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Four-seventy five, four-eighty, four-eighty five, four-ninety.
He paused from his coin counting, furrowing his brows. He reached into his pocket- there. Last dime.
"Five dollars. Perfect. Although my methods of payment will surely not be seen as favorable, it'll have to do." The bluebird muttered to himself, shifting the paper bills and coins to his other wing.
He slid them to the skeleton across the counter, who nodded at him with an unwavering grin. Berdly gently put the two packaged ice cream sandwiches in his letterman bag.
The convenience store was perfectly on the way to his meeting spot with Noelle. He just hoped his absence didn't worry her for too long.
My tardiness might just go unnoticed entirely, he thought. Not bitterly, no, just a statement. His friend had been absentminded recently. Or rather, her mind had been elsewhere, which could almost look the same to someone who doesn't know her as well. Her grades had been slipping, she was making careless mistakes that she never use to, and Berdly knew she hadn't been sleeping.
Noelle had changed their usual meeting spot from the library to the graveyard. She'd told him it was because the weather was getting to be too nice to stay inside, or that it was nice and quiet out there. He didn't argue with her. He knew why she wanted to stay at the graveyard- or at least near the graveyard.
As he approached the graveyard, the chilling breeze sent him the smell of dry, old fruit before he even spotted Noelle.
Right, he thought with a sigh.
There was a large tree that sat outside the far cobblestone wall, making a shaded nook that couldn't be seen into from the main path. If it weren't for the deer girl's antlers sticking out from behind the wall nobody would have known she was there. Well, again, besides the undeniable smell of alcohol.
Noelle sat on her knees with a textbook in her lap, it almost seemed like simply decoration since her eyes were stuck on the multicolored leaves above her. She reached for a dark wine bottle that sat open next to her, but her fingers barely grazed it, sending it off balance.
Berdly stopped the bottle with his taloned foot. "That makes five," He said plainly.
"What?"
"Times I've successfully approached you without you noticing."
"Oh, faha," she said, faltering a smile. She reached over to it, but Berdly bend down and picked it up before she could. He brushed a few stray blades of grass off the glass before handing it back.
He adjusted his glasses. "Five times this week. Noelle dear, your situational awareness is becoming frankly astonishing."
"Sorry," she looked down, curling her fingers around the neck of the bottle.
"I wasn't complaining." He said with a shrug, and finally sat down on the grass beside her.
She tilted her head, "You kinda were."
"I was simply making an observation."
"Is that what you call complaining now?"
"Semantics." he offered flatly. He lifted his bag over his head, and retrieved the two ice cream sandwiches. He handed one to Noelle. "I know it's sort of getting too cold for ice cream but-"
"No, no! Thank you!" She said with a genuine smile, one he saw less of these days. She still smiled, just less wide. You couldn't see her big front teeth.
They tore open the packages and ate in silence for a few moments. He'd been right, it was too cold for ice cream, but the desert was still somewhat grounding. Something old and familiar when so many other things weren't.
"That isn't the one you had yesterday." He said, his mouth full.
"Huh?"
"The wine."
"Hmm." she hummed slowly, looking away. "No it's not."
"Thought so. I happen to possess an excellent memory." He said with a ting of pride in his voice.
"Faha, unfortunately true." she said, rolling her eyes. She finished up her sandwich and crumpled up the wrapper.
Berdly looked down at her textbook again. "Read tonight's chapters already?" he said out of the side of his beak.
"Um, no not yet. I was actually reading something else earlier. "
She fumbled for a book that sat beside her, he'd somehow missed it before. Ghost Hunter.
"I know that book, I have it!" The bluebird stood up suddenly, eyes wide. "So you're ready to get serious about this? It won't be an easy task. You know-"
"I- I know." She said, looking down at the book, sliding her fingers down the spine repeatedly. "I think i've seen some thing. I think we could maybe really find-" she paused, looking over the cemetery wall to a nearby grave.
Noelle pulled her knees up to her chest, and took a small sip from the wine bottle.
Berdly still stood next to her, but began pacing, trapped between comforting his friend and the excitement of many plans running through his head.
Noelle lifted her head, brows furrowed. "Berdly, I don't have a problem." she gripped the neck of the bottle tightly again.
"I didn't say you did, Noelle. I'm just thinking. Not about you, although I do think about you, very often." He twiddled his feathers together, looking down at them as he walked back and forth.
"Very often?"
"You-" He stopped to look down at her. He could tell she was trying her best to look brave, to look sure of herself. But her wrinkled skirt that use to always be perfectly ironed, unorganized papers sticking out of her backpack, and bags under her eyes told a different story. Don't scare her away. She's been so defensive about the wine, I can't. "Just.. make sure you read the homework chapters at some point, alright?"
Noelle smiled slowly and nodded, taking another sip. "Of course."