Collision: Astor tag Bennett

[Astor Young]

Astor actually giggled as she skated through the diner. She was going fast, faster than she'd ever gone before - and she was carrying a tray of 4 milkshakes: 2 strawberry, 1 chocolate, and 1 mint. "Be careful!" Cammie called, holding her own tray of burgers, but a laugh escaped her as well. Astor was dressed in her uniform which included a white blouse and a pink poodle skirt. Her long blond hair was curled at the ends but then pulled into a messy ponytail with shorter strands that couldn't reach falling around her face.

"I'm fine! I'm dropping these off then I'm going to hide!" she said with a laugh, still skating fast as she turned back to look at Cammie, going too quickly to react when Cammie's face turned to shock. "Astor! Watch out!!"

But it was too late. The next thing Astor knew, she was running right into someone...a tall someone. All four of the milkshakes flew up into the air landing on both parties but Astor was still moving and she wasn't sure quite how it all happened...all she knew was the next thing she was lying on the floor, on top of someone, covered in milkshake. Their noses were almost touching and Astor's cheeks were flushed, hidden only the cold milkshake on her cheeks. She pushed herself up a little, her eyes widening as she realized that she knew the boy she was now pretty much laying on top of! He was that boy...the one who came to the diner all the time...the one who Cammie called her favorite customer...the guy at school who had pulled that Shelby girl away when she'd been talking to her....

Astor made a face. "I am SOOO sorry," she squeaked. Most the people in the diner were staring at them, probably assumed Astor was about to get fired, not knowing that her mom owned the place and she couldn't get fired if she wanted to - which she sort of did. Astor started to push herself up further, almost into a sitting position. Cammie skated over to them, "You guys okay? Astor, why don't you take Benny to the back and help him clean up. I'll get fresh milkshakes to your table and get someone to clean up out here," the older girl said, shaking her head. "You know, you've come up with some creative ways to get out of work, but I think you've reached a whole new level," she said with a laugh before skating away.

Astor bit down on her lower lip, tasting mint ice cream as she did. She'd hardly eaten today and just the taste and smell of it was making her stomach yearn for nourishment. She glanced over at Bennett. "Yeah I can take you to the back and clean up," she said, trying to push herself up to a standing but her roller skates slipped into the mess and she fell back to the floor. "Wow, I totally suck," she murmured, still sitting on the floor covered in cold milkshake and looking completely miserable.

Taggles!!

[Bennett Durnham]

Bennett felt a smile grace his face when the sound of the final bell rang and everyone rushed to the exit, leaving just Bennett and the teacher. "Have a good evening, Mrs Redmond." The shy boy gave his teacher a small smile as he packed his bags. Mrs Redmond looked up and returned his smile. "You too, Mr Durnham." She gave him another smile before leaving the class at the same time as him.

He stepped back and let her go through the door first. "Thank you," she smiled wider, happy at least some of the students actually cared about manners anymore. "You have a good evening, Bennett." Bennett nodded and waited until the teacher was fully out the door before he went out.

Homework finished, Bennett wasn't obligated to go home and he knew his parents trusted him enough not to get into any trouble after school so he went to Mel's Diner for his favourite shake. And of course, to catch a glimpse of his blonde crush.

Cammie as always was his server and after his first shake, he got a little glimpse of Astor who was actually smiling while she worked, something Bennett thought she should do everyday. It didn't take long for the boy to want to move from his spot, if only to get a napkin from the counter but in that second he had to get up and walk the five steps to the counter, that was all it took for things to go slightly askew.

Within a second, he was lying flat on the ground with Astor on top of him and three flavours of milkshake threatening to make permanent marks on his bony self. It was cold and he already had a low tolerance to heat but he kept still as Astor started apologising. When she tried to get up, she bounced back down because of her skates and Bennett held back a laugh.

He got up into a sitting position slowly, pushing away the milkshake that had covered his glasses and he shivered when he felt the cold beverage trickle down his spine from his hair. Gulping, he got up and fortunately managed to steady himself enough to pull Astor up and help her sit in the booth nearest to them.

There were small miracles to the disaster, such as Bennett wearing his hoodie over the nice shirt he had purchased the day before so that Shelby wouldn't bother Astor with her crazy. And also the fact that he had an extra shirt in his bag just in case he didn't like the shirt he had worn. It served as a napkin to soak up as much milkshake that had landed upon himself. He offered Astor the shirt with a small smile.

"I didn't know you knew I liked milkshakes this much," Bennett broke the silence, attempting at a joke.

