Don't own em unless they are original...yadayadayada
He strode purposefully into the Bar. He had forgotten what it was like, dark and smoky with loud music and young people hanging out, drinking beer, having a blast. It wasn't a place he would typically frequent these days, but he needed to get in contact with Max, and well, he had tried just about everything else he could think of. Glancing around he saw so many women with long dark hair but he knew that none of them were her. From what info he could gather, if she did frequent Crash these days she wouldn't be recognisable. No that would be far too risky.
He avoided looking at anyone in the face knowing that since he had been ousted as eyes only he would be recognised even with his glasses and darker hair. He wasn't here to get his own glory; he was here because he needed to speak to Max. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a group playing pool and he saw the unmistakable hair that belonged to Cindy. He turned towards the group and hesitated, his mind starting to drift.
In the short couple of minutes that he watched the group he thought back to the last time he had seen Cindy and Sketchy. It had been a long time, just over 2 years in fact when he did the math in his head. It had been the day that the Macticoreans raised their flag at Terminal City. The day that Max told him he needed to leave. The day she admitted that she had failed to correct his suspicions about the nature her and Alec's relationship. The day he had realised that even if they loved each other, they would never ever be together.
Shaking his head out of memories which threatened to consume him and derail his mission, he all but sprinted over to Cindy. Hearing the conversation as he approached, he smiled to himself, having known that none of these people would have changed, that they would still be the same.
"Boo, when yo gonna learn? Yo know yo ain't gonna win fool. I dunno what goes through that thick head o yours" O.C could be heard telling Sketchy off, as he got beaten at Pool probably losing all his money again.
"Oh, c'mon your originalness, Alec taught me some new moves earlier, I want to try them out" Sketchy exclaimed as Cindy raised her eyebrows.
"Hmmm, yeah but Hot Boy you ain't Sketch. And he ain't around to bail yo white ass out a trouble" Logan's ears had perked at the mention of Alec, and he knew then that he had been stupid to leave coming here till last. Maybe he could have gotten this over with already if he had followed his first instinct and tried getting in contact with Max through her friends.
Logan cleared his throat and Cindy and Sketchy glanced behind and couldn't hide the shock at seeing Logan Cale standing behind them.
"Oh my God!!! Logan buddy, how are you?" Sketchy recovered quickly and was first to speak.
"I'm good Calvin, and how are you two? It's been a while" He replied trying to hide the anxiety he was feeling. He hated not being in control. He hated not being able to manipulate the situation to his own advantage and he knew, he couldn't under any circumstances alienate or upset O.C and Sketchy or he would be seriously in trouble. O.C was eyeing him suspiciously, but that was nothing unusual. He had always felt that she did not like him and he could sense the distrust coming from her.
"All good here" was the terse reply, and then he knew what was coming "So, what brings you here? Now that yo all good in the hood with your family and shit, wouldn't have thought yo would be slummin it with the likes of us." She paused again "Unless of course yo white ass is needin' our help with something." She was giving him that look. The look which said that she wasn't going to let him get involved with Max again. He'd seen that look once or twice directed at Alec and he pondered the thought. Had Cindy seen what he had thought he was seeing? Had she seen all that tension, bickering and fighting and thought it was attraction and plain old heavy duty UST that was just itching to come tumbling out. Or was she just watching Max's back.
He could see her eyes narrowing the longer he took to answer but he just couldn't get past the thoughts that were consuming him, the memories enveloping his mind due to being at Crash. He hadn't even thought about Alec for over a year. In the space of 5 minutes his insecurities started coming back to the surface.
"Well, Cindy I wish I was here just to catch up, but obviously these days I don't get to do that kind of thing very often. I do apologise that I haven't really made the time to see you guys and make sure you were ok but I have been out of the country as you may have been aware" he paused and watched them both nod, saying that yes they did know, so he continued "I have finally been able to come back and well, I need quite honestly to get in contact with Max. And I know you probably don't want to help me, and you probably hate me for what went down due to my eyes only exposure and trust me no one feels worse about it all than me. I just really need to apologise, and explain and see how she is, and make sure she is ok and tell her....." he trailed off as he looked at their expressions. Cindy was a storm cloud just waiting to erupt and Sketchy was looking at him pensively.
