A/N: Why haven't I posted this? I was digging through my documents file and just REDISCOVERED it...
Routine was underrated, in my opinion. Sure, doing the same things day in and day out could be a bit monotonous, but hey: some people in life have no idea of what they're gonna do for the rest of their life, no structure, no nothing! I had structure. My life was all neat and clean, packed away in a cute little box with a big red bow. Neat and clean, I was sure, was synonymous to happiness.
Or so I told myself as I threw open the doors of the Sundae Inn at precisely six o' clock. Like clockwork, Hayden the bartender acknowledged me with a soft smile, Chase scowled at me, Maya waved at me, easily dislocating her arm in the process, Jake and Colleen smiled politely in my direction, and Kathy bounded up to me with a manic grin.
"Hey Ange!" she greeted, seizing my arm and practically dragging me to the bar. "Oi Dad, give Angie her cocktail." As always, Hayden slid over the blueberry cocktail and I counted one-eighty G onto the counter. I felt Kathy's eyes on me as I tucked the drink into my rucksack.
"Y'know, I've never known what your doing with all those cocktails," she said, tilting her head and blinking in such a way I was surprised that the Crocodile Hunter didn't just jump out of the paneling and shout: "Crikey! Here we have the Kathy Owl, the only owl that's screeching laugh can be heard from two Waffle Islands away."
The thought of it made me smirk. "And you probably will continue not knowing," I said pleasantly, grinning sardonically.
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Really Ange, sometimes I think you are just a plum."
I snorted. "I'm not going to even comment on your choice of words, there." Kathy merely rolled her eyes again, having nothing to say to that. "Well, I'd guess I'd be off then," I said. Like I do every night, was added in my head.
"No! You can't!" exclaimed Maya, suddenly animate.
I quirked an eyebrow at her, curious to why she was talking to me. We weren't the best of friends, despite what she thought in that big empty head of hers. And back when I was new on the Island and didn't know that she was crazy about that idiot cook, I made a rather offensive joke about Chase and she took it to heart, getting all huffy and made a big act of ignoring me for the next few weeks.
"Any why is that?" I asked her.
Clearly, she hadn't been expecting this question, and her eyes darted frantically from Kathy and Chase in her panic.
"Uh, I think what Maya means, is that why don't you enjoy your cocktail at the bar?" said Kathy, her grin suddenly overdone and fake as she pointed to the barstool closest to the kitchen.
My gaze flicked over to Hayden, trying to see if it was only the two girls that had gone insane. He merely signaled to sit down with his eyes, a bit over eager. I frowned.
"What are you guys on?" I inquired, putting on my 'I-blantantly-and-unshamefully-think-you-people-are-out-of-your-minds' face.
Kathy rolled her eyes once more, and sighed. "Just sit down and shut up, Angela," she growled. I sat down immediately. Not even ballsy Angela dared to defy growl-y Kathy.
The result of this action was as anticlimactic as anything: nothing happened. Kathy, Maya, and Hayden all went back to their work as if this whole exchange never occurred. I narrowed my eyes, suspicious. Why wouldn't I be? My routine was disrupted, for no apparent reason. But I knew there always was a reason for Kathy's schemes, be it apparent or not, so I decided to wait it out.
After thirty minutes, there was no change. Sighing, I asked Hayden if he needed any help. By response he grunted and jerked his thumb behind him. I stood up and made by way around the wall to get started on washing the dishes, a bit startled when I caught Hayden glowering at me disapprovingly in my direction.
"Are you sure they're not on drugs?" I whispered to Chase as I snapped the latex gloves on my hands, to which he merely glanced at me as he thought I was on something. I humped and returned to the work. Mr. Stoic, apparently, thought he was too good for me 'cause I didn't fancy being rude and cruel to every villager I saw on the street.
I helped out until midnight, having nothing better to do as I put away my livestock hours beforehand. Shuffling down the now familiar route back home, I wondered what the hell I was doing here. Day after day of watering tomatoes, brushing cows, and buying blueberry cocktails for a certain hyper carpenter who merely thought of me as that 'sarcastic farmer' down the road. I doubted he was even capable of romantic feelings for anyone but that axe of his.
