Undecided With a Side of Bitch

Bean Scene Cafe

Bean Scene is a small coffee shop and cafe that caters primarily to a younger crowd. The cafe has always been at least a year late in joining any given fad, and in the past it's been done in western-style, set up as a beatnik hangout, a go-go disco, a fern bar, and once even attempted to cash in on breakdancing. A plaque has recently been placed above the door, and says, "No fad is dead until it appears to Bean Scene".
Case in point, the cafe has a grungy feel to it.A grey brick facade has been placed over the walls, the flooring looking more like a worn down metal grid, complete with old sewer grates every few feet. Tables and chairs set about the cafe are quite casual in appearance, made of metal meant to look rusty and splattered with multi-colored paints. Metal street signs hang from the wall amid images of garage bands. Behind the counter is a black chalkboard displaying the available items and costs.


Having been scarce from most everything but work as of late, Mischa seems to have retreated into being as evasive and chameleon-like as he used to be. Today he can actually be found somewhere outside of the library or his apartment though. He's indulging himself with a tall caramel mocha blend, his nose buried in Crime and Punishment. The librarian seems rather concentrated on his reading, eyes very nearly boring a hole into the pages.

There have been attacks, and there have been family 'celebrations' of Easter. Chloe is now going on a coffee run for her siblings, in an attempt to sober them all up. As it is? She's not exactly sober herself. She's decidedly tipsy. It may only be the afternoon, but apparently the Cornett's know how to throw and Easter bash. "Two large blacks, one caramel something with whipped topping."

The sound of a familiar voice gets Mischa's attention almost instantly. He quirks a brow over towards the redhead and does a doubletake, as if not having expected to see her. For a moment he merely wonders what's the best action to take. Approach, run, hide behind book? After merely staring at the woman's hair for a few minutes, he stands up and gingerly makes his way over, tapping her on the shoulder. "Ahem."

"Meeeshaaa~!" Chloe slurs the name as she turns around and gives him a hug. In her somewhat tipsy state, she's quite forgotten that she's angry at, and not speaking to him. "How's you?" Money is pulled out of her purse, and given to the counter person as sort of an afterthought.

"Chloe!" Mischa says, smiling at the young woman in front of him. He watches her very carefully for a few long moments. "Have you been drinking?" The librarian asks very quietly. He doesn't want to say it loudly enough to embarrass the poor dear. He squeezes her back, looking her up and down for visible signs of trauma. Forgetting her tipsiness, Mischa takes in a breath. "I heard about the attack. First Doris, now you. When is it going to stop? Are you alright? I'm glad to see you."

"S'comin' for me. Hates me." Chloe frowns. "First my parents, now Doris, then me. Bobby too." She's got a few scrapes, bites and bruises. Nothing that can be seen when she's dressed. "Me? Drinkin'? Naw!" Liar. She just grins. "S'been a while! You don't call, you don't write…" She's not been at her apartment to know if he's been trying to see her though.

Mischa flushes a bright red, from the base of his neck up to the faint points of his ears. "I figured that you didn't want to talk to me after that last conversation we had together. I'm sorry, Chloe. …Bobby was attacked too? I didn't hear about that. Is he alright?" He looks at the young woman's injuries and frowns very deeply — time can put a halt to a lot of things, but his concern shows through in his actions and the way he looks at his co-worker and estranged best friend.

"S'cuz it happened at his house. He's too medicated to talk 'bout it. Thought it was a dream." Chloe had to be the one to find the blood. Fun times. "Don't. I mean, didn't. I don't know what I mean." She gives him a confused look. Then her coffees are delivered and she gets them put in one of those little tray things.

Mischa moves to help her with the tray as non-pushily as he can, while smiling at her. The smile is mostly there for show — he's secretly fairly afraid for Chloe, more than he has been in recent times. "I guess that's good. That he doesn't remember, I mean. I'm still sorry to hear it. Come on, let's sit down. Where have you been hiding? I noticed that we haven't had much of the same hours."

"I've been covering Doris' work, and my own." So when they've been in the library at the same time, she's made excuses to hide. The caramel coffee is taken and she drinks from it like it's not even scalding, though it is. "Been at mom's otherwise. Trying to keep the place up for her until she can come back to it." She frowns. "Guess I'm staying at Bobby's now though. Screwed his knee up carrying Ivan out of a bar, then he got bit."

