Possum Springs Mishaps #4

Relaxation.

Personal Prompt.

The young gator stared anxiously out the cafe window, out towards the unlit neon sign that proudly exclaimed the city she'd escaped to for the weekend: Durkillesburg. She didn't know why she'd ran here of all places to escape after the insanity that came after her friend had dropped out of the college in this town, but she was glad whatever voice was working in the subconscious hbit of her mind brought her now that her weekend away from Possum Springs was over.

"You alright, Beatrice," a voice spoke up from the quiet revelry of the cafe around her, and she twisted her head quickly in response. The source of the voice, a young racoon with a comically large pair of circular-rimmed glasses and a black-strapped shoulder-bag hoisted over mixture of plaid and white shirts, stood smiling at her with two cups in each hand. From the aroma wafting from the cups she could tell the contents of right cup held a mixture of milks, sugars, coffee, and some sort of flavored creamer while the right was a simple dose of black coffee. She smiled upon catching the scents, he'd gotten her order right this time.

"I'm fine Cole," she responded with a smile, motioning for him to take a seat across from her. He smiled and placed the black coffee gently in front of her at their table, before obliging her silent instructions and taking a seat across from her at their table. After he sat he hoisted his shoulder bag into his lap and started rummaging through it.

"I'm sure I got yours right this time Bea," Cole started as he pulled some supplies from his bag, "you'll have to forgive my transgressions from earlier this weekend, after years of ordering my own thing and having people order similar all around me it's hard to imagine someone just taking it straight like you do."

"It's fine, I can't expect everyone to be as bitter as I am," she replied, earning a chuckle from her raccoon friend. They both took a sip of their respective drinks as Cole started to go to work on something with the supplies he'd dragged from his bag. He dragged a pen across paper and furrowed his brow constantly, grimacing at his work as she studied him with a calm curiosity. It wasn't for a few moments until he spoke again.

"So you've got it all figured out right, this whole plan?"

"Pretty much," she responded, sighing and turning her eyes out to the unlit neon yet again. She twiddled a thumb on her cup and grimaced after a moment, before deciding she'd put it off long enough and spoke her decision out loud.

"I'm enrolling in the online classes when spring comes around, with what I'm making from being the sole surviving proprietor of the Ol' Pickaxe I can pay my enrollment. It'll be tough but I'll probably survive better than Mae did here." Bea grimaced at her words, remembering the best friend she'd left at home this weekend. If Mae could see her now, drinking coffee with Cole, the things she would say. Though her finding out about a little coffee brunch would hardly be as bad as if Mae found out what the two had been up to the night before.

"That's not very high standards to put yourself at to be honest," Cole responded with a chuckle, though on catching a glare from Bea in response he adjusted,"I mean no ill will. Mae may hate me but aside from finding the last few circumstances I've seen her in extremely unlucky, I'm in her corner with whatever she chooses to do in life." He paused to grimace and speak under his breath at something he noticed on his paper before attempting to continue. Bea merely continued with her judgmental glare throughout.

"Point is though,she still didn't stay here long, mental illness or otherwise." Bea's expression remained stern on him, and after a moment of taking it in he realized he could say nothing to fix what he'd said he averted his gaze back to his work at hand. Seeing him frantically go to work she moved her gaze back to the window beside them, watching the cars go by in the busy street next to them.

"You know, after reviewing it, I think Mae leaving this place has been the best thing that could have happened to me lately," Bea spoke after a moment, catching Cole's attention as he looked up sheepishly to listen to her,"it's stupid, but everything that came from that decision has somehow helped me. Even the craziest parts when it was all over led to something good for me, and I don't know if I should hate it or revel in the fact that my friends stupid decisions are turning up in my favor." After finishing that ramble she gave Cole a side-long look to see him at full attention and sighed, moving her gaze to the table as she drank from her bitter coffee.

