Luke's Diner, Thursday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Ugh. That jerky white kid was back at the house again this morning. After the...issue...that had arisen when Alec, Jerkface, and Weird Girl had woken up sharing a bed, Alec had been more than happy to spend all of yesterday avoiding them, even if that had meant participating in the paintball thing. But he hadn't had any of his fake credit cards or IDs on him, so he'd ended up going back to the house last night.

To find Jerkface also there. Ugh. And he thought Weird Girl might have been around, too, but she was fast and kinda creepy, so it wasn't like he'd gone looking.

So Alec was out of the house as soon as he was up (at the crack of noon!), casually swiping one of the expensive laptops that had been lying around. Maybe if he could hack into that (maybe? HA!), he could get himself an ID and a cash stream and away from the house. Before Jerkface could decide to beat him up for, like, existing or whatever.

The sign on the restaurant's window caught his eye:

Today's Specials
Yeah, we know you don't have money. Come in and get a meal and pay us back next week. Unless you're Eliot, Hardison, Miguel, or Kanan Caleb. You gotta work.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
Shrimp Fajitas (You're welcome, adults)

Free food? Ish? Alec was going to worry about why he was singled out later. He was going in to peel some potatoes and get a huge helping of spaghetti and meatballs.

[Content Warning for a physical fight in the Eliot/Hardison thread with underlying homophobic tones. Please practice good self-care when deciding whether to read, my dears.]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot let out another roar at that and tried to break past the cook and now the dishwasher, his fists already swinging.

"Shut up, you little freak!"

Well. At least he wasn't using any specifically homophobic slurs?

[deaddadsclub]

"Ah," Cristina said. She raised her book at Eliot again threateningly as the kitchen staff dragged him away to throw him in the freezer, then looked back at the kid on the floor. "You need better boyfriends."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Ugh, like I'd ever date that asshole," Alec said, reaching up to touch his face and wincing. "It was jus' how we woke up yesterday. He freaked out."

Alec had also been freaking out, but not like that.

"Am I bleedin' bad?"

[deaddadsclub]

"Man. All I got was a swanky hotel room full of medical journals and tequila." She set her book down on a nearby table and offered Alec a hand. "Not super bad. Unless you've got a clotting disorder or something."

[uncertain_dume]

"... If they're anything like flatcakes, sure?"

Caleb had no idea why, but he had the weird feeling as though he was being mocked.

[whoisalicewhite]

"I don't know who that is," Parker said in a flat voice. She took a step forward. "But maybe I'll bring you back a penguin. Maybe."

[what_the_shock]

"I'll pay for you," Miguel said. He wasn't sure whose card this was, but it was his now. Besides, this little weirdly dressed nerd reminded him a bit of Gabe, and he wasn't about to let him go hungry.

"Come on." He tugged him toward a booth, put the card down prominently, and dared the staff with a glare to try to make them work.

[uncertain_dume]

"Wait, what?" And here was Caleb, being tugged along, blinking. "You don't have to--"

Nope. There went the card, being put down, and they had a booth now. Okay. This was unexpected.

"I mean, um. Thank you?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Wanna trade?" Alec grumbled. He didn't like alcohol much--or at all, really. Tasted gross, make folks mean, made folks stupid--but alcohol never beat him up, either.

[deaddadsclub]

"And end up with Honky McTemper over there? Hell no. He's not my type."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Then show up on Sunday," the busboy said and flounced off.

Alec looked at Caleb and shrugged. "I don't get it."

[uncertain_dume]

"I still have no idea what that has to do with eating today," Caleb agreed, watching the busboy flounce before looking back at the other boy, utterly baffled. "I'm going to move this right up to the top of my 'weirdest things to have happen today' list, which is impressive, because I had to teach a class at the school already today."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"English guy who went to the South Pole," Alec muttered. "Wait, how you gonna find penguins and Santa in the same place?"

[what_the_shock]

"Don't worry about it." Miguel shrugged a little awkwardly. He met the waitress's eyes squarely, daring her to try to make them work. "We'll both have the shrimp fajitas and Cokes. And a large fries."

In the freezer

[vdistinctive]

The cook and the dishwasher shoved Eliot unceremoniously into the freezer with an order to "cool off, idiot".

The cold air was certainly a shock, but no, Eliot didn't feel any cooler headed. He attacked the shelves, grabbing ice cream and packages of frozen meat and hurling them at the wall. He kicked the closed freezer door and yelled, then pounded on it until his hands were scraped and bloody, and he finally let himself slide to the floor.

Jesus. He didn't even know why he was so mad. That guy wasn't the first snot-nosed asshole to imply . . . things . . . about Eliot.

He hadn't met any of them while naked in bed, though.

He reached for his neck, only to remember at the last moment that waking up naked meant he didn't have any of his own clothes or jewelry right now. Instead he pulled at his hair, resting his forehead on his knees.

Willie was going to be so pissed at him for this.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I don't think he's anyone's type," Alec muttered. "Who's interested in America's Next Most Wanted?"

[uncertain_dume]

"... What he said," Caleb agreed, still looking puzzled, mostly.

He knew what fries were?

[what_the_shock]

"They're the best thing on that menu," Miguel said. "And you put them together yourself, so if you don't like them, just don't eat that bit." He frowned. "You're not allergic to shellfish, are you?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Pretty sure half this island is filled with jerks," Alec declared. He'd know, he'd woken up with the biggest one there was yesterday.

[deaddadsclub]

"Him? Way too high profile." Cristina shook her head. "He'll go back to Podunk, Arkansas or wherever he's from, get some dead end factory job, and eventually go down for beating his wife. All the while moaning about what hot shit he was in high school."

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm pretty sure I don't have any allergies," Caleb replied, and there, predictably, went his hand right for his hair. "I haven't eaten much food from around here yet, though. This'll be a learning experience, I guess."

[uncertain_dume]

Well, that one caught Caleb's attention, anyway.

"... Has someone been giving you trouble?"

Hello, Alec. There was now a puny little warrior-monk who was immediately honing in on any possible need to totally wipe the floor with a bully.

Re: In the freezer

[whoisalicewhite]

"What are you doing?" said a voice from behind him, sounding bewildered and a little scared.

[whoisalicewhite]

"How is Narnia inside the walk-in freezer?" Parker asked, fairly reasonably, she thought.

Re: In the freezer

[vdistinctive]

Oh great, cool, the weird girl was here to witness his humiliation. Why not, she was there yesterday morning, too.

"Testing the security," he said, shooting her a glare. "What do you think I'm doing?"