2019-12-02 - Special Delivery

The other delivery drivers didn't want to take it when they saw the address and the pizza. It has the hallmarks of a crank order, but Tor knows better.

Not crank. Just a little weird.

So the red 1965 Mustang pulls up and he walks up to the house, all baggy jeans, plaid shirt, leather jacket and wool hat pulled down over his ears. He hits the doorbell, balancing the Pizza Kitchen insulated bag in one hand.

And there Tor waits, perhaps long enough to assume it is in fact a prank, a bird chirping like a like a winged alarm system in the house starts up and doesn't cease until a female voice rises up to scold it. "What's the matter, Lassie? Has Timmy fallen down the well?" And then there are footfalls approaching the door which finally cracks open a hint until a pair of darker blue eyes appears in the vertical slit.

"Oh! Sorry, the bell doesn't work." Throwing open the door wide, there stands a blonde in a white shift dress with wet hair as if she's just out of the shower. "Yay! Pizza!"

"If bells don't work, you should put a note in the online order or say so when you call. I was just about to leave and then this address gets a black mark. $18.75." Tor looks her up and down but only briefly. "How you wanna pay?" He shifts and pulls the box out of the insulated bag.

"Oooh a black mark." Bennie leaves forward slightly, lowering her voice. "Sounds serious." But her bright smile fades a tick when he says the total, "Shoot. Uh, it was ordered by a friend and I thought she paid. Must've been...Come in for a sec while I figure this out. It's cold." She steps back from the door, leaving it open in her wake as she steps into the living room and looks around as if money is going to suddenly appear out of no where. "Ummm."

"The first time, it just means your pizza doesn't get priority so you gotta wait longer. There's a whole system for repeat offenders. But you can usually get in the good books if you tip decent." When she indicates that she thought her friend had paid, Tor's eyebrows lift. "Seriously?" He sighs and steps inside. "This is Clayton's place, isn't it?"

Bennie stops her spin in the middle of the room, her pair of hands flattening her damp hair against her neck as she clasps the back of it. "Pizza delivery is a lot more complicated than it's cracked up to be." She doesn't seem to be mocking him, her voice sounding far too distracted for that. "Alexander's yeah. He's just giving me a place to crash while I figure...some...things out." A tiny crack appears in her voice, making it waver. "I'm sorry, I don't know where my purse is. Can you. Can you give me just a minute?"

Tor looks at her, lazily, detached. He motions vaguely, as if to say, 'go ahead.' He finds a handy surface to plop the pizza onto, then digs his phone out of his pocket. He reaches off and tugs off his hat, then runs his fingers through the resulting mess.

Okay, Bennie. Get your shit together. Don't lose it in front of the delivery guy. She holds up a finger as if remembering something and she shuffles off to the bathroom, returning with an overly large hobo style bag which she clunks down onto the coffee table and goes to her knees to start pawing through. That's probably the nearest flat surface for him to have set the pizza on, so her eyes flick up to him, as she digs. "I know you, don't I? Lockhart?"

"Yeah." Tor sniffs. "The park. Actually just moved back there about...month ago? After my mom moved out of her trailer." The town is small for everyone, but it's even smaller for a pizza delivery guy. There's only so many pizza joints, so he's ended up on nearly everyone's doorstep at one time or another. "Thought I heard you moved to that fancy-ass highrise-eyesore down by the bay." He whistles softly. "Movin' on up."

"Turns out that was just temporary. Guess I don't belong in that world." As evidenced by the fact that she's digging out random dollar bills and change from the depths of her purse. Bennie pauses when she's collected a few bills, straightening them out from their crumple as she looks back to him again. "You hungry? Wanna split a pie? No way I can eat all of this."

"Mhmmm," intones Tor. "Going from the park to the town," he head wobbles. "Okay. That happens. But right from the park to the lofty tower?" he points up. "That leaves a long-ass way to fall if you slip." He eyes the pizza, eyes her, amusement lingering despite the laissez faire demeanor. "I fucking hate pineapple. And you ordered fucking double. You like fruit on your pizza, you should try pear and prosciutto. Not on the menu of course. We're not that fucking fancy. But I've made it for myself a few times." He looks from the pizza up to her. "I got a couple of joints I could split. Might make me hungry enough to eat that shit-awful pizza."

