The Regularʳᵒᵇⁱⁿ ᵇᵘᶜᵏˡᵉʸ

2| Friends?

"Could you let her know I stopped by?" Steve nods again and just as Jaya starts to hand over the cash for her drink the window to the hatch between the front and back room opens, Jaya pokes her head around steve to see Robin leaning on the hatch, she has headphones set on her shoulders. Robin tells Steve something at a low volume before looking to see Jaya watching. She smiles at her, wide, waving as she does, "Hey, Robin."

"Hi, er... sorry I missed your daily drop-by." Jaya smiles and shakes her head, nonverbally telling the girl it was alright, Robin however didn't quite grasp that, "I'll make it up to you."

Jaya raises an eyebrow, "How are you gonna do that?" Robin just grins mischievously before closing the hatch, Steve sighs and turns back to Jaya, "Here." Jaya actually hands over the money for the drink this time and moves on, going back to Burger King disappointed in an entirely different way than she had expected to be going over there yet somewhat hopeful.

Later on, Jaya is working the counter, taking orders before passing them back to the kitchen, when a familiar face stands in front of her, "Is this you making it up to me?"

Robin shrugs, "Maybe, either way, I wanted to eat someone that wasn't frozen. So here I am." Robin places her order and Jaya passes it back before glancing behind the ocean-eyed girl, seeing no one waiting to be served Jaya takes this as an opportunity.

"Hey, Robin? Are we friends or...?"

Robin looks at the girl in front of her with evident worry, her eyes wide and jaw slack being proof, "I mean... I- er- I consider you a friend."

Jaya smiles, the words boosting her mood in a strange way she didn't expect. Her timid behavior very quickly switches out for somewhat confident mannerisms, where that came from Jaya has no clue, adrenaline maybe, "So, if we are friends, would you like to hang out properly and not just buy things from each other as our only interactions? This new movie came out that I've been wanting to see." Robin nods her head sheepishly, looking at her feet and then back up at Jaya for a moment, "Can I get your phone number then? So we can sort it out."

"I don't have anything to write on, or with. Why would I? I don't just carry a pen and paper around. Shit, sorry, that sounded rude didn't it, I didn't mean it that way, like, at all. It's not your fault I don't have anything to write on or with. Oh God, I'm rambling, aren't I? See I do this thing sometimes, where it's like I can't stop myself from talking it's like a word flood. That sounded weird, didn't it? Ugh." Robin looks to the floor rubbing the back of her neck.

Jaya just chuckles, "It's alright, I have a pen and paper." She hands the girl the notepad she uses to take down orders and watches as Robin writes her number on it, ripping the page she used out of the pad before handing it all back to Jaya who then stuffs the number into her pocket as a customer approaches, "Just a second." She then turns to the new customer, taking their order. Soon enough, Robin has her food and has disappeared into the labyrinth of the mall, and Jaya's shift has come to an end.

Again, like most days, Jaya and Robin run into each other at the end of the day. This time it is whilst waiting for their rides. Jaya knew that Meena was meeting some friends and so someone else would be picking her up, who that was and where they were, however, she did not know. She sat on the steps to the mall watching the car park for a vehicle she recognized when a familiar someone took a seat next to her. "Hey, Jaya." Looking to her side, Jaya could see Robin smiling over at her.

"Hi, Robin. Are you ok? You seemed a bit out of it when we talked earlier."

Robin gets a bit fidgety, pulling at the loose threads on her jacket, "Oh, yeah I'm fine." Jaya watches her, waiting for an elaboration, "I guess I just got nervous when you started talking about being friends, I've kind of had trouble with those in the past. By that I mean I can never seem to keep them."

Jaya frowns, "But you seem really cool." She then obliviously watches as a blush creeps onto Robin's cheeks.

"I don't know, I guess I can be too much sometimes. That's what people tell me anyway: that I'm too much or that I'm over the top or rude when I don't even realize it. At least I think that's why people don't like me."

Jaya hums, "Well, people are stupid. In my experience at least." Robin scrunches her eyebrows in confusion, "Most of the time people don't really want to be friends with me either." She points to her cheek and Robin's mouth forms an 'O' shape as she realizes what her new friend means. "Don't get me wrong, there are some people who really don't care, but a lot of the time they do. Just the slightest bit darker than they like and it's over, honestly the way some of them act, you'd think it was criminal to be anything but white." Jaya smile.

"Couple of misfits, aren't we?" Robin jokes, the two laugh.

"Bye Robin." They look to the side to see Steve and a younger boy exiting the mall, "Bye Jaya."

"This your kid friend, Steve?"

The boy frowns, "You don't have to make it sound so weird." He then very quickly switches back to a smile, "I'm Dustin."

"Jaya."

"Pleasure to meet you." The girl smiles and watches as the two then walk toward Steve's car. As they do, a new car enters the car park. Jaya glances back at the girl next to her.

"That's my ride, are you gonna be alright waiting by yourself?" Robin nods and so Jaya hesitantly makes her way to her dad's car. Getting in she's not surprised to see that it was her brother driving, Rohan has a license but hasn't saved up the money for a car yet and so is always borrowing Meena's or their dad's.

Rohan doesn't waist time pulling out of the parking spot, the way he drives you'd think he's always in a rush, "Who were those people I saw you talking to?"

Jaya rolls her eyes, "Hi, nice to see you too. Yes, I did have a good day at work thank you for asking. How was your day?" Rohan just raises an eyebrow and Jaya sighs, "Steve and Robin work at Scoops Ahoy."

Rohan nods to himself, "Friends?"

"Robin: yes. Steve: no."

Again Rohan nods, "What's Robin like? She nice?"

"Yeah, she's nice. Funny also, I think she's pretty cool."

Rohan smiles, "You guys talk a lot?"

"Almost every day." Rohan raises eyebrows at this, slightly shocked, "We might meet up to see a movie soon."

"Sounds like a good time." He looks over to his sister for a moment to see her looking out the window on her side, he's not quite sure if it's the lighting or not but he could have sworn his sister was blushing upon talking about her new friend, he could see her picking at her nails on her lap, a common nervous habit she had. Rohan everts his view back to the road but his mind stayed on his sister's behavior. It did for a while, actually. Just as he decided he was making something out of nothing, Meena asked about Robin. The look on his sister's face as she told Meena that she got this girl's number and that they might be hanging out soon made the scene stick in his mind.

It was strange, to say the least.

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1846 words

Literally no one read or commented on the last chapter as of posting this but I'm trying to stay positive!! This has been something I've been working on on and off and I'd really like to get it out there so I can finally say that I've finished it and maybe motivate me to write more, even if no one reads it.

Who knows maybe once more chapters are out people will start to notice it.