Chapter Text
A cacophony of sound offended Greaves’ senses as she sat guarded in a booth at a bar. Her friend, Jenny, sat across, lightly tapping a pen to her temple, trying to come up with the answer for what the title of a Violin maker was. Greaves knew the answer but was distracted. Her eyes wandered to a girl who sat alone at a tall table, looking down at her phone, anxiously looking back up towards the entrance as if she was expecting someone.
I wonder who she’s waiting for, she thought to herself.
Greaves was struck by how obviously beautiful the girl across the room was. Smooth, dark olive skin, mid length black hair, all done up with two locks framing her face like a painting at the Louvre. Perfectly done mascara and eyeshadow, she had very clearly done herself up. Her presence here seemed to be an occasion, and it looked like that special occasion was ignoring her. The girl’s glances towards the entrance became more worried, more frequent. Whoever was supposed to be there wasn’t arriving.
“...James. James. James.” Jenny’s voice slowly crept back into her perception, “Do you know the answer?” she asked.
Greaves still hadn’t come out to Jenny, and hearing that name made her wince a bit every time.
“Yeah, it’s a luthier. Violins, Violas, Cellos, and Basses are all made by luthiers.” Greaves responded.
“I see I see, that makes sense.” Jenny said.
How does that make sense? It’s an esoteric word that doesn’t have much etymological connection to those instruments, it’s only something you know if you wasted your years in highschool playing in the orchestra.
Greaves constantly corrected others around her, but never voiced it. She kept her miserable commentary within herself, knowing that she would drive away her one friend if she was too much of a pedant.
Greaves resumed her wistful study of the girl at the far table, and to her surprise caught the girl staring back at her. For what felt like a moment too long, the two made contact, their eyes mingling with one another. Telling stories. Greaves on first pass didn’t realize how deeply sad the girl’s eyes were. A thousand yards cut right through her, like the girl was piercing through whatever veil she had set up and saw something shifting in the depths of the meager bit of spirit Greaves had left.
Their eyes retreated from each other. Greaves’ heart was beating quickly over such a fleeting moment as that. Of course, maybe she just had low blood sugar and needed to eat something before she started reading into random stranger’s gaze. She was used to people staring at her, at least in recent times. She had a sharp, angled face, smooth and ethereal and long. These features bothered her, she felt out of place wherever she went. Her chin stuck out like a sore thumb. The rest of her matched, or at least the rest of her that Greaves was willing to show. Her torso was covered by her baggy hoodie, one that she hunched inside of in order to not bring attention to the breasts that were budding faster than she had anticipated they would. The navy blue cuffs of her jacket rode up the length of her long pale fingers. Like spindly white spiders they emerged from her sleeves and danced on the table, her fingers tapping out nervous little patterns to placate her anxiety. Too many fucking people.
A break in the questions came and Greaves asked Jenny, “Do you want anything to drink?”
She responded, “A margarita I think. And can you get me a burger too?”
“Yeah no problem.” she said.
Sadly the bar they were at didn’t have matcha lattes so Greaves wasn’t sure what she would drink. Probably just a Coke Zero. She wasn’t much of a drinker anyway, and was the designated driver out of the two of them.
She made her way to the bartender and stopped in her tracks. The girl. The one she had been looking at weirdly. She was right there. At the bar, ordering something, probably something strong given how her night seemed to be going. There was no way to order drinks without standing near her. Greaves forced through her social anxiety and walked up to call for the bartender.
She felt side-eyed. She side-eyed back. The corners of their eyes met and quickly moved back, Greaves reflexively shielded with her left arm to be less weird. It only made her more weird.
“Are you playing trivia tonight?” the woman to her left asked in a soft voice.
Greaves parsed her mind looking for words, before responding, “Oh, um, yeah. Me and my friend come here, every week. She knows a lot more of the literature and random knowledge, and I cover most of the biology and physics questions. But those don’t come up as often.”
Holy shit I sound so fucking stupid and lame, Jesus Christ do I even know how to talk to another human being, what is wrong with me? Greaves thought to herself.
“Oh cool. What team are you all tonight?” the woman asked.
“This week we’re ‘Shitter Me Timbers’” Greaves responded quickly before realizing how fucking awful that name is to what seemed to be a normal person.
The woman smiled and raised her eyebrows, a puff of air quickly escaping her nostrils, solidly halfway to a laugh. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad name.
“That’s a terrible name.” she said, with a look of amused incredulity on her face.
Greaves laughed, “Yeah, I know. I try not to take myself too seriously.”
Holy fucking shit I’m such a jackass, really, I don’t take myself too seriously? Have I ever said something that hasn’t been said a million times before? I’m such a dumb piece of shit.
“How are you all doing so far?” she asked with a bit of playful curiosity.
“So far pretty ok. We usually get 1st place every week so I’m hoping we keep our streak. How is your team doing?” Greaves inquired.
The corner of the woman’s mouth twitched in a slight grimace, but she quickly masked it, “Well, I’m still waiting for my teammate to come. I’ve just been answering on my own and got most of them right, except for that one about violins.”
