Cat cheerfully rings up another customer during the lunch rush - which isn't really much of a rush considering how small and inconspicuous the cafe is - and beams unabashedly as she titters, "Thank you, come back soon!" She's often met with a range of reactions, from utter surprise at someone so outwardly happy to irritation at someone so outwardly happy, but most people just smile politely in return.
It's packed on this particular day, this little hole-in-the-wall cafe in Santa Monica. Cat and Tori don't mind the crowd, even though half of them don't buy anything, and the ones that do buy only buy as small a drink as possible. It's for a good reason though, they both understand; today's one of the days that Jade spends performing at the front of the cafe, accompanied by Robbie on the guitar (but no one besides Cat really cares about who's sitting on the stool next to Jade). She's finishing up her rendition of "The House of the Rising Sun", and even before her last note, the walls practically crumble under the sheer volume of the applause that erupts from the crowd. "I'm taking a quick break, so…" she trails off into the mic after about a half hour of her continuous singing, to which the crowd expectedly reacts with a mild form of sadness.
She saunters over to the counter in that Jade way - shoulders back and head held high, more than confident and knowing she's the best damn thing in the place - and leans against it for a swift moment before impatiently tapping her black colored nails against the surface. "Cat," she huffs, knowing she has a better chance of getting what she wants sooner if she gets it herself, but not wanting to waste the energy. "I need water."
"Busy!" Cat squeaks, hastily pulling the bill from the man in front of her's hand and trading it for the cup she held in her own. "Thankyoucomeagain!" She finds a second to glance at Jade, who is looking more and more displeased with being tasked to wait like some... patron. "'Msorry! Just - Maybe get it yourself?"
She has to look up at Jade again because she can feel how coldly her friend is glaring at her. "Um, Tori," she calls, frantically beckoning for the other girl to come over, "Tori! TORI-"
"WHAT, Cat?" Tori half-yells back at her. She glances over at Jade, whose icy stare is now directed towards her instead of their red headed friend. "D'you need something, Jade?" she asks in as neutral a tone as possible.
"Water. Room temperature. Cup. Straw." And with that, she Jade-walks back to the cafe's makeshift stage. Tori rolls her eyes as she bends to Jade's will, and Cat catches her.
"Be nice," she hisses, filling yet another cup with steamed milk. "Why're you always so rude to her?"
"Why is she always so rude to me when I'm just trying to help her out?" Tori rebuts quickly. "Just because of the acci-"
"Stop it!" Cat hisses and squeezes her eyes shut for a second at the partial mention.
"Sorry, sorry," Tori sighs, plopping a straw into the cup of water and removing herself from the situation before it escalates entirely. She brings it over to Jade with no more than a small smile and a hasty step, first handing her the cup and then resting the bottle at the foot of the stool. "All good?"
Jade maintains slightly unsettling eye contact as she brings the straw up to her lips and covers it with them. She sips the water slowly, still staring at Tori over the rim of the plastic cup and watching the poor girl practically fall apart with sudden anxiety over this innocent cup of water. "Yep, perfect," she says once she sets the cup down, even bothering to give the girl she affectionately calls 'Vega' a discernible not-scowl. Tori simply whirls around and walks as far away from her as quickly as she can.
Robbie looks up at her as he's tuning his guitar for their next little set and sighs. "D'you have to be so mean to her?"
Jade snorts in response, her hand on her hip, not even bothering to look in his direction. "I don't pay you to talk, do I?"
"You-You don't pay me at all!" He stammers, only slightly afraid of what she'll do or say next.
She whips her head around to glare at him, her patented scowl returned to its rightful place on her lips. "Maybe stop talking so much and I'll start." He opens his mouth to respond again, but thinks better of it when she narrows her eyes at him. "Anyway, I'm supposed to go get Vega's cake when we close up, so I can take you to your place."
He's... flabbergasted. "Was that an actual, human offer? Like, from a person with a soul? All we needed was a cup of water to quell the beast? I feel like I just pulled the sword out of the stone and I'm-"
"Hey, remember what I said about not talking?"
