Night's Omen

  "Now remember," Lance said, grabbing his sister by the elbow as she slipped her helmet off. "This place has a serious 'No Trouble' policy. If I go with Dez to the library and then to the gym I won't come back and find you laid out, will I?" he asked. His brows knitted - he was actually serious. He set his own Arai helmet down on his bike, giving her a firm look.

  Laura fixed him a hard stare, the ones like Paddington Bear used to receive in the stories she remembered, and yanked her arm from him, nearly dropping her helmet. "Say Donna Summer backwards?" she asked, flipping her blonde hair out of her way as she fixed her own Shoei helmet onto the back of her blue R6.

  "Summer Donna?" he said. He looked confused.

  "Slower," she said, eyes narrowed.

"Sum-mer Don-na?" he asked. "What's the point of this?"

  "That's right," Laura retorted. "SIMMA DAHN, NAH," she announced in her deepest Mississippi drawl. "Calm down, Lance. I'm not sixteen anymore, okay? You can go with Mr. Mittens to do your reading and lifting and I'll just have a drink and possibly pick up a strange older man that could potentially rape and murder me," she said sarcastically.

  Lance threw up his hands and picked his helmet back up, starting his yellow GSXR to drown out anything else his sister might have that was witty, and Laura opened the door and went inside. Enter Hellcat's Hollow, population: YU0. She shrugged off her blue and white Alpine Stars jacket and headed for the bar - now that she was old enough to drink, she did it freely. It wasn't like it'd actually DO anything to her, anyways. She'd have to drink so much just to get a buzz it wouldn't even be worth it, especially since as soon as it would come it would have already gone.

  "Can I get a mojito?" she asked, flashing the younger bartender a thousand-watt smile. God, his eyes are green, she thought to herself. She cleared some out of her face and used a black elastic coated band around her wrist to pull her hair back, then leaned against the bar while her drink was made. The cute guy had to dip into the back for mint (it figured, nobody ever asked for mojitos these days - except for Rowen's mom, anyways), and it gave Laura a chance to look around. The place was pretty dead, but then again, it was two o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon.

  "One mojito for the pretty lady. Say, you aren't here for Danielle, are you?" Darren asked. He'd been around Danielle enough to know a Vida when he saw one.

  Laura shook her head. "Danielle?" she asked.

  "My mistake. My friend is expecting someone, but I guess it isn't you." And with that, he hurried off.

  She shrugged at the empty bar and then swiveled around on her heel, drink in hand. She felt like an alcoholic in the mostly deserted room very suddenly. With a little huff, she rolled her shoulders back, scooped up her jacket with her left hand, and balanced her drink in her right. Time to find a table that was sufficient to sit at. She paused at a booth that looked comfortable enough, and slid into it, tossing her jacket against the wall.

Working with engines and mechanics was a stressing job, and even when things are done quickly, there are always those people who give you a hard time. That paired with a very long letter from his mother was the perfect combination for Sterling to just jump ship. He normally would have just crashed into his work, but right now he needed to be away from the shop and have any sort of excuse to just not answer his phone. So he just took off for a bit. He couldn't really just take his bike and drive, since the streets of New York City were just flat out obnoxious since you could barely get any speed before you hit another red light, so Sterling settled on finding a place he could just sit down and have a drink.

Hellcat's Hollow seemed nice, so he decided to go there. He wasn't surprised to see the bar empty, it seemed a bit early for people to be crowding a bar, anyway. So as he approached the bar, he just leaned forward, giving it a few seconds. He hadn't much of an idea what he wanted.
"Water," he finally said while a hand went to his temple, "please."

Today was just that kind of day. The kind of day where he really wished he could just order alcohol, but he just wasn't legal to.

 If Laura had known how strung out the newcomer was, she'd have bought him alcohol herself -- oh, wait. Convenient Vida powers let her sense things like that, she just had to pay attention. Of course, Laura wouldn't have really given anyone much attention that she didn't know - it was the helmet he had with him that piqued her interest, so to speak. Now she could tell he was agitated - actually, it was more of a layer-cake of emotion, but the best way to sum it up was 'displeased'. Lance would accuse her of oversimplifying, and as usual, he would be right. Practicality was the key of life.

  Laura made it a point to smile at him when he glanced her way. "What'cha riding?" she asked, leaning back. She was fortunate that it was quiet, her voice projected, and they weren't terribly far from eachother - anything more and she'd have literally had to yell. As it was, she could speak clearly and, provided he acknowledged her, be heard well enough.

  As though she were inviting him over, she sat up a little more straight, swinging her feet off of the cushion of the bench seat across from her. She tapped her boots on the floor impatiently, or so it seemed - Laura wasn't feeling the whole sitting still drill. She'd woken up with a twitch, hence how she'd talked her brother into taking out his bike. Lance never rode, and he harped on Laura if she rode alone. Such a drag.

As he took his drink, and with a small thanks, he made his way over to the curious woman. Setting his glass down, he took a seat on the corner of the seat across from her. She knew he was riding a bike, so she had to have known something.

"Suzuki," he said, sipping his water, "SV650. First generation."

Of course, it was a bit more customized, but that was where he got a fair bit of his parts, like the motor and some of the exterior parts. So he just called it that. He didn't really need to elaborate more than that anyway, she'd get the idea.

