Life Is For Living

“Okay,” Jimmy relented, setting his fork down. “Those pancakes weren’t too bad.”
Beatrice scoffed, “Weren’t too bad?! They were amazing!”
She crammed her last forkful in, her appetite having been slowly revived with each sugary mouthful. True to her word, she’d flooded her stack of pancakes with a litre or so of maple syrup, and appeared to be enjoying every last drop of it as she ran her finger around the plate in the lake that was left behind.
“Well, you ate them fast enough,” she teased, pointing a syrupy finger in his direction. Jimmy’s pancakes had been in the same vein as hers, though not quite so saturated, and his plate was already clean.
“I was hungry,” he said, nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders for effect.
Beatrice giggled madly, her pigtails jiggling as she did so. She had a fantastic laugh; loud, borderline obnoxious and incredibly infectious. Her chuckle quickly dissolved into a groan and she rubbed her temples. Draining the last of her coffee, she stifled a yawn and looked over at Jimmy.
“Okay, now I need sleep,” she stated, giving him a sly smile.
“And whose fault is that?” Jimmy countered playfully, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, yeah,” she replied, poking her tongue out at him. “It’s just the price of partying.”
She waved the waitress over to refill their coffees.
“Anyway,” she began, watching the dark liquid pour into their mugs, “what are you still doing here? Don’t you guys have a show to go to?”
“Yeah, just didn’t feel like going,” he shrugged. She laughed again, causing his face to light up in a grin.
“Couldn’t get enough of me, huh?” She winked, giggling as his cheeks flushed.

Her phone rang out, interrupting their conversation. She pulled it from her pocket and eyes the screen before giving Jimmy an apologetic glance.
“It’s Dom,” she informed him. “I’ll be real quick.”
“No sweat,” he replied, his lisp causing her to wrinkle her nose with a smile.
She swiped at her phone screen and pressed it to her ear, instantly wincing at the barrage of questions on the other end before she had even said hello. After 10 seconds or so, she finally interrupted the ranting on the other side.
“Chill Dom, I’m alive,” she laughed. There was more grumbling emanating from the phone and she rolled her eyes. “It is kind of funny… No, I just went to a club with the Rev.”
She pulled the phone away from her ear and pulled a face at Jimmy. He smirked as she put it back to her ear with a sigh.
“Dom, can you give me the third degree later? I’m hungover as shit and your voice is hurting my brain,” she groaned. Jimmy couldn’t understand what was being said, but he caught the snarky tone coming through the phone alright. Beatrice closed her eyes in exasperation.
“Yes, dad, I was careful,” she grimaced. There was another diatribe of ranting, and Beatrice pulled the phone away from her ear.
“K, bye,” she called into it, jabbing at the ‘end call’ button with her finger.
She widened her eyes at Jimmy, “Wow, sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” he answered, stifling a laugh. “He’s kind of overbearing, huh?”
Beatrice pressed her lips together and sighed, “He’s just protective. He sees himself as an older brother or something. Always asking questions.” She shrugged her shoulders before bursting into laughter, “I just hang up on him a lot.”
Jimmy laughed, “I can see that.”
“So, how long are you here for? And why are you here?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Something wrong with the bus or something,” he shrugged. “I guess we’re here until it’s fixed.”
“That’s lame,” she remarked, throwing him a sympathetic look.
“I don’t know about that, I got pancakes out of it,” he smirked.
Beatrice squinted her eyes at him, “I thought I got pancakes out of it?”
“I never said I was buying,” he retorted, smirking. “Well, apart from those mimosas, but you never ordered them.”
She looked around, “This isn’t really the sort of joint that serves mimosas, so you’ve lucked out, you cheapskate.”
“Cheapskate?” Jimmy repeated, before exploding into laughter. “Where’s your donation to breakfast, you scrounger?”
Beatrice kicked him gently under the table as he dipped into his wallet and pulled out a couple of twenties. Dropping them onto the table, he stood and held out a hand to her.
“Why, thank you, kind sir,” she grinned, accepting his hand, curtsying as she stood. He bowed in return, much to her enjoyment, and led her from the café.

