What's a Lounge For? (open)

[Marshal Bishop]

Marshal's coins were well spent, as a fresh cola came sliding and rolling and tumbling down the vending machine chute. He smiled, this was a very specific treat for him. Not many sodas went through Southside. He gave it a crack, with pop foaming and fizzing as the can opened. He took a sip and sat himself on the small couch, right beside another student. They seemed pleasant enough.

"Don't get enough of these." he said to no one in particular, perrhaps even himself. He sighed with a pleasant satisfaction, setting the can on the coffee table, casually leaning back into the seat. A smile lingering in the corner of a dimpled cheek.

[Freya Reeves]

Reading, one of the many things Freya loved to do even if she couldn't do it in the normal fashion. As soon as the last bell sounded she went to her dorm and changed, then eventually found her way to the student lounge. She sat on a couch in the lounge, curled up on one end with a smile playing on her lips happily out of her school uniform and in her regular outfit with earbuds in. She had on her black tights, shorts, white shirt and red tie on with a tan cardigan covering her shoulders. However, something out of the ordinary was a small device resting in her hand, an auto-book.

About half way through the book already, Freya was barely aware of the world around her as her cloudy eyes had fallen shut and her mind focused on the words spinning pictures in her mind. However, she did noticed as the weight shifted along the couch. Startled a bit, she pulled out once earbud and looked over to the other end of the couch. Her eyebrows knitted together as she heard a boy speak, taking a moment for the words to actually register in her mind. The shock of coming back to the real world takes a minute to fade, after all.

Tilting her head, she tried to figure out what he was talking about. It wasn’t until she heard the sound of a can being placed down that she connected the dots. After a moment the confusion cleared from her face, “Yeah, I know what you mean,” She said grinning a bit. She didn’t normally get anything other than water because she couldn’t tell what exactly she was picking up without bothering someone to inform her. “It’s nice to crack one open and relax a bit. What flavor did you get?” she questioned, pausing the book and trying to look at the other boy as directly as she could.

[Marshal Bishop]

"Cola," he replied as if already in conversation with the blind girl, "not as good as grape but I'm sure not complaining." he chuckled to himself, readjusting his weight on the couch, putting one arm on the back of the couch and another on the arm rest as he crossed one leg over his knee.

He sunk into his spot a bit, really leaning intobut. "Ahhh, this place is nice." he glanced over to his company, realizing her moon shaped, blank eyes looking in his direction, almost as if looking past Marshal, out of focus. He quickly concluded that he shared blind company, though he was impressed with how well put together she was. Her outfit seemed perfectly coordinated, down to the button, how a blind girl put it together, he'd never know. It was in that thought that he noticed her earbud, still in hand. She was preoccupied, listening to, from what Marshal could tell, wasn't music at all. The album cover on the display screen wasn't of a band but of a book cover, and though he couldn't make out the title, he new what someone looked like when they were listening to music, it would be relaxed, almost an unconscious state of mind. Freya, however, seemed too focused on the contents of audio for it to be music.

"Of course," he spoke up again, realizing his intrusion, "it would be better without interruptions." he offered the girl an apologetic smile, though she probably wouldn't be able to tell. "Sorry, didn't mean to get in the way of your book."

[Freya Reeves]

Laughter crept from her mouth, a bit hesitantly as she joined into his own chuckle. She could feel the weight being readjusted on the other end but it was too far to actually tell what he did. Moments like these were one of the few times when being blind made her uncomfortable, when someone was close and she knew they were but she couldn’t tell what they were doing. “I don’t know, I’m more of a fan coke than grape. I don’t really dig grape stuff.” She replied with a light shrug of her thin shoulders, “Seems we’re on opposite ends of the great soda war,” Freya added in teasingly.

Once again it seemed her new company shifted in his seat. Freya herself moved into the corner a tad more, tucking her legs under her. “I suppose so, the couches could be a little nicer.” She chuckled a bit, shifting her hair out of her face as she hoped she was looking in his general direction. It wasn’t until he mentioned her book there her mouth formed into a small ‘o’ shape, “Oh no! It’s fine, totally fine! I’m at a kind of slow part anyway so it doesn’t matter. But I don’t mind interruptions now and then,” She gave a smile, trying to back up her words as Freya pulled the other ear bud out.

