2019-07-12 - Pre-Cooking Chat

Lyric always keeps her bedroom door open, even when she's sleeping. It's too quiet to close it. Too dark and too creepy. Now, she's dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt, a long sleeve stripey armed shirt beneath a black band shirt. She's seated on her bed, knees bent and painting her toenails a bright cherry red. There's a song playing on her phone that she whistles along to. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. Her hair is damp from a shower and it's left down for now.

Cole usually leaves his door open as well, mostly to let Lyric know he's there, figuring she'll feel less alone knowing he's in the room next door. That was part of the point of moving in, after all. He's been busy the past week or so, having taken over Dance Evolution, rather than working random odd jobs around town. He is now teaching ballet to kidlets, mostly, during the afternoons after school, and renting out the space to the gymnastics team per usual. He's got some other instructors who teach other classes, having inherited them from the previous owner and having decided to keep them on. And so it's after another afternoon of teaching that he shows up and wanders into his room, tossing his duffle inside before making his way over to her doorway. He showered at work, so his hair just a tiny bit damp still after making his way back home. "Hey. How's it going?"

With a cheerful smile, Lyric reaches over to turn down her music and face Cole. "Hi! I'm glad you're home." While she does in fact look happy and cheerful there's a more haunted look in her eyes she's trying to hide. And she looks dowm at her nail polish to just look away. "Did you have a busy day today? I didn't really. But I'm going to a cooking class thing tonight. What are your plans?"

Cole gives her a smile in return. He looks a little tired, perhaps still a bit worn from the trip back to the Murray House the other night, where they'd found the little girl. He had brought her home to her folks and spent time talking to the cops, and by the time he'd gotten home, it was late, and easy to tell that his dreams were -- at best, uneasy. "Not too busy, no. Just the usual afternoon class. Still getting into the swing of things."

Lyric peers up at him after finishing her nail polish on her toes and slides to the edge of the bed as she turns the top to close the bottle. It's placed on the table beside her bed as she studies him for a moment. "You look kinda tired. Are you sure you're okay? Are you having trouble sleeping at night?"

"Yeah, just.. nightmares," Cole says with a slight shake of his head. "Ever since we got Amelia out of that house. I've had a few that were.. particularly poignant. Makes sleeping a ltitle harder than I'd like. How are you doing?" He studies her a little bit, having noted that haunted look.

"I'm really glad you found her. I can't get away from the nightmares either. I only heard recently that she was rescued and I'm really glad that you got to be part of it." Lyric reaches for her boots and socks and starts putting them on. "There was a drinking contest at the bar the other night." Just changing the subject a little, she grins. "I didn't win, but it was kind of fun. And I got a new part time job."

"It was the damndest thing. She was just standing there on the stairs, came and ran right up to me and this other guy. I grabbed her, and just got her the hell out of there while.. I don't even know what the hell happened behind me, but it was a mess." He shakes his head a bit. But then he grins and says, "Yeah? What job?"

Lyric gapes at him and the ease in which the girl was found. "I'm glad you did find her. Do you know if there are any other kids there missing? Younger ones? Like toddler age?" Not even sure the exact age of a toddler. "I had a dream about bring there and a toddler was there." There's another shrug and the weirdness of it is dropped again. "At the Waffle Shoppe. I get tips and stuff since I'm wait staff. It's only part time, but it's not hard to do."

"I think there are other kids there, but I don't know how to get them out, since I'm not even sure how she got out in the first place," Cole admits with a shake of his head. "We saw all those bloody handprints. They couldn't have just been hers. There must be others. We heard giggling, and it sounded like more than one voice, I think." But he can't be entirely sure. But he nods about the Waffle Shoppe and says, "That's awesome." He offers her a high-five for new job goodness.

Now that her boots are on, Lyric gets to her feet and gives him a high five then a knuckle bump before sitting on the edge of the bed again, and offering him a seat too. "Thanks. I like it so far. What about you? What are you doing now?"

"Now? Nothing. Though it seems like we're both going to that cooking class, tonight," Cole grins as he settles down next to her on the end of the bed, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Wanna be my cooking buddy?"

Once he's seated too, Lyric turns more to face him and grins at the question. "You're going too? I hope you know I'm not the best cook, but I can do okay at it. Simple things mostly. And I can follow directions. I'd really like to be your partner, that'd be fun." Leaning in a little, she bumps her shoulder to his with that same grin worn. "Hopefully we get to eat what we make. I mean if it's edible at all. Because I haven't gone shopping lately. If you want, we can go together sometime?"

"I can follow a recipe so long as everything is planned out and it's pretty easy," Cole shrugs. "That's why I figured on going. Maybe I can learn how to make something, or a couple of things, so that we can start cooking from time to time." He grins and gives her a shoulder-bump in return. "I'm pretty sure they're not going to make us throw out what we make.. so we just need to make sure it's edible. No leaving the wrapper on the cheese slices or anything." He warns her with a sidelong grin. "Sure. We can do that."

"Well we could donate it to the homeless shelter, but that may be attempted poisoning." There's a teasing light in her eyes though, "No wrapper on the cheese. Noted. Also, if it's pork or chicken it has to be really, really cooked. Or so says Chef Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen. I hope our teacher doesn't yell and cuss at us like that." Yeah she's still just joking around if her giggle is anything to go by. "I think it would be fun to cook together, even here at the house. Whenever you want to, we can."

Cole laughs at that and shakes his head, "I'm not making someone else eat anything that I wouldn't eat, myself." He grins at the thought of their teacher swearing at them as they tried to cook the meat. "You know, I've heard that pork doesn't have to be really really cooked as much as it used to anymore because of improved health conditions and such. But, I mean, it does still need to reach a certain temperature to kill stuff off" He nods then and says, "That's a deal, then."

"I wouldn't either." Lyric tells him honestly. "But to be truthful, if I'm hungry? I'll eat anything resembling food." The ring of honesty is still in her voice, that hint of someone who has known real hunger before. "I didn't know that about pork though, that's good to know for future reference. Are there any kinds of food that you don't like? Things you won't eat? Like.. mushrooms or anything?"

Cole gives her shoulder a little nudge and says, "Well, fortunately, we have a grocery store not too far away, and can afford groceries. So, I think we're good." He smiles, then, and considers. "I don't like avocados, the texture/taste combination is just, not good. Jalapenos. Tapioca. Grits." He considers and says, "Those are the main ones. I like mushrooms, actually. What about you?"

"Sometimes I have money. Most times it's for rent. I ate some of your sandwich meat last night." Lyric laughs when he nudges her again though and tilts her head as she ponders her own response. "Just jalapenos or all peppers?" Curious about that one before she names a couple of her own. "I don't like peas. The round, green ones. Blackeyed pease are okay if they have salt. Lima beans. Kidney beans. Not crazy about either of those. I don't even know what tapioca even is! What's your favorite foods?"