Chapter Two: There Are Lies, we don't mean, To Tell Ourselves.
A few months later Gotham's infamous rain had turned into its iconic snow. Nearly every evening at least a light snowfall and every morning the city was covered by an inch of cold white. Ice prevailed in every place causing crashes and making people late, there was chemical ice-melting salt sprinkled on every concrete surface, and a few drownings by idiotic teenagers trying to walk across the iced-over river bay only to fall in.
Holly had kept taking the bus wherever she needed to go since she had lived there. So for it to have crashed into a taxi... Or the taxi into it? She wasn't too sure where to go now. Skyrise buildings were everywhere, looming over the city streets and the small people that lived among them. Holly asked the bus driver that was lingering nearby which directions to go once they were done fussing with the police. Having to follow the bus route was longer than it should have been, but it was better than getting lost in the wrong parts of town. By the time she stood in front of an upscale Italian restaurant her feet felt like they were going numb inside. Her face too was reddened by the cold weather, and she sniffed several times into her hands and then rubbed her nose trying to warm up before going inside.
It was exactly what she thought it might look like. Something from a mobster film, though fewer mobsters and more civilians just eating early dinners.
"Welcome, how many?" She was greeted warmly by a hostess.
Holly knew that fake customer service tone too well. She often put in on herself while at work, people found it polite somehow. When she spoke, she returned the same kind of voice and smile, "Hi," Holly tucked her hair behind her winter nipped ears, something felt off, "actually I'm here to see Mario-"
"I'm sorry, you'll have to leave."
"... Excuse you?" Holding back the urge to swear or outright call the woman a bitch, Holly dropped the 'polite tone.' Mostly she was just confused as to why she had to leave.
"Just because he's slept with you doesn't mean he owes you anything, please leave." That's what had felt off, irritation was under that fake politeness.
"... Pft," Holly had gone through a range of emotions just then. Confusion, anger, disgust, and finally her brain settled on humor, "Holy shit. Oh, man. Hil-fuckin'-arious," Holly had taken to holding herself up with one hand on the hostess stand trying not to laugh. Was this kind of thing even real? Who just accused someone of being a slut so casually? Especially in the front of a dining establishment, it was actually absurd. A whole scandal. Was she dreaming? Was this a sick prank? Wait. Why would someone even think that? It was so specific. Was Mario a real Playboy player? "Pffft..." Holly had a hard time not laughing as the woman turned red in the face with an angry scowl, "I... oh man, I'm his buddies math tutor you jealous hussy. He asked me to come by here after the lunch rush." Holly added after a moment of silence, "I'm kinda late."
The hostess had turned even more red in the face, "I... I hate my brother." Holly was still trying not to laugh obscenely. Both women took some minutes to compose themselves before more proper introductions were made, thankfully they were both of mind to reintroduce themselves in a pleasant way. Then they met up with Mario further inside.
"My little sister is just the cutest thing trying to protect me from college heartbreak. Isn't she? Sorry sis, I didn't mean I was meeting a girl like that... Not this time at least." He had given his sister a wink just before she huffed and stormed off. Obviously, he mislead his sister to tease her. Mario was not alone in the round corner booth, he was accompanied by the blond she recognized from the All-American diner along with his two lacky friends, and Johnny seemingly squished between the four, "See James, told you she'd be here." He spoke to one of them before turning to Holly then stood to let her in the booth, "Have trouble finding the place?"
"... Not really, car accident slowed me down."
"You're not injured are you?" Besides the way he teased his sister Mario had a very elitist air about him; not snobbish but he probably had a real upbringing as such. Nonetheless, Holly thought his concern while probably genuine, felt like programmed small talk.
She slid into the booth, "I wouldn't be here if I was." Setting her pack down by her feet.
When Mario sat down she moved a bit more over and her arm bumped into Johnny's. She mouthed a quick 'sorry' while listening to Mario, "Of course. Well down to business then, I've kept everyone waiting a bit too long and been subject to Johnny's annoyed stare for just as too long now." He chuckled but when Holly grinned slightly and looked towards the man next to her, she lost the grin right away. He was not scowling, even so, if looks could kill. Yikes, she almost said aloud. Had Mario said he kept everyone waiting? Oh... They were waiting on her, she came to realize quickly. It wasn't just Mario that would have been dead from that look, "James tells me he got a tip from a friend, that you're the best math tutor they've ever had." Stacey, her college-socialite housemate had pulled all the strings hoping to get 'little virgin Holly' laid with the cute boy.
Holly was awkwardly silent. She couldn't figure out if she was enjoying the attention or hating this. On one hand, the cute asshole blond, James, was looking at her but so was the rest of the table, "Oh... Yeah." She could feel the man next to her breathe out annoyance before moving aside the glass in front of himself.
"... Nervous?" Mario laughed light-heartedly, "Don't be shy. I trust James's word it's why I called you specifically. Like I said over the phone, these idiots need to pass classes... or they're going to be wasting a lot more of my money."
