clouds in my coffee [maeve] // complete

[spencer]

There was a perfect leaf in his mug. The pool of warm hazelnut coffee stood stagnant around the delicate swirls of crème, and Spencer grinned inwardly at this unexpected, likely delicious coffee-foliage. Dark brown eyes looked up to the barista as he grabbed his drink from the counter, and he flashed her an all-approving smile before he turned on his heel toward the back of the café. Waiting for him was a small stack of books and papers, arranged haphazardly on a medium –sized table in the corner. His laptop was propped open, the dull light of its screensaver fading in and out as it patiently awaited its master’s studious fingers.

Spencer slid happily into the booth side of the table; on the other side were two uncomfortable looking chairs, one of which was currently occupied by his leather messenger bag. A slight hiss could be heard from him as he realized that sliding to a halt was a stupid idea considering he was holding a full, hot mug off coffee in his hands. ”Jeeze,” he mumbled, placing the drink down and fuddling with the new wet spot on his leg. Not ten seconds and he’d already spilt. Spencer shrugged, he would ignore it since at least it didn’t look like he’d pissed himself.

It was hot outside – August in Vermont – but the inside of the café was air conditioned enough to warrant the khaki pants (now equipped with coffee stain) and long-sleeved shirt he donned (sleeves rolled up to the elbow, of course!). He’d started going over his calculus homework earlier: a mess of loose leaf paper sat in a pile in front of him, written on neatly but with some ink blots. Spence would like to blame those on faulty pens, but sometimes when you’re scribbling down notes in class you forget to focus your ability. Before delving into the next equation he sat back and let out an anxious sigh. His eyes flashed to the clock on the wall above the café’s register, and then he impulsively checked his iPhone if only to see the time again, in digital form. He was on the lookout for Maeve. Spencer had shot off a text to her a short while ago about meeting up study and chat, and of course he was more than hopeful she had nothing better to do. Sometimes he wondered if he was being a little obvious? After all, they didn’t have any classes together. They were both perfectly capable of studying separately. But Spencer preferred company when he could get it… and I mean, duh, Maeve was the best study-buddy eye candy anyone could possibly hope for.

A bored hand picked up the pen on the table and tapped it a few times before dropping it back down. Thinking about Maeve was not helping his productivity at all. Spencer sat up straight, ruffled his mess of dark hair to clear his head, and grabbed his drink. Nah, the burst of productivity he could get from this coffee would balance out his musings about the girl. He took a sip and started to differentiate his next homework problem, frowning slightly that he had to ruin his coffee leaf.

[maeve]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-image: url(http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss279/legendskseeker/oceanbreezebg-1.png); padding-bottom: 20px;] flightless bird now i’m a fat house cat. nursing my sore, blunt tongue. watching the warm poison rats crawl through the wide fence cracks. pissing on magazine photos. those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean blood of christ mountain stream. It was august. It was summer, and for most people that meant summer break, not doing a thing but lazying around in the sun and doing nothing, and, above it all, it meant not having to worry about school. so why was she, maeve florian, stuck inside a dark library, glaring at her current geometry assignment in hopes it would spontaneously combust? it was simple, because she had been idiotic to the point of thinking that taking eight classes would be a good thing to do. in her defense, it had seemed like a legit thing to do back then, but now... not so much. but anyway, glaring at her assignment wouldn't help getting it done sooner, and it wouldn't catch on fire, no matter how hard she tried. That was Daniel's department, not hers. Well, technically, she could aim a beam of light towards the paper, and it might catch on fire...but doing it on the library would most likely get her banned from the place. and worse, she would have to re-do the whole thing. so no. all in all, it wasn't a good plan, no matter how she looked at it. the pleasure she would get from watching the helpless assignment burn wouldn't cover the troubles she'd have to go through later. sighing, she picked up the pencil again and resumed her work, only to be interrupted by her cellphone's vibration. a frown appeared on her face as she fished for the device in her bag, wondering who it might be. the answer came once she finally grabbed the cellphone and read the text from spencer asking if she wanted to meet at the sweetwater café. she glanced around, pondering. having some company to study was definitely better than being alone, and the café offered a much more welcoming environment than the library. texting a quick reply stating she would be there, maeve gathered her things and left the building. after a quick stop by her room to grab her car keys, Maeve was off to willowbrook. maeve's and spencer's relationship had begun with them being study buddies. which was weird, given that they only shared a class, and it didn't require much study. but in the end, it had become somewhat of a routine for the two of them. study separate things together. and she couldn't really complain, because spencer was a good company and in the end, they had become friends. parking her car at the café's parking lot, the female killed the engine and stepped outside, smiling as the sun greeted her. why she hadn't thought of doing this earlier was a mystery for her. walking inside, she scanned the place for spencer, and once she finally found him, she greeted him silently, before walking up to the counter to place her order. even though inside the shop was definitely cooler than outside, the female still opted for and iced coffee. it was summer after all, and she would feel weird if she was drinking a steaming hot freshly brewed cup of black coffee. it just didn't sound right. once her order was finally up, maeve made her way to the table. placing her cold drink down, she sat down across from spencer. "explain me something will you?" she asked as a greeting, taking a sip of her coffee "why is it that we're stuck doing school work in the middle of august? surely we're not that bad persons are we?" 579 words, spencer, outfit, bleh rambly post is rambly let me know if you want me to change anything