Beatrice stretched as they stepped out into the morning sun, letting out a sigh of pleasure. Jimmy watched her, completely enamoured for the moment. Aware that he was on a time constraint, he drew his phone from his pocket and dialled Matt’s number.
Matt picked up on the first ring, “What’s up?”
“You’re still awake?” Jimmy asked, incredulously.
Matt laughed, “Yes, asshole. Now what do you want?”
“Bus still fucked?” he questioned, unable to keep the hint of hope from his voice.
“Yep, bus still fucked. Gonna be a while. Having fun with your girlfriend?” Matt jested, with a snicker.
“Fuck off,” Jimmy laughed, blowing him off. “Call me when the bus is fixed.”
Matt snorted, “Will do, brother. Go get yourself some sweet-”
Jimmy hurriedly hung the phone up before he could finish his sentence, but Beatrice wasn’t offended. She wasn’t even paying attention, she was too busy trying to light a cigarette with an infuriatingly uncooperative lighter. She threw her head back, letting out a groan of frustration as Jimmy approached her, a working lighter in hand.
“My hero,” she gushed, plucking it from his fingers. She lit her cigarette and then waved the pack at him. “You want one?”
He slipped one out of the pack with a nod of thanks.
“So,” he cleared his throat, pausing to flick the lighter into action, “I know you said you wanted to sleep, but do you wanna go do something fun instead?”
“Hmm,” Beatrice tilted her head as she weighed up her options. “Sleep, or something fun? Sleep, or something fun? Gee, I just don’t know.”
“I’ll take that as ‘something fun’,” Jimmy replied, excitedly, refuelled by sugar, caffeine and nicotine – wonder drugs by anyone’s standards. “Where do you want to go?”
Beatrice furrowed her brow as she thought, before eventually turning to Jimmy with a wicked smile.
“You like ducks?”

They strolled along in the duck park, each carrying a bag of oats, purchased from a grocery store along the way.
“I fucking love ducks. So feathery and shit,” Jimmy effused, launching a handful of oats at the nearest group.
Beatrice followed suit, enthusiastically scattering oats across the grass, “My favourite ones are the stand-up ducks.”
“What the fuck is a stand-up duck?” he snorted, looking over at her.
She shrugged, “You know. You get the duckies that are all squat and hunched over, and then you get the stand-up ones that are all tall and shit.”
“Oh, right, I got you,” he nodded, unconvincingly.
“You don’t ‘got me’ though, do you?” she retorted, pouting.
“Nope, not at all,” he laughed, throwing a small sprinkling of oats in her direction. It was a good shot, and Beatrice stood for a moment blinking, processing, mouth agape. Her lips quickly pulled into a grin and she gave Jimmy a mischievous look.
“Oh boy, you’re gonna get it,” she laughed, plunging her hand into her bag. Jimmy took off, his long legs giving him a major advantage. Mustering all the energy she could, Beatrice sped after him, oaty ammo in hand. They sent ducks scattering in a panic as they tore through the park, eventually stopping after a minute, only from exhaustion. Jimmy tumbled onto the grass dramatically and Beatrice took the opportunity to triumphantly scatter her fistful of oats over him like confetti before collapsing beside him.

“Why did you have to run?” she complained, as she panted. “And, more importantly, why did I run after you?”
“Because you can’t keep away from me,” Jimmy smirked, only to receive another dusting of cereal.
“Oh god. I’m never walking again,” Beatrice declared, sinking down onto her back, spreading her arms out at her sides. Jimmy looked down at her, admiring the pinkness of her cheeks from their dash over the grass.
“You’ll be here forever then,” he teased, raising an eyebrow as he stood.
“Or,” she grinned, “you could carry me?”
“I’m not carrying you,” he replied, flatly, though he couldn’t keep the grin from his face.
Beatrice pouted at him, “Spoilsport.”
He held out a hand and unceremoniously yanked her to her feet, “That’s all you’re getting.”
“I took you to get pancakes, Jimmy,” she reminded him, as she ruffled the oats out of her pink locks.
“And I paid for them, Beatrice,” he pointed out, snickering as she turned to him. She reached her hand forwards, extending her blue painted nails towards him. Delicious shivers travelled down his spine as she picked the fragments from his tousled hair with a delicate touch.
“Touché,” she purred, as her eyes twinkled. She was about to close the gap between them, lips first, when they were rudely interrupted as Jimmy’s phone rang out. He slid it from his pocket, reluctant to break the atmosphere between them.
Matt calling.
Jimmy sighed, sliding his finger across the screen to accept the call.
“How’s it going Casanova?” the deep voice chortled from the other end. Without waiting for an answer, he continued on, “Get your ass back to the bus, and bring Pinkie with you.”
“Okay, dude. On the way,” Jimmy replied, stuffing the phone back in his pocket as Matt ended the call. He looked over at Beatrice, who was tilting her head quizzically.
“You gotta go?” she asked, her lips pulling to one side. It gave him a faint buzz to hear that she sounded disappointed about his impending departure, but he couldn’t dwell on it. He had news to share.
“Actually, we gotta go,” he answered, with a shrug. “No idea why he wants both of us.”
“I’m game for anything,” Beatrice chirped, skipping over to his side, “but then I have to-”
“Yeah, I know,” Jimmy smiled back at her, “then you have to sleep.”
She grinned, “Read my mind, Jim.”
She linked arms with him, and they set off back the way they came, scattering ducks once more as they went.

Notes

Aww, these guys are cute. Also, DUCKS! <3