A Man of Many Masks || 'The Grabber' x Reader

Reunited - Part 2

i see a hickory smoked ham in front of me

but i don't know where it came from

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Albert was stunned, any thoughts he previously had were stolen from his brain the second your (e/c) eyes met his. 

"I-I've been wanting to talk.. t-to you." You weren't one to normally stutter, but whenever you were around him your words always seemed to get caught in your teeth, having to then awkwardly force them out.

"Yeah." He voice clearly softened from the way he greeted you. The greeting was sincere and welcoming, but his voice is just naturally a bit ruff sounding. When he talks to you, however, his voice is soft as fountain plants. Could a sound be compared to a texture? Whatever, there'd be time to think about that later. If he Accepted your proposal. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Well I was wondering you wanted... if you... wanna maybe catch up some time? Uh-If you want to..." You carefully stepped over to the counter just close enough for you to place a paper on it, although you still had to bend over a bit to reach it. "Here's my home number. See ya." You stiffly yet rapidly left the store, along with an absolutely dumbfounded Albert.

 It took a moment, but he was eventually able to gather his thoughts back, and picked up the small piece of paper, as well as the magazine he'd dropped. He almost couldn't believe that you wanted to even breathe the same air as him, let alone want to "catch up". 

Eventually, Earnie came back from visiting his mother, and Al was quick to finish the rest of his tasks. With your number in his pocket, he got into his van and drove home. Once he was there, he practically ran into the house and checked around for Max, when he saw he wasn't home Albert immediately rushed to his phone, your number in his hand. If anyone else were there, they would've said that he looked like a schoolboy calling his crush for the first time. The phone rang twice, before hearing your sweet voice. "L/n residents, Y/n speaking." 

"Y/n, hello. It's Albert."

"I-uh-Hey! Yeah um... hi, Albert." You were incredibly nervous, and Albert could tell. Fear crept its way through your words and you had to try to keep your voice stable, or else it would crack and shake.

You almost sounded like Max, and Albert would've chuckled at your unorganised greeting if he didn't know that the reason for it was that you were stuttering out of fear, not because you were 'flustered' or anything. "So, why did you want to call?" He didn't mean to sound like a friend who you'd gotten into a fight with a week prior, but that's just how his tone came out. 

You picked up on his.. rough, demeanor, and you were a little intimidated by it. Had you done something wrong? "Uhm.. well I didn't wanna actually talk too much over the phone.. uh- I was hoping that this could just be.. shit, uh, that we could discuss a place to meet up in person? Somewhere public. Where there are um.. y'know, people." You should've written a script, because no matter how hard you tried, you just couldn't find a way to organise your words.

"You.. y-ou want to actually see me..?" His voice cracked for the first time years. He almost felt like a teenager again; with how he was acting ever since you handed him your number.

"Yeah...?" You spoke slowly, not knowing what might make him angry or confused, or even both. You just wanted to make sure he didn't feel like he was being backed into a corner, or uncomfortable in any way.

Albert, on the other hand, was completely taken aback by the fact that you ever wanted to see his face again. There was a moment when he thought that you were trying to get him to talk to you so that you could wear a wire and then get him to confess. Only one moment though, because he didn't exactly know why, but he trusted you. "Sure thing, when would you want to hook up?"

"Hey," you chuckled, "at least buy me dinner first." With his tone now less stern, you felt comfortable enough to joke a bit.

"N- I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that! I-" 

"Hey! You're fine, man. I was just kidding around." You assured him, giggling a bit.

Albert let out a sigh of relief while the ghost of a smile painted his lips. "Right. So uhm, when would be good with you?"

"Uhhh, anytime when I'm not in school. But I could always just skip if I need to." You offered. Both of you now sounded like two, completely casual and normal people. Both the tones in your voices were pleasant and unbothered, no rushing over and stumbling on words. Just a civil conversation.

"No, I don't want you to skip for me. Class is important, especially your senior year." It was nice that he cared, not even your mother was adamant about you going to school, in fact, she'd make you stay home if she was sick so that you'd be able to take care of her. Even when the school called her to say that you were skipping too much, she didn't pay any mind to it. She knew that she hadn't called you out all the times they said you'd skipped, so she thought that you were just skipping to walk around the town, do drugs, and shoplift. She was right, but she never cared enough to confront you about it.

"Alright.. well what days do you have work? And when do you get off?" You questioned.

"Every weekday, Monday through Wednesday I get off at 5:00, Thursdays and Fridays the hours vary a bit... but normally I get off somewhere between noon and 3:00."

"Hm..." You thought for a moment. "Today's Wednesday, right?"

"Yup." Albert Answered

"Okay so maybe... maybe you could.. wait, no... Fuck, okay umm- ...So, I get out at 2:45 tomorrow, would you be able to meet me at that one diner near by? I think it's called.. patio coffee shop, or something?"

Albert knew you were going to ask him to pick you up after school and take you to the diner, but then remembered what happened the last time that he "picked you up." It made him feel guilty that you couldn't trust him the way he was able to trust you. "Yeah, that works. It'd take you... mm, around fifteen minutes to walk there? And I'd be outta work by 3:00 at the latest, takes five minutes to drive there... yeah I think that'll work out."

"Alright, cool!" He could hear the smile in your voice.

"Yeah.. rad." He was smiling too.

"Welp, I have a shit ton of homework to do, but it was nice talking to you again." Your voice was soft.

"It was nice talking to you too, Y/n." And so was his.

You couldn't stop the giggle that erupted from your throat, you couldn't help it, even talking to him made you giddy. Not to mention the fact that you're actually going to see him again.

"See ya at the diner, dove."

Absolutely starstruck.

"See ya then, Al."

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Word count: 1,206

had to put this stupid fuckin thing into a word counter on a different site. 

-Bowie <3