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[spencer]

Spencer’s face brightened along with his phone as he read Maeve’s affirmative reply. His next math problem was done with a smile on his lips and an extra bounce in his wrist. He was almost impatient, though he knew he shouldn’t be—but it was beginning to get hard to ignore the fact that he had a peculiar fondness towards this girl (oh, not that that was anything new for Spencer). His head perked up a handful of minutes later when he heard the door to the café open. There was Maeve, sending him a nod, and Spencer returned it with a smile.

His eyes followed her as she walked to the counter. In effort not to seem too eager to see her, Spencer went back to his calc problem and scribbled down the last few steps until he’d differentiated an answer. He circled it just as Maeve had sat down. Dark eyes perked up as she spoke, and Spencer leaned back in the booth, propping his pen in the corner of his upturned grin as he waited for the girl to elaborate.

When she did, he let out a laugh. ”Nah… not bad people. Masochists, maybe,” Spencer supplied, giving Maeve a matter-of-fact glance. ”Aren’t you taking like… eight classes? A full load, over summer vacation? You must really hate yourself,” he added with a smirk. Not that Spencer was taking much fewer, but one more school obligation and he might explode. Especially with how all of the courses were a little greater in intensity so they could fit the summer quarter time span—stress was already a little too abundant for hot, humid days. He threw his pen down on the table. His back arched and arms extended as he stretched out in his seat, finally letting his limbs fall back in a relaxed position. He used his hand to ruffle up his mop of dark hair before gesturing towards his homework.

”I’ve got the rest of these problems and then I’m done… er, until tomorrow.” Spencer laughed lightly, and it broke into a soft sigh. It was never-ending. Not much of a summer vacation, when you were doing nearly the same amount of work as the rest of the year. He found it awfully attractive, though, that Maeve was so driven to take a full load of classes when most others slacked off.

[maeve]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-image: url(http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss279/legendskseeker/oceanbreezebg-1.png); padding-bottom: 20px;] flightless bird now i’m a fat house cat. nursing my sore, blunt tongue. watching the warm poison rats crawl through the wide fence cracks. pissing on magazine photos. those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean blood of christ mountain stream. "Pot. Kettle. Black" she stated in a dull tone, knowing very well that Spencer wasn't the one to be pointing the finger, given that he was taken seven classes. "What can I say? I live for the thrill of not knowing if i'll make it to the end of the year." she commented happily as she pulled her geometry notebook and the worksheets they were supposed to do. "Besides, martial arts and fencing could be considered just one class, so theoretically, i'm only taking seven classes." Yes, theoretically speaking, she was only taking seven classes. Reality, however, was not so kind, and she was overworked. Especially since it was summer. Maeve wouldn't have minded the work load during the rest of the year, but not during summer. because during summer, she just felt lazy. and she didn't even like summer in the first place. it was a stupid season, what with the heat, and the humidity, and the heat... summer was just not the season for one such as maeve florian. truth be told, Maeve didn't really know why she had done it. but for some reason, she had just felt like she should take them all, mostly because she couldn't decide on which classes she should take. And thus, she had ended up with the overfilled schedule while most students where lazying around with only four classes. Well, there was nothing she could do about it right now, unless she wanted to drop four of the classes she was taking. And there was no way she'd be doing that (she also wouldn't know which four to quit anyway). ”I’ve got the rest of these problems and then I’m done… er, until tomorrow.” It wasn't until he spoke again, that Maeve actually noticed what he was studying. Immediately, her face scrunched up at the sight of an all too familiar calculus problem. "Calculus? I don't even know why you're taking such an awful thing as calculus." To say that she disliked calculus would be a big understatement. She loathed the course with a passion, and regretted the day she had decided to take it. it had been terrible. Worse than terrible actually. And the worst part was, she would probably do a lot better at it if she hadn't decided she didn't like it right on the first class she had attended. some words, spencer, outfit, meh...

