Tweetie

20

The group sat around for ten minutes and Hazel found that they were the perfect distraction. Joel and Oscar picked up the earlier discussion about Shrek, to Fox's horror, and asked Hazel to join in every so often. Fox watched, sighing every time Shrek was mentioned but smiled all the same, seemingly happy that they were getting along. Leo sunk, falling asleep every few minutes in his weakening fight not to.

Things were calm until a gust of wind blew past the table, forcing Hazel to let a breath out and acknowledge the fact that the fifth member of the group had arrived.

"What the hell is going on? Why are you sitting there?"

Everyone turned swiftly to face the open door nobody but Hazel and seemingly Fox had noticed open.

Ryan stood, his hands buried deep in his pockets while his bag hung from one shoulder. He looked tired, much like everyone else did, but he seemed more confused than anything and he looked around, furrowed his eyebrows and parted his lips to ask again but never did.

"What do you mean?" Oscar swiftly turned to him, sharp in his tricks, "we always sit here. Dude, you must be going crazy."

"No way, we sit there." Ryan pointed to their usual table which was admittedly a little more comfortable for some unknown reason. Maybe it was because they got a good view of what was outside the window, maybe it was because it was what they were used to. Who knows.

"No," Hazel sat up, willing to join in even if it meant Ryan would get annoyed at her, "you always sit here, in fact, I'm sitting in your foot seat."

"I swear to God, I'm not going crazy," he gawked, "we sit there."

"Dude... Are you okay?" Oscar held back a laugh, but it seemed like a harder job than he could handle as he let a humoured smile slip, grinning wildly as he immediately went to hide his lips in his palms.

Ryan's face fell, recognising exactly what was going on.

"Both of you are dickheads," Ryan scowled, catching on as he approached. "I thought I was goin' mad. Why are you guys all sat here?" He dropped into the last empty seat beside Hazel, making the seats the same as they usually would be, only, they sat at the wrong table.

"Because Tweetie is really unlucky," Joel explained in little detail, enough to make him confused but not enough to give him any actual idea of what happened.

Instinctively, Ryan turned to Leo, hoping to get answers... But instead, he saw a pool of ashy brown hair and the rise and fall of Leo's resting body as he slept.

"What's happened this time?" Ryan turned back to Hazel, acknowledging his tired friend who seemed to have fallen asleep. Though, it didn't look to be a new thing. "You're already the unluckiest person I know and I've barely known you for more than three weeks."

She sighed, preparing to make herself look even unluckier than she already did.

"My house got broken into in the middle of the night," she shrugged, losing the shock of saying it after saying it so many times in succession. It just slipped from her tongue like a plain greeting. Honestly, it felt more like small talk. "No big deal."

"...Oh." He said before pausing and turning back to her in shock, "wait, what? Don't sound so damn casual about it."

"Well, I didn't see much. I found some stranger in my house, they ran off, then I fell back to sleep on the couch."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," she sat up, "didn't get much sleep though. My couch is uncomfortable and the police kept coming and going. Somebody needs to tell them to keep it down while they work."