It is one of those moments where she's waiting to be off shift. Zoie gives a yawn that is muffled behind her dainty hand as she talks to the last patron. "Right.. I can draw a Hello Kitty in your latte foam." The /man/ declines this offer. "How about your phone number though?" Zoie's beautiful green eyes blink a few times as she looks at the man and then slowly down to the cup between them. The man is hopeful as their is paper right there too. "I don't think it will fit on the cup." She grins and then waves as she's off to clean up a bit before the next customer. The poor man is just standing there a bit dumbstruck before he goes to take a seat.
Stalking in only moments later is Gareth. He looks...well, tired is one way to put it. Half-zombie is another way. Apocalypse? Maybe it's happening right now as we speak. Said dumbstruck-with-beauty guy is just standing there while Gareth half-marches, half-drags his lifeless corpse up. He flashes an amazingly tired look at the man and then finally blurts out, "Are you just gonna fucking stand there or what?" And then, to anyone that might be even near behind the counter: "Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee."
"Gareth!" Zoie spins. It is amazing that one word offers a greeting and a putdown for his swearing. She looks him over as dumbstruck mutters about water being better and then steps out of the way. Zoie swings forwards. "Katie's not here right now, but what would you like?"
"Mmph," says Gareth. The man who is now behind him is getting a shocked and 'do I want to fuck with this guy or what? He's just a skinny, angry young dude' look. Which Gareth ignores. Gareth seems...tired. Bags under his eyes, a little sallow despite his heavily-tanned features. "Coffee. Or like...espresso. Something strong. With...caffeine." Squints. "Oh...hey, Zoie!" he finally says. Like it takes a few seconds for his synapses to click all the way through.
Zoie nods her head to that and stares at the machine. It's always iffy if coffee comes out the right way when she's the one driving. Her eyes shift over the machine and the contents for a few moments and then she tentatively pushes a button. It's alive!!! The espresso is doing it's charm though. "I can't drink that stuff, it makes me talk a mile a minute and whoo, you just don't want to see that."
Gareth flashes Zoie a dubious look. Like how is Espresso-Zoie any different from Normal-Zoie then? We of the Gareth-collective do not understand. Then he gets all hazy. Despite the question already answered, he asks, slowly. "Hey, uh, is Katie around?" He scratches the side of his face, stifling a yawn, and looks around the coffee shop. Like she might be there, just studying in the corner but he didn't notice.
Zoie shakes her head a bit to that. "No. I mean she could be lingering somewhere, but I'm not sure where. I haven't seen her yet tonight." Her eyes slide up to his for a moment and then she smiles. "She might just be at home." Then there is a toss of that golden head towards the back room. "Anything I can help with?"
"Coffee?" Gareth answers, his voice kind of pathetic. "I had...trouble sleeping last night," he says, bitterly. "Maybe something I ate." He stifles a huge, child-eating yawn, covering his mouth with a fist and looking away. "I'm just at that place, man. Where I know I want to be awake and I can't, so fuck it, I'll just pretend to be awake. It'll have to fuckin' do. How's it going, big Z?"
Zoie makes the espresso to hand over to the largely yawning man. Her lips curve up into a friendly sort of smile. "I'll give you this and a bigger cup of um.. the regular stuff." She smiles vibrantly at him and then tosses her hair again as it falls to her face. "Um.. do you mean Zack? I think he's still off hunting and finding himself."
Gareth sips his espresso. Doesn't want to get his tongue burned and all. Then he fishes crumpled bills out to pay for both the coffee and the espresso. "I meant *you*. Zack's a dick. I mean, I'm sorry. I know you got a thing for him and all, but man, what a cockmaster." He shakes his head. Bags under his eyes, a cranky disposition practically radiating out from him, he still lurches back his original question. "So what's up? How're you doin'? The last I saw you you were on rollerblades or something. I think you need practice."
Zoie frowns. "Your language, Gareth. As well, Zack isn't a bad guy." She shrugs a bit to that and her eyes watch him before she grins. "I'm okay. I mean for the most part I'm good. Sometimes a bit more restless than I should be, perhaps." Her eyes twinkle. "How about you? How are you and Katie?"