"I'm pretty sure you can do both," Cole said with a smile she looked him dead in the eyes in response, but his face didn't fade. He was right of course, and she of course didn't like it, but even that solace wasn't enough to make her feel any less confused about it.

"Look Bea," Cole continued, opting to use her shortened nickname for the first time the entire time they'd hung out this weekend,"when you came to me Friday telling me about cults and dead kids and your father going missing out of nowhere I thought you were going through a bad trip or something. I'm not even sure I can believe all this stuff about Hartley and some black goat eating kids, but if you're right you've been through enough hell lately to hate your life a thousand times. You're right to hate all that, but I think you should really be happy that through all of that you've survived."

She snorted in response, he wasn't the last to say that, Mae was bringing it up a lot lately, that they were all survivors. She didn't know whether to puke at the cheesy sentiment or laugh for hours. Survival to her meant getting through the whole fight, and with her missing father still bringing her no end of mystery, she was sure her fight wasn't over. They both had a point to it all though, this last month, no, this past year, had been hell. It was a miracle she'd came out as unscathed as she had. Part of her chalked it up to her ability to be apathetic during the worst situations, but there was a deeper part of her that thanked her mother silently for watching over her.

"I hate when you're right," she sighed after a moment of avoiding speaking,"both of you," he chuckled and took a sip from his drink.

"I know you do, but I will never dislike being the right one for once between the two of us." He'd earned a chuckle from her on that one, a rare thing to earn, but his company had made her feel at peace after the hell she'd been through recently, a lot more than Mae's constant odd optimism that had spawned from their survival of the mines. She needed sarcasm, she needed cold, she needed some reality after whatever fantastical bullshit they'd been through lately, and for some reason she'd thought to come to Cole for that. Maybe she'd come to him because she knew Jackie wouldn't believe her and her cousin was an asshole, maybe it was more because she needed someone she could vent to about Mae that wouldn't spew on and on about hating her, or maybe it was her mother pointing her in the right direction again; whatver it was, she was glad she'd made this trip.

"Really though," Cole spoke up again after a silence had settled between them,"what you said about Hartley's still the hardest to believe. He's the last guy I'd think to go out like that."

"You wouldn't be the first to say that," Bea responded, folding her hands together and keeping her eyes on her painted claws,"Gregg was beside himself for probably the first time in his life when he found out. If it wasn't for Angus and the rest of us being there he'd have jumped in that damn hole himself."

"Still, it's hard news to hear," was the only thing Cole could respond with.

"It's news that better remain a secret," Bea spoke, her tone shifting to a serious note as she pointed at him with a claw, "especially to my cousin, he and Casey were. . .thicker than thieves once and I know he never got over it."

"Oh it's definitely true," Cole responded coyly,"your dad wasn't the only one to notice those two sneaking around." At the mention of her dad Bea's eyes narrowed and he dropped the coy expression for a familiar sheepish one.

"Oh, yeah, that's still a touchy subject."

The silence that came after was awkward, with the two of them sipping their drinks in a tense silence as Cole returned to his work. After a moment, he sighed, organizing his stuff together and replacing it in his bag.

"We should get going, you've got to get back to Possom Springs and that's quite a drive away," he stated, as he stepped up from his seat. Bea followed suit reluctantly and walked behind him as they left the cafe. As they stepped out into the cold autumn air Cole crossed his arms and made an audible sound of frustration. Bea simply shuddered nonchalantly and chuckled at his discomfort. After a moment, they made their way down the street towards her car.

"So what are you gonna do about it, the Pickaxe I mean, now that you've pretty much guaranteed your Dad's dead," Cole inquired as they walked, and Bea suddenly cursed her decision to park so far away from the cafe. His inquisitive nature had been all fine and dandy this weekend until he brought up the pickaxe or her dad at all, both of which were things she wanted to avoid. After a week of her father being MIA she had to just live with it, her father had been a bastard child killer most likely. That meant taking complete control of the Pickaxe, which basically just meant she could tear the whole damn thing if she wanted, and that she'd one less mouth to feed in her life. At least that meant more money for her in the long run, which she realized had given her the chances she came here this weekend.

