anothalife:
natalie’s left hand sits on her lap, hidden underneath the table. the other is looped around a disposable coffee cup, her fingers annoyingly tapping along the side of it. there are a thousand other things she could and should be doing right now; that paper is a due in a week and two days, that crescendo somehow still doesn’t sound right despite no apparent faults in her technique, she’s been avoiding emails, there’s assignments she hasn’t sent off yet — or, in fact, started yet — and if she dodges yet another call from her mother, she half expects diana goodman herself to show up on her doorstep unannounced. in fairness, in this overthought hypothetical scenario, it’d probably be the wrong doorstep, and she’d show up at an outdated address that natalie hasn’t lived at since her freshman year of college, despite both her parents being kept up to date with her current living situation. henry. she lives with henry. accidentally, at first, and then… not accidentally at all.
needless to say, of all the things natalie could be doing, she’s currently doing a grand total of zero of them. she hasn’t slept and it shows; this is hardy her first coffee of the day, and she probably should’ve cut herself off a few hours ago, but what else is she to do ? she’s trying her best to listen to what her coffee companion is saying, and at least be decent company ( losing the few friends she actually has isn’t a wise idea and she know it ) but it’s proving itself to be a rather difficult task. knowing that she’s having trouble keeping up, she catches herself and attempts to focus on them, her hidden hand briefly making an appearance to tuck a few strands of frizzy hair behind her ear – who has time to tame their hair properly when they’re this overwhelmed busy ? certainly not natalie. once her hair is out of her face, her hand back under the table, her restlessness instead manifests in the way her leg jitters under the table. then, out of nowhere, she finally speaks, vomiting the words out over whatever her friend had been trying to say, “henry proposed.”
josh usually reserves daytime meetups for his overbearing parents to remind him of his terrible decision making compared to his sisters ( hilarious considering his sisters inherited the same bullshit gene as himself ) but he really has been spiraling downwards after a few weeks of isolation and wouldn’t mind talking to a friend. while he is usually the one doing majority of the listening and adding a couple of mhm’s and yeah’s to whatever they’re telling him to remind them that he’s still there and listening, he doesn’t even notice that natalie’s attention is elsewhere. hell, he’s quite enjoying the bullshit tangent he’s going on about beth’s’ anti-plastic debate that happened when he brought a precut watermelon and a slushie back from the market. do not ask him why the hell he went to a market near midnight for just a watermelon and stopping by a 7-11 for a fucking cherry slushie. he would joke and say it’s his crippling depression ( because...well...yeah ) but the last time he said that beth cancelled her plans for the next two weeks and stayed with him like a babysitter ━ and still has yet to leave.
natalie’s unresponsiveness goes completely unnoticed by an erratic hand-jestering, coffee spilling josh as he speaks about college. the professors, students, papers all shit. he doesn’t need a degree for a field of work that would never hire him unless his parents waved their money around. what is even the purpose? he mentions just dropping out and not telling his family until they go on their respective trips ━ josh can argue that it’s for his mental health ( partially true ) and he will go back next semester ( a whole lie ) or he can just not tell them at all and pretend he’s attending but that’s a lie that requires too much work. he would have kept rambling about the logistics for each option if natalie didn’t take him out of his own misery interrupt his nonsense. josh isn’t even really sure what to say and just lets out an immediate ‘hmpf’ in response. “well, shit. am i supposed to get you a danish in celebration or what? you did say yes right?”