[Astor Young]

The boy Astor had run into was none other than Benny. Well, at least that's what Cammie always called him. He was actually surprisingly nice about it, when Astor had been expecting the worst. Instead of yelling at her or demanding to talk to the manager or even demanding free food (which he was totally going to get today whether he asked or not), he simply and calmly got up and pulled her into his booth. Astor wanted to point out that they were now making a bigger mess by sitting there, but she didn't say anything, because all he did was smile and mention how much he liked milkshakes which made Astor smile, despite herself.

No, it wasn't a particularly good joke, but it was really sweet. It sort of made her want to hug him for being so nice about it all, but seeing that she didn't really know him at all, she refrained. "Thanks...I mean for not being angry," she said. "I just wanted to serve those and get out of here...go hide somewhere..." By hiding she meant working on her mural...probably...or maybe curling up somewhere in the back and reading a book. Anything to get away from the smell of food. She was starving after all, and while she'd probably eat something at some point, she didn't want it to be fatty diner food. The milkshake wasn't helping though. The smell of it...and that taste of it on her lips was making her stomach yearn for food even more, as she silently willed it to just hold on a little longer.

She watched as Benny sopped up some of the now melting shake up with a spare shirt he seemed to have. "You don't have to do that...I can get towels...we don't have big towels, but I have to ones we used to like clean up the kitchen," she said. "And I can get you like a shirt too...it'll be a cheesy ugly diner shirt, but it would be clean," she said, "I should probably change...I have clothes in the back..." she also mentioned, but she didn't get up yet. Instead she turned sideways in the booth and started to take off her skates. The wheels were slick from rolling around in the puddles anyway...taking them off would make her socks sticky, but at least she wouldn't fall. Plus, her whole body was sticky, adding sticky socks into the mix couldn't be any worse...could it?

"That's better," she commented once they were off and neatly slid just under the table so they'd be out of the way of Jacob, who seemed to have been enlisted to clean up her mess. He was already out there with a mop and not really paying attention to her, but Astor made a mental note to thank him later.

With her skates off and everything mostly in order - aside from her clothes, they were still a mess - she wasn't quite sure what to say to the boy. Astor was the type of person who tended to be shy when she first encountered people. Once she knew them better or felt comfortable around them, she could be quite talkative, but she wasn't always the best conversation starter. But Benny was staring across the table at her almost eagerly, and she wasn't sure if his looks meant that he wanted her to get out of his way or if he was expecting her to say something else. He'd been so nice before...maybe he was just too nice to tell her to leave. Or maybe he recognized her too...from school.

"You come here a lot...and you go to my school," she commented, realizing that she probably sounded like a creeper, "I'm not like...a stalker, I'm just here a lot and so are you so seeing you here is inevitable," she pointed out, "and you grabbed that Shelby girl and pulled her away while we were talking the other day. I recognized you then but you like ran away before I could like say hi or anything..." she trailed off feeling a little dumb. She'd started talking to see if he looked annoyed, so she could take her cue to leave, but he didn't seemed annoyed, so she went on. "Are you guys dating or something?" she asked, more out of her own curiosity. After all Benny seemed a bit dorky and Shelby seemed more the popular type. Astor couldn't figure out why the two would have been together. "Oh right, I'm Astor, by the way," she added, "since we haven't really met before now...sorry, I probably should have started with that...but um...yeah...I'm just awkward..." she admitted, as she trailed off and looked down at the table. Wow, this guy was probably going to think that there was something wrong with her...like she was retarded or something. Astor inwardly sighed, she was pretty sure that today couldn't get any worse...

[Bennett Durnham]

When Astor started talking, actually replying to Bennett, the sophomore relaxed and smiled, happy that she wasn't feeling any more guilty than she should. There was no way Bennett would ever want her to feel that way especially when it came to him. Even if it was her fault. Oh he got it bad. He got it really, really bad. He frowned slightly when she mentioned she wanted to hide somewhere. Although he knew this was a routine, he still didn't like that she had to. He was glad his parents never pushed him to do something he didn't like but Astor's parents apparently didn't do that with her and he kind of felt sorry for her. Not in a pathetic way of course. He just wished she got it better than she currently did.

He pushed her offer for towels. "It doesn't matter." Bennett waved her off with a smile. "Don't worry about it, okay?" He also declined her offer for a cheesy ugly diner shirt. "I'll be fine in this." The shirt was clean for the most part and whatever had become sticky while dry up soon enough anyway. Bennett just looked on as Astor kicked off her skates. Then a period of silence befell them and Bennett could only smile and wipe his face and hair with the shirt he had bought with him. Cammie made an appearance and got fresh towels which helped Bennett even more and after a few minutes of wiping, he looked pretty decent.

