- - - common ground

[clark welby]

Clark hated coffee, he wasn't hungry and he wanted to get to the apartment building as soon as possible to deposit all of his junk that was stuffed into an oversized duffle bag. But he was sick of carrying around said duffle bag and his guitar case, so he walked into a cafe, A Common Ground. Clever name. He sat down at one of the empty tables, which made him feel a bit lonely. It was his first year at the University of Maryland, despite the fact that he was twenty. He should have been going into his sophomore year (and a lot of twenty-year-olds would be juniors), but he had taken a year off after high school to travel the world. Hah. That ended up well. Clark ended up staying in the first city of his grand tour, London, and didn't do much of anything besides head out to the pubs with his friends. It was a good time and Clark wanted to continue having good times, not go to school in Baltimore.

He wondered if he should order something, but decided against wasting his money. Not that he had issues with money, coming from a wealthy family. He didn't work, his dad sent him monthly money - nice life, eh? Suddenly, someone sat down at his table and he looked up at the person. "Might I ask who you are?" He didn't mind meeting people and it was better than sitting alone. But it was quite random that a perfect stranger would sit down with him.

[delia arsenault]

Delia had been walking around Baltimore since noon when she spotted A Common Ground and realized how desperately she needed a drink and a place to sit for awhile. Her legs aching with effort after every step, she propelled herself to the nearest table and sat even though it was clear that this particular table was already in use. She was about to introduce herself, when he spoke up, asking her who she was. "I'm Delia" She explained with a smile, "And might I ask who you are?"

She scanned the menu, skipping over all the coffee's and tea's before deciding she'd just buy a water or something. After walking for a few hours, the last thing you'd want is a steaming hot beverage laced with sugar and caffeine. Rooting around in her bright yellow wallet, she pulled out two dollars and slapped it atop the table.

[clark welby]

"I'm Clark," he responded, still wondering why exactly this girl -Delia- was sitting at his table. Was he supposed to know her from somewhere? No, she didn't know who he was, so that possibility wasn't actually a possibility at all. She took out her wallet, which made Clark begin thinking about what he wanted to order again. Hm. He wasn't hungry or thirsty, but he didn't like the idea of awkwardly sitting at the table. At least having a drink would give him something to do with his hands.

No, Clark didn't want a drink. He occupied one hand by resting his head on it and he placed his other hand on the table. "I'm new here," he explained. Perhaps it was a common thing in Baltimore to sit down at random tables or maybe this was the girl's table that she sat at every time she came to the restaurant and she didn't want to break routine. "From London. Originally Philly. Are you from around here?"

[delia arsenault]

"I've always wanted to go to London," Delia informed him, looking for quarters at the bottom of her over sized handbag, "But, my mom says she'd never go back there though she wouldn't tell me why. My aunt hates traveling and well, frankly, I can't afford to go myself" She shrugged, pushing a stray strand of hair away from her face. His question confused her and she gave him a blank stare while scratching absentmindedly at her chin. Was he asking her if she lived near the coffee shop or just in the general Baltimore area? Or maybe where she had lived as a child? "By 'around here' do you mean Baltimore? Because then yes, yes I do live around here...? But as a child I lived in Georgia, so I guess I'm from there...if you want to get all technical, that is. "

Suddenly, it dawned on her that this boy must think she was incredibly rude. Barging in and taking a seat at his table! Why, it was probably saved for his girlfriend or something. She quickly scanned the shop for a pair of glaring, jealous girlfriend eyes before turning back to him, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to be rude! I was just so tired, you see I was running all around Baltimore doing errands for different people and I just needed a place to sit for a moment!" She explained, blue eyes growing wide, "I'll leave if you like. You were probably saving this seat for someone anyways!"

[clark welby]

"It's cool. Lots of good pubs. Good people, for the most part." Clark shrugged. "I can't say I'm going to miss the weather much" -was he seriously resorting to talking about weather?- "but I know I'll miss not having to do a bit of work." It was a shame her mom and aunt wouldn't let her go. Clark didn't have a problem convincing his parents to let him go to London. Convincing them to let him stay in London instead of traveling the rest of Europe was the hard part. They wanted him to get cultured and he just wanted to chill in a pleasant city until he was forced to attend college.

