breaking the silence [c]

[attr="class","audrey1"]In all honesty, Audrey hated being up early on weekends. There was nothing she wanted less in life than to be up this early. However she'd spent most of her night convincing her family that she was fine and that this year's move in had gone great and that she would be safe and that she wouldn't go out. And then spent the other half of it doing shots at a small beginning-of-the-year party in someone else's room. She'd woken up disgustingly early with a pounding headache and had been unable to fall back asleep, and as little as she wanted to be out in public like this, she didn't want to stay in her room and stare at the walls either. Besides, a strong coffee with some espresso in it and a few advil would probably help.

Audrey got to her usual coffee shop earlier than she'd like to admit; before people had even started pouring in, and she'd collected a table in the back with her drink- something frilly and girly and iced and delicious- and set out her notepad, markers, a thin-tipped pen, and a pencil. May as well draw if she was going to be here anyways. She'd already made the trip. A few busts of the workers going about their day- a shift earlier than she was used to; no one she knew- and eventually when the line built up, of the people in it. Scribbles of beasts and monsters and swirling designs filled in corners and edges and spaces between her referenced drawings, helping waste time when things got slow.

The bell would ding at another entry, and a towering figure would catch her eyes; someone different than the crowd the rest of this hour had collected. Messy blue hair, he didn't look like someone preparing to head to the office, and it was a nice difference. Something new with a bright spot of color, still accurate. It took a bit to get his hair right, and it was difficult to see his face, what with him staring the other way and all, but that was fine. She'd just get his back- it was good practice, considering she normally didn't get a chance to doodle backs. It wouldn't be until he turned to face her that Audrey would realize how intently she'd been staring at him, and his blush would quickly be returned. He turned away though, and she'd get back to it, trying to be... less obvious now that she'd already been caught once, and it seemed to work. She actually moved into inking her sketch, adding nice color.

Aw, damn. When the blue haired stranger collected his coffee and moved towards her, Audrey could die. Her mind blanked. All she could think of was that she had to hide the picture. Her hand would immediately go to cover the image, dragging across the page, smearing the graphite and fresh marker. "Shit!" The student hissed under her breath, pulling up her hand to inspect the damages, only to glance up at the figure looming over her afterwards, a nervous smile on her face, "I-uh, hi there." Perfectly natural, right? This is fine.

[attr="class","audrey1"]Audrey hadn't really expected to startle the guy with a good ol' fashioned greeting, but none the less, her words seem to spook him, and the girl really couldn't help but shoot a look of concern at him as coffee splattered from his cup and onto him. What was that about? He was the one who'd come all the way over here to stand over her. She had been staring a good deal, but was she that noticeable? Had it bothered him that much? "You're, uh, you're fine." Honestly, the student wasn't really sure if she'd ever been in a more uncomfortable exchange before.

When the blue haired guy sat down, the artist found herself even more surprised. Didn't he seem upset by her presence only seconds ago? She'd expected him to scuttle off somewhere. Oh well. She wasn't really against the company, she supposed, just a bit confused by the whole ordeal. Also, she honestly had wanted to avoid showing him the sketches, especially now that everything on her page had been smeared. Not ruined, but, it wasn't anywhere near as nice as it had been before.

The coffee on his hand had been been forgotten about right up until Audrey saw it dripping onto the table, and another worried look would be given to him as she noticed it, "Lemme get you some napkins, okay? I'll be right back." And with that, she'd leave her drink and notebook behind grabbing a few handfuls of the cheap paper before returning, trying to rub the marker off on her pants with her other hand while it was still wet. It seemed like she was just full of bad ideas today, wasn't she?

The napkins would be set in front of him with an unsure, "Um, here." before she moved to close her sketchbook. Probably should have done that before she got up, shouldn't she have? This hang over was really fucking with her today. "Are you alright? You just got out of line with that, right? I hope you didn't burn your hand because of me." Not that she'd really meant to frighten him, but it'd happened none the less, "I'm Audrey. I don't think we've met before." May as well introduce herself. If he was going to sit there. What had she gotten herself into?

[attr="class","audrey1"]Audrey really wasn't sure what to do with all of the blushing, stuttering, and jumping. Especially not from someone who looked like he could probably pick her up and toss her into a trashcan if he wanted to, without even breaking a sweat. Was she that mean looking? Sure, her hair confused people sometimes, but hey, to be fair, his whole head was blue, and she only dyed sections of her hair weird colors. And besides, he's the one who chose to come over here. While she kept obsessing over that fact, it didn't change how stressed out he seemed by her presence, and how bad she felt about startling him. It just kept going through her mind on repeat, she couldn't help it.

At the very least, the next time she heard him speak, he didn't seem to jump. Audrey may have just barely heard him over the sounds of the coffee shop, but it was something, and hey, she didn't even pick up any sort of stutter either, "That's good- I'm really glad you're not hurt! But honestly, I don't mind asking for ice cubes for you if you need them." If he was anxious, offering to get them for him might help, or something. Then he wouldn't need to worry about chatting with anyone else, if that was the problem. A light smile would be offered, the artist trying to seem as friendly as possible; trying to settle all of the uneasiness between them.

"You're new? Guessing you go to Birchwood then, right?" Well, she supposed people just moved to Glendale, and some of those families that moved had to have kids around her age, but transfers to the academy seemed more likely. His parents were probably just trying to sort out his nervousness or something. It made sense. Audrey wouldn't doubt him being encouraged by the school to talk to people his age if that were the case. Everything was beginning to make more sense. Poor guy. "Hope that's not a loaded question or anything." Especially considering the bad name the school tended to get. Stoners, brawlers, thieves, it wasn't exactly a classy place to be.

"But! It's nice to meet you, Jasper!" Another smile- he seemed to be doing better now.

[attr="class","audrey1"]"Alright, alright, if you insist." Maybe Jasper wasn't burned, but she still worried and felt bad. Had the two been closer, she would have been trying to work her way through the line to fetch ice before he even had a chance to gauge whether or not he was okay. That being said, if they were closer, he probably wouldn't have jumped to begin with either. They wouldn't have had any issue at all. In the grand scheme of things though, 'what if's meant very little and they didn't know each other and she hadn't grabbed anything for him. Instead they were both here, trying their hardest to navigate a rather comfortable conversation.

She picked up the sudden additional tension in their conversation, and an apologetic smile would be given in return. Audrey hadn't meant to make things weird- she was just trying to make some small talk. Generally speaking, talking about where you went to school was a safe conversation, but in this instance, she supposed it included a bit more digging than she was trying for, "What grade?" Why not, they were already this far, right? May as well find out if they had a chance of actually seeing more of each other. Sure, they looked around the same age, but there were a fair few kids in her classes who had failed a few years, and older students weren't all too uncommon at Birchwood.

"Me? Yeah, I transferred there last year." On a dumb mistake too- she'd gotten overconfident. She deserved this, honestly. Unlike most of the students there that she'd met so far, however, Audrey seemed pretty content. It didn't matter too much to her. School was school and sure it was a bit more aggressive and hardcore than the average academy, the parties were nice and the students weren't too bad she supposed, and the additional one-on-one time with teachers that was provided was pretty nice when she needed it. That being said, the fact that the teachers were so aware of how quick she was to toss away school work for her art because of it could be a bit irritating. She hated their nagging and 'reminders' about classwork; if she was going to do it, it would get done, "You new? Or have I just not seen you around?" The hair would probably be hard to miss, but it could be something he did new over the summer.