Moving his hand down to Laura’s, Bobby slowly inched and twisted his fingers until he held her hand in his. He reveled for a moment there, enjoying being by her side again after what seemed like weeks of just non-stop busy work around the mansion trying to clean it up. Now things were getting back to normal…..or rather whatever their definition of normal was.
Smiling over at Laura as they walked, Bobby lifted his free hand up to scratch his chin. “Say Laura, I know it’s late but I didn’t have time to give you something for Christmas. Want to go do some window shopping when we get to the mall? I mean… it is still really early after all.” he said with a shrug and a small grin in her direction.
————-Bayville Mall—————-
Once they had arrived at the large familiar glass sliding doors of the mall, Bobby took in a deep breath before looking around a bit in….awe. “Wow… I’ve never been here and have it be so…empty. Is it always like this this early?” he asked, turning over at Laura. Any other time he came to the mall was usually in the afternoon where the place was packed beyond belief, right now it looked more like the staging for the next great zombie flick.
Turning her head to look up at Bobby, Laura’s eyes eased as he slipped his hand into hers. Fingers intertwined, the unspoken couple walked on silently to the mall. At the suggestion of window shopping, she raised an eyebrow, understanding that he didn’t mean the literal idea itself. “Well…” Laura began, not knowing how to react. “I…I do not need anything.” She faced foreward the whole time, eyes averting Bobby’s on purpose - she herself had even forgotten to give him anything…though, it was, with understanding, that Laura had never given Christmas a moment’s thought. The concept of ‘happiness’ and ‘cheer’ on a single day was a bit inconcievable to her anyways - why choose a particular day of good-will and merriment, when people could do so any day of the year? A shiver ran down her spine as the once titled ‘Perfect Weapon’ thought optimistic thoughts about human nature. It was practically a joke in and of itself.
Even so, the idea of not having gotten Bobby a gift nagged at the back of her mind - though, in situations like these, what did one buy the other? What would she buy Bobby? Perhaps something useful? All at once, his suggestion of window shopping made so much sense, and Laura, not consciously doing so, tightened her grip on his hand.
“…But…yes…Yes,” She repeated, finalizing her decision in the matter. “That does not sound like too bad a proposition.”
At the Bayville Mall, Laura’s mind was particularly scattered - quickly trying absorb all the After-Christmas/New Years discount specials in the windows. She also tried to scan for stores that were, later in day, oftentimes packed to the brim with customers. Basing customer service on the quality and populartiy of the shop, Laura quickly deduced that the home supplies stores often did very well, as did the brand-name clothing stores. But no store, in the whole mall, did as well as the Bath and Body Works shop. Laura pressed a forefinger to her temple and quietly murmured a low, “Hmmm…”
“…always like this this early?”
Blinking back into reality, she nodded to Bobby’s comment about the vacancy of the mall. “Right, so where did you want to look?”
Bobby’s eyes grew wide as he heard Laura’s suggestion. “You…I…You…THAT’S PERFECT.” It was perfect. Perfect. Aggressively shoving the rest of the hotpocket into his mouth, Bobby painfully swallowed before washing down the rest with his own Sunny D. “Alright alright hold on right here Laura I’ll get changed!” he said with a wide grin before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before bolting upstairs.
This is gonna be awesome! I can’t believe I didn’t think of this myself. This way I’ll have a way to get more money, I’ll be able to chill around games and most importantly I’ll get to hang out with Laura more. Epic win Drake. Epic.
Throwing off his now cheese and crumb covered t-shirt into the already filled hamper in his room Bobby tried to found the nicest shirt he had. The best thing he could find was one of his older blue and white flannel shirts. Eh. Close enough. Sliding it on before buttoning up, Bobby pulled on some of his nice black dress pants before running back down to Laura. “Ready to go!” he announced proudly as he walked back into the kitchen.
