Streets of Manhattan

James made a bee line to the place Alexis pointed out, remembering that he couldn't take Frankie inside, he tied his leash to another phone pole,

"Okay boy, I promise this time I won't take this long." James turned to face Alexis, "Come on lets go, hopefully they don't take too long to make a pizza, we'll just order and eat outside I feel bad if we leave the dog out here.

"And keep an eye out for him because I don't want someone stealing the poor guy." Alexis said and rushed into the pizza place with him, her stomach growling even more at the smell.

James nodded approaching the counter, he ordered a large cheese pizza, after telling him the total he handed the guy over a twenty, and taking back the change.

He looked at Alexis, "The guy said it will be ten minutes, thank god. I'm so hungry I'd eat the box right now." James said finding a small table near the window, he sat down glancing out the window to make sure Frankie was still at the post the tied him at.

"..I almost agree with that." Alexis nodded some, sitting down in the chair across from James and glanced out at Frankie before messing with her phone and staring at facebook. She crinkled her nose and put the phone down. "...James, can I ask you something without sounding um. narcissistic?"

"Alexis did you forget who you are talking to? I invented the word "narcissistic." James said boisterously, "But sure ask me anything."

"Uhm..." Alexis paused, biting at her bottom lip a little as she thought over what she was going to say, watching Frankie out the window as he wagged his tail, his butt wriggling along with it when people passed by and gave him a glance. "Is my... personality that unlikable?"

James thought about this for a moment, he honestly didn't know her all too well back in high school. He had only talked to her a couple of times because he remembered she had spent most of her time with Joel since they were dating.

Other then small talk, he didn't really talk to her that much to have an opinion of her, although now they talked for a couple of hours and she had seemed nice.

"Honestly, you and I never really talked much back in the day other than "hey what's up?" so I couldn't really say much about you, I mean I've talked to you now more so since we've been here and you're fun to be around. Trust me if I didn't think so I would have ditched you." James stated bluntly, and smiling.

Alexis smiled some. "Thanks James... sorry to be all- teenage low-self-esteemish on you. It's just- no one says their honest opinion anymore, you know? They always say what hurts most and then walk away or they lie around it. So... I guess it sounds like I'm constantly fishing for compliments and everyone just thinks I'm some bitch who doesn't hurt or... I'm just gonna shut up now."She smirked weakly, and messed with her phone absent mindedly.

James shook his head, "Don't worry about it, Alexis. I get it."

"Number 10, your order is ready!" The guy called from behind the counter ringing a bell, James got up and went to grab the pizza and opened the fridge paying for two Cokes, he walked back to their table opening the box, the aroma of the melting cheese hit his nose and his mouth began to water.

He handed Alexis a Coke, and smiled, "Dig in." He said taking a slice and taking a bite.

Alexis nodded in thanks, opening the soda before putting it down and took a slice, taking a bite from it and made a rather pleased noise quietly, it just tasting 10x's better from being so hungry.

James polished off his first slice, in Luke like manner, he usually was pretty good at maintaining his pig like habits when it came to eating but since he'd moved here he hadn't even really been eating all to regularly.

James found the shaker that had the pepper flakes, and doused his pizza in it, and took a bite out of second slice. His mouth burning he took a swig of Coke, "Ahh.... sorry I'm eating like a pig its just... we can't cook." He snorted.

Alexis smirked, watching James as she finished her first slice soon enough. "It's okay. I grew up with enough boys to be used to it."

Including briefly Luke. She frowned briefly before grabbing another slice and took a bite, ignoring her inner self.

"Yeah but usually I'm far more civilized, I'm not saying I'd be eating my pizza with a fork and knife, thats what pansies do. But its like right now... I feel like I left my dignity at the door." He said going on to grab his third slice adding more pepper to the cheese.

He held out the pepper flake shaker to Alexis, "Want some? I think it makes pizza so much better."

Alexis shrugged and took it, shaking some on it before crinkling her nose and felt her eyes water. She put it down and covered her face before sneezing quietly, twice.

James snickered quietly, at Alexis and handed her some napkins, "Here, yeah its got a kick but its damn good." James said devouring his pizza.

Alexis took the napkin and sneezed into it again before laughing a little. "Damnit..."She mumbled and waited till she felt like she wasn't going to sneeze again before chucking the napkin into a near by trash can before going back to eating.

James chuckled at Alexis, "Bless you." He said.

After finishing five slices, he let out a breath patting his stomach, "Well I'm beached...I could seriously go home and hibernate now."

James yawned.

Alexis chuckled some, watching him. "Looks like it. You can go ahead and go back if you want." Alexis shrugged, leaning back as she full herself.

"I'll leave, do you want me to take you back at least? Its dark and yeah." James' voice trailed off, knowing Alexis would get the idea.

***

[[The Spanish Bastard and The Siren from Sevilla]]

Jake realized he forgot to add "fake" to the "girlfriend" part of the sentence, but it seemed like Evelyn hadn't been listening so he decided to keep that to himself, as long as she knew that he wasn't taking her to Broadway that didn't matter.

Jake focused his attention to the bike rack where Frankie, if that was him. Although he didn't seem to know that many people in New York with Rottweilers.

"Oh yeah, I think it is Frankie, and we're not walking in circles there's a ton of pizza places on this block, Liv's apartment is further down, but do you wanna see if that's the dog?" He asked her.

Evelyn nodded and glanced around before heading over to the dog.

Frankie's barking indicated he recognized them. He licked her hand happily when she approached and Evelyn leaned down and ruffled the short hair on his head. "Hey boy, what're you doing out here? Why the hell would..."

She trailed off, standing up to look at Jake with wide eyes. She indicated her head at the pizza place. "One or both of them are in there...."

Alexis tensed a little, not having thought about that. "Uh, yes, please."She said quicklly.

"I don't blame them, they have real good pizza here." He informed her and then caught on realizing she meant that Alexis or James were probably here explaining Frankie's presence, "Ohhhh.... right, do you want to go then?" He said reaching over to pat Frankie on the head in greeting.

***

"Sure, just give me a sec and we can leave." James got up taking their box, and throwing it out in the trash, but before doing so there had been a slice neither of them had touched and he wrapped it in a napkin and decided to give it to Frankie.

Alexis got up and headed over for the door, pulling her bag up over her shoulder.

Evelyn frowned, wondering what the hell either of them had been doing with Frankie in the first place.

The devil inside her sprung to life. She threw Jake a calculating smile "Why don't we help 'em out? Take Frankie back home to Connor?" She rolled up the sleeves of his coat as she said this because Jake was a freaking giraffe and his coat came down to mid-thigh. Even the shoulders were huge and she felt like a kid playing dress-up.

Jake smiled mischeviously, "Of course, we'll be doing our deed as good citizens. I'm sure Connor is worried sick about his dog." Jake thought about their plan, and was sure they could out run them but then he remembered one other minor detail, they had to get Nova's from Olivia's their one major task which was what they had planned to do for the entire day.

He thought quickly and it hit him, "We have to get Nova too, cause if I go back to the dorms I'm not coming back out, so we'll actually take off down the street cause its where her apartment is, and I know a shortcut back to campus, that way we'll really lose them." Jake smiled untying Frankie from the bike rack.


James came towards Alexis by the door, and he looked down at her, "Come on let's go." He opened the door and saw two people standing near the bike rack where they had tied Frankie, he recognized instantly the bronze hair and saw the tall boy next to her holding the leash.

"Hey!" James shouted.

"Run, Red!" Jake shouted to her taking off down the street, with Frankie running beside him.