"Zack's not a bad guy, he's just a fucking asshole to me," Gareth says, frankly. Somehow, sleepiness seems to be slowly fading from him. Now that he's used to the temperature, he downs the espresso, grimaces like he just took a shot of hard liquor, then takes the change left over and pockets it, then grabs his coffee and dumps sugar in it. "And what's wrong with language?" He switches languages to his other native tongue: "Watashi wa Nihongo no supoku de wa naku, ka, da ne?" he asks. He grins at the rest. "Restless ain't bad. It means you haven't fallen into a rut. I approve!" He drinks coffee, then flashes a curious look. "Me and Katie?" he asks, dumbly.
Zoie lowers her brows. "I can't imagine him being a jerk to you. I mean, he's protective of Katie. So that's probably all it is." She shrugs her shoulders a bit to that and then smiles lightly. "I mean, I don't like hearing you swearing. It doesn't need to be said."
Gareth steps back. "Got any other things you want to order me to do while I'm at it?" He shakes his head. "Zack's a dick to me. Maybe you just saw only one small side of who he is and are convinced it's the whole of his personality. But the guy's been fucking rude to me from day one. And in this case, as in /most/ cases, the swear words are natural. They need to be said. This isn't high tea. It's just a fucking coffeehouse."
Zoie frowns a bit to that as she drops her lashes to look at her feet. She's silent for a long moment and then offers, "I'm sorry. You are probably right. I mean I um.. guess.. um.. yeah. I"m sorry. You are right. I don't really know. The coffee is on the house."
Gareth flicks his hands to the crumpled one dollar bills on the counter. "Take it. I don't want your charity." Well, not /now/. He lets the silence linger a second as the apology floats in the air between them. Pause. Then, he asks, "Why'd you give up so easily?"
Zoie shrugs. "It's what I do. You are right. I don't really know Zack and what I do know is only what he showed me. I just um..." She looks up a bit to that as she watches him. "Aren't you dating Katie? I mean maybe he was just trying to be a big brother. I'm sorry he was mean to you."
"What do big brothers do?" Gareth asks, curiously. "My big brother looked after me when he could. Little things. Kept me out of f--, out of trouble. Stood up for me once the shi--- once trouble hit." There's an edge to the past tense, but Gareth keeps going. He tilts his head. "It seemed to me I got confrontational about it, you shut down, said what you had to so we wouldn't have a confrontation. But I don't know if you really believe you were wrong. Maybe you were." He squints. "Like...I dunno. Like all you wanted to do was not fight." At the Zoie-question, Gareth blinks, and then blushes. "I...ah...no...no, no. I mean, ah, fuck," he blurts out. He flashes a helpless look at the back room. "I mean, it's not like--" he starts, and then stops. He frowns. "She just-" he starts, and then stops. Miserably, he drinks his cofffee.
Zoie shrugs. "I never had a brother. I had a sister once." She lowers her brows to that and looks up. "I don't lie, Gareth. I mean you really could be right and you are right, I'm not comfortable getting into a confrontation with a man I don't know that well. Look at me. If you got really upset, you'd break me in half." She smiles lightly to that before she nods her head. "You are complicated?" She chuckles. "It's okay, I'm surrounded by men with complicated love lives. So are you just sleeping together but not committed to each other?" Zoie doesn't seem to realize that this is a bad topic or inappropriate.
"Some brothers are better than others," Gareth says, his voice going distant. "I had a big family. A really big, very religious family. I have big memories of fighting for seconds with my half-brothers and just..." He looks off, eyes narrowing, like he's not really there for a moment. THen he turns back. THe skinny kid looks at the skinny girl behind the counter, and kind of nods. "Yeah, when I get really angry, uh, yeah. It's not good all around," he admits, helplessly. "But a little confrontation's not so bad. 'The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction' and all that." He sips his coffee, then halfway through spits some out, blushing again. "No! We're not! Jeez, she was teasing you!" He shakes his head. A well of frustration seems to spring up through him. "I'm not trying to sleep with her. I mean, I let her know how I felt. I'm not going to lie about that," he says, grimly. "But despite what Zack says, I'm not just hanging out with her just to get in her pants." There's a look on his face, of frustrated fury, just behind his eyes. "I'm not /like/ that. She's my friend. That should be good enough."