Greaves’ eyes lit up, “Oh yeah, that was a hard one. I only knew the answer because I spent a few years playing violin in highschool.”
The woman nodded her head, before asking, “What’s your name, by the way?”
Greaves froze up and realized that she would have to give her deadname. Panic rose up her chest and quickly shifted to paralysis.
She very meekly stammered out “Oh, uhm. I’m James.”
A slight smile and look of skepticism crossed the womans face as she raised her eyebrow, “Ok. My name’s Rose. Nice to meet you, James.” she put a sarcastic drawl over her name, almost mocking Greaves’ attempt at self-denial.
Greaves stood awkwardly for a moment before the bartender thankfully interrupted the silence.
“A margarita and a Coke Zero. And that burger will come out in a couple minutes, we’ll call for you once it’s ready.” he said.
“Thanks” Greaves nodded her head and started turning to go back to her table, but paused. If she thought too much about it, she would lose her nerve. “Hey, um, would you like to play at our table for a bit? Just while you wait for your teammate, you know?” Greaves asked with uncharacteristic confidence.
“Sure.” Rose said, smiling as she picked up her drink.
The two of them walked back to their table while Jenny sat focused on her phone. Her gaze lifted in surprise as Rose sat in the booth with Greaves across.
“Oh, who’s this?” Jenny asked, bewildered.
Before Greaves could respond Rose piped in, “We started talking at the bar and it seems like y’all are fun to play with, is it ok if I join you?”
Jenny looked back at Greaves even more confused, and then back to Rose. Greaves shrugged and made as subtle a gesture she could to just “roll with it,” as Jenny turned back and conceded, “Ok.”
“What’s your name by the way?” Rose asked Jenny
“Jenny.” she said with a flat and somewhat cold affect.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Rose.” she responded with another smile.
I wonder if she ever gets tired of smiling like that.
“So what do you do for fun?” Greaves asked.
“Hmm, I guess I enjoy listening to music, cuddling with my cat, reading. What about you?” Rose asked back.
“I like listening to music too, but videogames, and drawing too I guess.” Greaves responded.
“What music do you like?”
“Kendrick Lamar, 100 gecs, and like, a lot of 80s and 90s rock and stuff.” Greaves admitted.
“Oh interesting. I like FKA Twigs, Doechii, and I guess I like some older stuff too. Mostly ABBA and Billy Joel though.” Rose explained.
Holy shit her music taste is way less malebrained than mine, what am I doing. Wait. She likes Billy Joel. We can work with that.
“Oh I love Billy Joel! What are your favorite songs of his?” Greaves asked excitedly.
“Probably Movin’ Out, or maybe Scenes From An Italian Restaurant. I don’t know, my dad really likes his stuff so that colors my opinion of it. He was always on in the house as a kid.” Rose reminisced.
“Fair, fair, yeah, most of the stuff I like is either because my dad played a shit ton of it or because other people got me into it. I feel like I don’t really have like, a personal taste of music I guess.” Greaves lamented.
Rose grimaced and nodded, “I understand that a lo-”
“Shh! The next round is coming up” Jenny interjected, annoyed with the both of them.
The Trivia MC’s booming voice came through the intercoms and declared, “Round 2’s theme will be Molecular Wordplay.”
Rose’s face lit up, “Wait, ok this is like, my round.”
“Oh yeah?” Greaves responded.
“Yeah. I’m in my 4th year in Molecular Physics.” Rose said with a smile.
Greaves mouthed “I told you” to Jenny who hid a slight smile at their lucky break.
The prompt came up on the main projector that had been jerry-rigged to the center of the bar room, with an example of the 2-part question that would make up the round. The first part of the question would have a word for an answer, and the second part would have a chemical formula for the answer. The chemical formula would always show up in the word from the first part.
The example’s first part asked “What simple farming implement digs out long trenches in which to plant seeds?” and the second part asked “This universal solvent makes up 60% of the human body.”
“Oh, it’s a hoe and then H2O, but I guess not including the 2. That makes sense I guess.” Greaves commented.
The first real question came up.
“The word for male or masculine in spanish.” was part 1, and “This organic molecule is created by as the product of photosynthesis to store energy.”
Rose, Greaves, and Jenny all took a look of deep concentration for a second before Rose quickly realized, “Wait, I know this one. I think the first question is Macho and the second one is glucose, or C6H12O6. CHO.”
Jenny and Greaves looked at each other and both nodded in approval.
The round continued on like this, with Rose very quickly knowing the chemical formula, and sometimes taking a bit more time to get the first part out of its obscurity or trickiness. Eventually the team got to the final question of the round.
“This company patented a device that prevents you from losing a finger while cutting wood using a rapid braking mechanism.”
“This heavy compound was the first material to be found that could produce non-carbon nanotubes.”
The 3 of them sat silently for a while, before Greaves asked, “Do you know the second one?” to Rose.
“I don’t know. I’m mostly an organic chemist. The fact that he said it’s heavy makes me feel like it might be iridium or osmium, or maybe a lead compound. I don’t know.” Rose looked puzzled.
Greaves smiled and remembered watching a youtube video where a guy put a hotdog against a tablesaw, “Wait, ok, I think the company, the first question, is SawStop? I think? So whatever compound we’re looking for has one of those letters in it.”
