2019-06-08 - Neighborly Help

They say there is a first time for everything, and so perhaps for the first time in Huckleberry's history, an Oakes comes knocking on the door of a Turner's trailer. The blonde stands outside beneath the awning, hugging her arms to her chest and over the strap of her overly large purse, wiggling with the chill in the air she obviously did not dress for in her tank top and flowery long skirt. "Geoff?" She calls in after a brief and hurried knock on the door's frame and a glance over her shoulder.

Geoff calls out from nearby within the trailer "Come on in and get out of the drizzle." his trailer is cool due to the open door but it does have a level of dry going for it. Geoff can be found sitting on his couch wearing a pair of sweats and a shirt stained in grease he no doubt works on his vehicles in. Glancing over towards Bennie he arches an eyebrow "I don't think I've seen you come calling since...Well ever....What's the matter? Guys giving you trouble?"

Bennie ducks into the trailer, pulling the strap of her bag up higher on her shoulder. A bright smile lights up her features, the full sort that makes her blue eyes crinkle up and turn into thin slits. "What makes you think that?" She says cheerily. A little too cheerily. "Say, you mind if I close the door? I'm a little chilly, and there's a breeze..." She thumbs over her shoulder, but seems a little too anxious for him to give permission.

Geoff gives a small gesture "Go ahead and close it." leaning over he clicks on a heater by the couch to begin heating the room "And I'm guessing that because I've seen this shifty guys who show up at all hours." a wry grin pulling at his lips at that "And with that shit its only a matter of time before things go south...Also if you're carrying a piece you gotta ditch it outside."

Bennie gives one more glance outside before swinging the door shut and perhaps out of habit, she goes ahead and engages the dead bolt lock, distractedly answering, "A piece of what?" Before it dawns on her, "Oh. God no. I'd be more likely to shoot myself accidentally by carrying than be able to do any damage to anyone else. I had no idea you were keeping tabs on me. Favor to Easton?" She stands a little awkwardly in his livingroom, giving a glance around as she swishes her skirt with idle hands.

Geoff shakes his head "Nope, this park is my home, only natural I keep tabs on shifty shit that goes on around here. Though as long as it isn't out in the open I don't give a fuck, and I haven't mentioned it to Easton." glancing at his phone he sends off a text message before looking back to Bennie "So if it's not that, I'm at a loss, what's up?'

Bennie gives a smile she at least hopes is mildly reassuring. "Friends of my dad's. They, you know. Just stop by from time to time to check on me since he's gone missing. Anyway, I was actually hoping you could do me a favor. Just for a couple hours." Oakes explains quickly as she swings her bag around and pulls out a shoe box that has the red dot for a label and is marked Christian Louboutin. "Can I just...stash this here for a little while?"

Geoff eyes the box then Bennie "Depends, is there anything in there that if I was subjected to a surprise raid would end with me in prison again? Because if so you can forget it, otherwise yeah you can keep it here." eying the package clearly trying to figure out who the recipient is before giving a shake of his head and standing up "Since you're here, want a beer?" with a wry grin he says "You already know what I got in the fridge."

"It's the most delicious pair of shoes you've ever seen, and the very legitimate receipt is inside the box. A woman named Baylee bought them for me, have you met Baylee?" As he gets up, Bennie is looking around for a place to stash the box where it will be out of immediate view, ending up crawling on top of his couch and standing on the cushions to tuck it in the corner behind (after slipping off her sandals, of course). From her new lofty perch, she declares, "A beer would be great, thanks!" One experimental bounce is given to the springs before she's hopping back down. "Sorry, but not terribly sorry, we raided your stash."

Geoff snorts amusedly at that and shakes his head "I don't mind, Easton knows he is free to raid my fridge any time he wants to. Just like if I knew where he lived I could raid his, it's a bro thing." digging around in the fridge he pulls out two beers and pops the caps off on the edge of the counter before walking back over to Bennie to offer her one "You're really doing a good job of hiding that box, you're not planning on sending someone over on a scavenger hunt are you/'

Bennie seems to be a sliver more relaxed once the shoe box is out of sight. She reaches out for her bottle of beer, pausing to clink it against his in a nonverbal thanks. She's taking a long drink immediately after, but she's already nodding before she finishes swallowing it down her gullet. "Yup." She manages to say before she takes a breath.