Bennett blushed when Astor broke the silence by mentioning his frequent visits at the diner. And laughed when she thought she was the stalker when he had been thinking that he was the stalker. He cringed when Shelby was brought up. Her question made him burst out laughing. "Heck no." He blurted out. "If I had a type, I hardly think she would be it." He muttered. Not to mention, Shelby was a mean girl and Bennett was only interacting with her so she wouldn't sink her claws into Astor and make her a douche zombie.

Bennett couldn't help but smile when she went off in a tangent as she introduced herself. There was no way he could ever think less of her now. He was right in thinking she was one of the good ones. Awkward or not, Astor was sweet, innocent and an adorable klutz if he had ever seen one. "I'm Bennett." He replied in kind. "I do come here a lot." He bashfully admitted with a crooked grin. "I come for the shakes and stay for the view." Almost immediately regretting what he said, he looked up and hoped Astor didn't catch that. "Your shakes are great."

[Astor Young]

Astor grabbed one of the towels to clean herself off as she wasn't exactly comfortable asking for the poor boy's shirt. He'd already been way nicer than she deserved after all. He didn't seem interested in changing his clothes at all, which was fine, but Astor totally still was. After all, she hated her diner uniform and would have been much more comfortable in her jeans and T-shirt that were neatly folded into a backpack in the back of the diner.

"Oh," she said simply when he quickly dismissed the idea of Shelby. Shelby had been really nice to Astor, well at least for the brief minute they'd spoken. And she was a pretty girl, perhaps he just didn't like blondes or something she wondered, subconsciously tugging on a strand of her own blonde hair as she thought this, ringing it out with one of the towels. "She told me that I should try out for cheerleading," Astor said simply. "I guess they're having tryouts all week but I haven't gone...I don't know if I will..." She actually liked the idea of being a cheerleader because she knew they were usually popular. Perhaps it was even a way to make friends since she hadn't made any at school thus far. But she was so nervous about making a fool out of herself at the tryout that she probably wouldn't do it. The last thing she needed was a bunch of popular girls laughing at her for sucking...

"Bennett," she repeated, "Cammie always calls you Benny, but then again, she has nicknames for like everyone...she's tried with me but Astor isn't really a nicknameable name," she pointed out, stumbling over her made-up word nicknameable.

"Well, I guess you got more milkshake that you bargained for today," she admitted, blushing herself this time. She was still embarrassed that that even happened. She was caught off guard when he mentioned the view though, having not even an inkling of what he could possible mean. "The view?" she question, looking around the diner. She glanced out the window but it was just a parking lot and a boring Hollywood street. It wasn't even one of those famous Hollywood streets where all the tourist went, although it was one of the streets that led to a tourist spot so they still got a great deal of tourist in the joint. "Are you like really into 50s stuff?" she finally asked, obviously confused.

"Uh...thanks, I guess," she said about the shakes, "I don't make them or anything, just serve them but I guess its good people like them...but I'm well, I'm not a huge fan of being covered in all this...I think I'm going to go change quick," she said, sliding out of the booth and using one of the clean towels to wipe off the booth. "It was nice meeting you though," she said, "well officially, thanks for being so nice to me..." she told him before walking off, tiptoeing on the floor as to not to get her socks dirty, not realizing she'd left her skates under the table.

OOC: this is not a wrap! She will be back in my next post. I just figured that she wouldn't sit there that long without changing

[Bennett Durnham]

The idea of losing Astor to the cheerleaders made Bennett wince. Although there were a few exceptions to the mean cheerleaders rule - at least one out of five of them were nice - there was too big a possibility that Astor would not become one of those nice ones. Mostly, Bennett just thought that someone like Shelby had enough guile to turn any innocent into a douche zombie. She had already managed to convince Bennett to wear nice dress shirts for crying out loud.

But Bennett couldn't deny the appeal of seeing Astor in a short skirt doing cartwheels and back flips. He just hoped the fact that she was always so uncomfortable in her diner's uniform and basically performing in her skates in front of the costumers was mortifying enough not to get into a short skirt and perform in front of hundreds of people. One can always hope for small miracles. "You like cheerleading?" he asked simply.

He blushed at Cammie's nickname for him mostly because Astor actually knew it. And also because Cammie talked about him. That was kind of embarrassing. A small smile crept on his face at her made up word but he didn't say anything about it. It was what made Astor just so dang adorable.