"Yeah, Baltimore, Hampden, whatever." Okay, he realized that was close to being a stupid question. If she didn't live around here, she probably wouldn't be at the coffee shop. Unless she was like, on vacation or something. Not that someone would actually vacation to a boring city like this. "Gerogia? Did you grow oranges? Or peaches? Or cantelope?" He couldn't quite remember what orange fruit grew in Georgia. Oranges, he thought. He remembered those orange juice commercials and was pretty sure they took place in Georgia.

Saving the seat for someone? Clark laughed. He had barely been in this city for thirty minutes. He knew one person in this city and that was Delia. "Not at all. I'm a total loner in Baltimore so far."

[delia arsenault]

She giggled to herself. Pub was such a funny word. It almost sounded like an insult, that is if you furrowed your brow evilly and spoke in a raspy, mean voice. "If I ever do go to London, then I think I'd like to visit a pub," Delia stated, though she didn't drink much anymore. Save for the occasional martini every once in a while...

So far, their conversation was deeply confusing Delia. Did she look like a cantaloupe-grower? "Ummmmmm....I didn't grow anything. Oh wait! Actually one time, I think my sister might've grown strawberries or something." The more she thought about it, Delia really couldn't remember if that had actually happened or if she'd read it in a book, "Or maybe it was apples." Oh well, it was definitely a red-colored fruit.

"Well, I could still leave if I'm bothering you," She offered, rereading the menu. Though she wasn't in the mood for coffee, water just didn't sound appetizing. Maybe they had some type of fruity smoothie or something.

[clark welby]

Clark leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms over his head. "I'll show you all the best pubs," he promised, although Delia had never said anything about going to London with Clark. "I think I've nearly been to every pub there. They're all pretty good. 'Course, all the beer tastes nearly the same, so it doesn't matter." He wondered if Delia drank at all. She didn't seem like a big drinker to him, but he was never very good at pegging people as things.

Strawberries? Was Clark totally off and Georgia was famous for strawberries? God, he thought it was an orange fruit. Whatever. She probably just thought he was a total idiot, but hey, that's okay. "You don't need to leave!" he said, too quickly, causing him to sound rather desperate. "I mean, I need to get to know people in this city. And you seem like a good person to start with."

[delia arsenault]

"Would you really?" She asked, feeling quite touched, at least until he mentioned something about beer. Beer wasn't her favorite type of alcohol, it tasted like cat pee and anyone who found cat pee tasty was probably a little screwed up in the head. Now she wasn't so sure she wanted to go to all the pubs if she had to drink cat pee! "Is that all they have? Beer?"

She smiled, nodding her head. "I actually am a good person to start with." Delia had always thought of herself as a pretty friendly person, unless she was in a bad mood. Because, then she wasn't very friendly at all. Like, the time someone had spilled coffee all over a white blouse she had worked on allllll night and Delia had lost her temper and punched her in the face. She couldn't quite say that was her proudest/friendliest moment to date, "I'm a pretty friendly person," Drumming her fingernails against the recently cleaned tabletop, she bit her lower lip when she realized the teensy mistake she might've made, "But I'm not friendly in that way, if that's what you were thinking"

[clark welby]

"Nah, they have loads of other stuff," Clark said, sounding somewhat smug at the fact that he was right about this girl's poison of choice. They didn't exactly have cosmos or whatever girls drank these days at the pubs he went to, but there was stuff other than beer. He just never really noticed it because he liked beer.

Not friendly in what way? He liked friendly in the sort of way that Delia was friendly and didn't really understand what she meant by her statement. Unless... Oh. Oh. "God, no! I mean, I like friendly girls once in a while. I'm not gay. I mean, gay people are cool. I'm just not gay. Yeah. But um, yeah. I like your type of friendly better." Unless he was in the mood for sex, but that didn't happen that often.

[delia arsenault]

"That's good. Beer tastes like piss" She explained, still annoyingly drumming her short fingernails on the table. Remembering how thirsty she had been only moments before, she jumped up and walked towards the barista, without even a "be right back" quickly thrown over her shoulder. A moment later, she returned with a bottle of Gatorade, sliding back into her seat.

"Oh okay, because I didn't want you to get the wrong impression, you know? Sorry if I made you...uncomfortable or whatever, " She shrugged, glad he wasn't going to shove singles at her and ask for a lap dance, "I like my type of friendly better too. You don't have to pay to be my friend." It was quite a blunt, awkward statement -something that Delia was famous for -though not necessarily true since not all "friendly" girls were actually strippers, "Though if you wanted to give me money...."