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Post by Callie on Sept 13, 2010 4:22:17 GMT -4
It was early evening and Callie wasn't actually sure where Remy had got to, probably in a bar trying his luck as usual, she'd go find him later.
For now, she just wanted to have a little stroll, a little bit of alone time. It wasn't that she didn't want to spend time with Remy, far from it, but a girl needed to be alone every now and again.
If that alone time happened to include a little companionship eventually, well, that was just fine too.
She liked walking through uptown areas, pretending she actually belonged here. Ok so her jacket was old and her jeans were a little grubby, but she could still pretend, and she was very good at ignoring the dirty looks from those people who didn't think she should be here. She was so good at ignoring the other people, in fact, that she ran right into one.
"Oh, sorry."
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 13, 2010 7:40:28 GMT -4
Right now it was good to just be out of the school.
Bobby was definitely a people person. Whenever he was around large groups of people, especially if they were all focused on him, he seemed to think he was at his best. Right now it was enough to just be around people that he didn't have to talk to.
With the ear buds to his iPod shoved securely in, and a baseball cap pulled down low, Bobby strolled down the city streets and watched people from behind his dark sunglasses. Behind him he heard two cars getting into a horn war and he looked over his shoulder at them while he slowed his pace a little. Just two cabbies fighting over the right of way. They really should look where they were-
"Oof!"
He turned back around to see who he had run headlong into. "No it was my bad-" He stopped his sentence short when he saw a face that seemed to have jumped right out of his dreams. "No way," he whispered to himself. Plucking the headphones out, he smiled a little to cover up his initial shock. "Are you okay?"
Then he pulled down his glasses and studied her with his blue eyes. "Do...do I know you?" It sounded immediately like a pick up line, but Bobby didn't feel like retracting it. At least he didn't add We've met before...in my dreams.
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Post by Callie on Sept 15, 2010 5:10:38 GMT -4
At his apparent shock, Callie's hand flew self-consciously up to her hat to make sure it hadn't slipped and was still covering her ears. This ascertained, she was ready to ask him what he was staring at, when she finally properly looked at him, and found herself staring just a little as well.
"I'm not sure..." She admitted after a long pause "Y'look kinda familiar...."
That was worrying. Callie liked to try and keep a good memory for faces, you had to in her line of work, it was always best to make sure you weren't scamming someone twice. He didn't seem particularly bothered to see her again though, so that probably wasn't the problem this time at least.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 15, 2010 13:58:39 GMT -4
Right about here was where Bobby Drake would have normally totally poured it on. Oh yeah, the reason I look familiar? Because you must have had a dose of Drake before. Once you go Drake you never awake. Which rhymed fine, but it still lacked in the making sense department.
And while these responses might have been totally typical for Bobby under most circumstances, he couldn’t find himself to muster up one ounce of cockiness right now. His emotions were all mixed up. He was glad that she thought he might look familiar, and even gladder that she wasn’t huffing off on him because she was so hot that she thought she was like out of his league or something.
The hell?
Bobby didn’t usually think of things like that. Girls weren’t out of Bobby’s league. He was out of their league. He was the freaking Iceman for crying out loud!
But this girl. There was something extra slinky about the way she moved and it made him want to picture her naked. So he did. It didn’t exactly help things.
Clearing his throat, he tried to summon the cool that was his trademark. “I’m Bobby,” he said with a smooth smile. “And I gotta say, I am loving that accent. What is it? Swedish?” He felt foolish all of the sudden.
Was Sweedland a place?
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Post by Callie on Sept 16, 2010 13:56:48 GMT -4
He was being an absolute dork, and normally when faced with someone like that, Callie would just laugh and move on.
Sometimes she might be interested in a little entertainment (as long as Remy didn't find out), but it had to be with someone a little more experienced, and the dorky type definitely wasn't it.
And yet... Callie had no idea what it was that made her stay, all she knew was that him being a total dork seemed, somehow, to actually... well, work... not that it was particularly charming or endearing (well, maybe a little), it was mostly just that it seemed so perfectly suited, like he was supposed to be a dork and it would be weird if he was anything else.
Which is ridiculous, because she'd never even met him before and it wasn't like he looked all that dorky.
Whatever it was, it meant that rather than rolling her eyes and leaving him drooling in her wake, she actually laughed - laughed!? - and answered his question.