Laughing at her observation, Bennett looked down at his shirt and shrugged. "It's a good look for me," he grinned good naturedly. He was far from unhappy about the whole thing because it got Astor talking to him, didn't it? A wince came when Astor actually inadvertently called him out for his mistake. What he had meant about the view was obviously seeing Astor but he couldn't very well tell her that! She'd just think he was a perve. When she offered an out, he gladly took it, nodding his head a little too enthusiastically. "Totally. The 50's was a rockin' time." Oh boy, like that actually helped matters. This was why Bennett didn't waste his time talking to girls who weren't his cousins.

When she excused herself, he actually stood up as a gentleman did when a lady stood up. He gave her a small smile and shrugged. "It's not a problem at all. I didn't want to make it any worse on you than having to drop on me like that." Another lame attempt at a joke. Now there was no way Astor was going to come back and talk to him. He didn't even realise the skates were under the table until he sat back down and kicked it in glee at finally getting Astor to notice him. Odd circumstances but whoever said epic romances were ever made of perfect first meet? Those were reserved for the movies anyway.

He peeked out of the booth to notify Astor but she was nowhere in sight. Perhaps this was what he needed to have her come back and talk to him. With that thought, he gave a grin at his milkshake soaked up shirt and waited.

[Astor Young]

Astor shrugged when Bennett asked if she liked cheerleading. "Never really done it before," she admitted. In middle school cheerleading hadn't been as big of a deal. The popular girls still did it but only in preparation for high school. It certainly wasn't as intense or serious and if certainly didn't define someone as popular or not popular like it seemed to do in high school. Or at least it seemed to Astor that it did, but then again she was new so her perceptions of what the school was like was still probably somewhat shallow. "I probably would never make it anyway..." she said, sort of dismissing the idea mostly because she was too nervous to actually try out for fear of being mocked if she did a poor job.

He continued to talk on, very good naturedly too, especially about the whole milkshake incident which was still something that surprised her. She was pretty sure she'd be less than pleased if it had happened to her, only she'd be too nice to really get mad about it... Oh...that's what he was doing, wasn't he?

Oh well, once Astor excused herself she headed straight to the back. She slipped into the employees bathroom and pulled off her damp and sticky uniform, tossing it into a spare garbage bag before putting it safely in her backpack. She washed up a little better before putting back on the clothes she'd worn to school which consisted of a pair of paint splattered jeans and old light blue T-shirt that sort of brought out her blue eyes but she didn't really notice this as she pulled her hair out of it's messy ponytail and rung it out as best she could.

She took her time, not really eager to get back to work, only realizing she left her rollerskates at Bennett's table when she slid on her navy slip on Tom's Shoes sneakers. She of course was oblivious to the fact that Bennett had been overjoyed to talk to her. She had of course already reasoned that he was simply being nice, much like she would have been had it been the other way around. So she wasn't exactly eager to head back there and bother him some more, but she dropped off her backpack next to the small section of tiny lockers they had for the employees and headed back out on the floor.

"Hey you, you heading back over to Benny's table?" Cammie asked as soon as she stepped out.

"Oh well, yeah...I left my skates there..." she admitted, feeling bad about the whole thing. He had blushed when he'd admitted to liking the 50s stuff but maybe it was Cammie he liked. "Unless you want to get them for me?"

"Don't be silly," Cammie said, dismissing the idea as if she was reading Astor's thoughts or something. "Just bring this to him?" she asked, handing her a tray with two burgers and a heaping helping of cheese fries. "On the house obviously," she said as Astor took it.

"Yeah, sure," Astor said, taking the tray carefully and making a face as Cammie teased her further, yelling after her not to drop it. The aroma of the food was almost too much...she was just so hungry... But she held her breath as she walked back over to his booth. It seemed like her mess had been done with and was all cleaned up now, but the floor was still damp and Astor walked gingerly across it.

"Hey." she said as she approached, "sorry to bother you again...but I was told to give this to you," she told him, "on the house," she added, not really thinking about the fact that it was probably more than one person could eat. She placed the food in front of him anyway. She then walked away once more to get rid of the tray the food was on before realized she'd left her skates once more. "Skates," she said simply as she turned back around to face him one more time, "sorry...you probably think I'm like so annoying right now," she said, stating what she assumed he must be thinking since putting herself down was easier to listen to than someone else doing it.

[Bennett Durnham]

"Don't be silly. I'm pretty sure you can do a lot." Bennett shrugged. "It doesn't have to be cheerleading though. But you can do anything you set your mind to." Bennett reassured her. Truthfully, he couldn't quite understand why anyone would want to be a cheerleader. To him, they were pretty vapid. And to him, Astor wasn't. It would be much better if she decided not to try out.