Keeping her hands preoccupied, half her focus was on the movement of her fingers as she tried to wrap the earbuds neatly around her device. It failed somewhat miserably, parts of the wire popping off and the rows anything but neat. Still, she placed the device in her lap and folded her hands on top of it, “How could you tell it was an audiobook? Most people just mistake it for a music player or something along the lines of it.” Her head tilted to the side a bit, her red bangs falling into her face once more. They really were pesky things, perhaps she’d cut them at some point this week. Well, have someone else cut them.

[Marshal Bishop]

"Are you sure? I don't mean to interrupt." Marshal continued in his apology until she told him that it hadn't mattered at all. "Fair enough," he took a drink as she asked her question. He shifted again on the couch to better face her. "The audiobook has a cover, which is displayed on the front of your music player." he stated simply with a shrug, "you also don't look like you're listening to music."

It was odd, Marshal often stumbled across knowledge that way. Happenstance really. All is normal and then he suddenly knows something about a situation that others didn't, as if it was obvious and always there.Marshal would never know how the ability itself worked, but he was glad that it did.

"Would you like one?" He motioned with his cola before realizing she was blind. "ah, a coke, I mean." He reached into his pocket, counting the quarters he had, remaining. It wasn't much but he didn't mind what he had being spent of good company. 

[Freya Reeves]

Shaking her head lightly, Freya smiled warmly at the kid next to her. “Nah, it’s cool. I promise.” She laughed a tad nervously, hoping that her next few words wouldn’t come off as rude and make her out as a complete freak, “If it was at a really important part I’d probably be mumbling under my breath or freaking out or something along those lines. And I’d definitely yell some rushed reply to make you shut up if I was really into it. I’m a total fangirl, I carry that title proudly.” Her fingers tapped alongside of the little black device in her hand, trying to relieve some of her awkwardness.

As the conversation propelled forward with a simple question, Freya found herself tilting her head in curiosity. It was weird, the way that he had picked up on something so subtle but somehow, it made all the difference as well. “That makes a lot of sense. It was just a little weird to me since most people don’t notice little things like that,” She said, the corner of her mouth tugging into a grin. It was actually quite impressive when you thought about it. Freya could only compare to how she felt smaller shifts and little noises to pick up on people movements. It was a never ending puzzle, this boy just happened to be beyond fantastic at the sight portion of the game.

“I don’t have any money on me and I don’t want you to waste yours on me,” She rushed out, hearing the faint clicking of coins. She couldn’t remember the last time that she had a soda. More often than not she kept to the safety of water unless she was feeling a little adventurous that day. It was simply easier than playing guess the flavor with the different cans that took on the same shape. Discontinuing that train of thought, she leapt into another. Freya couldn’t ask a guy she barely knew to spend his last few coins on her. At the same time he totally earned brownie points for offering, so far he seemed like a pretty nice guy. Definitely worth taking a break from her book.

[Marshal Bishop]

The awkward pause was shortened as she diverted to Marshal's odd little talent., "Weird is a good word for it." He gave a small laugh to admitting it. "doesn't seem like I'm even looking for things it just," he paused gesturing in a half shrug, unsure of how exactly to put it, "happens." He gave a sigh, a bit confused what to think or feel about it. "I don't know, seems to turn up on its own."

Marshal changed the topic with his offer. He accepted her response with a nod. "Well, if you change your mind." He offered the girl a smile, releasing letting go of the quarters in his pockets, "my offer still stands."

He turned his attention to his soda for a moment, taking a good drink, enjoying the fruits of his labors. "What book were you listening to anyway, if you don't mind me asking?" He wasn't much of a reader, but he hadn't caught the title earlier. He couldn't help but be curious.

[Freya Reeves]

Nodding a bit, Freya tried to wrap her head around the concept. Things just popped out to him? Simply caught his eye? She felt a slight tinge of envy, wishing she could still attempt to notice the odd things in a scene. Biting her lip for a moment she brushed the thought away, knowing that it wouldn’t do her any good to dwell on that particular subject matter. As she continued tapping on her device, it dawned on her. She did know something like it. “You know, I think I know where you’re coming from. For me, music just kinda clicks together. Even the smallest parts of the song become super relevant to me and sometimes the most important parts. It’s hard to explain but I think I get it.”

