Chapter Text
The bus ride there was just like any other day. She’d practically forgotten where she was going, but as soon as she saw the crazy lunatics walking around with smiles plastered on their dumb faces, she remembered exactly where she was headed.
As the bus came to a halting stop, Dylan Mariano took in her surroundings and sighed. It was a lot different from New York. The fall decorations were out of hand, some old guy was yelling at a very skinny younger guy in what seemed to be the town square, and she officially decided, in that moment, that she was going to stay on this bus forever. That is, until the driver yelled at her from the front of the empty bus,
“Hey, ma’am, I’m gonna need you to get off this bus. It’s my lunch break.”
She scoffed under her breath, grabbed her bag, book, jacket and stood up from her seat grabbing her duffle bag from overhead.
As she traveled to the front of the bus, she struggled to keep her duffle bag on her shoulder since it was heavy because, frankly, she was going to be in this weird little town for quite some time. Her mother had sent her here because she said that she was too much to handle. Dylan didn’t fully agree, she was just a teensy bit problematic, but who isn’t? She exited the bus, her wavy black hair blowing in the crisp autumn breeze, her tapered fringe covering her eyes. A cold front had swept through a few days ago, so she was dressed appropriately for the cooler weather– low-rise dark wash jeans and a white henley long-sleeve, her brown leather jacket draped over her arm.
The cool air felt nice compared to the muggy, hot air on the bus. As she stood there, next to the bench– which she assumed they considered a bus stop– she almost immediately wished she were back in New York. Back home with the rude side-walk hoggers, back home with the terrible sewage smell, back home with the giant billboards, back home with-
“Dylan?”
She heard from behind her and she knew who it was because who else would know to put her face to her name. She turned around slowly and, yep, she was right. Luke. She hadn’t seen him since her twelfth birthday but he still looked the same. He would visit her mom’s apartment once every couple of months and of course they saw him on holidays, but eventually he just stopped visiting. Dylan didn’t really care that much, but he was the only half-way sane person that she knew. Anyways, here he is now, right in front of her.
“Luke,”
She nodded while offering him a small, tight-lipped smile. She didn’t feel the need to say anything else and, apparently, neither did Luke. The silence drifted on for a few more seconds and he seemed to be getting awkward. She waited for him to say something. After all, she was the guest here.
“Okay… so, uhm,”
He said as he gestured to the right and started to walk.
Dylan started walking behind him but her bag was starting to hurt her shoulder, so she switched it to the other shoulder. She thought back to the apartment while she was packing. God, what had she stuffed in her bag to make it weigh as much as she did? She continued switching the bag back and forth as they kept walking and as Luke turned around to say something to her, he noticed she was struggling.
“Here, let me get it,”
He said as he grabbed the bag from her shoulder before she could protest. She couldn’t deny that her uncle was a kind-hearted person, but that didn’t mean she had to praise him for it.
“Thanks,”
She said with absolutely no emotion behind it. She could be as closed off as she wanted to be, her choice.
“So… uh, do you, uhm… do you need anything? There’s a super market right down the street. So if you do, need anything, that is, just uh-”
Geez this guy could ramble on and on for days so she cut him off,
“No, I’m fine.”
No emotion, once again. She could figure things out for herself. She didn’t need any help. She’d be fine.
As they rounded the street corner, Luke led her into a shabby old diner.
“Well, this is my diner,”
He said proudly. She decided it was best to just nod her head in approval and speak with mono-syllabic words,
“Oh,”
Her pitch went higher than intended and it seemed sarcastic. It was, but she didn’t want him to assume she was a bitch, so she tried to tone the sarcasm down a bit since she’d arrived.
“It belonged to your grandpa,”
Luke continued as if he didn’t even hear her.
“Hmm,”
It sounded better this time. And, silence. Again. The two of them stood there for a moment.
“Yep,”
Luke said quietly as he walked around the counter to the door behind it and she followed. And suddenly they were upstairs in a very, very small apartment.
“Well, here we are,”
She was very confused. This is the apartment? There’s no way they were both going to fit in here. Luke continued,
“It’s pretty simple,”
And yeah, simple was the right word, for sure. It was one room, nothing over 500 square feet, and everything was very compact. She would be sharing a room with her uncle. Wow.
“This is the room,”
Luke kept talking,
“There’s my bed, which you’ll have, and the couch, which I’ll be sleeping on until we figure something out,”
Well, at least she was getting the bed.
“There’s the bathroom, there’s the closet, there’s the dresser, the phone, and over there’s the kitchen,”
He pointed as if she couldn’t see it. She wished she could just teleport back home. Anywhere would be better than here.
“I’ve got frosted flakes,”
Luke looked proud like he’d accomplished something. He probably gotten them just for her. She should be nice but she just couldn’t help it.
“Wow, that’s grrreat,”
She said sarcastically, imitating Tony the Tiger. Luke nodded and continued as if she’d said nothing,
“So, is that all your stuff?”
He pointed at her duffle bag that he’d sat in the middle of the floor when they first entered the apartment.
“Yup,”
Mono-syllabic words for the win.
“Well, not much there,”
She could tell he was trying to make her more comfortable by conversing, but she hated talking. That was another thing– no one around here knew her at all.
“Well, Lizzie’s sending the rest later,”
Sarcasm dripped from her tongue at the sentence. She'd never been on her mother's good side anyways.
“So, you need some help?”
She immediately turned him down.
He seemed as if he’d given up on trying to make small-talk while she got settled in,
“Okay, uh… I have to get back to the diner. I’m gonna close up at 10:00 tonight so I thought-”
But Dylan just wanted to get out of the teeny tiny small apartment for a few hours,
“See you at 10:00,”
She picked her book up off the table and walked towards the door. Luke looked concerned but she didn’t really care. She knew for a fact that if she got mugged around here, she’d just have to threaten to tear the decorations down and they’d offer her money instead of taking hers.
“But, wait, you need keys-”
He said, clearly unsure of what time she’d truly be back.
“No, I don’t,”
Dylan spoke with 100% confidence so he didn’t argue with her. She walked out of the door and pulled it shut behind her. Finally, silence. But as she walked down the stairs, that silence was filled with the bustle and chatter of the diner. She made her way through the busy diner and eventually made it outside. It wasn't any better. Every person in this town is a weirdo. She walked towards the town square as a mother and a small child ran directly in front of her, nearly tripping her. Ugh, this was going to be a long day.