vanillajello | Overland Park, KS, Wednesday Afternoon

Current Mood: nostalgic

Entry tags:

Overland Park, KS, Wednesday Afternoon

Ah, blissful days off. Perfect for doing pointless things! Okay, maybe not so pointless, they had some minor things to shop for. But mostly, Kate had gotten her mother's car and dragged Bod off to her old favorite mall just for the hell of it. Just to see if it was still the same and you could still get decent ice cream from the food court.

She stopped near the entrance after coming in, and looked around. It was your basic Midwestern mall. A little on the small side, and maybe it had seen better days. "Jesus, I haven't been here in years." A little over three years, to be exact. "And it's exactly the same! You'd think they'd have renovated a little."

She actually sounded a little gleeful.

[ooc: NFB. For the boooy about to meet someone from the past, oh em gee.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You could have picked worst places," Bod said with a chuckle. "This place, while slightly rundown, does look rather nice. Quaint, even. A good place for a young girl to enjoy herself."

Kate snorted, reaching out for his hand. "Now you sound Victorian. Except I don't think Victorians would've approved of all the ice cream and stuff. I should ask Jack sometime."

"Ice cream is something that should be approved of by everyone," Bod said, lacing his fingers with hers and giving her hand a squeeze.

"I don't know, you've seen me eat ice cream." Meaning he'd seen her consume obscene amounts of it. "And Victorians hate fun." Sorry, Jack. "Hey, you wanna go up and see where we used to look down at people from to judge them?"

Still better than dropping slushies on them.

"Oh, Cuddle Bunny, the hobbies you used to have," he said, swinging their hands and laughing. "Please, show me where you used to judge people."

Kate started pulling him towards the elevators, past people. Was everyone else having a day off too?

"Hey, you've always known I'm not the best person."

"And I guess you are still judging people in your own way," he laughed, shaking his head. "You just don't tend to do it in a mall anymore."

"Oh, I judge people all the time," she assured him. "I'm just less vocal about it. Most of the time."

"It's good to know that you're still the same person in some ways as you were when you were younger," Bod laughed again. "Some things stay the same always."

"Pretty much." She led him to the elevators and pressed the button. One elevator was on its way up, but the other was almost right there, the doors opening with a soft ding. "My friends are different," she said, stepping into the empty elevator, "and that affects me."

"I know it does," he said, pulling her closer to him when they were inside the elevator. "You're the same as me in that regards. The people around me change and so do I."

"Mm, weird how that works," Kate murmured, cuddling up to his side and wondering whether she could be a teenager enough to make out with him until they got to the third floor.

But of course, just as the doors were about to start closing, someone – yes, guyliner and eccentric sense of fashion and all – rushing towards the elevator with a stroller called out, "Hey, hold the elevator!"

It was sad that she wasn't going to be able to test that theory. Bod even sighed sadly and reached to hit the button to keep the doors open.

"Maybe on the way down," he murmured to her.

Kate snickered and pulled away from him, though not too much. She still had to leave some room for the random guy and the stroller, too busy making sure she wasn't in the way to bother taking a look at the dude.

While the doors were finally closing, she noted to herself that the kid was pretty cute, though.

Bod gave a nod to the person that hustled his way into the elevator but said nothing else. He just held onto Kate's hand and waited for the elevator to start moving in silence.

Which it did, soon enough. The little kid made an unhappy sound at it, which made the stranger make a face and reach for him. "Come on Ro, not now."

At the sound of his voice, Kate looked up and stared at the guy.

"Hopefully, it'll be a quick ascent," Bod said to the other man and the child, unaware of Kate's reaction just yet.

Well, that wouldn't last.

"Yeah," said the man, while trying to give his whining kid a toy for distraction.

"Benjamin?" said Kate, incredulous. Maybe, just for a second or two, feeling younger than she was. It'd been three years since she'd seen Ben last. At this very mall. There'd been an altercation.

Ben looked up, surprised. "... Katie?"

Well, Bod knew there was something amiss now. He looked over at Kate and then at the person she'd called Benjamin.

"You two know each other?" he asked even if it was obvious they did. Somehow.

"Intimately," Kate said before she could stop herself. Still staring at Ben, yep.

He was staring right back. "We dated in high school," he supplied. He clearly didn't know what to make of this situation, either.

Ah. Well, thanks to Kate's comment, Bod was slightly uncomfortable now. He shifted just a bit.

"Hullo," he managed to say. "Pleasure to meet you."

Kate managed to snap herself out of staring. "Uh, right." She gestured from one to the other. "Bod Owens, Benjamin Lambert. And..."

She looked down at the kid.

"Ro," Ben supplied.

"Ro. Right."

Bod offered a hand towards Benjamin because he was polite even if this was a strange situation.

"Hullo," he said again.

Ben, who still looked pretty startled, reached out to shake his hand just because he wasn't sure what else to do.

Glacing at Bod, Kate looked unimpressed. Not at him, though. "You know, you should know, Ben used to shove m--" She got cut off by the elevator stopping. Except it wasn't on the third floor yet. Just past the second, in fact. "Oh, seriously?"

"Wait, he used to what?" Bod asked sharply, giving Kate a look and completely ignoring the sudden stopping of the elevator. "What?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject