“Listen, it’s a very serious choice. You cannot just go on with your life like that, you have to make the decision. What you decide, here and now, will define the rest of your life. Will set your life choices for you, and turn you into something you will have to deal with. It will stick with you, it will define you to the people around you. People will judge you on that. People will applaud you for it. You will either be hated, or loved for this choice. But, most importantly, you will never be able to change it. So, choose-” Sebastian looked over his sunglasses, down at the smiling five year old girl, sitting in front of him. “Chocolate, or vanilla ice cream?”

Rhea had a sketchbook open on her table and she had been drawing away, mostly out of boredom since she was off for the day. She was putting the finishing touches on all the Lion King characters she had been drawing when she overheard the table behind her. She couldn’t help but laugh softly as the man’s speech resulted in asking the person about what ice cream flavor they should pick. Looking back at them, a tiny frown formed on her lips. See the man speaking with his daughter fondly reminded her of how she and her dad used to be before her mother passed. “Is strawberry not an option? Because that’s a pretty good flavor too.” 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it mate. I’ll just clean this up myself, shall I?” Giuseppe called out to the figure walking away from him, muttering to himself as he crouched down and began to sweep the glass into one pile with the palm of his hand. Usually, despite the perks of supernatural healing, he would have at least used a dustpan and brush. Though, he was in no mood after having the polaroids he had laid out on the table ruined by the man dropping his drink. And of course, without so much as a sorry, the bloke had made a swift exit — leaving Giuseppe to deal with the mess. Hearing the sound of glass crunching underneath someones shoe, he turned his head in the direction of the noise. For fuck’s sake. “Watch your step.”

Rhea was out taking her break away from the shop. She grabbed herself a drink from the coffee shop and was going to go sit down at a table outside, when she heard a crunch under her boots and stepped back quickly when she heard Giuseppe speak to her. “Shit, I’m sorry,” she says and dropped down, “Do you need any help with that?” 

“Okay… so I thought that seeing as it was summer and all this might not be too bad of a dare, maybe even enjoyable but I was so, so wrong,” August groaned as he tried to push his curls from his face as water poured off it.

“You’re friends dare you to dunk your head in some ice water?” Rhea asks with a soft giggle, and grabbed a small hand rag from her purse that she normally used to wipe her sunglasses. “It’s not much, but here,” she says and hands it over to him. 

“Don’t worry about it. Didn’t even feel a bump.” Teo brushed it off with a small smile. He could have snapped at the girl, for finallg driving him insane, but, perhaps, he wasn’t in such a bad mood. “But you might want to be careful. This place is full of people not willing to be nice.”

Chloe shrugged. “Nah, yelling wouldn’t get us anywhere. Plus, it’s not like you purposely did it.” It would be a rather silly thing to yell at someone for. “You own a shop? What do you do?”

“I’m a carpenter and contractor. I build houses or do remodels for people. I can also build like decorative pieces or different kinds of entertainment units for home theaters and things like that,” she answers back. “If you want, I can build you something for free as an apology if you’d like.” 

“Oh my god-I don’t remember the last time I watched a rom com-well, if you count Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as one. Other than that, I’ve just been trying to catch up on my TV to even look at a movie.”

“I love Gentlemen Prefer Blondes! I still re-watch the opening part of ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’ because her slapping the guys makes me laugh so hard,” she laughs softly. “I’m not the biggest fan of Adam Sandler, but ‘Blended’ is a cute film to watch if you haven’t seen it yet.”  

““Yes, absolutely. It’s how I am, it’s what I do.” Adam could even step it up a notch, he could’ve fallen to the ground like a soccer player in the world cup, clutching his non-existent wound while rolling around on the ground in mock agony. “The odds are fifty-fifty. I might spent most of my time messing around, testing my new cybernetic arm.” He flexed his fingers, holding up his still very real and non-robotic arm. “I can always eat. It’s my other special talent other than being ridiculously good looking. What are you having? I’m absolutely crashing.”