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[spencer]

Spencer rolled his eyes at her kettle retort before masking his grin with his mug. He took a deep gulp of his coffee, which still threatened to burn his tongue, and held in a laugh at Maeve’s mention of not making it to the end of summer. The mug was placed back on the table and pushed over towards his laptop to make room for the notebook his friend was pulling out. "Besides, martial arts and fencing could be considered just one class, so theoretically, I'm only taking seven classes." Upon hearing this, Spencer scrunched his nose at her playfully, and responded with a ”Fine, I take back my backhanded compliment. Seven classes? How absolutely lazy of you.” His sarcasm wasn’t heavy, but he was trying to drive home the point that her summer ambition was admirable.

”What, you don’t like spending fifteen minutes on one problem?” he laughed lightly and took another sip of his coffee. Yeah, it appeared the coffee had done nothing towards his productivity, except keep him energized enough to talk with Maeve. He was silent for a few moments, staring off at the derivatives in his notes, thinking about how much his life centered around school work. Not that he was complaining, studying was part of who he was, but occasionally he wished he was comfortable with a more slacking, regular lifestyle.

”Y’know,” he mused, ”all this work wouldn’t be so bad if there was something big to do around here.” Spencer had picked his pen back up and began tapping it on the table. Summer at Silas was probably fuller than most campuses during the summer quarter (probably due to the amount of students who were banished from home when their abilities were found out) but it still promised a lot of lazy days and a distinct lack of school events. Plus, I mean, they were in Vermont. ”You been up to anything fun recently? Between the geometry classes?”

[maeve]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-image: url(http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss279/legendskseeker/oceanbreezebg-1.png); padding-bottom: 20px;] flightless bird now i’m a fat house cat. nursing my sore, blunt tongue. watching the warm poison rats crawl through the wide fence cracks. pissing on magazine photos. those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean blood of christ mountain stream. "Stop that, you're only jealous I can handle eight classes and you don't" she replied happily taking another sip of her coffee, and pondering whether she should get some food to go along with it or not. in the end, she decided against it, because she wasn't really hungry at the moment, and food would only be more of a distraction. and she didn't want any more distractions, otherwise she wouldn't be able to finish her geometry homework anytime soon. Well, not that she had an awful lot more to do with her day apart from school work. When had her life became so awfully dull? ”What, you don’t like spending fifteen minutes on one problem?” Maeve laughed along with him. No, actually I don't. And I also don't like being call dumb by a bunch of papers" she replied, turning her attention to her own homework. For a moment, the two of them remained silent, each one focusing on their own work, almost forgetting the other's presence. This was something Maeve liked about studying with Spencer. Even though they often talked, they still could focus pretty well on their individual work. However, she didn't got very far on her exercise (calculate areas and volumes) before Spencer spoke again. ”all this work wouldn’t be so bad if there was something big to do around here." "You're kidding right? have you not heard of the masquerade ball? everyone's acting like it's Christmas and their birthday combined. Spence dear, there's a live outside schoolwork." she replied jokingly, even though the same could be applied to her, she had been so busy with classes for the past days, that she barely had time to do the stuff she actually liked. Maeve shrugged a bit at his question, taking another sip of coffee. "Meh, not much... I've had some time to sketch something up, but Shiloh managed to make me ruin it. i knew there was a very good reason why i don't ink my drawings." she said referring to the tower bridge drawing and it's inkblot. "And I've been thinking of maybe spending some time in London, but I'm not sure yet. I would actually need to have the time to go there in the first place." some words, spencer, outfit, sorry for the delay

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[spencer]

”Oh god, the Masquerade Ball, however could I forget,” he put his hand to his chest in mock distress, his voice mimicking Maeve’s sarcastic flair. Spencer had been to a few of Silas’ dances, despite not being much of a dancer, and he wasn’t the biggest fan. There was something about going with a female friend who would save the slow dances for the boy she had a crush on—who, of course, was definitely not Spencer, no, he was like a brother to her! Not that they were all bad. Getting ditched had only been a one-time occurrence, but it left a bit of a bitter taste on his tongue. He looked up from his notes at Maeve as she talked about her summer, and Spence tried to imagine the girl in some fancy dress and pair of heels. She was a beautiful girl, a mask would almost be a shame.

