Everyone has a price.

Who: Chrissy & Thom
When: A little before 5 pm
Where: Mya's Diner

After moving away from the table and leaving Skye to her tea, Chrissy made her way up to the counter and leaned against it where Thom was standing. "Hi, Thom!" she said with a teeth baring grin and a bubbly tone. "How are you?" she questioned. Homecoming was approaching, and it was coming in fast and Chrissy Chapman wasn't about to be seen there alone so getting a date was top on her list of priorities. Thom was good looking, and though she'd pegged him for gay, she couldn't help but admit that he definitely a better choice of a date than most of the boys she'd been considering lately. She didn't want to show up with yet another football player. Another dance filled with talk about the stupid football team would have her vomiting before the first slow dance. So Thom... Thom was a much better choice. Now all she had to do was convince him to take her.

His mother was working late, again, which was normal in Thom's life. Generally, he cooked for himself, but he wasn't in the mood tonight, so take out it was. Thom was a familiar face at most of the places that did take out in town, it was just a matter of choosing which one he wanted tonight and Mya's ended up being it simply by process of that's where he ended up. As he heard the voice behind him as he waited for his food, he really wished that he'd gone pizza. Possibly delivered pizza. But, he turned and smiled. "Hey Chrissy," he said, going for polite. Maybe she wanted something specific.

"Got a sec?" she queried, shifting her bag over her shoulder slightly and brushing her curly locks away from her face. "I kinda wanted to ask you something. Well talk to you about something actually, run an idea past you if you will." Approaching of the topic would be difficult, but she hoped that she'd be able to present it in a way that he'd accept. He was after all best friends with Kaysen's brother Issac, and it was no secret Chrissy's distaste for the girl or vice versa. She had the feeling that the idea when presented would seem like treason in the boys eyes.

It was tempting to just bluntly ask her what she wanted and just to ask and get it over with, but Thom was rarely, if ever, that rude. He tried not to have anything to do with people like Chrissy - she reminded him of his ex, Em, a girl he'd dated a few years ago for a fairly substantial length of time. She'd seen him, with his easy manner and wealth, as a ticket into the in crowd. Things had started to go bad when she'd realised that that was one place Thom had no interest in being. Thom had taken their breakup hard - Thom always took breakups hard. He didn't date much, everyone knew that. But, whatever his feelings on this, he could give her a few minutes. It wouldn't actually cost him anything. "Sure - I'm just waiting for food, what's up?" he asked, casually.

"Well, um. The homecoming dance is Saturday." she pointed out, not that she really needed to. The posters littered the halls and there were announcements about the damn thing every single day at school. "Look, I wanted to know if you'd go with me." she said bluntly. She flashed him another little grin, twirling a long strand of her hair around her fingertip. "So... what do you say?"

Thom blinked, unable to hide his surprise - possibly shock - at the question. of all the things he could have imagined she was going to ask, that wasn't even on the list. "...Huh?" he asked, usually more eloquent than that. But Chrissy - asking - huh?

She giggled a little at the face he made. "I want to know if you'd go to the homecoming dance with me." she said again. "You know, show up at my house, go to the dance together, talk, dance, go home." Surprise was better in her opinion than a freak out in the middle of the diner. She'd caught him off guard and she enjoyed that fact. Confusion would definitely make the whole situation slightly easier.

Thom looked around, hoping his food would have miraculously appeared so that he could take it, excuse himself and leave. No such look. "No - sorry, I don't think so, Chrissy. I'm sure you'll have no problems finding someone else to go with you, but I wasn't planning on going to the dance at all," he told her.

Well that just wasn't going to work. She wasn't about to take rejection lightly, or at all if she could help it. "Oh come on Thom, you can't not go to the dance. Isn't there anything I can do to talk you into it?" she questioned. She pouted her lip slightly as she looked up at him through dark eyelashes. "Pretty please?"

"Why can't I not go to the dance?" Thom asked, rolling his eyes slightly. "It's not like it's mandatory or anything. I'm not going to the game, I'm not going to the dance - it's that simple. And nothing you could possibly offer me would change my mind on that," he told her, toning it down from the truth that nothing she could offer could make him go with her. After all, she was the main cause of misery in the life of his protected - and the one person he couldn't touch to make things better for Kaysen. Demons, vampires - at least he could kill those fuckers, this one? His hands were tied.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Of course it's not mandatory, but I want you to go with me because face it, you're a lot better a catch than most of the guys I could go with." she admitted. "And everyone has their price Thom. Surely you do as well. Name it and I'll figure out a way to give you what you want." she told him, raising a brow, curious as to whether he'd accept the offering. There was a lot she was capable of, a lot he could have asked of her. "So come on, try me. At least think of something that could change your mind."

