Hey guys! Thanks for all the favorites and follows! Here's another quick chapter of the Jump City Chronicles!
"So I'm walking along 42nd, right?"
Jake the community college student was flourishing his arms for dramatic effect on the "Story Stool" that faced them all.
It was Friday night, and that meant another round of Jump City tales.
Will shifted nervously in his seat. Before they'd started that night, Nate had pulled him aside to ask if he'd still be interested in sharing. When he'd first walked into the bar, after following the 'shared location' on his phone from Mike, he'd been impressed and a little confused as to why he'd never been here before. Mulligan's Pub had the classic Irish-theme. Shamrocks in the corners, whiskey specials, Guinness for cheaper than he'd ever seen, pub games and lots of stools and tables for chatting. Will dropped four quarters on a game of pool because Mike had texted that he was running late. He was barely done breaking when he felt someone clap a hand down on his shoulder.
"You came!" Nate, the kindly, white-haired bookstore owner had exclaimed upon seeing him.
"Heh, uh yeah." Will nodded. "Mike said he'd come after me if I didn't."
"Good kid, good man." Nate grinned. "He and I go way back, you see."
Will didn't see, but nodded anyway.
"So? You're sharing tonight, right? You and Mike?"
"Erm," Will hesitated. "Could Mike just do it?"
"I suppose he could," Nate frowned a little, but not unkindly. "But then we'd miss your side of the story."
"Right… uh, sure. Yes. I'll help him tell it." Will didn't believe what he was saying, but it was too late now.
Then the door opened and a bell tinkled. In walked Mike. Will's nervousness fell away a little bit to see him enter. He was just about to call after him when Mike walked back out again, laughing at something he couldn't see. Will frowned in confusion but Nate strode over to the door immediately.
"Rose! Get in here, it's still a little chilly out there. You've got a coat this time, dontcha?"
Will watched Nate and Mike file back into the pub. Then he saw who they were talking to. He dropped his head down to the pool table again and pretended like he was playing against himself.
"It's still not that cold, Nate." He heard a voice reply. "You're just old." Some people who must've known them laughed.
Will still pretended like he was playing pool. He missed his shot and the cue ball jumped off the table. His face flushed.
"Will!" Mike called after him. Will straightened up, mortified.
"Er, hey, man."
The redheaded girl, who was following closely behind Mike, suddenly smiled brightly.
"Oh, my gosh! It's you!" She rushed forward and held out her hand. He took it, surprised, and shook it gently.
She was just like he remembered.
"You two know each other?" Mike asked, confused, but still smiling.
Rose shook her head, then nodded. She laughed at her own mixed signals and Mike's ever-growing confusion.
"Well, sorta. Um, no, I mean-" She laughed again. "It was during Christmas time, while we were still taking classes."
Will nodded. "Yeah, it was that blizzard in December-"
"-and I'd dropped my wallet in the snow outside the diner he worked at-"
"-I was on my break-"
"-and he came right up and helped me dig it out of the snow! It almost fell in the sewer."
Will laughed a little. "Well, yeah. But anyway-"
"-so he pays for my meal and gets me some chicken-noodle soup because of course it's freezing outside-"
"-and all her cash is soaked through."
"Right, it was!" Rose laughed harder.
Mike had to stop himself from interrupting them, instead looking back and forth as the story progressed. Nate, who was behind him, began laughing as well.
"Oh no," Nate smiled. "You should've saved that one for tonight. It's always interesting to see how folks know each other in a big city like this."
"It was just… one of those things." Will finished lamely.
Rose still beamed at him. "I never got to thank you, you had to leave."
"Yeah, had to, uh, run." Will changed the subject and invited the three of them to some pool.
Nate refused but Mike and Rose accepted and the three of them carried on like that for about twenty minutes.
Eventually, Babs closed the pub for the evening and gestured for everyone to sit in their spots. Jake jumped up and plopped down on the stool facing everyone saying, "I'm going first and you can't stop me", but no one tried to.
"So I'm walking along 42nd right?" He began, waving his arms for dramatic effect, after everyone had settled. "It's a Wednesday afternoon and I'm coming up to an alleyway, when all of a sudden, this dumpster shoots out of it and straight into traffic!"
Someone gasped.
"I know! I know, so I'm freaking out and a couple cars slam on their brakes. I think that there did end up being a few accidents, but before I could register any of this, a masked girl dressed in a Kimono is scaling the building!"
"Whoa…" Rose whispered under her breath. She was sitting between Nate and Mike, with Will on Mike's left.
"I know!" Jake said again, gaining momentum. "She's halfway up the fire escape when BAM! An explosion catches her off-guard and she starts falling, ten feet I swear! So I'm below her and all I'm thinking is 'this chick is gonna fall right on me'."
