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.