He was sipping on his coffee again when she mentioned London. His eyebrows rose, interested. ”London? Take me with you,” Spencer joked, placing his mug back down on the table. ”But yeah, taking classes over the summer doesn’t exactly lend itself to big vacations like that. If it did, I wouldn’t be stuck here.”

His arm extended as he pulled his Calc textbook closer to him, on auto-pilot, and flipped it open. ”You’re from there, right? England, I mean,” he asked. ”Wait, that was a dumb question.” Spencer broke out into a light laugh, her accent was quite obvious. He sometimes forgot about it, just because it was part of Maeve. It made her seem so intelligent and responsible, not to mention, it added that little extra oomph of sexy. There was just something about English accents… ”I mean, how long have you been here at Silas? I don’t think I remember,” he narrowed his eyes, attempting to recall, but couldn’t. Spencer’s mind was cooking up an idea, but he wasn’t sure if it would work. He averted his attention to his textbook again, flipping pages in search of the section he was on. ”Have you ever been to one of Silas’ dances?” the dark-haired boy asked, speaking into his book.

[/size]

[maeve]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-image: url(http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss279/legendskseeker/oceanbreezebg-1.png); padding-bottom: 20px;] flightless bird now i’m a fat house cat. nursing my sore, blunt tongue. watching the warm poison rats crawl through the wide fence cracks. pissing on magazine photos. those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean blood of christ mountain stream. Maeve couldn't really describe herself as a dance person. she didn't mind them, in fact, she actually liked the whole... ambiance. but she didn't get why people got so excited about it. it was nothing more than getting a bunch of well dressed people together in a ballroom and watch them stick to the walls, or even, on a slight occasion. dance. oh, and let's not forget the awkwardness that was actually asking someone to go with you. and when the person you asked refused... oh, boy, cue the awkwardness. so all in all, Maeve didn't get why people got so worked up about it. Seriously, it was all she heard about in the girls dorms. What dress to wear, what dress not to wear, who they were expecting to invite them, and a whole bunch of nonsense she couldn't be bothered with. Truth be told, Maeve wasn't really sure if she was even going to the ball. on the last two balls that had been held at silas, she had been somewhat forced to go, given that she had a boyfriend. so she went to the ball with her boyfriend. however, given that this year she was single, she was seriously thinking that trying to find a date would be too much of an hassle. She was really thinking of using her time in a different way. Reading for instance, was a much better way to spend her time. Or maybe doing some more drawing, or photography. Heavens she had no life. ”You’re from there, right? England, I mean,” Spencer's words brought her back to earth, and she blinked a couple of times, trying to understand what exactly it was that he was talking about. she scolded herself for zoning out over such a thing as the dance. fortunately, she managed to understand what he was going on about and chuckled a bit. "yes, i am British... why? do you have a problem with Brits?" she asked jokingly, narrowing her eyes at him. "hmm... I guess it's been four years now... wow, it has been really a long time since I came here." she replied, chewing on her bottom lip as she though it had been four years since she had last talked with her grandparents, and two since her last trip to london... and that hadn't ended very well with her mother trying to convince her to leave Silas and live a 'normal' life. ”Have you ever been to one of Silas’ dances?” again with the dance? could it be that she had lost spencer to the dance fever? Maeve rose an eyebrow at his question. "I went to the last two, actually. They all look the same to me anyway. Why do you ask?" some words, spencer, outfit, meh sucky post is sucky, sorry

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[spencer]

”They all look the same to me anyway,”, Maeve said, and Spencer replied quickly. ”Yeah, you’re right,” he nodded, his tone of voice nonchalant as if he didn’t care about the Ball at all. Truthfully, he didn’t have a dying desire to go, but a few of his friends were going and hell, wouldn’t it be great if he showed up with Maeve? Even if it were torturing himself… He was pretty sure his crush on the girl was one-sided, and he was used to that, but maybe she’d go just to have something to do? It was the first dance of the term, so if there were any he was going to attend, it would be this one. Catching up with old friends and all that… Or maybe, Spencer was just trying to rationalize this all. To keep himself focused, he continued his search in his textbook until he’d found a similar sample problem to the one he was about to work on in his homework.

She asked why he mentioned it, and Spencer braced himself. Dark eyes finally glanced up from the equations in his book. ”Well, I dunno,” his ability to keep himself calm was waning. It was difficult to balance trying to appear like he didn’t care, all the while butterflies fluttered in his stomach, apparently bashing themselves into the lining. ”It would be nice to get out, a few of my friends are going… I was wondering, maybe, if you didn’t have a mountain of homework—“ he was failing, failing at this, ”you’d want to go?”