He noticed her jacket as he finally got around to removing his own, "How about you?"
He didn't see a bike outside, though. Did she get a ride here, or something?

  Laura had parked her R6 a few spaces down from the Hollow, just because some old asshole in a Lincoln LS had been parallel parking for ten minutes when she and Lance had arrived. She hoped it was still where she'd parked it, but then again, it had some LoJack thing on it, so if someone stole it, they didn't have very long to strip it and part it out before she figured out where it went - and then, of course, she'd kick their face in.

  "I've got an 05 Yamaha R6. It's not right out front like I usually park, but it's the blue one. My brother has a Suzuki, but his is a GSXR 1000." She paused. "He's compensating," she added, lifting her drink and taking a sip before she had a change to say anything else. When she put it back down, she smiled at him. "What a coincidence that we should both end up in the same spot, then, my new riding friend," she informed him. She held her hand out over the table.

  "My name is Laura," she offered, introducing herself. "And I hope greatly you won't be too offended if I weasel my way into your phone at some point during this conversation, because riding with my brother is lame, and nobody else we know is into bikes." She wrinkled her nose a little.

A Yamaha, not bad. He gave a nod, "It's clearly a stroke of good luck. I'm Sterling. Nice to meet you."

Well, this wasn't bad. His chances seemed to be turning out for the better, now. He hadn't really gotten to talk to anyone outside of work, and classes hadn't exactly started yet. Clearly, this was a good choice.

When he mentioned the phone, he gave a nod and placed his phone on the table. It buzzed a moment to let him know he had a few missed calls. With one quick check, he saw it was his mom. He could call her back later. He then passed her the phone, "Feel free."

He leaned back and took in another glass of his water. So she had a brother who had a bike, too. This was good, "I wouldn't imagine people to really be into riding out here, anyway. The street's are nice, but more for pedestrians. Subways and grids and whatnot."

He couldn't emphasize it enough; too many red lights. God, he hated it.

  Laura took his phone; obviously, the girl wasn't shy. She added her number, and then slid it back to him. "If a guy answers, it's probably my brother. He likes to go through my phone routinely, but I do it to him, too, so really, it's not a big deal. We probably should have been twins," she added with a laugh.

She rocked back in her chair, sipping on her mojito, and then eyed his water. "I hope you don't think I'm a drunk or anything," she joked - because he didn't need to know she was a Witch. Seeing a pretty girl slam a drink back in the early afternoon usually made people wonder. "I just thought it would be a nice treat on such a gorgeous day - well, if you don't count the four times I almost got t-boned by people who don't know how to drive in this city. I swear, if they added any more traffic lights, nobody would ever move - ever."

  She smiled at him - a friendly smile, not a flirty smile. Laura had lost the capacity to flirt like most girls did, and she could thank Rowen for that. It was better anyways; a Vida shouldn't even attempt a relationship, and she had learned her lesson the hard way.

"Oh, no." He shook his head while he leaned back. He lowered his voice a bit since it was a small room and he wasn't exactly willing to just let everyone know his age. And by everyone, he meant the bartender or any staff, "It's fine. I'm just not legal to drink."

He laughed a little about the traffic lights. Mostly because it was true. He returned the smile, while taking another sip of his water. Fortunately, Sterling wasn't really looking for a relationship, or to even attempt one. In fact, it was the last thing on his mind. Right now, he needed more friends anyway.

"So, do you live close to here, or is this just a favorite spot?" he asked, "Or, did you just happen to come across this place like I did?"

Laura almost piped up with "Why not, aren't you a shifter? You can't even get drunk!" but she stopped herself at the last moment and just said, "That sucks. I can grab you something if you have a preference," instead. Because Laura didn't need to broadcast to everyone that she could figure out what they were - maybe not down to the genetic strain, but she could separate shifter from Witch from vampire from Triste - most of the time, anyways.

  "My brother and I have a pretty swanky apartment about fifteen minutes away by bike," she said, nodding her head towards the direction of her apartment. "It's central, so it's nice. It's fifteen minutes away from everything except my older brother's apartment, which is good, because he likes to check up on us and we usually have enough time to clean it so it doesn't look like a bomb went off," she said with a laugh.

  "Have you never been in her before?" she asked, surprised. She guessed not everyone would know about how cool this place was, especially during the evenings. "You should see it on a Friday night. It'll be packed from like five all the way 'til five in the morning."

He laughed a little at her surprise, "I'm actually new in town. I lived in Connecticut for most of my life."  
And at that thought, he found it funny that he'd never even taken a small trip to New York City before he moved here. Hell, he barely got out of the state. Well, till now. For a moment, he wondered why, but it wasn't exactly something to be dwelling on in the City.

Five in the morning? Wow. He was so used to the idea of bars closing at two. Of course, New York was the city that never slept, so why should he be surprised? At least he didn't have to work at five in the morning. Okay, that was a lie, opening at 5 AM was common for him, but no one else would roll in for at least two more hours. He usually just meddled with his own stuff at that hour, anyway. Okay, that wasn't the point. There was a difference between opening at that time and working through that hour.

"I'll have come by some time," he had another sip of his water. Clearly, he needed to get out of the workshop a bit more, especially before school started.