"Still only seeing you here and never in the crowd," Shadow said through a sarcastic smirk. "Too busy studying again?"

"Yeah, well college means I don't have a lot of free time. I promise I'll come next time. That's why I'm here today!" Silver plopped his backpack down on the small on the floor beside his chair and began fishing out his textbooks,

Shadow raised a brow before tapping the pause button on his keyboard and pulled his headphones off. "Wait, hmm? You mean you don't have to work today?"

He shook his head. "Nope. New schedule. This week they gave me the weekend off. So I just decided to come here to study."

Again, Shadow raised a brow at him.

"What? Want me to go away? Need the whole table to yourself?" He took off his hat and shook his hair out. Silver ran his fingers through his locks, happy to finally not have his spikes flattened and squished under his work hat.

It caught Shadow's attention. He had never seen Silver out of his work uniform, the more he thought about it. In fact, no he couldn't recall what he would have expected from the other guy sitting across the table from him. Silver dressed in black boots and a slim coat with white trim. His hair was thick and almost white!

Slowly, Shadow shook his head. "Hmph. Don't do what you want. Waste your time on your off-day."

Silver only grinned and pulled out his tablet to take notes as he started reading. It wasn't time wasted if he wanted to be there.

The two sat across from each other in silence, mostly. Shadow continued fiddling on his laptop with his headphones only halfway on and Silver was tapping away and highlighting passages in his textbook. They worked in silence, momentarily for about half an hour until Shadow pulled off his headphones and stretched his arms out with a groan.

"What are you reading over there, anyway?"

Silver looked up. "Hmm?"

"What are you studying?"

"Oh! Um- World History. It's just a core-level class, but it's needed for my major. History is the only thing I can keep a focus on for the most part."

Shadow tilted his head before moving his laptop to the side to get a better look at Silver's textbook. "Really? Why's that?"

He shrugged. "It's kinda stupid but I've always felt that the past holds the key to anyone's future. Hell, even the whole world's future! If you don't understand the past then you can't build the foundation in the present necessary to withstand tomorrow."

Shadow didn't respond immediately. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Why would that be stupid?"

Silver looked up from his note-taking. "Hmm?"

"Why would any of that be a stupid reason to pursue history? What you said makes perfect sense. So tell me: what are you going to do with a history degree?"

Again...Silver lowered his head. His eyes skimmed over the text in his book, hardly reading it. "I...don't know. I figured I'd figure it out as I go- just picking a major that suited what I was interested in. There's a job for anything today. I just have to figure out what I want to do with it, first, I guess."

"Now that sounds stupid."

"What do you mean?! It's not like all my studies just sit in my head. I use it when I can."

"Like when?"

"Well...sometimes I get the jump on people on Chirpper. I've made a few tweets that have gone viral and now I have 4,000 followers!"

"That is impressive, but is that what you want? Being a social media influencer? If that's the route you're going then shouldn't you be off studying marketing instead?"

Silver fell silent. It was then that Shadow realized that he may have been coming across as harsh and judgmental.

"Sorry. That's not what I meant. Just- what you early...I understand what you meant. About how the key to your past unlocks your future. Uh…" Shadow gulped for a moment and pulled his headphones off completely this time.

"Mabe you're right, though. I mean, if I don't have any clue what to do with my degree then haven't I wasted my money in school?"

"No! Forget that. Listen erh- Keep doing what you're doing and you'll find your way like everyone else does. Don't worry about it too much."

Silver was confused as he glanced up and stared at Shadow, still with his arms crossed. First, he tells him that his career path is dumb, and then tells him to continue down it anyway? What was he trying to say to him? Silver raised a brow as his fingers tightened around the edge of his tablet. "What do you mean? Make up your mind, why don't you?"

"Look, just forget I said anything." Before Silver could respond, Shadow stood up. He shoved his hands into his jacket pocket and he walked off, heading towards the bathrooms on the other side of the cafe.

Irish happened to be at the counter serving a drink to Big when Shadow walked past him with a scowl on his face as he entered the bathroom. He turned over to Silver and their eyes met. Too far away to speak, hand gestures were all that was needed to get his point across. Silver had screwed up.

"..." What just happened? Did I upset him that much? Silver couldn't tell, but he didn't want to press the issue any further. So long as Shadow was away, he'd focus on his studies. Yet the minute he picked up his highlighter or began tapping on his tablet, he found his mind wandering about, replaying the conversation in his head, trying to pinpoint where exactly the conversation had taken a turn for the worse.

He hadn't said anything that disturbing, had he? Was Shadow sensitive over career choices? Talk of college? The best thing he could think of was to just apologize when the other got back and try to make amends as best he could.

"Here. My treat." Shadow sat back down and slid a small dessert dish over to silver with a colorful slice of matcha cake with white chocolate icing on it. "Sorry about earlier."

Silver's mind was blank. "Um...thank you." He was hesitant to pick up the fork. From the edge of his eye, he looked up at Shadow getting settled in his chair with a refill of black coffee and his treat. Maybe it would be best to try and ease the atmosphere a bit more instead of pressing the conversation any further.

"No worries. That green-haired guy just gave it to me. Couldn't understand a word he was saying."

Silver picked up the fork and snickered. "Did you wash your hands?" he asked as he flashed a cocky, sarcastic smirk.

Shadow looked up at him, a bit surprised, but it quickly registered, and he chuckled. "No," he answered sinisterly. "And I didn't wipe with the paper, either."

They both laughed and sighed momentarily before going back to their work. After some time, the mood seemed to shift, and Silver spoke up again. "Hey, Shadow? What drew you into music, anyway? You're not in school for it or anything, right?"

"I used to be. But I dropped out. Didn't agree with any of the programs my school offered."

So that was it. Shadow must have only been trying to look out for him if he had dropped out of college already. He was just worried that Silver was going to make the same mistake of wasting his time. Right? How could he not be worried or annoyed if that was the case?

"That makes sense. I like your music, Shadow. You don't need some fancy degree to be a rockstar."

"Oh really?" he smirked. "If you like it so much then how about you finally come to one of our shows?"

"Fine! I promise. Next time you have a show, I'll come. No excuses."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow night at Metal CD at nine o'clock, won't I?"

Silver hesitated, but then nodded as he wrote a small note for himself. "You sure will. Metal CD. Got it. Is being on stage that important to you, Shadow?"

"It's the most exciting part of the whole thing. For a few minutes, you get on that stage and it's hot, and the lights are blinding. Sometimes you can't even see the audience, but you know they're there when you hear them screaming, for you. All because you wrote a song they love. It's chaotic, but intoxicating every time."

He tossed Silver his Bluetooth headphones. "Here. Take a listen. This is the demo for tomorrow. Almost finished."

Silver caught the headphones, almost dropping them in the process. He held the phone a slight distance from his ear in case the volume was too high for him, but slipped them over his head when the digital guitar riff kicked in. And...were those police sirens? And the backing vocals! They were faint, and everything sounded weird considering it was all made with synthetic instruments, but Silver found it oddly exciting, even addicting and catchy. A second or two more and he started to bob his head up and down, even tapping his foot.

Shadow knew that look on his face. He was hooked. There was doubt about it. This time, Silver would be coming to one of his shows.