"Yeah, but this-"
"Stop."
"Okay, but-"
"Talking."
He frowns, but obliges and sits back a bit to continue tuning his guitar. "It wasn't an offer, it was just me telling you what's going to happen when we close up today. So you're not lost and confused like always."
"I do confuse easily," he mumbles in agreement. "Thank you, though. In advance-for the ride." Jade simply holds a hand up and continues drinking her water, unable to bear another second of Robbie's small talk.
When Cat practically leaps and bounds over to the two of them, a bright smile on her face, she makes her disdain audible with a pronounced, "Ugh," which kills the megawatt smile within a millisecond.
"Hey there, my little puff pastry," Robbie quips and moves his guitar off of his lap for Cat to sit.
"Oh, my God," Jade groans before gagging aggressively, eliciting a momentary glare from the other girl.
"Sugar plum," Robbie continues once Cat gives him her attention, "Can you believe our friend, Jade-"
"Not your friend."
"-so graciously offered-"
"Didn't offer."
"-to give little ol' me a ride home after closing?"
"Okay! I'm going wherever this isn't happening!" She grabs her cup and power walks away from where the two are canoodling, or whatever, opting to wait out the storm anywhere else.
That 'anywhere' ends up being near Tori, who's taken over the register for Cat. "Oh, no," she sighs as the last customer in the line takes their drink, leaving her with no viable barrier against talking to Jade. "What d'you want?"
She scoffs, mock offendedly. "So I can't just drop by to visit my favorite person while she's at the register? Hmph."
"Your favorite person is probably six feet under somewhere," Tori mutters.
"You're right, I do have a real affinity for the long dead. Undead, too." She inhales deeply to mentally prepare herself for the sheer niceness of her next statement. "Speaking of undead, happy birthday, or whatever."
Tori almost forgets. It's not my birthday, she thinks, her mouth already slightly ajar to repeat the thought. She snaps it shut, though, as the light bulb flickers on in her mind. "You actually remembered? Wow. Who're you and what've you done with the real Jade West?" she teases haphazardly, hoping Jade thinks nothing of it.
"Cute," she remarks sarcastically. "Cat's making me pick up a cake for you, so just... y'know, act surprised later." Jade smiles in spite of herself, enjoying how fun it is to ruin a surprise, and saunters off.
The steady flow of people coming in and out mostly to hear Jade sing begins to dwindle a short while before they close up shop for the day. Tori goes around cleaning up the tables, quietly humming to herself as she adjusts everything that'd been moved throughout the day. Cat balances the register three times, then Robbie balances it another four, just in case.
"I'm gonna stay for the festivities," he chirps as he and Jade leave the cafe to head to her car. "The soirée. The shindig. The-"
"I get it!" She spits, reaching into her bag to get her keys. The other girls stand and watch them from the now closed cafe.
"How long are we keeping this up, Cat?" Tori steps back from the door, flipping the the 'welcome' sign over as the last chore of the night. She sighs at her friend, taking a seat on one of the stools that faces out of the window and turning to look at her. "We can't do this forever. I mean, I can't eat buttercream filled cake every night for the rest of my life!"
"I don't know!" Cat squeals, landing in a chair with an exaggerated huff. "I just... The doctors said-"
"I know what they said. I was there too."
"But it wasn't your fault!"
It goes quiet in the building for a very long, tense minute. If there's anything Tori hates, it's this - having this conversation with one of her closest friends, seeing her constantly chastise herself day in and day out for something that'd happened just over six months ago. No one blames Cat except Cat, and Tori only blames herself for not being able to fix that. "Maybe we could all..." she tucks some of her hair behind her ear and swallows thickly, not even attempting to look up at her just yet. "...I dunno. Sit down with her and very, very gently tell her? Like all of us and her family?"
Cat shrugs, her gaze directed to the floor, and Tori knows this chat isn't going to break any more new ground than it already has. "Alright, well," Tori starts up again, albeit a bit exasperatedly, "Let's get the party stuff out then."