"A little game I play with the kids I babysit. It's called S.W.A.T. and that's actually little packages of flour in plastic baggies so they can pretend they got the big bust. We even pile it all on the kitchen table and take a picture in front of it like they just took down El Chappo. That Ricky. He's on the fast track for promotion. Wait, you two are bros and you don't even know where he lives?"

Geoff eyes Bennie "So you got baggies of 'flour' hidden in that package that you're gonna be sending kids after in my trailer." He seems more then a little bit skeptical at this proposition "Do I at least get to play hardball with Ricky and call him a puta? Because I'll dedicate to the bit if it's for the kids." he nods along slowly before an eyebrow arches "Is this bust gonna be tonight or tomorrow because that makes a bit of a difference." with each sip of his beer he seems to be lightening up a bit, especially as he eases into the idea that this is for the children of the park .

Bennie's eyes glisten with her mischievous amusement. "Relax. It's just shoes." But perhaps she shouldn't expose Easton's friend to her full fledged humor when he's doing her a favor. "I'd let you try them on, even, but I don't want the soles to get scuffed. But this way, if anyone comes looking for me..." She shrugs helplessly. "They'll be out of sight. And I don't think swearing at children in any language is actually advisable. I probably wouldn't get many babysitting gigs after that."

Geoff snorts as he drops down onto the couch "Fine fine hide your 'shoes', and yeah I've met Baylee before, she seems interesting if painfully British." Hooking an arm over the back of the couch he asks "So I don't think we've actually be in the same place together since highschool, and I seem to remember back then you were acting like you were anything but my neighbor." with a tsk of his head he says with a mischievous, easy going grin "Wouldn't even hang out with me and Lily when no one was around."

Benny unceremoniously plops down on the floor, drawing her sandals to her side but doesn't bother slipping them back on yet. "It's okay to say I was a bitch." She wiggles from side to side as she arranges her long skirt around her knees. "But things were different back then. I was different, at least, before I realized this world is way too small and life is way too short to separate yourself from it by your attitude. So, I hope you'll let me make it up to you somehow."

"Hey there is nothing to make up, we were all jackasses in high school. If anyone knows that shit back then was different it's me, pretty sure my stay in the clink proves it." Tilting his bottle back he takes several deep drinks from it "Anyway we've all grown and we've all gotten fresh starts, as far as I'm concerned you're pretty much family from having grown up around here even if we weren't close." a genuine smile pulling at the corner of his lips after stating that

"Sort of like that one cousin you know you're not supposed to have a crush on, but your adolescent hormones have other ideas?" Bennie offers oh-so-helpfully. "I'm all about fresh starts. I think while I don't feel entitled to one, I'm grateful for it all the same. So what did you go away for, if you don't mind me asking? There were all kinds of rumors, everything from murder to things they put people on registries for."

"You're definitely the first cousin I'm not suppose to have a crush on, but do." Geoff says in a completely straight manner "I went away for armed robbery, it turns out that armed robbery is not one of my strengthys. Which would have been nice to have discovered before I attempted it and wasted eight years of my life." dryly he informs her "I would definitely suggest you avoid prison, it absolutely sucks."

"That explains your comment about having a piece. Noted!" Bennie says with a hoist of her beer, she'll cheers to that. "I mean, I have a pretty long bucket list, but going to prison is definitely not on it. It's right down there with getting punched in the face or finding out what it's like to have to have a foreign object removed from my various orifices. You'd actually be surprised how many calls us paramedics get for that. It's disturbing."

Geoff plops down to spread out on the couch, getting comfy now that he's more and more accepting his guest "Yeah, while it wasn't in one of my natural orifices I once had to pull a shank made from a melted pen out of my shoulder. It was pretty fun, I wouldn't suggest it you know, it's a miracle I didn't get anything from it, and getting used to getting punched is actually pretty useful if you ever expect to get in any fights. If you can get used to it then you can usually learn to scrap pretty good."

