Snowfall ◯ The Originals

One

"Whiskey. Neat." The man slid his glass back to the bartender, pursing his lips as he did so. The bartender, a blonde woman by the name of Camille, he had learned by her name tag, filled his glass before placing it back infront of him.

This continued for a while, the man attempting to get drunk and the bartender looking at him in slight concern each and every time she filled his glass. He was failing, obviously, for he wasn't showing any signs of actually being drunk. If anything, the man had a slight buzz.

After the eighth drink, Cami paused, before placing her hand over his glass. "I think I'm gonna need to cut you off, there, buddy."

Just as she finished speaking, the man who was singing with the karaoke machine to his right and her left jumped down, a grin on his face. "Thank you, Thank you." He called, numerous people around the drinking man applauding the African American Singer.

The man at the bar could hear the Singer's friends telling him how great he sang; He wasn't even that good. He was hardly above average.

"So, what's your name?" Camille asked the man over the people talking in the bar, having to raise her voice to assure that he heard her.

"Why?" His question caught her off guard.

"I don't have to know, just curious. I want to know why you're drinking."

"Believe me," he paused, glancing up just barely long enough to read her name tag, "Camille, if you had seen nearly as much as me, you would be drinking too. Trouble is, I'm not bloody drunk. I've had twelve drinks, yet I'm not drunk."

"You sound pretty drunk to me, Buddy."

There was a short pause, before the man broke the silence. "...Erik."

"Huh?"

"My name."

"Oh." Cami paused, sending Erik a small smile. "Well, Erik, I'm Camille. But most people call me Cami."

A smile came onto Erik's features, breaking his neutral expression. It was more of a smirk, really, but it was something. Despite the fact that all he could hear was a little girl's voice echoing in his head.

"Just Erik?"

He shook his head to rid it of the voice, though it hardly worked, it was enough for him to focus on the conversation at hand. The shaking of his head had caused his hair to fall into his face, causing him to look up through the white strands.

He quickly brushed them away with his fingers, glancing at the woman as he waited for her to speak. Though it seemed fate wasn't on his side as Cami had moved on to another customer.

"Well, Erik, I'm Astri."

He shrugged in slight disappointment, though overall it didn't matter. He reached into his wallet, pulling out a few twenties and placing them on the wooden counter. "Cami?" He called after her.

"Huh?" She held up her pointer finger to the customer she was speaking with before turning to Erik.

"Is this enough?" He held out the bills to her. Her eyes widened a little, before she took the green out of his hand.

"Um.. yeah. This is perfect. Let me just count out your change-" Erik cut her off.

"Keep it." He was already halfway out the door by the time she had counted out his change anyways.