When Astor came back with a tray full of food, Bennett's stomach decided that it was a perfect time to growl. Yes, the portion of food was a bit too much for a small guy like Bennett but he didn't eat lunch in school in favour of completing his assignment in the library and he was now pretty hungry. "Oh you shouldn't have. Really. I don't mind paying." He rummaged through his bag for his wallet.

He was interrupted in his search when Astor mentioned how annoying she thought she was being. "No you're not!" He said a little too loudly. Laughing a little out of embarrassment, he scratched the back of his neck and gave her a small crooked grin. "You're not annoying me at all. I like the company." This was the truth of course. If he went home, he'd be exposed to his siblings' teasings and would have to lock himself up in his room but here, at least company was friendly in the form of Cammie usually. But this was Astor and she was far from annoying right then.

"Really, don't worry. You could always hide here if you don't want to work." He offered with a smile. "Have a burger with me. I don't think I can actually finish this." Pointing to the two burgers on his tray, Bennett laughed.

[Astor Young]

He seemed surprisingly genuine when he told her that she wasn't being annoying...wasn't bothering him. He just wanted the company. And that's when Astor realized. He was probably lonely...he probably wanted someone to talk to. Astor really couldn't feel bad for him though because she sort of felt the same way. She hadn't really made any friends in high school yet and while it was still only the first week, she was already wishing that she didn't have to walk around alone all the time. One option was attempting to join cheerleading with that Shelby girl and risk embarrassment, not to mention that Bennett surprisingly didn't seem to like her very much even thought they'd been together the other day.

"Ah...yeah...okay," Astor said sliding into the booth, sitting across the table from him once more. She could do this. Eat a little. She had to eat something for dinner.... She usually ate something...she just tried to minimize it. Although once the burger was in front of her she just felt queasy, thinking about how fat it could make her. She lifted it to her lips and then lowered it back down to her plate. "Um...would you wanna hang out sometime?" she asked. "I mean, I know I probably sound like super lame...its just that I'm new and none of my friends my middle school are at Gould Silver and I haven't really met anyone yet...and you seem nice..." she trailed off feeling sort of silly. It was just that she was starved for friends...well and for food, but the burger still sat on her plate uneaten.

Her stomach growled violently. "You know," she said, "I actually think I need to go. I'm supposed meet my dad," she said. It actually was half the truth. She was meeting her dad but not until later. She just wanted to hold off food till she could find something healthier...with a smaller portion. "Rain check o the food?" she asked, "I mean Cammie just gave you a ton because I think she feels bad about the whole milkshake thing," she assured him.

She slid back out of the booth ready to leave. She did want to hang out longer but she couldn't handle the greasy food. She hated being hungry all the time but she just couldn't get herself to eat.

Tag for Wrap?

[Bennett Durnham]

When she agreed to sit with him, Bennett smiled and bit into his burger. Somehow, free food tasted better than paying for it. He almost dropped his burger when she asked if he wanted to hang out sometime. Bennett quickly dispelled her when she claimed to be super lame. She was far from it and she ought to know that. He blushed when she said he seemed nice. "Yeah that would be awesome." Bennett nodded with a mouth full of cheese fries.

Swallowing, he got out a pen and paper and quickly wrote down his number before he could think twice about it and handed the piece of paper to Astor. "You can call me any time." It sounded desperate and pathetic but he couldn't care less. Astor Young just asked him if he wanted to hang out with her sometime. The desperation was warranted.

Bennett frowned slightly when she suddenly turned tail to leave. Her excuse was plausible but it didn't lessen his disappointment. Despite that, he was actually just excited he got to spend some time with the pretty blonde freshman. "I suppose I should pack this up." He gave her a chuckle and just watched as she left. Once she was out of sight, his shoulders slumped forward. With his appetite gone, he called out to a waitress and smiled a little when Cammie came over.

"What's up hon?" she asked, her smile dropping little by little when she saw how upset her favourite customer was. "Mind packing this up? I'm going to share this with my little sister at home." He gave her a reassuring smile which she didn't buy for one second. But she did pack the food up and gave him a large cup of mint chocolate chip milkshake. "You really shouldn't." Bennett was clearly embarrassed by Cammie's generosity. "Dude, you got three different kinds of milkshakes dumped all over you...you deserve this." Cammie sent him to the door and ruffled his hair, immediately regretting it when her hand came out a little sticky.

She laughed and patted Bennett's back to send him off. "Don't hesitate to come back for the view again." She yelled out to which he was horrified by. He waved to her and walked away fast.

WRAPPED!