"I'm preeeetty sure my idea of a scrap is a slap fight with old Edna for the last pack of Oreos when I'm on the rag. Even in my dreams, I am such a wuss. You'd think in my imagination I'd be, like, She-rah or something, but no. How does one even make a shank out of a melted pen? That's the very definition of where there is a will there is a way. But at least you probably got a cool looking scars? We chicks dig those. It's in our DNA." Bennie points out with a tip of her bottle before taking another drink of her quickly depleting beer.

Geoff sends off a frantic flurry of texts before tossing the phone in his lap "Yeah pretty much you steal a pen, pull out the cartridge then you find a source of head and your melt it down into being harder and thicker, then you do a bit of sharpening and you got a sticker. Bonus points if you still have a hole running through it so when you stab the guy it doesn't actually stop him from bleeding." Geoff casually informs Bennie before taking a selfie of his phone of the two of them "But yeah I can appreciate you not wanting to fight, it means you're sane."

Bennie doesn't even question why Geoff is taking a selfie with her in it, she just leans further into the frame and puckers her lips - not like a duck - but a fish. She only has half that Basic White Girl instinct. "That's a pretty low bar for sanity." She drains the last of her beer and gives the bottle a waggle. "You want another?" Because she's totally going to help herself so she might as well offer to fetch one for him too.

Geoff drains the last of his beer and sets the bottle on the coffee table "Absolutely, and thanks for grabbing it." A mischievous grin pulling at his features as his phone vibrates with the sound of an incoming text "Yeaaah, I set my bar for sanity fairly low after being confined with madmen for years. Though I should probably adjust it because after being out I've found there are a lot of crazy people who just don't do anything stupid enough to end up in jail."

Bennie unfolds herself from the floor and out of some sort of ingrained habit, snags up his empty too, to tote it to the trash. "Or they do it smart enough to not get caught?" She flashes him a wide grin before her head disappears behind the fridge door where she rustles them up two more beers. Using the ring on her middle finger, she pops off their tops and wanders barefoot back over to the couch to hand down Geoff's. "So how did you and Easton become friends?"

Geoff is sprawled on the couch completely lazily as he accepts the beer from Bennie "Met him while he was working the bar, then somehow a beautiful bromance bloomed as we kept running into each other, and now I've fed him my sausage and cuddled with him on this couch." this is said completely seriously and straight laced "What about you two, how did you guys meet?"

Outside a smooth purring car parks and Erin gets out. There's a chirp sound as the doors are locked and the alarm is set. It takes very little time for her to get to the porch. Now, she's not so presumptuous so she hesitates there and after a few seconds there's a light knock on the door and she waits there for Geoff to answer it.

Bennie pauses momentarily, her head tilted to the side and stuck that way, as if he just overloaded her circuits with sausage and cuddling talk. "Yeah, that seems about right." She finally declares and, hearing the knock, starts moving in that direction. "We met in a traditional Rom Com way. Boy calls 911, Boy bleeds on Girl. Girl stops bleeding..."

She pops open the door, greeting Erin with a wide beaming smile. "Hi. Beer?" She asks, thrusting out the one in hand that she has yet to drink from towards the other woman. "Geoffrey, you have a lady caller. Shall I show her to the parlor?"

Geoff puts on his best faux posh brit accent when he hears that he has a lady caller at the door and slides to sit up on the couch "Yes, yes, quite, show her to the parlor, cheerio." and he just expended all of his knowledge of being posh, not evening needing to see who it was due to the rather distinctive sound of her car locking he calls out "Hey there Erin, I'm glad you could finally swing by. This is Bennie in case you haven't met her yet, she gets bled on professionally."

It's easy to hear some voices from the other side of the door of the trailer, but Erin doesn't make out the words, just the general male/femaleness of them. Reaching for the door when it suddenly pops open she looks surprised and only a little hesitant as the beer is thrust at her. Reaching for it, she wraps her fingers around the still cold bottle. "Thanks." Yet she doesn't wait for Geoff to approve of his lady caller. The accent earns him a smirk though as she kicks off her heels at the door before padding barefoot through that thick shag carpeting to have a seat on the couch beside him. "Hi Bennie, a pleasure meeting you." The profession earning her a second look. "Oh? A doctor? Nurse? EMT?"