"I understand that well enough…" Mischa says. He's been picking up a bit of Doris's slack himself. With her being gone, the library is a tad understaffed. If nothing else, the woman was certainly resourceful. Mischa starts to lead the redhead over towards the table he was sitting at, looking over his shoulder at her. "Sounds like Bobby has had a rough time. And for that matter, you too. I'm so sorry, Chloe. I figured you weren't at home though, about the third day that I replaced the food outside your door and you weren't taking any of it in…" More like the sixth day. He'd just assumed she was that angry with him, that she'd ignore the pleas of cheesecake.

Granted, Chloe /was/ that angry with him. She was beyond that angry with him. She'd probably not be talking to him now except for the fact that she's got her Easter drunk on. The telepath peers at him, trying to push through her own foggy brain and his difficult to read one to glean the truth. Doubtful she can do it, but she's trying. At least she's using her powers. "I'm fine. I'll live." Or become a vampire. "So ahh.. yeah." Seating herself at the table, she drinks from the caramel coffee again. A slurpy sip.

Mischa pulls a chair out for the Chloe and smiles at her. « …hope she's alright. Missed her…» "If you insist. Has anything good been happening lately?" He asks, not immediately moving to sit down in his own chair. He wants to make sure that Chloe doesn't topple to the ground in her altered state, after all. "Things have been dull on my end, really. I've been lucky so far not to have… you know. Been attacked."

"Yep. I had sex with my vampire." Not vampire boyfriend. Not lover. Chloe's just stating a fact. "Yay me." She's downplaying it, but then she's kind've really only saying it to try and hurt him. Drunken Chloe is not a nice person. Then she's back to drinking the coffee. "Well be glad you've not been attacked. They're not after the library, they're after my family. We're cursed."

Mischa's just raised his own cup of coffee to his lips and taken a liberal drink — one that threatens to burst forth from his lips when he hears what Chloe has to say. He claps his hand over his mouth and holds the lukewarm coffee in, forcing himself to swallow it down. That head to toe blush from earlier rears it's ugly head once more. He clears his throat a little bit, albeit painfully from some of that coffee working down the tubes the wrong way. "Err… Mister Grant?" He asks, hazarding a shot in the dark. "I don't think you're cursed…"

"No, the other vampire that's been courting me and drinking my blood." Chloe rolls her eyes. Yes, this is mean Chloe. "I think I am. Let's seen there's this…" She taps at the side of her head. "Oh, then there's the whole warehouse thing, getting rejected, a wolf that's attacking my family and friends… pretty sure that constitutes as a curse."

The librarian slumps in his seat a bit and only reddens more when she mentions how she got rejected. For a long moment he waivers between saying something and not. Eventually he just loses his nerve and sighs, giving up any train of that he might have on that subject. For now at least. "It's just a rough patch. It'll get better."

Chloe shrugs, not believing for a moment that it will get better. "So what's new with you?" The rest of her caramel concoction is downed pretty rapidly. All that's left of it is foamy whipped topping. The empty paper cup is squished into the tray. Then she takes one of the black coffees meant for her siblings. What? No point in bringing them cold coffee.

"Nothing, really. Work, work, work…" And Summer, but he can't really bring that up to Chloe. He's not a complete bastard, anyway. "I've been lucky, like I said. Things have been pretty damned uneventful. I'm glad to see you though. Are you still mad at me?" As if her previous comment about rejection wasn't indicator enough.

"Undecided." Chloe looks across the table at him, picking up on the stray girlfriend thought. It causes her to roll her eyes. "Must be nice, leading a boring life. How utterly horrible for you." Sarcasm at its finest.

"Yeah, well." Mischa can see that Chloe is in fact undecided about it all. So he merely frowns a bit and idly leafs through the pages of his book as he decides whether to stay or go. The eternal question, once voiced by Joe Strummer: Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now? He decides on sucking it up, smiling over at Chloe. "Just remember that I'm here for you, okay? Whenever you want to talk."

