asoncalledgabriel | (no subject)

Gabriel found an extra job to get him through the summer, working at a cafe. It was probably better to have something to do all summer, and his other job was only part time - mostly because he didn't want to spend the entire summer outside. He was lucky - for an Irish lad he tanned fairly well - but summer here was warmer than it was back home, and doing landscape work in the heat and humidity was exhausting.

At least the cafe had air conditioning.

Keeping busy gave him less time to think, anyway, and that was also probably for the best. Since coming to Darrow, he felt un-tethered from everything. All the things he'd wanted back home felt uncertain and far away now. He'd wanted to go to university to get away from his family, his life, and now... he was in a place that gave him all that. He went to university here because it seemed the thing to do, but was that a good enough reason? He wasn't sure.

The more he thought about it, the more he missed home. Things felt awful there, but at least he'd had an idea of where he was going. He had a handful of hope that.

As the day wound down, he changed the music playing over the speakers, putting on his ABBA playlist while he cleaned up, getting ready to close. The place was empty and had been for about half an hour, so he didn't feel terribly bad singing and dancing around a bit. Surely no one else would come in.

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"I suppose I should sort it out sometime in the near future," he admits. "But I don't think it has to be now. I just-- I haven't the slightest idea what to make of myself here. All I wanted was to get away from home before, that was enough. Going to university in London would've given me that. And now Darrow's done that work instead but there isn't exactly a wide world here, full of possibility. Is there?"

He frowns a bit and looks down at the counter, at his hands. He's a farm boy far from home, and he isn't exactly sure where his skills, what few he has, will make any sense or be of us.

"Suppose I can always resort to digging ditches."

"I'm sure there will be something," Therese says, hoping as she does that it's true. It probably sounds trite, but she hopes it doesn't come across as insincere because of that. "There are always... things you can do in between, too, if you haven't made up your mind. I used to work at a department store before I was able to get a job in photography." If that feels like a lifetime ago now, then that hardly seems worth mentioning. That story isn't one that needs to be told, when the only noteworthy thing about that job is the fact that it brought her to Carol.