While Chloe wouldn’t admit it to the woman, she was actually a little annoyed at losing her food. Not enough to get angry at her – it was clearly an accident and she could tell Rhea felt bad – but her stomach growled at the thought of the food she had lost. “Are you sure?” she asked with a sheepish grin, feeling a little weird for her replacing the food, but at the same time felt like it was fair and wouldn’t stop her if she persisted. “Ahh it’s fine, with how many things going around in this town, running into people are the least of our worries.”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’m surprised you’re not yelling at me right now because I ruined your meal,’ she says and gets in line with Chloe. “I’m sure you’re right, but I try my best to keep myself focused on my shop and my commissions rather than thinking about what goes bump in the night.” It was better that she kept her focus on her tasks at hand rather than thinking about all the people that could harm her in Hollow Grove. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Teo brushed it off as the woman bumped into him. He was just walking back from another client, having had opted to do that, rather than take the car;surely, that had to be one of the small positives of living and working in a relatively small town. Then again, people seemed to have this odd attraction towards him, which manifested through bumping into him. It was either that, or, somehow, everyone seemed to not notice a muscular 6"5 man walking around. “It would take so much more than that to hurt me, trust me. Are you okay?”

The accidental run in had caught him off guard, his mind already preoccupied with making sure the two coffees he held were steady prior to the minor collision. Wincing when the hot liquid splashed against his palm, Jake looked the woman over to make sure she was physically unharmed before shaking his head and offering a smile. “No harm done, don’t worry about it.” That being said, he proceeded to place the coffees down on the nearest bench before wiping his hands on the side on his jeans. “Are you alright?”

“Dammit...” she muttered to herself as she bumped into him. She was embarrassed that she had gotten so caught up in her thoughts that she ran into somebody. “I’m so sorry about that,” she says and gives him a nod, “Yeah I’m alright, but are you?” She frowned when she saw the coffee splotches on his clothes and quickly grabbed some extra napkins she always kept with her out of her purse and gave them to him. “Can I get you some new coffees from the shop?” 

Cat was just talking some time off from the store, it was a busy day today. She had to call someone in to help out but she needed a moment to herself. She had just glanced up from her phone when the woman collided with her. Cat sighed and smiled politely. She was sure it wasn’t on purpose. “Oh, it’s fine. I’m fine. I wasn’t really looking where I was going either.” Cat wiggled her phone around. “These things can be dangerous.” She smiled at the other. “Are you alright?” She asked her.  

Rhea rubbed her shoulder from where she had hit Cat. “Yeah I’m good, I’m really sorry, Cat,” she says to her before laughing with a nod. “I wasn’t even using mine and got my mind lost in my thoughts,” she says and shakes her head. “I should know better than to wait for so long before getting something the eat. Can I get you like a drink or something from the food truck as an apology for running into you?” 

Matteo  placed his hand against the woman’s arm to steady her when she bumped into him, self-conscious of his new super strength and worried that he might punt her into traffic. 

“The doctors say I may never walk again.” He shook his head with a teasing grin, his hand dropping from the woman’s arm. “You getting food?” He asked, nodding towards the truck as he started towards the food truck again.

“Oh shit, is that why you’re able to stand right now?” Rhea jokes back and laughs softly. “Yeah I’m planning on getting food, can I offer to buy you something as payback for me running into you?” she asks him with a smile. 

Chloe had been minding her own business, not particularly watching where she was going either as she was enjoying stuffing her face with the food from the truck, when her sholder collided into the person walking by, making her choke on her food and drop the remainder of it. “Oh nono, it’s ok, “she said after clearing her throat. “Though I can’t speak for that,” she added, looking down at the food on the floor.

Rhea jumped when the food splatter on the ground by her feet. “No it’s not okay, I’m so sorry!” she says with a frown. “Here, let me pay for another from the truck,” she says and reaches into her bag to pull out her wallet. “You’d think that I wouldn’t run into anybody because I didn’t have my nose down into my phone, but then here I am running into you because I can’t stop thinking about food.” 

Miles, who was both impervious to injury when it came to attractive people, and constantly hungry, was in line for the food truck, which promised something called Japanese Mediterranean fusion food. He had no idea what it would taste like, but was determined to find out. Glancing down at the girl who’d run into him, he put out an arm and caught her from stumbling, wondering if he could actually dip her a little without it seeming unnatural. Probably. “Hey, no bigs, I’ve had bigger guys hit me harder.” He released her, cuz there was a line between suave and creepy and he wasn’t gonna cross it, but patted her on the shoulder. “You’re all good, Blind Side. What’s got you in a hurry?”

Rhea gasped and gripped onto his arms tightly when he caught her stiffened up. “O-Okay,” she says with a nod and takes a step back after he let her go, taking in some small breaths to calm down. Ever since dealing with her dad’s drunken and abusive behavior when she was a teenager, getting any type of physical touch by guys unexpectedly always made her nervous. “I-I’m just trying to get some food for lunch before I have to go back to work,” she replies, rubbing her arm as a nervous tick.