future senator."

"i'm a political science minor, actually. my true passion lies in biochemistry."

"wow, you're gonna be my future senator, aren't you? i'll vote for you as long as you don't run as a republican."

"don't worry, i'm a blue dog democrat, baby," i joked, making her crack another smile and letting out a small laugh.

i don't think of myself as being a flirt. i enjoy banter and i will exercise my right to banter with anyone: pretty girls at coffee shops, nervous freshman guys at ifc recruitment events, cute milfs in clothing stores. however, bantering with lara felt easier than usual, despite the fact she probably had a bias towards me. i didn't care enough to remove the bias from her mind. i just wanted to talk to her.

"so, you're on the cross country team, right?" asked lara. i looked down at my t-shirt for confirmation.

"yeah. we placed third in state last semester." bragging a little never hurt anyone, right?

"that's pretty good. you have great legs," said lara. i tried to stifle my laugh as she covered her face with her hands.

"i mean, i know you have great legs because you run a lot."

"you were checking my legs out, weren't you?"

"no, i'm just making, like an assumption. you should know about the power of hypothesis or whatever, biochemistry boy."