The Cincinnati Blues (Tiff / Lucas / Open?)

[Lucas Janzen]

So all he could do was wait for Tiff to come, so that they could leave... simple as that. On a lesser note, he could always count down until his medicine kicked in too, to quell the mother of a headache he had gotten the previous night, where he should have been bodyguarding and equipment-hauling and junk, but instead spent his time fitting in with the crowd in a more... conventional sense, one could say. From there, one could easily assume he was 'unwinding' with alcohol and such. Which he was. He was enjoying it too!

It was too bad the last thing he remembered, in his drunken fervor, was making eyes with a random busty blond chick across the room and... oh God, no... his gaze widened upon that realization. Really, it wasn't exactly the hardest thing to figure out, but could he really even be that good in bed with a girl? Oh God, no... Not only was it just an afterthought, but it was a distinctive possibility that he and she... oh God, no...

Swinging his feet off the tailgate of the truck, sitting in thought, Lucas felt a dire need to stop entertaining those thoughts, lest he wonder what might happen. If he not only wound up hopping in the sack with her, but somehow managed to get her... pregnant... and... oh, hot damn. Too late. Rubbing his aching forehead, Lucas shook his head. If only he'd stuck to the job he was supposed to do, he probably wouldn't be in that supposed mess, if it happened. There was still no guarantee it didn't happen, frighteningly enough.

Overwrought imagination aside, Lucas' last notion of the encounter was that he may finally find out with a simple phone call, eighteen years in the future, which might have something to do with Lucas being called 'dad', the son's admission that he was gay, addicted to heroin, couldn't hold down a decent job, was a Star Wars devotee, got kicked out of his house, and that he could turn stuff into solid ice with a touch of his hand! A chip off the old block, no?

Oh gear God, what an appalling thought. Suddenly, Lucas felt like downing a whiskey sour or two...

However, it was too early to drink... and besides, there was work to be done. Only... not really. Again, looking around the back of the truck to make sure all the needed equipment was present and accounted for, Lucas could still only wait for Tiff to finish whatever she was doing. No rush... or maybe a little rush. Really, Lucas couldn't decide whether that was bugging him more than anything else. Making it worse was how he had gotten so far from home before realizing the glitz and glamour of his spurious plan to leave Toronto had worn off, leaving behind the cold reality of things. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

With the truck's tailgate as his seat, Lucas gently fell back on the truckbed, hands relaxed behind his head, without care for the dirt and whatnot that would probably fleck and dirty his purple-and-white striped rugby shirt. Even though the view above him was nothing special and hardly a break from the ordinary, he had at least gained a better, more comfortable position than before, aiding him while he sent a 'helpful' message Tiff's way. With his sleek, shiny, bluish-silver phone taken in his hand, Lucas composed a text message.

haul ur ass bitch, we g2g soon

Where was she, anyway? Lucas could only wonder, sighing, his phone at his side.

[Tiff Baumer]

///// Tiff Baumer

^{somewhere, somehow...}
_{chapter one: ripples}

Some distance away Tiff realized where she was after a bit of walking. She had zoned out as she made her way to her destination, knowing exactly where she was going. She was so angry that she was too lost in her thoughts to be paying very close attention until now, but she'd meet back up with Lucas soon, and they'd pull out. She hadn't even thought about how long she'd kept him waiting. Other matters had come up...

The bright side was, since she'd need to set all of it aside and pretend everything was fine, it more or less would be. She could get her mind off of the silly games her contacts were playing with her. As she rounded the corner, she spotted Lucas, and immediately felt a pang of guilt in her gut. Here she was... involving this man in the midst of her 'people'... a people she was growing quite frustrated with herself. What if they turned on her? What if she was leading him into something... bad?

She shook her head, and moved forward to the truck, "Yo, Lucas!" she shouted, slapping the side of the truck to announce herself, hopping up into the driver's seat after opening the door, "Where you at?" she asked, but soon heard the chirping of her phone, which had apparently started the same time she had spoken... as she was just now hearing it. The thought made her briefly consider how loud she was, and she chuckled a bit as she flipped open the phone and read the text, waiting for Lucas to come to the cab.

[Lucas Janzen]

Sheesh. It always had to happen that way, didn't it? It was like all those times where someone went out to a restaurant, waited forever for their food to arrive, and once they get up to use the washroom, the waiter brings their order in the nick of time. As for him, Tiff had to randomly appear, calling his name and banging on the side of the truck, right after he sent her a text to push her along.

Lucas was certain there was some kind of cosmic conspiracy behind those gems, but at the moment, he couldn't bring himself to care much more than that. At least he didn't have one of those lame cell phone plans where it cost him to send each text, or else he'd be pretty mad. His head still hurt at that point, however, although he was quickly recovering.

Hopping from the back of the truck and onto the street, Lucas walked to the door on the passenger's side and swung himself inside, mentally preparing himself for the next segment of their road trip, which would surely chew up the rest of their day. In the meantime, Carbucketty was in the same bucket as always, held between Lucas' legs to prevent too much uncomfortable sloshing for the poor, displaced creature.

With the long drive ready to begin, he hastily reached over and turned on the radio. "I call the tunes!" Lucas announced, soon being drowned out slightly by the song that played.

"I hear the ticking of the clock,
I'm lying here, the room's pitch dark,
I wonder where you are tonight,
No answer on the telephone..."

"Hot damn, I love this song!" Lucas said with a bemused smirk.