In the week since school finished, Eddie had done literally nothing of any note. Ze’d spent a lot of time in bed, scrolling through Buzzfeed articles on zir phone with dead eyes and boredom in zir heart; ze spent an afternoon feverishly learning Polish, but hadn’t touched it since; ze drank a whole day away out of sheer apathy. So, when Ryan called zir asking if ze wanted to go out, ze hadn’t had to think twice. Of course ze didn’t want to, but ze must. Eddie took a long, hot shower and went through the pile of clean clothes on The Chair in zir room that ze hadn’t got around to sorting yet. Autumn was zir home, ze didn’t own enough summer clothes.
Uncomfortably warm in zir jeans, shirt and hoodie, ze fidgets at the bar. Atlantis, their local, has blue walls and green lighting, but that’s as far as the underwater theme goes. Eddie always thought it was a lacklustre effort – going all-out would have been tacky, but more interesting. Why bother having a theme at all if you aren’t going to hammer it home? It’s not too busy tonight, but ze still has to wait a couple of minutes to be served, which ze spends biting zir nails and scrolling uselessly through Facebook. A friend from high school is having her second child. Eddie likes her post and swallows the bile that rises in zir throat.
The bartender, a harassed-looking girl with a buzzcut, fixes zir a strong whiskey and coke before going to the next patrons, a couple of raucous women in their fifties. The sugary, bitter drink is slightly unpleasant but ze ordered the cheapest whiskey they had so ze hadn’t expected any better. The crowd here seems to average late twenties in age, but a few kids who look barely out of school and a pair of elderly gentlemen seem to offset that. Outliers, ze thinks.
Waiting always makes zir antsy, but ze doesn’t show it aside from the uncomfortable frown and the frequent glances to the door. Ze’s missed Ryan.
When ze sees her appear, ze gives her a distracted smile and a small beckon. “Hello, stranger,” ze comments with a small smile. “How’ve you been?”