Zoie nods her head to that. "So you want to be with her." There is a look of consideration. "Well I'm sure that she's just as interested or she wouldn't keep you around. It does sound like Zack is just trying to be protective of her though. I mean I would think if I had a big brother, he'd try to run off someone if he thought that was their only intent." She smiles a bit softer to him. "It will all work out."
Gareth, exasperated. "Don't-- jeez. It's fine. Whatever I want doesn't matter. Really." He sighs, then drinks his coffee. "Zack was fucking rude to me, and I'm not going to forgive him any time soon. He apologized, I'll give him that, but then weeks later he's going on about how I'm the Antichrist or whatever." His tone is bitter, words of black bile. He looks up, then says. "Ever optimistic, aren't you?"
Zoie nods her head to that. "Well.. I can't speak fully for him, but he did apologize." There is a nervous chuckle that leaves her lips as she offers, "I sorta kinda tend to be optimistic. I just think that there is good in most situations."
Gareth has a bitter smile. "He talked shit to my face, people gave him static, he manned up and apologized. THEN he talked shit behind my back. Why do you think I started dating Sasha? That shit was ruining my friendship, and then this other cute girl comes around..." He shrugs, but furrows his brow. He looks back up, ready to change the subject. "You're like my direct opposite. I look around, all I see is things falling apart. The first time I saw you, I was like, 'wow, she is really pretty,' then I stared a bit closer, and could see the skeletal structure of your face. I kept imaging the flesh on your face rotting off in strips, the eyeballs popping, how the blood would pool at the lowest parts of your--" He shakes his head. "Sorry. I can't- Anyways," he says, hurriedly. He takes a step back again, wrapping his arms around him, holding the coffee cup gingerly as he does. "Things just fall apart. It's the second law of thermodynamics."
Zoie blinks to that for a few moments. "Well... so you dated Sasha as a cover for your feelings? That's not good, Gareth. I mean maybe that's why I'm not good at the dating thing. I want to be the person the other one wants to be with. So far, men just leave me." She shrugs a bit. "It is what it is. I hope they find their bliss." The description of her falling apart has her quiet for a moment. "I would imagine that I would do it like any other person of my stature would. I mean I'm on the thin side, so I'd probably get the sunken look before my face started to really decay, you know like hollow and stuff. I don't think I'd fall apart in strips though. I think it would just weather from the bone." She shrugs and then smiles. "In the end, we all decay just like another person, regardless of attraction or not."
Gareth makes a face. "Not as a cover. I dunno. When I came to this town, I was like 20 pounds overweight, really awkward - I'd been living with my uncle in Japan for four years. I was kind of a spaz. And girls, really anyone, wouldn't talk to me. Getting a girl to say, 'hey, you're cute', that was...new." He gets a stubborn look. "You're a pretty girl. I bet you never liked someone that didn't like you back. You don't understand." His tone is somewhat dramatic. He softens a bit at the 'men just leave me' line. Then furrows his brow. "Well, their fuckin' loss," he says flatly. Then gets an apologetic look. "Their loss, I mean," he mutters. "And yeah. Everything decays. Relationships fall apart. People just leave you, like you said. People die and rot in the ground, food for worms. The only certainty about life is that it ends."
Zoie smiles a bit to that. "I have liked plenty of men that didn't like me back. Or I liked men only to have them like my sister better. I suppose I'm pretty, but I'm also shy and say all the wrong things. My sister use to take no prisoners. I'd be on the wall with my book and she's be sashaying from one guy to another." Her eyes lower a bit to that with a hurt look. "I don't think you are a bad looking man. I mean... yeah. I'm sure that either you will get who you like or you need to stop liking them. It is all a matter of choice. I could choose to like someone or hate them. I could choose to see only the horrible pot holes in the road or notice the beautiful foliage. I make these choices daily."
"Running into potholes constantly is bad for your suspension. You wanna save on repairs, lady, you'll watch for 'em and not pretend they're not there," Gareth advises, with a grin. He finishes off his coffee, yawning again. "Your sister sounds like she was a pretty amazing person," he says. "I bet she'd make my teeth grate, though. Can't say why. Never a fan of the sashaying type." (repose)
Zoie looks down a bit. "Well..she's dead, so you don't have to worry about that. It's an odd feeling to lose a twin." Then she turns on her foot to get him a refill that he didn't ask for. "So.. what are you up to this week?"