Bennie gives a little shrug with her eyebrows about falling from the tower, with an unspoken 'Weeell'. As to her choice in pizza, she presents the supposition of, "Maybe I have scurvy? Actually this is a Spite Pizza. Everything tastes better when it's laced with spite." At the offer of a joint, the Blonde gives a little wiggle in her kneel. "Now you're talking, but I'll just share one with you, if that's alright. I wanna be a good house guest and not accidentally hot box the bird."

"Man, a stoned bird. That'd be either be hilarious or fuckin' sad." Apparently the gutter mouth comes out when he realizes this isn't going to be an ordinary delivery. "What, your boyfriend allergic to it so you abstained, and now you're gorging yourself on it?" He shrugs off his leather jacket and hangs it up wherever it makes sense.

"Ex." Bennie mumbles the clarification as she flips open the pizza box and is absolutely delighted about the disgusting amount of pineapple on the otherwise plain pie. She plucks up a square of the fruit and pops it in her mouth. "I abstained from a lot of things for the sake of a relationship. Turns out he wasn't."

Deft fingers flip out a silver cigarette case that contains a set of fat joints. "Ouch. And this town being the size it is, I'm guessing you know the person he cheated on you with?" He motions inwards, unless she wants to get stoned in the entryway. "Not that it's any of my business but you seem to be in a sharing mood."

Deft fingers flip out a silver cigarette case that contains a set of fat joints. "Ouch. And this town being the size it is, I'm guessing you know the person he cheated on you with?" He shrugs and withdraws one of the joints, turning it over in his fingers. "Not that it's any of my business but you seem to be in a sharing mood."

"Aaaayup." Though as much as she's sharing, Bennie doesn't disclose who it was. "At least he had the decency to tell me that much. But frankly I wasn't interested in the rest." Despite the topic, she has a bright smile on her face, a practiced thing meant to convey everything is juuuuuuust fine. "You gotta love a full service delivery man." She reaches over and pats a bit of floor for him to join her there.

"Lucky you that you were my last delivery of the night. Otherwise my uncle'd be calling me nonstop to get my ass back." Tor drops to the floor and fishes out a scratched Zippo. "Dating in this town is a crapshoot. Everyone knows too much about everyone else." He lights the joint with a practiced hand, gets it started, takes a hit, then passes it over.

"I thought I hit the jackpot with an Outsider." Bennie admits, pinching the roll away from Tor's fingers by cupping her hand against his to assist with the transfer. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this. You must just have one of those faces." It's like there is always some music playing in her head, because she's wiggling again as she takes a deep hit off the roll, exhaling through her nose only to inhale the smoke again through a part in her lips.

Tor snort-laughs. "I've been told on more than one occasion, that I have an incredibly punchable face." One side of his lip curls up. "Outsiders can't really understand what it was to grow up here. And townies know too goddamn much."

"It's the eyes. Not for the punching part, I mean, but you have soulful eyes." Bennie seems to consider them a moment before she's giving a little 'hmm' and passing the joint back. "And yet I've never been outside the tri-county area." There's something that passes over her face, a slight shadow in her sunny demeanor as she realizes she won't be taking that Christmastime trip with Easton afterall. Whatever it is, she shakes it off forcibly with a shimmy of her shoulders.

One more hit of the joint seems to be enough for Tor to give in to hunger. He pulls out a piece and systematically flicks each piece of pineapple onto the piece closest to her. "There. Have some extra spite." He passes the joint back so he's free to eat the sort of sloppy mess of cheese and sauce after the pineapple has been banished. "Me neither. Maybe I should go somewhere where people don't look at me and immediately know everything about me."

Bennie gives a soft laugh as he transfers the fruit to another slice with a flick of his fingers, reaching out to nab one of the newly tumbled with her free hand and combines that in her mouth with another hit from the passed over joint. Smoke ekes out of her nose as she chews and considers him. "I don't know everything about you."

"Yeah you do," says Tor with a lazy roll of syllables, eyes slightly hooded. "Son of a lowlife. Nephew of a lowlife with a small business. Mom's okay. Kicked the lowlife to the curb early on, but not far enough. Her biggest sin was trying to keep a business that sold incense afloat too long and killed a chunk of her nest egg." He takes a bite out of the pizza and wipes a little sauce off the corner of his mouth. "Unlike a lot of people, I never even tried to get out. What's the point?"

"Ah." Bennie leans forward and rests her elbows on the coffee table, "But I don't know your middle name." She makes a gesture of STOP. "Don't tell me. I want to keep some mystery in this relationship." Flipping the joint in her hand to offer it back directly to his mouth.

