Scraps - A Chance Meeting

It wasn’t like I wasn’t thankful for them. It was a nice gesture after all. I just wasn’t one to go out and party. Or drink at bars. Or really do much of anything social. Social wasn’t my thing.

Rebecca noticed my apprehension, annoyingly perceptive as always, and bumped her shoulder with mine before chuckling, “Are you going to be like this all night, Amanda?”

“It crossed my mind,” I muttered and chewed on the straw in my mouth.

“I’ve missed your sunshine,” Emily quipped with a sly smile from Rebecca’s other side. “It’s always a welcome change to the gloom and doom of this world.”

“You should, seeing how I learned it from you,” I shot back quickly. 

I allowed myself to feel a moment of pride for my quick comeback but my features never showed my quick internal victory dance. That would be giving them too much power in the end. Couldn’t have that. Especially not with these two power hungry bitches.

“Oh, Amanda,” Rebecca sighed and put a hand on my arm. “Whatever am I gonna do with you?”

“Something I’m gonna regret, I’m sure,” I scoffed and sucked down the last of my drink until a dry sucking sound was pulling at the bottom of the cup. “I’m gonna get a refill.”

Rebecca sighed and Emily shrugged apologetically; at least my old boss knew that I wasn’t one for this kind of scene. 

Not that I could blame them, of course. Not really. Especially not Rebecca. She was just trying to be a good friend, doing what she thought would help me out or whatever. It was sweet in that Rebecca way of hers but honestly, I didn’t ask for it and I didn’t really want it.

While I was carrying on dissecting the motives and outcomes of Rebecca’s attempt to make me a social butterfly more akin to herself, I happened to forget about my surroundings momentarily, causing me to run into someone, which sent the contents of their drink across my front. To be fair, this person – a guy, I noticed after my initial internal shock wore off – was standing in the middle of the way, which wasn’t very wide in the first place, and there wasn’t any clear path around him. So it wasn’t completely my fault. 

See? This is why I hate this shit. There’s always some pretentious ass that just wants to stand around where everyone has to look at him. And I swear to God, if I find out that beer stains I will murder this jackass with my bare hands.

“Oh, shit! That just went all over you, didn’t it?” the guy said with raised eyebrows, still holding his glass up like a hesitant half toast.

“Wow,” I deadpanned. “You’re just a fucking genius aren’t you?”

The idiot stranger raised his brows in surprise before they settled and his face slipped into an easy smile. “I’ve been known to have a good idea every now and again, yeah.”

I grimaced and looked down at myself. “This would not be one of them.” 

“No, it would not,” he chuckled and held his hand out. “Name’s Carl.”

“That’s nice,” I said with no small amount of ice sprinkled across my words.

“O-kay,” Carl said in an exaggerated fashion before pulling his hand back from me and sliding it into his pocket.

I had no idea why I was humoring this idiot with small talk but I couldn’t seem to walk away. Perhaps I just enjoyed cutting down someone new. It was my favorite past time after all.

“So, can I buy you another drink or something?” Carl asked. “You know, to make up for, uh,” he motioned up and down my dress to the dark splotches already drying across it, “that?”

I pursed my lips, immediately wanting to say no. Surely some sort of independence deal as it usually was when it came to anyone helping me with anything. Instead of latching on to that initial feeling, however, I deflected.

“Technically, you’re the one that spilled your drink,” I pointed out.

Carl looked down at his near empty glass, mostly just suds at this point, in confusion. “Uh, yeah. I did.”

“Yeah,” I said.

We looked at each other in a sort of stalemate for a long moment. His face was still painted with confusion and mine must have been full of frustration. I was sure feeling frustrated. It’s not like I want to be here talking to this dumbass.

“You’re a little different, aren’t you?” Carl asked, the confusion disappearing to reveal that same easy smile he wore before. 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I spat a little more aggressively than I meant to.

Instead of recoiling or getting aggressive right back, like I was used to from everyone else, Carl smiled wider. Huh. He’s got dimples. Kind of cute, actually. Wait. What the fuck are you saying, Amanda? Shut the fuck up.

“Just what I said, that you’re a little different.” Carl shrugged. “That’s cool though, I’m kind of different too.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked sarcastically. He was amusing if nothing else. I could definitely give this funny little idiot that.

“Yup.” Carl nodded, his toothy smile stretching from ear to ear now. “That’s why I made sure to come over here and stand in your way when I noticed you get up. Kind of hoped that all of this would play out like such so I could get to know you better. Sorry about your dress though. Not a part of the original calculations.”

I stared at him blankly, trying to process through what was just said to me. “A-Are you… Wait. You’re not serious are you?”

Carl lifted his mug to his lips and drained the rest of it before he placed his glass on the empty table next to him. He wiped the foamy mustache the suds had left behind with the back of his shirt before shoving that hand in his pocket as well. A half second passed where he met my completely baffled face with an absolutely neutral one of his own, and then his smile resurfaced.

“No. I was just standing in the middle of the road like a jackass,” he chuckled. “I am sorry about your dress though.” 

A small smile tugged at the corner of my lip that I couldn’t stop as hard as I tried. This man was ridiculous. I kind of liked it.

“Is that…? Oh my God? Are you… smiling?” Carl threw his hands up in victory. “Holy shit! I did it! I made her smile!”

I grabbed his arms and forced them back down with a giggling shush. “Will you be quiet!”

“I could,” he drawled and turned his head to look at me dramatically, “but you would have to let me buy you a drink first.”

“Sounds like extortion to me,” I pointed out in no more than a whisper. 

It hadn’t really come to my attention yet that I was still holding both of his wrists in my hands. Or that we were incredibly close. Or that I was finding it harder to breathe all of a sudden.

“Well,” Carl whispered and leaned in a little closer to me. “I’ve never been adverse to playing dirty.”

I swallowed audibly before turning my head, clearing my throat and putting my trained facade of stoicism back on. “One drink.”

Carl grinned, making his dimples noticeable again. “We’ll see about that.” 

***

For everyone that's always asking me about her, yeah, Amanda figures things out eventually. Of course, that doesn't mean she'll ever stop being Amanda. We just couldn't have that.