The next few hours felt more tense for Holly than they should have been. Food and drinks were all on the house at least. James drank colas spiked with shots of whiskey like they were going out of style. It certainly started to make teaching numbers harder the more he drank.
"...so it states that every even number larger than two is the sum of two prime numbers," Holly was leaning across the table pointing a pen at the numbers on a piece of paper that James had, "five plus five is equal to ten and so on. Remember what it's called?"
The men; James, George, and Vinny, were looking between each other for help. James looked towards Mario as if for support but their benefactor was engrossed in his own medical essay. He was only there to make sure those three actually learned something.
"Goldbach's conjecture." Johnny had answered after a while of silence and long Um's from the others. Holly looked over; she felt like if he hadn't spoken just now she might have forgotten he was there at all. Her eyes drifted down to not make eye contact. She noticed he had been taking notes. He had such elegant and clean penmanship, she could make out the notes from where she sat without even trying.
"... Yeah. Just..." She looked back over at James with a polite smile, "Try to remember it looks like this..." She drew a triangular shape on a napkin in front of him with lines and numbers representing the math problem, "and that it's the most well-known unsolved problem in all of mathematics thus far." He was kind of cute, even so, his brand of stupidity was such a turnoff. James lost the charm she thought he had when he got drunk and her image of him turned shallow. She would have to tell Stacey the disappointing news. Would her housemate be mad? Holly wondered leaning back and picking up a glass of water to sip.
"If it's unsolved it's kind of stupid that we need to know it." James had finally drank more than his tolerance as his tone was blurred between belligerent and playful. Holly wanted to retort that he should have known this in his high school years and that she didn't make the criteria for Mathematics 101.
Mario noticed the change in his friend too. "Well," he closed his medical books on the essay he was drafting out, "I think... dinner is about to end. The restaurant will be closing shortly after; normally I'd let you all stay after lockup, but my sister and father need me tonight." He shifted to let Holly out followed by Johnny. However his friends stayed, "We'll see you two next week, same time. And the agreed amount. James will pay me back later." Mario held out two hundred dollars to Johnny.
"It doesn't matter who pays me, I left them on the table." Holly looked at the table, the notes. He had hand-written three copies of the notes, the ones he had been taking from Holly's tutoring. 'What the fuck...' She thought briefly, she could have brought notes to buy. Mario smiled politely as Johnny walked away, "He's a weird one... No offense Kingsley," he had caught her looking at the notes, "we have a prearranged agreement as of last year; we'll only pay for his notes."
"No problem, my notes would be too enigmatic to understand anyways." She flicked her eyes towards James and Vinny, at least the other one George had gotten a grasp of it. She reached down to grab her pack, put it over her shoulder, and walked with Mario toward the front door.
He held out a hundred to her and opened the door, "Next week then." As she took the money and left. The door was locked behind her, closing the restaurant early.
The sun was bleeding its last rays of light over the horizon, nevertheless, the city's tall buildings made the night come all the much sooner as they blocked out dusk. The air was freezing, Holly wrapped a scarf tightly around herself and sniffed. Her nose was red at the tip again already. Thankfully it hadn't been snowing too much nor was it supposed to this night.
Rebellious delinquent teens wouldn't care about the dark. So to retain one's youthful mindset after those years start to pass, fuck danger! Right?
Holly knew there was danger in the dark, she was not ignorant of the fact but especially because she was a woman she didn't want to look like scared prey. 'A woman that looked over her shoulder every few seconds at every falling leaf was like a deer to a wolf. Cautious but easy.' A not-so-clever metaphor from her small town home. Holly walked down the street keeping to the light towards the closest bus stop. Behold, Johnny was standing at the stop as well. She felt that small feeling of relief to see something familiar before she noticed he was staring intensely at her. A burning unbreaking sort of gaze. His mouth was moving. What did he say?
And she realized he hadn't actually said anything aloud until he called out to her, "Holly, I've been waiting for you," he began towards her. She slowed in pace when he did. Holly assumed he was mad at her for being late, "hurry up we'll miss our bus," his eyes weren't looking at her she realized as he got closer, "home." The word 'home' sunk in really fast. She felt like her heart stopped then raced the next second and her feet moved her forwards in an almost jog through the few inches of snow.
She grabbed onto his arm in a pseudo-playful manner, "Oh shoot, sorry Johnny I'm late!" He was still looking past her, "My bad..." She said much quieter, and even quieter, "thanks." They moved to the bus stop together but he certainly seemed more than happy to remove her from himself. Unwanting entirely of the physical contact.
"You idiot," He nearly hissed at her. His tone was almost like he was scolding a misbehaving child, she sure felt that way suddenly even though he was likely only a few years older, "Do you even know how dangerous Gotham is? How did you not notice that alley junkie following you? It doesn't matter if there are witnesses to most of them, so long as those witnesses are strangers," He spoke as if he had seen terrible things happen before. He was still looking over her form and Holly turned her head. She didn't see anyone; but there were fresh footprints much larger than hers in the snow. The tracks had followed her own, shuffled about, and had gone back the way they came... Towards the alley. She turned back and Johnny was looking down at her; his eyes were as ice-cold as the words he spoke, "If I hadn't decided to help you'd have probably ended up another of Gotham's unsolved missing persons."