"Not quite, not even close actually, 'm from N'awlins."
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 16, 2010 14:12:02 GMT -4
“N’awwlins,” Bobby parroted a little awkwardly.
That was like, south, right?
“Well this is New York,” he tried to explain. “Things run a little different here.” He thought they probably did anyway. Okay, actually he had no idea if they did or not. “Probably.” There, that should cover it. “I mean here everyone is out to get something from you. You have swindlers and pick-pockets, and con artists and those are just the politicians.”
He was trying to be funny so he showed her a big grin.
“Like if I was a pickpocket I totally would have been able to swipe your…wallet when we bumped.” Okay so most chicks didn’t carry a wallet. So what? “That’s why I always carry mine in my…”
He started patting his pants pockets, a growing look of worry spreading over his face.
“Crap!”
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Post by Callie on Sept 16, 2010 14:21:42 GMT -4
Callie kept a wide-eyed innocent look on her face while he talked about conmen and pickpockets, nodding along with what he was saying - though she couldn't help but let out a surprised laugh at the mention of politicians.
Of course, she should have expected a joke like that from him .... wait, should she? She didn't even know him. Maybe she was just getting really good at reading people. She was supposed to be good at that, right? It was sort of in the job description, maybe she was just picking up on the fact that he was a joking sort of person.
Now if she could just figure out how she'd picked up on that, she'd feel so much better about it.
Still, she smirked when he went looking for his wallet. Couldn't blame a girl for taking advantage of a situation, could you?
"Lookin' fo' dis?" She asked, holding his wallet up between two fingers with an impish grin, though even as she did it she didn't know why. Why hadn't she just kept the damn wallet? She told herself she didn't need it, that they'd made plenty of money today, but when had that ever stopped her before?
It just felt right, somehow, to be teasing him rather than actually stealing from him.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 16, 2010 14:28:03 GMT -4
Bobby was totally starting to freak out. Okay he had his wallet about ten minutes ago when he was buying that slice of pizza. He broke a twenty…aw man there was like fifteen bucks in there or something! That might not have been a lot to the average person, but Bobby didn’t exactly have a job.
Or like want one.
He just kept patting his same pockets over and over until the girl in front of him suddenly held up his wallet. At first he thought maybe he had dropped it and she had picked it up for him, but that sexy little smirk on her face told him differently. His eyes went wide at the realization and he grabbed his wallet.
“Callie! That’s so not cool!”
It didn’t even occur to him that she had never mentioned her name.
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Post by Callie on Sept 18, 2010 9:57:56 GMT -4
Callie was actually almost laughing, laughing! His face was just a picture and she felt oddly carefree around him - that all drained away after a few seconds when she suddenly realised what he'd just said.
For a very long moment, she did absolutely nothing, her mind racing as she stared at him. Weird feelings of having met someone before, or being instantly comfortable with them, well, that was one thing, a little bit odd but easily put down to good chemistry or an over-active imagination, but him knowing her name?
She definitely didn't say it, and she had never worn a name tag in her life, nor did she own any jewellry or clothing with her name on it, and she didn't think anybody had called her by name within earshot of this boy unless he'd been stalking her.
...was that it? Was he stalking her? She never expected to be the sort of person to gain a stalker but anything could happen. It didn't even have to be romantic stalking, actually that was the least worrying of the possibilities. How old did one have to be to be in law enforcement these days? Was he after her somehow?
She took a sharp step back and eyed him, suddenly on guard.
"Who are you? How do you know my name?"
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 18, 2010 14:06:50 GMT -4
Bobby took the wallet back and slipped it back into his pocket. He thought about getting it out and counting the money, but didn't bother with it. He did check to make sure he still had his watch though. That was still strapped on tightly, and he was so busy with taking an overall inventory that he totally missed the look on Callie's face.
When he looked up he saw that she had taken a step backwards and was looking at him with a freaked out kind of look on her face. Bobby paused and tried to remember if he'd like done something weird or something.
"What?"
"Who are you? How do you know my name?"
He was actually speechless. Hitting the mental rewind he saw himself snatching the wallet out of her hand and heard himself saying her name again. "Callie," he said with a haunted kind of expression on his face. "Your name is Callie..."