With a small gleam in her eye and a warm glow in her heart, Laura couldn’t help but smile softly, undeniably happy for Bobby as he dashed upstairs. She herself waited outside, arms crossed, posture casually leaned up against the outside of the house. Laura could sense the panic and fluster running through Bobby at this very moment - from his excitement to nervous anxiety, she quielty questioned his capability to perform in front of such a public audience. However, at the thought of putting him down so cruelly, Laura silently scolded herself and placed a little more faith in the guy.
He came out shortly after, dressed in a comfortable looking blue and white flannel shirt, amusingly at odds with his black dress pants. Laura kept silent, but couldn’t help smile - even if he lacked in particular areas of business performance, Bobby actually did have quite the chance at being hired. A certain radiance glowed about him, something, although childlike at times, hard-working and admirable.
Nodding at him in response, Laura brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and the two set off for the Bayville mall.
Watching Laura walk to the microwave, his mouth practically began watering as the smell of hot-pockets came out of the small hot box. Noticing she had two on her plate Bobby stupidly wondered for a moment why before she gestured to offer him one. Smiling warmly at her offer he took the one nearest to himself before taking a bite from it.
“See…Now that’s the problem…I’m not sure. I mean… I should get one right? I mean… I feel like I should. It’d be nice to have some money in my pocket that didn’t come from my parents haha…” he said, laughing a bit nervously as a strand of cheese hung from his bottom lip. “I was actually meaning to ask…I mean… You’re at the mall a lot. Is there any place there… you know… hiring?”
Finishing up her own meal, Laura took another sip of the Sunny D before pushing the plate in front of Bobby. He wasn’t the neatest eater, and she figured it couldn’t hurt to at least try and give his crumbs a place to fall too…besides his lap. She smiled a bit, realizing how much attention to detail she paid him.
“The mall…” Laura pondered a moment, once again giving thought to what job would suit Robert Drake most. All at once, the perfect teenage occupation hit her. “The game shop, happens to be hiring this time of the year, if I’m not mistaken. Given how well educated you are at those kinds of things, you shouldn’t have a problem being hired.”
Aww, look. We’re a little family!
(( meanwhile Caitlin dies of gigglesnorts at denim and plaid jumpsuits ))
I love this speech but I also love that Jubilee is drawn with the right ethnicity
the art is totally growing on me
((I worship the ground Phil Noto walks on. And I love how the entirety of the X-23 series treated Jubilee. I can only hope she’ll continue to get that same courtesy as she’s being written on Cyke’s team.))
Who I am Hates Who I’ve Been- Relient K
“Yeah… I couldn’t sleep.” Bobby said with a sigh as he grabbed a bottle of Sunny D from the fridge before sitting down next to Laura. It was a funny contrast between the two, because despite everything they did or did not have between them Laura’s very proper clothing was very different from Bobby’s choice of blue and white boxers and a light blue t-shirt. Hah..Maybe that’s why I can’t get a job… he thought to himself a bit sadly, smiling over at Laura as he tried to also imagine himself wearing a tuxedo or something.
“So uhm, you’re going off to work soon?” he asked. “It’s funny cause I was uh.. just thinking about getting a job myself hahaha…” he added on a bit nervously, rubbing the back of his head while awkwardly laughing.
Laura took a sip of her drink and watched Bobby sit down next to her, and made her way to the microwave shortly after. She withdrew the plate with two hot pockets and once again, sat back down in the chair beside him. Having heard him stirring on her way downstairs, Laura had prepared two hot pockets in the instance that he come downstairs and greet her - and just as she had predicted, Bobby had done just that. “Why is that?” She questioned, while pushing the plate between them, a motion that expressed her permission to share.
Shortly after taking a bite of the scalding pocket, Laura swallowed to respond to his question. “Yes I am… ” She raised an eyebrow at his request, and took another bite. As she waited to finish chewing, Laura debated where he could possibly work. Before adding her personal input, she asked Bobby himself the important question. “Where do you want to work?”