He raised an eyebrow, though it was mostly hidden under his heavy mop of dark hair. "You're bribing me to go to the dance with you? Are you really that desperate, Chrissy?" he asked, almost sweetly. Okay, so he wasn't always the saint and he'd been unable to resist that one.

"It's not a bribe. You get something you want, I get something I want. It's win win." she said. "And it's not desperation, darling, it's the simple fact that I'd much rather be seen with you than spend the whole night listening to the football team captain blather on about some stupid win or how great the game went." she shrugged. "At least you could come up with better conversation. So what'll it take?"

She was seriously serious about this, Thom realised, about the same time as he realised that there was something he wanted and that this was possibly a way to achieve that. As much as he hated it - but, really, what had that to do with anything. "Back off of Kaysen," he said, his heart hammering, as it always did when he had to bring up his protected, the adrenaline rush and fear of knowing he'd have to navigate his way throguh the murky waters of talking about her without letting too much out about why he even gave a damn anyhow.

She raised a brow, it arching slightly beneath the tight blonde curls that hung across her forehead. "Kaysen?" she said, a bit of surprise coming through clear on her voice. She clenched her teeth slightly, at the odd request - or order really - having not expected anything of the sort from him. "Define 'back off'." she said, folding her arms across her chest.

"I mean back off. I mean leave her alone, completely. You don't talk about her to other people, you don't gossip about her - you don't even do that pathetic little sacharrine-sweet pseudo-friend bullshit I know you pull. You leave her alone. Find a different target - I'm sure you'll have no problems there," he told her, holding her gaze.

Her jaw stayed slightly tightened. "How long do I have to be nice to her?" she questioned. "Assuming that should we run into each other in the halls and she says something to me, I ignore her and do my best to not be pissed off. How long do I have to leave her alone?" She didn't like the idea, not in the least. Of course, ignoring Kaysen was a lot easier than dealing with stares at showing up alone, or for not going to the dance at all.

"How often does Kaysen actually do that, Chrissy? Never - that's how often. You and I both know full well that that girl avoids you as much as she can." Thom would have left it at 'just be nice to her', but he didn't trust Chrissy not to be able to 'claim' niceness when it was really anything but. "And why put a time limit on this, I'm sure you could do this one little thing," he added, smiling, wondering if she was actually going to go for this. It might actually be worth it if she'd go for this.

She all but glared at the boy as he spoke. No time limit. Meaning she'd have to ignore and or be nice to Kaysen indefinitely. She let out a sigh and shifted her bag on her shoulder. "Fine, but I'm going to want more than a lousy date to the homecoming." she told him. "And I'm not sure what yet, but if I do this... If I leave Kaysen alone, are we going to have a deal?" she queried, eyes glued on his. "And what's the big thing with Kaysen for you anyway?" she asked as an afterthought. "Why so concerned with her wellbeing?"

"She's my best friend's sister - I've known her since she was a kid and our families are close," Thom said, as if this should be obvious. He didn't quite like the idea of Chrissy being able to come back to him for more in the future, but figured he didn't much have a choice - this was a deal that could solve the unsolveable issue, get her to ease up on Kaysen. "And yeah, we have a deal," he told her.

"Good. And you better not back out, Thom." she warned. "I'm only a mere fraction of as horrible as I could be to her, and if you go back on your word, it'll only get worse." She wasn't about to be nice to the girl, or even just ignore her if he was going to change his mind before the dance, or leave her flat with no date. She needed a bit of an insurance policy on it. Worse treatment of Kaysen might just work for that purpose. She uncrossed her arms and held a hand out to him. "Deal?"

Thom chuckled a little as he shook her hand. "I'm not going to back out, Chrissy. I stick to my word, so you just leave her be," he warned in return. "Because if I do find out you've been trying anything between now and then, people will remember this homecoming, and they'll remember you - and it won't be for reasons you like."

He was good, she'd give the boy that. She hardly thought he could come up with anything that would even harm her or her reputation in the slightest, but at least he had the courage to offer up a bit of a return warning. "Fine. I'll leave her be." she agreed. "Saturday, before the dance, you know where I live. Don't be late picking me up." She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and smiled. "And do wear something nice, I do have a reputation to uphold."

"I won't be late, and I'll see what I can do about the outfit," Thom told her, as though that would be a problem. It wouldn't, not really - he had a fairly decent wardrobe, it was simply that he didn't wear half of it most of the time. He had his favourite items of clothing and he stuck to them. He'd need to talk to his mom about borrowing the car though, it seemed. Hopefully that wouldn't be an issue. he turned a little as his food arrived, boxed and bagged, accepting it and paying, before turning back to her. "See you Saturday then," he said, returning to polite.

She smiled and nodded. "Saturday." she agreed, moving to leave the diner herself. Once outside she sighed as she trudged down the street towards her house. Just lovely. Avoid Kaysen at all costs Chrissy, you've really done a number on yourself this time. You better hope that the boy and this stupid dance are worth all this trouble.