Of course, I wasn't going to do anything to change it. That would mean I'd have to step out of that routine, that old friend that couldn't be left behind so easily. Ever since I had succeeded in bringing back that stupid Mother Tree and started to regularly earn seven thousand G a day, there had been no drive in country life anymore.
Maybe I should move.
"Angela?"
"What?" I bite out, whipping my head in the direction of the voice. It was Chase, looking uncharacteristically nervous yet very characteristically amused at my reaction.
Where did that thought come from? I wondered, barely noticing the Chase was talking to me. It wasn't like he said anything worth listening to anyway. That is, until I caught a snippet of what he was saying.
"So I guess I like you. Kinda. Probably." He was blushing in what Maya would call that 'adorable Chase-y poo way that he does.' I vaguely wondered when she'd seen him blush, cause Maya had always had a snowball's chance in hell to ever convincing him to go out with her.
"Angela?" he asked, breaking my reverie for the second time that evening.
"Huh? What?" I blinked at him.
Chase scoffed and shook his head. "Really, it's like talking to a freakishly attractive and particularly sarcastic goldfish," he said, crossing his arms over his apron.
"You think I'm attractive?!" I yelped, and the sound of it grated on both my own and Chase's ears. I might've as well shouted: "You think I'm an homosexual from Mars that has a fetish for cats?!" I pretty much used the same tone.
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, you dumb skull. I think you're pretty and I want to marry you and have lots of bouncing babies." Chase instantly blushed again after uttering that, and I smirked.
"Didn't think that one through much, did ya?" I quipped and his cheeks reddened once again.
"Yeah but uh…Seriously though. What do you say?" He persisted. Wow, he was serious.
Now it was my turn to blush as I stared at my boots. "Yeah um. Well." I looked up at him. "I never really thought about it, y'know? It just…never occurred to me."
Chase's expression immediately hardened like I'd smacked him with a dead fish – excepting the 'WTF?' look and bad smell. "Of course," I thought I'd heard him mutter. He swallowed. "You're still pretty hung up on Luke, huh?" He looked into my eyes and I felt liked I'd murdered somebody.
"Yeah."
He glanced to my rucksack, and we both knew that I knew that he knew why I bought that blueberry cocktail every night.
"But um," I began again, speaking again though neither of us was looking at the other, "I was actually thinking about leaving the Island. No use waiting out unrequited love, y'know? That's why it's unrequited." My words flew weak from my mouth.
"Do you really love him?" came his voice again, as cold as that winter night.
There was a silence as I pondered this. "No," I finally answered, "Just…infatuated. Deeply. Deeply infatuated…Okay, yeah, I do. Just." I exhaled, wondering why I was even bothering to let the stupid cook know my secrets. Looking out to the sky, my gaze anywhere but the man in front of me, I continued. "Nothing's ever gonna come of it, and I don't want to spend my days bawling my eyes out over some crush and feeling sorry for myself." I paused, not quite sure how Chase would take the next part. "I'm actually thinking about leaving the Island. I mean, nothing here for me anymore."
"Ah, so you're the sort of 'heartbroken heroine' that saves islands with a snap of her fingers and then goes off to the next?"
"Something like that," I murmured, playing with the bit of rope that I had tied around my wrist one boring Tuesday afternoon.
"Well, I don't want you to leave," he said decidedly.
Despite my instincts, I looked up, and there were his eyes boring into mine. "I suppose I could find a reason to stay." I said softly, and I swore I detected the slightest trace of a smile teasing his lips. I smiled back. We stood there just like that before a moment or two before I said, "C'mon. Join me while I finish this cocktail. S'not like he's going to miss it any."
A/N: If you are suffering from chronic idiot disease, or are reading this at 3 AM, here's what happened:
Chase likes Angela. Chase gets Kathy, Maya, and Hayden to get Angela to stay so he can ask her out. When nothing happens, Hayden is disappointed with Chase and thus is rough and sulky when answering Angela. He is really glaring at Chase when Angela thinks he is glaring at her, trying to scare Chase into asking her out. Nothing happens. Angela walks home alone, and Chase takes the oppertunity. Still, Angela doesn't really listen.