ROBERT.
the message pops up on his screen, (alerting him to a couple of previous messages already missed) and god he hates that read receipts are an actual thing — not that it deters him much from not actually replying to every message he usually gets anyway, but it just made the fact more obvious. whatever little time he’d spent talking to the new kid on the block did not qualify as nearly enough time to really judge laurence’s character, (as if he himself was a shining example enough to judge others); as far as first impressions go, he was pretty decent, if a bit awkward. robert debates replying, and yet… it would hardly hurt to see the other at his usual haunts.
‘no’, there’s a short pause before the next replies are sent in quick succession. ‘yes’ followed by ‘only if you are buying’ and ‘you’re new, it’s customary’, leaving the other not much room to argue.
his computer dings unusually fast and laurence’s eyebrows up. the sight of a ’no’ makes him reel back, blinking in surprise. another ding and– oh. the ’no’ only referred to the first question. ah, relief.
’only if you are buying.’ … not a problem. he thinks.
’awesome.’ he taps the keys for a second without actually typing anything. is it weird to just suggests jim and kim’s?? he doesn’t actually know any other places robert would probably hang out. ’jim and kim’s good?’
leg jittering nervously, he waits for a response.
@drunkenknives liked for a starter!!
robert, laurence has discovered, doesn’t seem to know how to answer messages in any sort of timely manner. after the bbq ( and his promise to amanda ), he’s tried to stay in contact with most of the other dads in the neighborhood. which is a LITTLE hard when the person in question goes a day and a half without even reading the messages.
he shakes his head. it should make him upset, or at least uninterested, but he only finds himself more and more curious about his mysterious neighbor.
okay, he’ll give it another try.
’hey,’ he types out. ’you busy tonight? want to hang out?’