"You don't know" Sketch said simply.
Logan's heart leapt into his mouth. The first thought in his head was 'Oh shit, Max is dead' followed by 'no I would have heard...Crap, she has left Seattle' "Know what?" he asked dreading the answer.
"Well, we couldn't help you even if we wanted to. We haven't seen or spoken to Max in 2 years." Sketchy answered.
Logan sighed. He felt his shoulders slump in defeat. He felt his heart shatter in thousands of pieces. "What about Alec?" he heard himself mutter before he could stop himself.
"Well, beside the fact that Hotboy would be less likely to help you than us, we can't contact him. Yo big ears probably heard this dumb fool mention him before and if yo had shown up an hour earlier yo would have seen him yo'self. But he showed up very unexpectedly and we hadn't seen his hot ass for close to a year so don't go getting no ideas in that direction" Logan nodded when Cindy stopped speaking.
"Well, if you do happen to speak to Alec or Max or anyone who could help, here is my card, please get them to contact me. I would appreciate your help. Nice to see you both" He handed them a business card, smiled nervously and hurried as fast as he could out of Crash feeling their eyes boring into him.
"Well, O.C, are we gonna tell em?" He asked her once Logan was gone.
O.C stood thoughtful and still staring at the door. "I think we are gonna have to. They know he's been fishin' and we knew he'd show his white ass sooner or later." She continued that nasty looking stare at the door "hand me yo phone fool, I'll get onto Hot boy"
Sketchy handed his phone over to OC and she dialled a number still looking toward the door as the call went through.
"Go for max" Unsurprisingly Max answered Alec's phone.
"Boo. What's happenin' Sugah?" Cindy asked, still looking at the door, almost expecting Logan to march back in.
"Well, I am working away as usual while my wise ass 2IC has his feet up out in the main room, flirting with anything in a skirt. What's up Cin? I wasn't expecting to hear from you tonight." OC could hear the smile in Max's voice and hesitated to answer but Sketch was looking at her making hand gestures like keep going...TELL HER!
"We had an old friend show up tonight at Crash after Alec left" She paused not wanting to tell Max but knowing it had to be said.
"Oh, um let me guess. Was it Herbal? Kendra? That chick from Jam Pony who got her heart trampled on by Pretty Boy, what was her name?" Max started rambling off the names of a heap of transient females that had worked at Jam Pony. "Hey Pretty Boy, Get your ass in here"
Cindy heard Alec in the background "Always with the ass Maxie. I know you want it."
Max laughed "In your dreams, OC is on the phone, apparently an old friend of ours showed up tonight after you came back." She spoke back into the phone "Well, who?"
OC took a deep breath "Logan" waiting for the response.
Max dropped the phone, stood up "I gotta get the fuckin hell out of here" In a flash she was gone. It had been better than OC expected.
Alec groaned, picked up the phone "So, Roller boy is back in town? What did he say?"
"Not much, just about how he needed to speak to Max, explain, apologize, make sure she is ok. We played it cool Boo, and exactly how you told us to. I think he came here last. Seemed more nervous than Normal in a room full of transgenics. Gave us a card with contact details" She looked at it and laughed "Fool is now CEO of Cale Enterprises and has a real posh ass address"
"Hang on to it for me Cin. I'll swing by tomorrow and grab it. Pay Roller boy a little visit. Have a man to man chat" Alec chuckled despite how he felt. "Gotta go and find Queen Maxie before she does some damage to some poor unsuspecting ordinary." Then he added "No offense OC"
"None taken Hot Boy. Go find our girl and Boo" she paused "Make sure she knows we got her back no matter what she decides to do to his fool ass. See ya soon Boo" And she hung up, looked at Sketch and shrugged. "Think it'll be an interesting few days."