Electric Lemonade || SOLO
TIMING: Beginning of May
LOCATION: Outside White Crest
PARTIES: @effieduan
SUMMARY: App Sample: Effie goes to meet her little sister in a restaurant.
CONTENT WARNING: None
Effie anxiously waited for her sister in the restaurant booth, her leg bouncing as she nervously tapped on the table. She hated eating inside, but Eva had insisted that despite it being May, it was still too chilly. The electricity hummed around her, ever present. When she was alone, she let herself love the way it felt under her skin, sensing the constant current in the air around her.
She wasn’t alone, though. Effie eyed the busy restaurant, underpaid waitstaff running around to grab drinks and take orders. Some poor bastard was being screamed at over steak being too well done.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything to drink?” Effie’s eyes shot to her pretty blonde waitress, who insisted on checking on her every five minutes. Eva was notoriously late and Effie was notoriously way too early, so she had been here a while.
“No, thank you,” Effie said politely. “My sister will get here eventually.”
“Oh well… Alright.” The waitress almost seemed annoyed. Effie couldn’t imagine why, but she also hadn’t worked in food service before.
“Actually, could I have a lemonade?” Effie asked.
“Oh!” she perked up considerably. “Absolutely, that will be right out!”
The blonde disappeared into the crowd and Effie relaxed back into her seat.
“Eva! Hey, Eva!”
The name caused her to turn in surprise only to find herself staring at a cheerful looking man, her age or perhaps a little younger. His face didn’t lose it’s pleasantness as it turned from greeting to slight confusion.
“Ah -” he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, you looked like a friend of mine.”
Effie suddenly grew suspicious, eyes narrowing slightly. Eva and her did look similar from behind. Truthfully, even from the front they looked similar, despite Effie being several years older than her. What a coincidence it was that some man was looking for a girl named Eva that looked a whole lot like her. Her suspicion grew along with irritation.
“Eva Duan?” Effie asked flatly.
“Yeah, how’d you - ah. Hold on. You’re her sister, right?”
Effie could tell that he was trying to figure out which one she was. There were four to choose from, after all. His eyes flicked down to her hands, her rubber turquoise gloves - the color seemed ‘springish’ when she was getting ready to go out - glinting in the artificial light. Recognition filled his face then and she knew Eva must have talked about her in front of him.
Her phone buzzed on the table, but she didn’t bother looking at it.
“I’m Effie,” she said, scowling. “I’m meeting Eva for dinner.”
“I’m Will,” he said. He was grinning, though Effie wasn’t sure what was so funny about the situation. “I, uh, work with your sister. We were supposed to meet for drinks but… Well, guess she’s meeting us both here?”
“Mmm.” Effie’s leg bounced faster under the table as she eyed Will doubtfully. Eva was always doing things like this. Pushing boundaries and insisting that normalcy was possible for her -- it was easy for her to say that when she wasn’t the one that murdered someone by the time she was eight. Her anxiety manifested into anger and her scowl deepened. “More like she set us up.”
“That makes sense. Eva’s always been... nosy.”
Effie was picking up her bag and sliding out of the booth, but she couldn’t help throwing him a knowing look. Clearly, he knew her sister well.
“You don’t know half of it,” she muttered.
Will laughed. “You know, she managed to set up two women in our office that previously hadn’t exchanged two words to each other?”
“She did?” she asked, her surprise defusing her anger. Effie glanced up from the spot she had picked on the floor to stare at so he would stop talking to her. Eva hadn’t told her about that -- she told her everything else about her boring little office job.
Will nodded, his blonde hair falling into his eyes. “They’re getting married now.”
Effie raised an eyebrow. “Bull.”
“Swear on my life.” He raised his hand in the boy scout promise symbol, and she felt herself smile.
“I didn’t realize she was becoming a little matchmaker,” she replied wryly.
“Yeah, well, we should make her venmo us for the cost of the --”
Will didn’t get to finish his sentence.
“Lemonade?” The pretty blonde waitress appeared out of nowhere, practically materializing out of the ground, holding a lemonade with a bendy straw. Effie jumped.
She felt the rift in the current a half-second before it happened. The ugly light hanging over the booth flashed brightly, the bulbs shattering spectacularly as hot pieces of glass sprayed over the table. Nearby lights flickered ominously as the lemonade crashed to the ground at their feet, spraying liquid and more shattered glass everywhere.
Somebody screamed, and multiple patrons jumped up from their booths and tables. Effie was slowly counting to herself, ignoring the chaos.
One, two, three… Four. Effie counted how many ugly light fixtures exploded. Four. Of course, the one closest to her had been the first to blow, but no one would have noticed the second difference in time between them. It wasn’t just her problem -- no one could blame her. No one would know it was her. The restaurant was old and had faulty wiring. There was a thunderstorm coming, or so the weatherman claimed. Maybe lightning struck the building. No one one had to know.
At least there wasn’t a fire.
Lost in her thoughts, Effie was numb to everything around her until something shook her shoulder.
She blinked, taking a step back immediately from whoever was touching her. Will was staring at her in concern. “Are you okay?! Did the glass cut you?” Effie stared at her, before glancing over her shoulder to the waitress who was calling 911.
“No,” Effie said. She brushed some lightbulb glass from her shirt and purse. Luckily, Will hadn’t been standing close enough to the table to get caught in the crossfire.
Effie had been aware of the electricity before, a small source of anxiety in such a crowded area. But something had happened now. Other people could have gotten hurt - other people probably were hurt. She didn’t look. Effie refused to look.
“I’m going home.”
“What?” Will seemed disbelieving. “You’re joking, you --”
“I’m fine.”
“C’mon, that was scary, at least let me buy you a drink or something --” Effie gaped at him.Buy her a drink? The lights flickered over head and she shook her head. Effie couldn’t do this. Whatever this was. She knew better, and she was cutting this off before it could even become something more than a joking conversation at her little sister’s expense. Before she could unintentionally do something else she’d regret.
“No. Leave me alone.” Her tone was curt and short, and he recoiled slightly, clearly confused and maybe even a little offended. She turned on her heel, before pausing to look over her shoulder. “It’s… uh... “ What was she supposed to say in times like this? “It’s not you, it’s me.”
Effie didn’t bother gaging his reaction as she hurried out the door as fast as she could, lights flickering her whole way out.
The clap of thunder above sounded just as she threw the front door to the restaurant open, and went into the parking lot. She looked up at the thick grey clouds.
Lucky her.
Her phone was vibrating in her purse as she strode to her car. The rain was just starting as she climbed in and turned the key. She tossed her purse in the back seat, not bothering to get her phone. She knew it was Eva. Even if it wasn’t, she wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
She just needed to be left alone.