Undecided and being a bitch about it, actually. Chloe sips at the black coffee, and shrugs again. "Mischa, do you honestly think we can just talk?" There's history there. It may not be a relationship, but there's history. "After everything?"

Mischa smiles at Chloe once more. "Of course. You haven't done anything truly reprehensible to me, so why not? You're still one of the best friends I've ever had. I'm not going to turn you away just because we have a few unresolved issues. I think we can just talk, yes." He shrugs his shoulders and reaches for his coffee, taking another few sips quickly before she can say anything else that will make him spit his caffeine treat over the table. Or in her face.

"Mm." Chloe /is/ still rather upset with him over it all. Yet she doesn't go so far as to point out that his rejection is what pushed her toward that sort of relationship with Will. "But we're not. Best friends, I mean." Were they friends at all? "But sure. Let's try it. What do you want to talk about?"

Her further rejection of him because he rejected HER seems to make him shrivel a bit. He looks off towards the door and lets out a sigh. "I don't know. We came together underneath unusual circumstances. Neither one of us are normal. Are you ever planning on coming back to the apartment complex?" Mischa asks, raising his brows at the redhead across the table from him.

"We did, we aren't, I don't know. Depends on if my mother needs help settling back in at home or not." Chloe is going to have to stay with her brother a while anyhow. Especially if he winds up having surgery. Unless he kicks her out. Plus, the majority of her nights are spent at the estate these days. "I'll need to stop back there eventually to clean up. Wash some clothes. Get my mail."

"If you give me the key, I can go get the things for you and bring them by Bobby's. Unless you want to do it." Mischa won't push. His tone is growing decidedly colder since she's not being terribly accepting or congenial to him. He reaches up to run his fingers through his hair, a bit flustered at the entire situation. "How is your mother doing, by the way? Better, I hope."

"I don't know," she says, sounding honestly human, and less icy bitch. "She still doesn't want to see us. I mean, I don't blame her. She's going through a lot. It's only been a month since everything happened. Maybe she's afraid?" For a moment, Chloe sounds normal. Even like a frightened child. "Yeah, sure. Just call first, since he's not moving really well at the moment. Make sure I'm around." Beat. "He likes you."

Mischa watches Chloe for a long moment, seeming a little less on edge now that her bitch dial has been turned down a little bit. "Robert is nice. I like him too. I hope he gets to feeling better soon. Your mother, too. And no, I can't really blame her. It all throws us for a loop…" He clears his throat a little bit. He can't generalize really — every were experience is different than the next, and he's not a were. He was born into it. He looks downward and starts to scoot his book towards himself.

There is a sudden laugh from still a bit tipsy Chloe. "He wanted me to be with you." Giving her head a shake, she lifts the paper coffee cup to her lips again and drinks from it. "You should visit him some time. I'm sure he'd like that. Though, he's got a puppy now. I'm betting it's a sick gift from whoever is after my family, but I wasn't going to hurt it." It's just a puppy. She looks at the book. "I should probably go. Overstayed my welcome and all that."

"A dog?" Mischa asks, quirking a brow. He lets out something of a chuckle before nodding his head. "Yeah, I should get home too. Check on the turtles. Since it's warmer out, I have to be careful with their lamps. Chloe, will you call me sometime if you ever need to talk?" Mischa asks, standing up from the table. He puts his book on the tray and collects both of their trash, watching the redhead in a subdued manner.

"Long story. Looks exactly like the one I tried to help on the night I was attacked. Only it wasn't injured." Chloe frowns at that, then nods. "Call you? Uhh, sure." She reaches into her pocket, extracts her keys, and pulls off one that has a purple keyguard on it. It's held out to him. "That's for the apartment. The mail key is on a magnet on the fridge. Feel free to grab whatever clothes. There's a duffel under the bed." Beat. "I'll… yeah. Only do it if you feel like it. If not, it's not a big deal. I can run in on my way to work after the weekend."

"Don't worry," Mischa says as he takes Chloe's key, putting it safely in his front pants pocket. "I'll drop your things off. Thanks, Chloe. I'll see you later, okay? Feel better soon." He seems to mean it, regardless of how awkward the evening has been for the both of them respectively. He starts off towards the trash bin with their empty cups and lets out a sigh as he reaches his destination, giving a faint shake of his head.

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