"I'm just gonna keep running it as is, maybe hire Mae or Steve to work doing…something I don't know," she finally managed out as they passed by the entrance to the college her friend had ran from earlier that month. She stopped and took a moment to look at it, she saw why Mae would be afraid of this thing, it's form bent over and pointing downward almost…judgmentally. She grimaced at it for a moment, and Cole, who had stopped alongside her, noticed and laughed.

"You know that thing's effed up beyond repair right," Bea nodded silently and he laughed harder,"no, I mean it's actually effed up." That caught her attention, and she turned her head to look at him quizzically.

"A few years though, back when that storm that flooded Possum Springs hit, this place got hit by it too," he started explaining,"it bent that statue all out of wack, and the thing's pose has never been right ever since. What was once a fine monument to empowering students to move forward to what's beyond has become some silent judge of character . .tragic really." Bea blinked silently in response, turning back to look at the statue. It was kinda poetic really, such a small change like the pose on a statue would lead to the take-down of a massive cult of evil dads. She thought back, to that year and everything she remembered happening, and after thinking hard about it she smiled and thanked Mae's Granddfather.

"You ok," Cole's voice broke her reverie, she turned to face him and smiled.

"Yeah, I was just…praying," she responded, causing him to raise an eyebrow and chuckle.

"Didn't take you for a girl of the cloth."

"I'm not, but that doesn't mean I can't thank the dead.."

He chuckled at that and they continued to her car both of them calmly letting the silence breathe between them. When they reached her car the two of them stood for a moment in awkward silence.

"Pretty awkward goodbye, huh," Cole spoke up, causing Bea to shake her head and smile.

"Yeah, you could say that"

"You should come by more often, now that Mae's gone I definitely don't have anyone I'd consider an old friend to just hang out with."

"Sounds like a plan."

"By the way," Cole chuckled as he opened Beas car door for her,"tell Mae I said hi, I don't even think she remembers we chose the same school."

"I'm not doing that, the last thing she needs to know is what happened with us this weekend," Bea retorted, getting into her car and buckling herself in,"and you didn't even remember that either jackass so don't act like it's something unique to her."

"I know, I know, she and I are both pretty shitty about each other," Cole chuckled, leaning on her open window,"but, after what we did this weekend, you really should tell her about me."

"One day, but she is definitely not in a place for that Cole." Bea responded, starting her engine and lighting a cigarette. Cole stepped away and smiling as they stood there for a few moments in silence once again.

"I guess that's true," Cole finally started, kicking the ground in a hangdog manner and chuckling, "just…tell her before she finds out some other way, I don't think I can take being puked on in another fit of her rage."

Bea chuckled again, and smiled at him,"that almost makes me want to wait longer." Cole laughed in response before the silence once again hung between them.

Suddenly, Cole leaned into her car and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a hug,"I'm gonna miss you while you're gone Beatrice."

The hug caught her by surprise, but not as much as the cheesy dialogue, and after a huff she responded,"I'll miss you too you dork."

"I'm your dork though, right?"

Bea chuckled for the third time that day, Cole was really dragging some mirth out of her, that was some feat. Usually it took some absolutely ironic political jail sentences or other similarly grand things to get her to crack this many smiles.

"I guess you are," she responded, turning her attention to her to see him smile the biggest smile at her,"be careful out here Cole."

"Shouldn't I be telling you that 'Survivor," Cole joked, she narrowed her eyes at him and he simply chuckled. She turned her attention to checking her surroundings so she could be ready to pull out.

"I'll see you again Cole," she said as she checked around her.

"I hope so,"

She smiled at the response and started to pull out, waving him off before she started to drive away, back towards Possum Springs, back towards her prison home. It wasn't always bad though, she had here to come back to now, and a dumb little hipster raccoon dork with the ugliest glasses to be here for her if she needed to come back.