This so wasn't helping.
"Woah." His eyes went up to her hat. She was hiding something under there. No wait...he couldn't know that.
Now Bobby took a step back.
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Post by Callie on Sept 20, 2010 9:08:40 GMT -4
Things just got even weirder when first he seemed to have no idea what she was talking about, then suddenly realised and looked just as freaked out as she felt - which really wasn't fair, surely she was the one who got to be freaked out, he was the one who'd used her name without having been told it.
"Yes my name is Callie." She said firmly "So how de hell do you know dat?"
Maybe the whole being freaked out was just an act? She wasn't the only person in the world who knew how to con people, right? Maybe it was to try and cover up his slip?
And if a tiny part in the back of her mind said no way, Bobby was far too sweet for that, well, she steadfastly ignored it, because she couldn't possibly know that about someone.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 20, 2010 9:21:48 GMT -4
Okay so it was one thing to have a girl that looks like a girl you’ve been dreaming about bump into you on the New York City streets. It was another thing to have this freaky feeling that you knew that you knew that girl the whole time you were talking to her…but this was something completely over the line. He knew her name. Like he really knew her. But like he didn’t.
But like he wished he did.
“How do I know that?”
How do I know that?!
He had to play this thing off. She was looking freaked out, he was totally freaking out inside, but didn’t want to make that too obvious. “I’m…psychic.” He pointed at his head with an affirming nod and what he hoped was a charming smile. He was still totally freaking, so his smile looked a little on the strained side. But he rolled with it.
“Yeah. It’s just kind of this thing I do. Not like professionally or anything…but I dabble. It’s a hobby. He put his fingertips to his forehead like he’d seen the Professor do a few times. “Callie,” he said slowly with a nod. “Yes. It’s all coming clear now. You’re from uh…N’awlins.” She’d already said that. “And your name is Callie.” He’d already said that.
He shrugged.
“That’s all I got.”
But wait a minute. What if he really was psychic? Because how could he know anything like this? Bobby started to ponder the possibility.
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Post by Callie on Sept 20, 2010 10:29:03 GMT -4
Callie raised an eyebrow. She really wished she could accept that explanation, and let's face it in a world full of mutants it was a much easier explanation to accept than it could have been, but he was just so utterly... well, it was downright obvious that he wasn't, with all the phony posing and pronouncing things that had already been said out loud.
Yet it sort of made her relax, such a ridiculous explanation, did he really not know what was going on either? It almost, almost made her laugh - or would have if she wasn't so freaked out.
Instead she put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Bobby Drake, you ain' a psychic an' you know it, now stop foolin' around an' tell me de trut'"
It was like the longer she was around him, the more she felt like she knew him, and wait a minute when had she learnt his last name? He'd introduced himself, hadn't he? ... He must have said it then, he must have...
Maybe he really was a telepath and he'd planted the name in her head to freak her out. It sounded ridiculous but she didn't know what to think any more.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 20, 2010 10:58:56 GMT -4
The more he thought about it, the more this totally made sense. Maybe he was getting one of those…secondary mutation things. Yeah! The idea was kind of exciting to him. What if he could read minds, or predict the future or something. Bobby Drake, telepath. It had a nice ring!
“Oh yeah,” Bobby said a little defensively. “If I’m not a psychic then…then…how do I know that you’re hiding something under your hat and that you making purring noises and scratch when you get excited?”
Bobby winced a little at the memory, his back feeling like it was on fire.
How did he know that?
Oh man, he totally was a psychic!
He was so caught up in it that he didn’t notice she used his last name. Even if he had, he would have imagined that he ‘beamed’ it to her mentally or something.
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Post by Callie on Sept 20, 2010 12:40:13 GMT -4
Callie did not blush. She was smooth and cool and confident and she was a con artist, and she did not blush like a schoolgirl.
But damnit, if a complete stranger said something like that to anybody they'd probably go at least a little bit red, right?
Now she really hoped he was psychic, because any other explanation just didn't bear thinking about, and at least there was no way he was in any kind of law enforcement, they'd never say something like that... well, ok, some of them would, but everything about him screamed anything but cop, so she decided to put that theory aside.
"If you are psychic, stay de hell out of my head." She snapped, feeling irritable because she'd been embarrassed, and she was way out of her depth.
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