Holly turned her eyes away embarrassed, "Thank-" she lifted her gaze back to him in a flash, "Wait you had to decide to help me?" She must have looked very confused, she felt it.
Very matter of fact he replied, "I was not going to get stabbed for you."
She was deciding between calling him an asshole or not, "Great, I'll remember not to get stabbed for you either. Thanks Johnny." She flopped onto the cold bus bench and stared at her snow-covered sneakers. Just processing in silence, her heart was still beating wildly in her chest.
"Jonathan," he corrected her; she had honestly thought it was Johnny but it made sense now why he seemed to scowl whenever James said it, "Crane." He tagged on what she assumed was his surname.
"... Holly Kingsley." He'd know her first name since the diner.
There was a long silence, he sighed and it made her look at him again, "Normally I do not like to be on a first-name basis, Holly, but given we'll likely be seeing more of each other this year it will be an exception of convenience," he moved just his eyes to look at her, "though never call me Johnny again, understood?"
"... I'm deciding." She teased as her heart slowed down and he scowled instantly, "Not a fan of jokes," Holly nearly mumbled to herself before speaking up with conviction to let him know she was being serious, "I promise I will never call you Johnny again, Jonathan."
His scowl slowly melted, yet he kept looking at her. That same unapologetically dead... Perhaps more thoughtful than dead, stare that he had given her the first time they met at a bus stop. She would never know how much he appreciated that level of respect from her at this moment. Holly would just think he was still upset from being teased, "Our bus is late." He changed the subject looking the opposite way to see if the bus would magically appear around the block.
Holly remembered why she had been late in the first place, "It crashed." She readjusted her pack getting ready to stand and walk.
"What?" It was finally his turn to sound somewhat confused.
"The car accident I got into. A taxi crashed head-on into the bus I guess trying to get someone someplace faster. Lost control and skidded on the snow. I had to walk here from about the yellow line third stop." He understood what she was saying. The bus for this line probably wasn't going to come. Unlikely that Gotham City transportation got another bus for the job. It was more than twenty minutes late by the time they concluded for sure another wouldn't show up.
They both stared at each other and then began to walk. She was far more cautious this time, turning her head towards strange sounds and sticking near Jonathan. It was not like he would be intimidating to anyone that planned to mug a couple of college kids but be damned if she looked more like a singled-out easy deer to a hungry wolf. It made her feel safer having him near. Having anyone near in all honesty would have. Eventually, they stopped at a pay phone, "Yellow line doesn't run past ten," he muttered more to himself than her as he put quarters into the blue box, "you're paying." He told Holly as much as he dialed for a taxi.
As they waited Holly took out a pack of cigarettes from her jacket. The sealed ones she carried around, she just held them for a while. Looking down at them thoughtfully but not having many thoughts to think about. Much like a habitual helper to clear her head. When she returned the pack, she heard Jonathan's inquiry, "Not going to smoke? You do not need to be thoughtful, in fact, I could use one myself after listening to those three idiots attempt to grasp basic algebra." He had been watching her.
"They're too old." That was all she replied with. There was a sullen undertone, she assumed since he seemed so keen he might pick it up even if she tried to hide it. Whether he did he didn't say anything about it. Holly was starting to enjoy the simple fact that he probably just did not care. And by 'did not care' she didn't mean how most people just don't care about strangers or other people's lives but that he wasn't going to fake interest in hers at least.
They decided to drop Jonathan off at the men's dorms of the university first so Holly could pay the full taxi fair. She was greeted by a yard full of little red cups, and a drunken Stacey bitch fit yelling at a probably not-so-sober guy on the porch to: "Get the fuck out, Kevin!"
That hundred she got from tutoring turned into taxi change; she had her waitress job at least. This side hustle had just been to hang out with a cute boy... Maybe she'd call Mario and tell him to find someone else. Holly kicked a red cup from the yard into the street after the taxi left, waiting for Stacey to stop hollering at this Kevin guy. The guy in question eventually stormed off flipping the bird at Stacey, next at Holly for staring, then with both hands to the whole house in general.
"That asshole," Stacey whined at Holly, "he slept with Beth! Fucking freckle Beth! I'm going to slit that sluts throat."
"Woah... Chill the fuck down Stacey," Holly had freckles too so it stung a bit that was the insult Stacey went for. What Holly really noticed though at this time was how much her manner of speech changed depending on who she was talking to. It made her feel disconnected; like putting on an act to fit in just enough with others, to coast through with the people around her, "Beth and... What Kevin?" Stacey sobbed a 'yeah' getting clingy with Holly. Holly just supported the other woman and helped her back inside, "they are not worth your tears, and definitely not worth plotting murder." She honestly did not care.