"Hey, nice shoes!" Bennie admires momentarily as Erin kicks off her shoes, "Right in three! I'm a paramedic. Well. Most of the time. I'm also a waitress, a babysitter, a telephone customer support-er...among other things. But if I get bled on during any of those other ones, something is probably very, very wrong." Bennie chirps as she heads back to the kitchen to get herself a replacement beer. "Hey, aren't you an Addington?" The blonde asks as she rejoins them.

Geoff casually slips an arm about Erin's shoulders as she sits next to him "You know I was beginning to think you weren't going to show tonight, Erin. Glad you proved me wrong.' gesturing to the woman beside him he says "Bennie this is Erin, she might or might not be an Addington. It depends on if you believe the old rumor that they burst into flames if they cross into the trailer park, are allergic to garlic and have to ask permission before entering houses." It was either Addingtons or vampires he was thinking of

"Oh thanks, I got them in Seattle. Jimmy Choo." Erin settles in beside Geoff with a tired smile, but it's still Bennie she talks to first. "I can't imagine doing so many things on top of being a paramedic. So many things to learn with emergency care." A bob of her head, "Yeah, Erin Addington." Just leaving it at that and Geoff's explanation, laughing a little. Taking the time to respond to Geoff now, she nudges him with her shoulder. "I finished what I had going on and was able to get away finally. I'm glad I could make it over. And I'm not allergic to garlic, that's a rumor. I just refrain from it so I can kiss the cute guys in the trailer park."

"Jimmy Choo's." Bennie whines, like she's restraining herself from going over there and drooling on them. Never mind she has a pair of Louboutin's hiding behind Geoff's couch right now. "My other work is pretty simple, and I write everyone's order down instead of memorizing it, just so I don't accidentally knock the knowledge of calculating the right dosage of Ketamine to a person's approximate body weight out of my brain." Whether or not Erin is still looking at her, Bennie gives the big ole thumb's up to Geoff for apparently hooking an Addington to snog on.

"We all know the right dosage of special k is whatever you can fit between your thumb and forefinger." Geoff says wisely, though his dealings with people can calculate ketamine are probably different then Bennie's, offering the aforementioned woman a broad grin at the thumbs up before turning to study Erin "You know that doesn't sound like a half bad plan. I recently cut my garlic intake so I could draw pretty Addingtons in."

"Oh but I like garlic, besides, I'm pretty sure there's not much you could do that would make me not kiss on you." Erin laughs, curling her legs up beneath her on the couch and arranging the skirt of the dress she'd worn around her modestly. The beer is savored a moment and she breathes out, relaxing. "It has been a long week. I'm glad I've got the next two days with nothing other than the Addington family Easter Egg hunt for the smaller kids." There's a look of understanding given to Bennie. I think that the medicines are the toughest thing to learn. I don't envy you your position there, but I admire your tenacity for doing it and following through."

Bennie grins widely at the two on the couch, the expression momentarily split but a swig from her beer. "I actually find the human aspect the hardest. You can memorize charts and numbers, adverse affects and contra-indicators until you're blue in the face but it's going to be the people themselves that always throw you for a loop." She pads back into the center of the room to hook her fingers in the straps of the sandals. "Anyway, I should get going and meet my 'guests', leave you two to your canoodling. Thanks again, Geoff. I'll stop by probably tomorrow and pick those up." She crooks one spare finger in a wave, "It was nice to meet you Erin."

Geoff offers a fist out to Bennie for a fist bump "Catch you later and don't be a stranger, if you need anything I'm just a lot over." with a yawn he gives a shake of his head "It was good being able to talk to you, I don't think we've hung out since middle school." his hand lightly scritching along the Addington's shoulder as he says this

"You don't have to leave just because I got here. I promise no kissy faces until later anyway." Tilting the beer towards her before taking a sip. "But if you have to, I understand. Looks like Geoff here is getting tired himself and I'm afraid if I don't sleep soon I'll fall asleep reall ungracefully here on the couch. It was nice meeting you. Or seeing you again since we've gone to school and all together I assume. If you're a lifer here too."

Bennie reaches over the hand that her shoes are dangling from, dapping her knuckles against Geoff's but unable to 'blow it up' unless she wants to drop her sandals again. "Yeah, this was nice." She concurs with them both, then wobbles her beer. "I'm going to take this to-go. Ta!" She bids them one last farewell and slips out the door.