Tor quirks a grin. "That's me. International man of mystery." Tor parts his lips to accept the joint back. He lifts his hand to steady it, and to take a pull. "Or maybe national. OK...maybe just the tri-county area." There's a twinkle in his eyes.

Bennie gives an airy, musical sort of laugh, the sound a bit free and careless from the effects of the weed sinking into her system. "So Tor Tri-County Man of Mystery Lockhart. Do you want to help me with another little bit of spite?" She asks, leaning back against the couch and lifting her knee so the skirt of her dress slips up on her thigh. It's not a dick move, it's a bit of a slutty move. And she's forcing herself not to care.

Tor is quiet for a moment. He takes a pull from the joint and holds the smoke in his mouth, before exhaling slowly. He watches her lift the skirt, pulls air between his teeth and tilts his head until a strand of hair falls in front of his eyes. "No." He says, but then, "...not for spite." He extends his hand and presents the joint to her. "But I will if it'd make you feel better."

"Oh. It will." At least for a moment, until those ugly feelings seep back in like guilt and sorrow and everything Easton. But Tor is handing Bennie the joint and she takes one final hit to bolster her nerves before she sets it to smolder out on the top of an abandoned coke can. As her knees lull apart, she reaches forward to take a fistful of flannel and draw Tor into the personal space with the beam of a smile.

"Y'know, this whole scenario feels kinda familiar," Tor drawls. "Maybe because it's such a cliche' porno plot." He lets himself be drawn forward - to a point. Then he stops and mops the hair back from his face. "Y'know, it sounds like you've had a tough run. Why don't you lie back and relax?" There's that twinkle again. He doesn't smile much, but his eyes do. Then he starts to slowly slide down, giving her ample time to refuse him his destination.

LATER:

Bennie props herself up on an elbow, sliding the strap of her dress back up onto the curve of her shoulder and modestly covering her chest again. So that happens.

Still trying to calm her breathing, she shifts on the floor until her back is to the couch again, "Well, it'd seem weird to tip you now." Her smile seems a bit more tired now, but perhaps that's just one of the effects the afterglow has on the Blonde. A hand dips back down to Tor, fingers lazily brushing through his hair in a pet.

"Wouldn't be the first time," says Tor, who has fired up another joint. He takes a hit and offers it over to her. "Hope that took your mind off shit, at least." He arches his spine and reaches out to flick pineapple off a now ice-cold piece of pizza.

Something about his initial words draws a full blown giggle out of Bennie. Of course she's heard rumors about how he moonlights from time to time, but that just sort of confirms it. The laughter dies off with a quiet little mmm sound as she reaches for the joint, all too happy to refresh her high. "Just what the doctor ordered." She agrees, but her eyes flick to the pizza she never bothered to take a slice of and the sight of it just makes makes her bitter. And worse: sad. Taking one hurried hit off the joint, she passes it back and shoves down the hem of her skirt further as she stands. "Hate to cut this short, but you really should go before my host comes back."

Hard to say if Tor is just poking fun at the rumours or actually confirming them. Either way, it doesn't seem to bother him. She stands, she straightens herself, but he lingers a moment, letting the hit work its way through his limbs before he lazily, catlike, gets himself fully up. "You don't have to tip me," he says, "But you do need to pay for the pizza." Even though he ate more of it. He takes another hit from the joint, then passes it back to her in a way that suggests he wants her to have the rest of it.

"Oh! Right. Sorry." Bennie swipes a curtain of hair behind her ear as bends to sort out the rest of the cash from the depths of her purse, hastily counting out twenty in mixed bills because she can't quite remember the total Tor told her before. "Thanks again." She tells him, changing money for the joint he offers her before dipping close to give him a quick kiss to the cheek.

Tor can't quite remember anyway, so he tucks the money into the pocket of his jeans after the cheek-kiss. He lazily salutes, shrugs his jacket on and tugs the door open. "See you around, Mercedes Benz."

Bennie just raises her hand to wave him goodbye, quirking a smile at the nickname but not supplying one of her own for him. "Good for me, I know where to find you. Your number's right on the box." She quips back as she watches him slip out the door from her unmoved position near the couch, flopping back onto the cushions once he closes it behind him.

A few seconds go by as she reaches for her phone with no messages. Thumbing it open her finger lingers over Easton's name but in the end, she just fires off a quick text to Alexander that she's working an overnight at the station and she'll be back in the morning.

Only when her eyes start to tear up does she move again, hastily putting out the joint and cleaning up all remnants that Tor, much less a pizza, was here before heading to the bathroom. She's going to need another shower.