Spencer knew he hadn’t specifically asked if Maeve would go with him, but that was intentional. It was kind of his fall back if she refused. In his eyes, it made it less of a rejection. This was just as friends, right? Of course, just friends.

[maeve]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-image: url(http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss279/legendskseeker/oceanbreezebg-1.png); padding-bottom: 20px;] flightless bird now i’m a fat house cat. nursing my sore, blunt tongue. watching the warm poison rats crawl through the wide fence cracks. pissing on magazine photos. those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean blood of christ mountain stream. Maeve was desperately trying to grasp what exactly Spencer's point was with this whole conversation about the ball, but unfortunately, she was failing at it. she couldn't really understand why it was that he was suddenly so interested in the darn thing, not to mention his interest on her attendance to such events. if anything, the female was beyond confused. so, it was with a curious expression that she listened to him. or better, waited for spencer to talk again and offer her a proper answer to her question, as he seemed to have retreated back into silence after agreeing with her. it was a bit of an awkward silence, with her staring expectantly at him as he seemed to be searching for something in his textbook. in fact, maeve was about to ask him again why the sudden interest in the dance when spencer looked back up from his textbook and begun to speak. ”It would be nice to get out, a few of my friends are going… I was wondering, maybe, if you didn’t have a mountain of homework—“ maeve nodded, urging him to talk as she took another sip of her coffee. ”you’d want to go?” that had so not been the right time to take a sip. the cold liquid seemed to get stuck in her throat and the female's eye's widened as she hastily placed the cup down and faced away from the table, trying to swallow the liquid that was refusing to go down. once she finally managed to swallow it, maeve turned back to spencer, massaging her now sore throat. "So-sorry" maeve breathed out, her voice coming out raspy and barely louder than a whisper. she coughed a bit, trying to ease the feeling. "coffee... cold... throat" she fumbled with her words as she thought of an answer to his question. it wasn't to hard, was it? after all, it was a simple question. "ahem... you mean go with you? i mean together?" she was being idiotic, there was no reason to react like this to a simple question. they were friends, they could go to the stupid ball together... god, she was beginning to regret having brought the subject up in the first place. chewing on her bottom lip, maeve stared down at her papers for a moment before taking a breath and glancing back at him. "I mean... I wouldn't mind... to go to the ball... with you. And your friends. " heavens, this was so embarrassing. where are all the good rocks when you need them? some words, spencer, outfit, i'm such a slowpoke, sorry for taking this long

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[spencer]

When there was a longer pause than Spencer had been expecting, he glanced up from his textbook to see Maeve nearly choking on her coffee. Ah shit… he thought quickly, immediately regretting his request. The girl had been caught off-guard and he took her reaction as being against going to the ball. Abort, abort—Spencer’s mind started backpedaling and trying to find away out of this situation. He didn’t want it to get awkward; he didn’t want her to have to come up with some stupid excuse in order to spare his feelings; oh geeze this was a terrible mistake. But before he could conjure up anything to say, Maeve recovered from her coffee sputter and it was like the brunt of Spencer’s just-previously-reeling insecurities faded away. Wait… she was considering it? "I mean... I wouldn't mind... to go to the ball... with you. And your friends. "

And your friends.

Spencer tried his best to keep his disappointment hidden, and did a respectable job as he brought his coffee up to his lips and finished the warm liquid. Him… and his friends. Well, it was his fault, after all. That’s how he’d presented it to her. It wasn’t like going to dances with… girls who were friends… was anything new for him. He had just… hoped this would maybe be different. As he set down his mug and looked up at Maeve, he knew that had been foolish of him. A girl like that would never like him in that way.

He wasn’t able, however, to sense her general apprehension of going with him in the first place. ”Great,” Spencer said, a grin echoed on his face. In mock surprise, he unlocked his phone to check the time and then glanced up at the café’s clock as if to make sure his phone wasn’t incorrect.

”Damn it—er, I’m late for a tutoring session… I knew I was forgetting something,” he sounded relatively genuine, but it was definitely a lie to get out of this situation. Spencer began closing his books and slipping them in his bag. ”I’m sorry. I’ll see you closer to the ball, then?” he asked her as he shoveled his last bit of notes in a side pocket and buckling up the bag. ”Bye, Maeve.” The boy shouldered the bag and grabbed his empty coffee cup and took his leave, leaving the cup by the door as he exited, glad to feel the hot late-summer air on his face.