The Fast Lane [gxg]

Eye-to-Eye, Heart-to-Heart, Lips-to-Lips

"You're looking awfully chipper today," Declan commented from his designated spot at the bar. He reached out for the milkshake Maze slid across the counter to him.

"Why wouldn't I be chipper?" Maze said, spinning around with a flare, hands clasped together against her chest. "It's sunny out... the breeze is just right..."

"And you're friends with Kassandra again," Brielle finished from down the way, a hand on her hip and the other resting on the counter in front of one of their regulars.

"Ah," the customer said, "I was wondering when you two would be back to terrorizing the town."

"We don't terrorize," Maze insisted with a scowl.

"Tell that to the graffiti on the bridge," the man said with a roll of his eyes.

Maze grimaced. Yeah... she and Kass might have put their initials on the railroad bridge over the river. And, now that she thought about it properly, that was rather romantic of them to do back in high school. As far as she knew, only couples put their initials on that bridge.

Another regular—a woman with a knack for flannel and monstrously-sized curls—said, "And the fence my husband had to replace back in 2010."

"That was an accident," Maze said. Maze, Kass, and Willa had attempted cow tipping. Emphasis on attempted. It made her feel psychopathic and she wimped out before they were chased down by the bull. The fence didn't fair well.

"And the—!"

"Alright! I get it!" Maze groaned, head thrown back. "I don't think I have the energy to do stuff like that anymore. I mean, who knows. University really sucked it all outta me."

"Sucked, huh?" Declan teased, and Maze glowered at him for his crude mind. Granted, her brain went there too—but she was at work with her mother in shouting distance.

"Now's the time to act out before you have to settle down. That's what I always say," the woman said, lifting her coffee like champaign for a cheer. And then, she gave it a little shake in Brielle's direction.

Brielle smiled and glided over with the coffee pot. "I don't know about that anymore. Don't want it to land on your permanent record when ya start job searching," she said.

As Brielle shifted the conversation over to internships and university, Maze drifted to the background and, eventually, through the kitchen door. She skated past the lockers only to double-back at the sound of distinct buzzing coming from her locker. She pulled the door open and slid her phone off of the top shelf.

12:45 K: Hey

12:45 K: Plans after work?

12:46 M: Whatever you have planned is my plan

12:46 M: Declan and I are leaving at 7PM though

12:46 K: Yeah I know

12:46 M: You know?

12:46 K: Yeah I'm coming with you guys tonight

12:47 K: Declan didn't tell you?

"I figured she told you since y'all are on speaking terms again," Declan said that afternoon when Maze got out of work. She skated in backwards circles as he sat on the curb, lacing up his own pair of skates with bright, neon pink wheels.

"It's not—Well, I guess you're right... We have been talking more lately," she confessed, but they talked the most when they were in person. Which only seemed to be when Maze delivered lunch or when they snuck away from their friends to talk.