Relived that the kid seemed all too willing to change the topic and direct it away from her own failed attempts at connecting lives, Freya smiled at him. He really was a sweetheart, not many kids would offer a complete stranger a drink. Heck, even some friends are a bit stingy when it comes to buying things for their own little group of friends. Money made the world go round and no one was willing to let go of theirs. At least, that was what Freya had experienced at her old school. Maybe this one would be better for her, socially that was. “Thanks,” Freya’s smile widened, “little gestures like that mean a lot to me. You’re pretty cool.”

His amazingness only seemed to continue as he was curious enough to ask her about her book. Most people wouldn’t have bothered to ask or would and then make it obvious that they really didn’t care about the story line. Or the fact that she was being completely consumed by another world and falling in love with its characters. Details. Shaking her thoughts off she found herself automatically shifting her head to ‘look’ at the audiobook in her hands. Even though she couldn’t feel it, dragging her fingers along the small box gave her enough of an idea to satisfy her absent sense. “The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Have you ever heard of it?”

[Marshal Bishop]

He nodded, having indeed heard of the book but never having read it. "It's about Nazi Germany, right?" He asked, sure he had heard of it but not sure that he had picked up the correct information about it.

"A girl followed by death. I think." Such a book must've had people dying left and right, a massacre for each chapter. Looking at Freya he couldn't imagine her liking such a book.

"Is it good?" He dared to ask.

[Freya Reeves]

Surprise flashed across her face for a moment when he recognized the book. Not many people had heard of the book and normally it was because they had seen the movie. Even then it wasn’t a normal thing because it wasn’t a huge movie that blew up after the first weekend in the theaters. At least, she was pretty sure it hadn’t. Then again she was kinda absent on the whole social media part of the world that would clue her in to what was doing well but not taking over the world like The Hunger Games or Divergent, at her old school she could barely go through the day without one being mentioned. Still, she nodded to his question and encouraged him to think about it a tad more.

When he elaborated she found a large grin working its way onto her thin lips. “Yeah! You know it,” she exclaimed with a building excitement under her words. She was a self-classified bookworm and a total geek when it came to encounters like this. She absolutely loved talking to others about books she was currently listening too, whether the book was the most brilliant thing she had heard yet or if it was trash that she wanted to burn. This particular novel happened to be more of the first one than the second, so far she was loving every sentence she heard. She’d have to make a note to thank the boy who recommended it to her. Library buddies were the best.

And just like that, he gave her the perfect opening. “Ohmyglob! Yes! IT’s amazing. The imagery is outstanding. I’ve never listened to a book like this. The way he phrases things, the way he pains the picture for the reader… it’s just… ohmygod.” She clutched the small plastic device to her chest, biting her lip as she bubbled over with excitement. “And that’s just how it’s written. The perspective is perfect and so unique. The plot itself is tragic and filled with life at the same time. I can’t describe how much I love this book right now. I could go on for hours. You have to read it.” She took a breath, forcing herself to stop before she began the unstoppable book rambles.

[Marshal Bishop]

The passion of which the blind girl spoke was entertaining to say the least, but more importantly it was adorable. Who cared if the book was a massacre or a blood bath, the way she spoke of it was down right admirable. In fact Marshal had uttered at laugh at her exclamation, "ohmyglob, huh?" He continued to chuckle, covering his crooked and dimpled smile in the process. He hoped she knew that he wasn't laughing at her. "Maybe, I'll have to borrow or rent a copy, then." He encouraged, though he was not much of a reader.

"Was that an adventure time reference?" He asked, and if he was right he would be incredibly happy to hear someone else who had watched the show, "Ice King and Marceline are so adorable. It's funny how the ice king is there for the comic relief, yet he's got such a sad back story. He's probably the saddest guy in the series. You gotta feel bad for him." He rambled for a moment, looking to the girl in pause to see what she had to say on the subject. But, he had to wonder how a blind girl could watch the show. . . it couldn't have been too entertaining to a blind girl.