The Perk- Thursday

[mother_love]

 Billy was not having the best day. Really, the past week had been pretty much a crap fest. Out of the past four nights, three had been filled with nightmares every time he tried to sleep. Every night he found himself back in Racoon City, trapped in the mansion again. Sometimes it was a different part of the mansion... But every nightmare ended the same. With the zombies. And every time he woke up in a cold sweat, heart near pounding out of his chest, and a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.

After three nights of it, Billy decided it was better to just not sleep at all. The nightmares couldn't last forever. They would eventually stop. Or at least they wouldn't be as bad. He had gone through this before. He had dealt with the flashbacks and nightmares once before. He could do it again.... hopefully... he was already pushing nearly 48 hours without sleep at this point. And he was sure he was starting to look about as great as he felt.

So there he was, situated in the corner of The Perk, his third extra large cup of coffee with espresso shot in front of him, the barista possibly giving him concerned glances as she worked behind the counter.


[Coffee shop and post are very much open!]

Comments

[onlyajones]

It had been a while since Jo had stopped by the Perk for a hot cocoa but she hadn’t written to her friend for a couple of months so she thought she’d spend the morning doing that.

At first she thought Billy was her PE teacher and tilted her head slightly before realising it wasn’t, “good morning,” she nodded politely as she made her way to awards a table.

[mother_love]

Billy looked up, eyes probably a bit more bloodshot than they were the day before. He looked at Jo for a minute and then gave a weak, somewhat forced smile and nod. "Good morning," he said as cheerfully as he could... which probably wasn't all that successful but, hey... he was trying.

[onlyajones]

Jo noticed how terrible he looked and wondered if she should ask if he was okay, “I’m Jo,” she introduced herself instead, “Josephine Jones but everyone calls me Jo,”

[mother_love]

"Billy," he said with a slight nod. "Nice to meet you Jo."

Just don't expect his sleep deprived mind to recall the name later on, simple as it was... Nothing personal, Jo, his brain just was not quite up to speed at the moment, despite the near alarming amount of caffeine he was consuming.

[onlyajones]

“Same here,” Jo told him with a smile, “er …” she glanced back towards the baristas since she had noticed they had kept looking over “ I hope you don’t find this rude of me asking but is everything okay?”

This was not her first time with someone who was sleep deprived- a couple of her teachers had habits of turning up to class without sleeping and looking rather awful.

[mother_love]

Billy gave somewhat of a dark laugh. More of a snort really as he shook his head.

"Look that bad huh?" he said as he ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his head slightly. He forced a slight smile and shrugged. "Just not been sleeping too good. Nightmares" he said with a sigh. "But they can't last forever..."

Again that was a 'hopefully' but he was stubborn enough to take it to ridiculous extremes if needed.

[onlyajones]

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that,” Jo said sympathetically, she didn’t personally have trouble sleeping…well aside from when she had been at her old school and all.

Then she wasn’t sure what to say because it wasn’t like she knew Billy and he was an adult, it wasn’t like he needed advice from a 14 year old, besides nightmares were rather personal, “I find hot cocoa works if you need a drink to help you sleep?” she tried instead.

[mother_love]

Billy gave Jo an appreciative grin and nod. He had his doubts about that really. But he wasn't about to be a total jerk to a kid who was just trying to be nice and helpful. He wasn't that far gone yet at least.

"I will have to give that a try tonight" he said. "Thank you Jo." He paused for a moment before adding, "I hope that advice is not coming from a lot of personal experience though."

[onlyajones]

Jo gave a small smile, “you’re welcome,” she told him, staring down at her own hot cocos, “well maybe not nightmares but I had some things happen as my last school,” like nearly drowning when she got pushed in the deep end of the pool, “I couldn’t sleep for a while after that but I do find hot cocoa to be quite comforting,” she said.

[mother_love]

"Finding something comforting to replace that bad can help definitely" Billy said with a nod. "I will definitely try the hot cocoa. And give the coffee a break for a bit" he said a little louder while glancing over to make eye contact with the barista in a "happy now' sort of way.