Aaliyah found herself getting pried off of the table by her wrist, but she didn't give up without a fight. She held onto it with the hand that wasn't being pulled on by Ivan, and she almost carried the table all the way to the door before she let go of it. She could see the headlines now; 'Lament Heart's Pandora Throws Tantrum Over Coffee and Gets Dragged Out of Cafe'. She snickered at the thought, that would teach people not to mess with my coffee.
"Now, Ivan, you know I can never have enough coffee. And we all know as soon as we get there I'm headed straight for the coffee machine, unless they've hid it like they threatened to do last time I drank them dry of all their coffee." Allie had to laugh at the thought, she remembered that day clearly, she didn't sleep all night. That was a great day, it was full of coffee and John was gone on a trip so she didn't have to visit him at all that day.
"So do you want to take bets on Sebastian and Lydia's soberness? I'm willing to bet they have pretty bad hangovers." She heard Ivan say after the taxi began on its merry way to the studio.
She frowned, "Do we even have to bet? It's pretty obvious that they're both going to be drugged up on advil and happy little rays of sunshine when they get there." She looked out the window, those two disappointed her with their constant drinking, and Lydia seemed to be getting worse and worse. "I'm really worried about Lydia, I don't want anything to happen to her." Lydia was a good friend, not as close as Ivan, but closer than Bastian.
"So tell me about John. I would love to know the guy who almost killed my dear Allie." Aaliyah didn't know what to say, if she said too much, Ivan would likely show up at his door with a shotgun and if she said too little, he'd know something was up. She didn't want to lie, but, the truth wasn't exactly an option at the moment.
"First." She said, changing the subject, "why haven't you called me Squirt yet? You know I like it when you call me Squirt!" She had to laugh, when they were little, Ivan couldn't pronounce her name right, it always sounded like Aweea, and he thought that a nickname like Allie or Leyah was too plain, so instead, he called her Squirt, because she was always smaller than everyone else. Aaliyah adored that nickname, but would never let anyone but him call her that, and in return, he got the name 'Slave Boy', or 'Monkey Boy' or something along those lines. "And second," she reached over and squished his cheeks with her hand, directing his head to the window, "we're here, Monkey Boy, the taxi dude's waiting to empty your wallet now."
She smiled at the man who drove the taxi. He didn't seem to mind her wallet comment, he just looked like he wanted the two of them to leave.