Chapter Text
"Good. Then come on, I know a place up the street that's quiet, and I know the bar tender. You can go say goodbye to your friends or whatever you need to do, I gotta wrap up here."
Roxy showed him back out into the club before walking into a different back room. Porrim was standing at a full length mirror, getting ready for her shift.
"Hey girl. What's with you and birthday boy?" the older woman asked, shimmying out of her waitress uniform and into the biker girl outfit she wore for theme night. She felt it suited her full body tattoos. Roxy sighed heavily and sank into a chair, counting her tips for the night as she spoke.
"Remember that kid I mention sometimes, the one I went to my fancy ass private school with till my mom died and I moved out here?"
"Yeah, the guy who was like your best friend that basically cut you off less than a year after you moved right?"
"Yep. Well, that's him. Dirk Strider." she shook her head and chuckled, low in her throat. "Who'd a fuckin' guessed right? Haven't seen him in like eight years and he shows up in the fuckin' strip club I work in. He must go to school here. I bet he goes to CalPoly. Anyway I'm gonna take off and like, catch up or something I guess. Tell Cal I'm sick er somethin' okay?"
"Sure thing, doll. Be safe okay? and fill me in tomorrow!"
"Thanks Momma Porr." Roxy smiled softly and stood, rolling her tips up and rubberbanding them before shoving them into her back pocket. She left the dressing room, pulling her shoulder length hair into a messy bun while she scanned the room for Dirk. He was waiting by the door, looking uneasy under Equius' rather formiddable gaze.
"It's okay, Eq. He's with me. Come on, loser, let's go." Dirk nodded stiffly and they both walked out of the door, hands shoved awkwardly in their pockets.
"So where are we going?" Dirk asked quietly, after a few moments of silence. Roxy pointed up the block, to a well lit red awning with 'The Rockette' written on it in white rope lighting.
"The Rockette. It's a quiet, old fashioned joint. The bartender can be kind of a dick but he's endearingly so. We're friends."she shrugged. Actually the bartender of the Rockette was her ex-boyfriend she was on good terms with, but that did not seem like essential information right now, so she skipped it.
Pushing the double theatre-style doors open, she waved at the guy behind the bar, his hair slicked back in a neat pompadour.
"Hey Cro." the bartender nodded and offered a wink.
"Well if it ain't my favorite lady. Comsopolitan as usual, sugar?"
"As always, and uh, I dunno what this one drinks." she jerked her thumb toward Dirk.
"Oh uh, an old fashioned, I guess." The bartender nodded, and got to work. A few minutes later, he placed both drinks on the polished counter top.
"Thanks, Cro."
"No problem, sugar, they're on the house. It's been a slow night." Roxy nodded and picked up her cosmo, waiting for Dirk to follow suit as she walked over to a small booth under a window.
"So." she said, tracing the lip of her glass with one polished finger. "What brings you to California? Didn't you say you were never leaving the East coast?"
"I, uh. I'm not really sure, actually. I got into all the schools I applied to, and I just liked Stanford's program best, I guess. Where are you going to school?"
"University of California San Francisco's medical program. Studying to be a neurosurgeon. What're you studying?"
"Engineering."
"Of course."
The conversation fell into awkward silence awhile. Dirk sipping his drink and jingling the ice cubes while Roxy continued tracing the rim of her cosmo idly. She cleared her throat once or twice as she tucked errant strands of blonde hair behind her ear.
"I missed you." she said finally, her voice soft, as she stared a hole into the tabletop. Dirk swallowed and nodded stiffly.
"Yeah, uh. Me too. I missed you too. They used to yell at me, Jake and Jane I mean, for not talking to you. And I'd ask after you all the time and they'd tell me to call but it uh, it felt like it had been too long. That was shitty. And I'm sorry. You deserved to have your best friend all those years and I couldn't bring myself to be that for you."
Roxy nodded, swallowing some of her cosmo.
"It's, um, it's okay. I could have kept calling too. I know how you are. It's both our faults. We can start over though, right? You and me?"
"Of course, Roxy. I live less than an hour from here. that's a much more manageable distance than across the country."
Roxy nodded again and smiled gently. "Yeah, true." she pulled her phone from her pocket and groaned when she saw the time. "Shit. Hey, did your friends drive you here?"
"Oh, uh, no I drove myself."
"How drunk are you?"
"Not really at all. I've barely touched this and that drink in the club was awhile ago." he shook the glass which was indeed mostly full.
"Do you think before you go, you could drive me home? It's not far, but I got a ride to work from Porrim today and public transport doesn't run this late."
"Yeah, of course."
"Thanks heaps."
The two rose from the booth and Roxy waved a goodbye to the bartender as they walked back to the club, where Dirk's car was parked. Roxy whistled slowly.
"Nice wheels." Dirk laughed and nodded as he opened a door for her.
"Yeah, they were a going away present from Dave."
"Jesus. Mind if I key my address into your GPS?"
"Sure, go ahead."
They spent the rest of the ride in silence, though slightly more companionable than the last few gaps in conversation had been. Dirk blinked when the GPS told him to pull over as they had reached their destination. They were far from in the best part of town, and the walk up in front of him looked questionable at best.
"You live here? Is this safe?"
"It's cheap, is what it is. Hey, listen, I programmed my number in yer phone while you were driving. Keep in touch this time, kay?" she smiled before shutting the door and starting up the rickety stairs, unlocking the two locks on the door, and disappearing inside. Dirk hesitated before driving away, feeling uneasy about leaving her in such a shifty area of town.