"She'll hit you, Mick. Believe me I've gotten into tussles with her verbally; I can only imagine how bad it'd be if you ticked her off enough for her to attack you." Blaire seemed on my side far more than his. I didn't like the confrontation at all. Sure I knew it was all in play, but that's not exactly how I was used to joking around.
"Ease up, Blaire!" Mick said as he backed away from her slowly. "All in good fun, right, uh, A... A-... What's your name again, hun?"
"Don't 'hun' her." I could assume that Travis rolled his eyes under those sunglasses of his.
"No harm done here," I waved it off like it was nothing. "It's Abira, Mick."
Mick smiled boyishly and ran a hand through his half shaven hair. "And your last name? Or will I just have to give you mine--"
Before I even had a chance to look disgusted, Blaire stomped on his foot and somehow Travis managed to catch him as he fell before whacking him upside the head. I thought an all out brawl was going to commence. But soon all three of them were laughing it off.
"Don't ever take him seriously," Travis assured me. "Even when we all hang out just ignore him."
I began to giggle a bit too before I realized what he said. Blaire caught on pretty quickly. "I may have told these guys you'd hang with us sometime. I mean, I've got a kid who starts school soon and it looks like I'll be working nightshifts. If you're okay with that."
Looking the three of them up and down, I considered it. Honestly, I knew I was very different from them. Blaire was so funny nowadays, Mick was overly outgoing, and I'd pretty much embarrassed myself in front of Travis three times. It was very kind of them to offer that, though. But I hadn't had close friends in so long, that it felt foreign.
"Thanks," I began. "We'll keep in touch Blaire. I've got work to get to, though."
"When do you have free time?" Mick inquired, seeming genuine this time.
I shrugged. Blaire intervened once more. "Don't feel pressured. You've got your life figured out, Abira." Blaire laughed as she gestured to the rest of them. "Rest of us don't. Except Travis maybe."
"Uh-huh," I nodded and bit down on my lip. "What do you do, then?"
Travis simply shrugged as he stood there, and looked between us somehow with extreme accuracy for his lack of sight, his mouth opened in a long moment. Assuming he sighed, I thought I'd somehow overstepped my boundaries before he began to talk.
"I'm an author." His head went from side to side as he said something I couldn't decipher. "Started out as a journalist, then became a full-time writer."
"That's amazing!" I exclaimed without thinking, my hands in unison. It must've been loud, they all gave me odd looks. I didn't understand why Travis had seemed a bit dodgy for a moment about being an author. As a younger version of me that sounded like a pretty cool idea. Course, I never really pursued that career. "What have you written?" I inquired.
Travis smiled and put his hand on Mick's shoulder. "What've you read lately?"
I didn't answer and gave a confused expression. Somehow Travis caught onto that.
"I'm sorry that was cocky," Travis rubbed his head and then shoved his hands into his pockets. "Four, so far. Queen's Serpent, is one of my personal favorites, Bane of Heaven, Death of Nightmares, and one that I think you'd probably like is End of Admiration."
I raised an eyebrow. "That last one sounds like a romance."
"Because it is," he laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Personally, I think it's the best seller. Though I prefer the more original novels, apparently the cliche one sell. And I'm only good at the cliche ones so, you know," Travis shrugged. "Apparently it works well."
"I'll be sure to check it out." Something clicked inside. Odd and old, but something kind of just happened. His smile seemed really nice to me. Genuine. Something that I hadn't experienced in a long time. My phone went off. I had to get to work. "I've got to go, but thanks for chatting. And Blaire, if you ever need anything-"
"Say no more, Abira, you've done everything for me. I'm on my feet now." She smiled and waved her hands to get me going. Tying back her hair, she put her hands on her hips with her daughter next to her, looking more than happy. I still somehow felt like I didn't do enough for her even though I know that I had helped somehow. But her and her daughter just... I don't know, they needed help. Sure I gave some but there's always something more that someone could do.
Maybe it was just a night, maybe it was just breakfast, but somehow I felt accomplished with the back thought that I hadn't done anything to help her. Maybe it was just that old relationships die hard and ours was especially complicated. Yeah sure, let's go with that. Blaire and I had never been friends but this surely was starting to feel like some sort of friendship. I mean, it still felt weird, but hey, I helped someone.
I should learn to let myself be proud of myself for once.
"Thanks guys," I waved and started to take a step backwards.
"See you around, Abira. And hey, don't bother reading anything of mine, they aren't that good." Travis said as he too took a step back, a way to help me keep reading his mouth for the conversation.
"Please I bet they're great!" I said with a smile.
"We should hangout sometime like Blaire said, yeah?"
My heart stopped for a second. And for once in my life I did something that was absaloutly, and utterly stupid. Finger guns. I did finger guns, to a blind man.