Babs started laughing.
"But she doesn't, because from her hands come like, these Wolvering claws, and she's catching hold of the bricks!" Jake is breathing hard now with excitement. "I mean, like wow! So she's scaling the building again, makes it to the top, and dissappears out of sight. So I think, 'well I better check on these cars' because all I hear are horns and there's this smell of gunpowder in the air. I go to turn around, when another explosion goes off on the roof somewhere! People start running out of the apartment building as fast as can be, and now there's horns and cars and people all making a huge fuss. Well, finally the cops get there, Ted's probably still dealing with the damages, since he's not here."
Nate nodded as if he knew that already.
"The cops get there, everyone calms down, they clean up the dumpster and everything's just fine! Like nothing happend! Me, though, I'm late for my programming class that I'm taking this summer, and to that old professor? No excuse is a good excuse."
Jake finishes to laughter and a few claps.
"But you didn't see a Teen Titan?" Asked Babs, taking a swig from her pint.
"Nah, I must've missed em'." Jake sighed, sadly. He hops off of the bar stool and goes to take a drink of someone's beer when Babs stops him.
"Uh-uh. Coke for you." She handed him a glass of coca-cola and he took it begrudgingly.
"Fine." He smirked.
Nate got up and stretched. "Well, thank you Jake! Alright, alright, who's next?"
He looked pointedly and Mike and Will who were both now very nervous.
"Come'on boys, you've got a great one."
Nate pulled another stool up for the two of them and they sit down, facing everyone. Rose tilts her head adorably in anticipation, not knowing that the two of them had been planning to speak. She glanced at Nate who sat next to her and winked, as if to say 'this is the one I was telling you about'.
The two men look at one another, as if wondering who will speak first. Finally Will starts.
"Well, uh… So I'm in a hurry." He began lamely. Someone coughed.
"And I wasn't." Mike added. Rose smiles.
"Right, well I'm rushing off to work, this is Tuesday by the way, and it's pouring."
They both begin to describe in detail what had happened on that scary, yet exciting, Tuesday morning. Finally, they get to the good part.
Will pointed to his nose for emphasis. "So it's all just blinding pain, blinding rain, and I feel myself hit the street. Mike's knocked into me at this point, pushing us both further into traffic, when suddenly I feel my arm get nearly wrenched out of my socket."
"Right," Mike added. "So we're both being yanked from the path of this huge city bus that's about to squash us and hit the sidewalk hard."
"And I can barely see anything but I hear this, like, disappointed voice!" Will keeps going, now smiling. "And I'm like, 'who the hell is disappointed in me right now?'."
"It's Raven!" Mike exclaimed.
Jake, from the back, yelled, "No freaking way! I'm SO jealous!"
Rose is holding her hands to her mouth in shock at the story so far. She couldn't believe that Mike, or even Will, had nearly died on Tuesday.
"Right, well it is Raven, and she's like: 'seriously? Watch where you're going' like its nothing to her. Then she leaves us there and flies off!" Mike snapped his fingers. "Just like that!"
"Then Mike helps me up and we go meet this old guy," Will looks at Nate. People laugh. "Who tells us we should tell our story to a bunch of drunk strangers."
Everyone laughed at that. Then started clapping.
Mike got off of his stool and bowed dramatically at the crowd. Will just scratched at his bruised nose and smiled.
"I can't believe you two almost died." Rose exclaimed later once the official time for tale-telling had broken up. They were sitting at a corner tall table that Babs had given them after reopening the pub.
Rose was learning that, technically, Mulligan's was open from 4pm-2am on weeknights, closed on Sundays and open until 3am on Saturdays. However, since Nate had started the club, she'd been unofficially closing from 6:00-7:00 and reopening at 7:10. Since she was so popular down here, the lost hour didn't really hurt sales.
Now it was about 7:30 and Nate had gone home, leaving Rose, Michael and Will to talk.
"Almost being the operative word here." Will commented.
"True, but still." Rose shuddered a little. "I thought that rock hitting Nate's window next to my head was scary. You guys almost got killed by a bus."
Mike casually but his hand on her arm. "We're fine I promise."
She smiled back at him. Will shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Patrons of the bar were now slowly coming in, making noise. The three of them quickly finished off their pints and wine, thanked Babs, paid, and left the pub behind.
Rose unlatched her bike from the post outside and stowed the lock in her pack.
"Need another walking buddy?" Mike asked.
She smiled. "Sure."
They'd just started walking when Rose turned. "Nice seeing you again, Will. See you on Sunday?"
He looked taken aback. "Um, sure yeah." Why did he keep answering without thinking it over first?
"Great!" He watched her flash another brilliant smile at him and felt his insides warm.
That's why.