"Yeah," says Gareth, quietly. He's got a mixed expression for a moment there. Gareth looks away, looks back. "I bet it is." There's a look, just for a moment, like he's thinking about several different things at once. "I've lost brothers and sisters, but I never had a twin before. I imagine it's... a little surreal," he muses. "Sad in a completely different way."
Zoie nods her head. "It is. It is like loosing part of yourself, literally." She leans forwards on the bar to talk to him a bit more as the counter is between them. "It happens, I can't undo it, right? So I have to strive to move forwards. I like to think if I help people, then I am okay to be the one that lived. So Gareth... how can I help you?"
Gareth thinks about that. He tilts his head. "I dunno. Save the world from itself. Or kill off about two thirds of the world's population so that humanity ends up not shitting in its own bed and ruining the planet, killing off everyone else in the process? Or maybe you can solve suffering and pain on a worldwide scale, find out why the world's population as one mass of people has such long-running psychic scars, twisting and binding every little thing we try to do in the world?" Pause. "Barring that, I'll take a refill of coffe."
Zoie laughs. "You don't seem to ask for anything small scale do you, Darling?" She teases a bit and then moves to get the coffee and pour it into his cup for a refill. "So.. as I see it, your world is a little dark. I'll sun it up. What would make you personally happy in your own little corner? Getting with Katie?"
Gareth puts up both hands. "Ah, no. I wasn't put on this planet to have fun." He says it like it's a joke. "Think of me as your grim friend and just tolerate my occasional outbursts, I'll be cool. And I don't need to 'get with' Katie. Don' even go there," he says, waggling his finger. He steps back, watching the coffee getting refilled like it was something done with extreme importance. "Well, speaking of Katie, there is *one* thing you can do for me."
Zoie starts to say something and then stops when he asks for something. "What can I do for you, Gareth?" Her eyes watch his as her lips curve into that smile.
"You see Katie in a bad mood, she's kind of a private person, but if...you could, I dunno. Cheer her up when she gets like that? Just something dumb. You an' your boundless optimism, yanno?" He glances off, squinting, looking thoughtful. "She needs to smile more. She has a...she just has a nice smile," he admits. There's an uncomfortable look on his dark, grouchy features. "It's no big deal. At any ra--" His phone buzzes. He looks down at it, frowns. "Huh. Someone needs me at the club. Probably just wants an extra pair of hands to lug kegs in." He sighs, all put-upon. "I should get goin'. Nice talkin to you."
Zoie lowers her brows. "Does she say I make her unhappy? I'm always cheering her up if she looks like she needs it. I do it for everyone. I mean. I'd cheer you up." There is a pause. "Hey Gareth... you want to go on an un-date? I don't think I'm really ready for one and you don't want me, so you seem the perfect one to like well.. tell me what I do wrong on them."
Gareth takes his coffee. "Then see! Just keep what you're doin'. That'll work." He takes the coffee and greedily has a drink from it, then carefully mixes in some milk and a little bit of sugar. He flashes the most dubious of dubious looks at the last part. "An un-date? Me?! What the fuck do I know about dating? Do people even do that anymore? You should have an un-date with someone who has a fucking clue what they're talking about. Like..I dunno. Liane or Petra or something. Petra gives good advice on that shit." He wrinkles his nose. "But me? I bet I tell you real men thinks Wolverine is cool and then your SOUL MATE comes along and he's all into Cyclops or some shit and you don't end up with him and die miserably of old age with like twenty-seven cats. No way," he says, firmly.
Gareth says, "I can't have that hanging over my head."
Zoie turns a bit red at such a vehement denial. Her eyes even look rather hurt for a few more before she quickly looks down. "Um... okay. I... um.. forget I asked. Please just forget I asked."
Gareth blinks, looking confused, then steps forward again. He points. Points! "Hey! You're doing it again. Why are you doing that?"
Zoie pushes her hair back a bit. "I'm not doing anything but feeling like an idiot right now." She offers honestly before she looks up. "Just forget it, okay."
"An idiot? Why?" Gareth looks really confused. "If you want to feel like an idiot, you should feel like an idiot for feeling like an idiot. Because that is fucking idiotic," he says, in a grand tone. He drinks his coffee, then furrows his brow, looking worried. "I don't understa--" His phone goes off. He curses, then texts back. "Ah, fuck. I gotta run. See ya, big Z." He charges off.