“Hmm.. Ok, that narrows it down. Since he said it’s heavy, it’s probably Tungsten. So Tungsten Sulfide, I guess? Interesting. I didn’t know that about the nanotubes.” Rose said.
Jenny questioned, “Wait, is the chemical symbol for tungsten a W? I thought it was something else.”
Greaves responded before Rose could, “Yeah, the W comes from the german word for tungsten, which is Wolfram.”
“How do you know that? I feel like you would be a good chemistry major.” Rose told Greaves, impressed.
“I don’t know. Things just stick with me.” she responded.
“What’s your major, anyway?” Rose asked.
“Undecided… I’m in my 3rd year…” Greaves said sheepishly.
“Oh, well, that’s ok. Nobody has everything figured out. And you’ve got plenty enough to figure out anyway.” Rose slyly commented, giving Greaves a knowing look.
Greaves felt her face flush red. Maybe she was a bit obvious with her transition. At least Jenny was oblivious enough not to make a big deal out of it. Though, not like it would matter, she would probably be supportive anyway. Greaves can’t stand the feeling of being seen though.
The rest of the trivia rounds went well, with small quips and jabs and compliments jumping back and forth from Greaves to Rose and back again. The final round came, and it was “Name That Song.” Most of it was new rap or country, and Rose swept again with Greaves and Jenny pitching in here and there.
Rose must think I’m a fucking moron and a loser. I don’t know any new music, I don’t even have a spotify. I just listen to Kendrick Lamar because I’m performative, and I listen to classical music because I’m a nerd, but I’m too embarrassed to even say I listen to it. Every laugh and every smile that comes from that woman is forced and performative because there is no way I’m funny or interesting enough to elicit them. I’m so fucking disgusting and idiotic and worthless and oh hey the scores are up let’s see how we did.
The MC did a mock drum roll for each top 5 placement, with the old familiar faces of this bar’s trivia scene showing up in the rankings. Stanky Joe Friends, The Chipsters, We’re Here for Beer, and Floor Gang populated spots 5 to 2. And the drum rolled for number 1. Greaves looked in Rose’s eyes in anticipation.
“And the winner of tonight’s trivia game is… Shitter Me Timbers!” the 3 of them cheered as he announced their team. A free pint of beer, side of pretzels, and 10 dollar gift card to target would never feel better than this. Greaves high-fived Jenny and Rose, and she felt bad about how much bigger her hands were than Jenny’s. Always in the back of her mind, was the fact that she was a disgusting thing compared to normal women. Oh well.
“Rose, I don’t think we could’ve won that without you, seriously. Thank you so much for joining us.” Greaves said beaming with pride.
“Oh yeah, this was actually really fun. You all made this night a lot better than it would have been otherwise. Thanks for inviting me to play with you all.” she said.
“Do you wanna come collect our prize? The coupons are good for next week too.” she said hinting at potential future trivia games.
“Sure, sure.” Rose said as they got up to go to the front of the bar and the miniature stage where MC stood holding the gift cards.
The crowd filed out of the door at varying levels of intoxication into the cold night air.
“This was really fun,” Rose said with glee, “Do you want to do this again sometime?”
“Oh, yeah, that would be really really cool. Same time next week?” Greaves asked.
“Sure, yeah, totally. I’d really like that. We might need to plan ahead to figure out the exact right time, because it’s finals season and I really need to study.” Rose sighed.
“Ah damn, that’s fair. So, maybe not next week then?” Greaves asked.
“Maybe, we’ll see.” Rose sucked her lips in a bit, out of a slight annoyance.
“Ok, well, me and her will be here next week. And the one after that. And after that too. Whenever you want to play with us, you can drop in.” Greaves assured her.
Rose made a quick exasperated sigh, and asked, “Do you want my number? So we can set up a time to play trivia again?”
“Oh! Oh. Um, yeah, of course.” Greaves finally understood. She handed her phone over to Rose and Jenny tapped her on the shoulder.
“James, can we hurry up and go? It’s fucking freezing out here.”
Greaves’ eye twitched at getting deadnamed but she quickly nodded her head, “Yep, one sec.”
“Alright, All done. I’ll see y’all later!” Rose called out as she walked away, waving goodbye.
“Bye! See you!” Greaves called out.
Jesus christ, she’s pretty. And she doesn’t even make me want to kill myself. She’s probably, what, 5’10”? Why is she so nice to me? Does she like me, or is she just being nice? She’s just nice, probably. Ok. Who was she waiting for? Was she trying to get me to ask for her number at the end there? I’m too fucking autistic for this shit… Blam.
Greaves and Jenny walked back to the car, and Jenny asked her, “Do you know her from somewhere?”
“Oh, no. I literally just met her, like, tonight. Kinda crazy, right?”
“She was staring at you. Like, a lot.” Jenny said to her, worried.
“What?”
“Like, bullets. Laser beams. Straight through your soul. It was kinda freaky.” Jenny responded.
Greaves shivered, half because of the cold, and half for other reasons that she couldn’t place.
Weird.