- “Ispy”It wasn't like I was trying to grab anyone's attention or anything, so I didn't think the word was even directed at me. It sounded more muttered under someone's breath and I wasn't about to try and start another conversation after the two ladies at the bar looked like they wanted to rip my head off. That's probably why the guy in the first booth putting up his hand to stop me caught me off guard.
- “You are just going to let her blow you off like that and walk away?”I wasn't about to take shit from some random guy, but there was something familiar about his face. I knew it from somewhere, but I couldn't place it. More than that though, his voice was the same as the one before. It suddenly clicked together that whatever he had said was directed at me. There was only one problem.
Adam: “What was it you called me? Ispy?”He laughed in my face, and motioned to the bench opposite him in the booth. I wasn't fond of the idea of some stranger laughing at me, but for some reason I didn't get ass offended by it as I reasonably should have. It had to be some kind of insult. I don't know why I didn't walk away right there. I didn't really know who he was. I had no obligation to sit, but I did. As I got comfortable in the booth, he nodded back over to the bartender that had rudely refused to answer my question.
- “Ispy.”So it was some kind of insult, but it wasn't aimed at me, or so I thought.
Adam: “What because she wa--”He didn't let me finish the thought, and actually sighed like he was annoyed. To that point, I rarely felt like the dumbest person in the room. I usually felt like I could outwit anyone within earshot, but there was something about this guy. Being corrected and taunted should have ticked me off, but I was more curious what he was going to say than anything else.
- “I...spy…”It clicked together in that moment. I knew where I recognized his face from, and knew why it seemed so normal that he would be talking me in circles just to mess with me. Before I could ask, he cut me off to continue.
Kris: “I saw the way you looked at her when you walked up. She shut you down hard before you could even say anything.”He made an annoying and judgemental clicking sound with his tongue against the roof of his mouth. I flashed back to how many times I had seen adults do it to me as a kid and found it more frustrating than his laughing in my face.
Kris: “....and you just walked away like a bitch. It was disappointing.”I wasn't going to let him keep poking at me. He was probably banking on me not knowing who he was, and letting it all get under my skin. The familiarity made it easy to deny him what he wanted. I could end the game before he even got to enjoy it.
Adam: “Well not everyone is famous and can get anyone to do whatever they want. Some of us aren't that lucky.”I tapped my knuckles on the table twice and rolled my eyes at him. I had places to go, and more important things to worry about than entertaining some asshole.
Adam: “Thanks for the… whatever this was. Advice?”I shook my head, and saw something change in his eyes. He tried to interrupt me, but I had him now. It was my turn to cut him off.
Adam: “Nah, advice has to be useful. This was just… well.. it happened.”I slid to the end of the bench and got up to my feet proud of myself. I knew he wasn't going to let me get the last word, but I thought I would be able to brush off whatever it was.
Kris: “You're pretty good at running away but making it look like it's what you really want to be doing. Must have a lot of practice.”It cut me, but not as deep as I think he was banking on. It was also painless to turn it back on him.
Adam: “Yeah, we can spot our own.”I winked at him before he could throw the trademark my direction. I didn't wait for him to put together any kind of rebuttal either, making my way towards the door.
Adam: “Try not to get thrown up on again, champ.”
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The growl of frustration slipped from the young girl's lips as she slung her overly large purse over her shoulder as her shift at the bar ended. She shoots the blonde that was still sitting at the bar a look as she makes her way to the door.
Elowyn: “Stupid Mikah. Showing up and costing me money.”She mumbles under her breath as she walks out of the bar. She waves bye to the bouncer and doesn't pay attention to where she's going. As she comes out of the front door and onto the sidewalk, she is nearly mowed over by a bicycle that screeches to a halt and slides sideways to avoid her. The person on it was just as shocked to see her as she was to see him, and stutters over a few words trying to explain himself.
Adam: “I-I-I didn't even see you come out. I was just trying to leave. Sor--”He cuts himself short of an apology when he realizes who she is. Instead of finishing the word, he shrugs his shoulders and gives her an undeniably fake smile.
Adam: “You know what? No. I should have just ran you over.”She glares at him, the wind picking up a little bit and blowing her already messy curly locks all over her face. She folds her arms over her chest before looking him over.
Elowyn: “Of course. You'd have to have a bicycle to run anybody over because you can't do it with just yourself. Pathetic.”She gives him a once over again before rolling her eyes and trying to move around him. She wasn't in the mood to deal with his bullshit and was going to make sure let him know that.
Adam: “Oh look, she does talk.”He tries to move the bike to the side to get out of her way, but unintentionally moves in the same direction that she does, cutting her off. They both try to sidestep the opposite direction at the same time, leading them to still be standing in each other’s way.
Adam: “I guess there must be some rule about doing so when you’re on the clock. Can you get out of my way, please?”She takes a deep breath, trying to contain her frustration. She was growing more and more agitated with the guy in front of her and his accusatory tone he was taking with her.
Elowyn: “Can YOU get out of MY way? Seriously, do you have a problem?”She doesn't make a move to go around him but instead, stays in place. The frown was settled on her pretty face as well, letting him know about her frustration.
Elowyn: “YOU were the one that cut me off. So I don't know if you're uneducated or what, but you need to move before I make you move. I am not in the mood to deal with your shit.”He motions around to his left with his arm, allowing her to pass in front of him, keeping the bike steady.
Adam: “After you.”She looks at him, his eyes narrowing at him but she doesn’t hesitate in walking past him. She shakes her messy hair out behind her as she literally struts past him.
Elowyn: “Thank you.”It was not a sincere thank you but it was something she felt that she needed to say to him. Why? She hadn’t been too sure but something about him was strange.
Elowyn: “And maybe, instead of being such a goddamned hoodlum, you should work on not running people over.”He shrugged his shoulders, not letting the insult get to him at all.
Adam: “Well, you're not a speed bump on the sidewalk, so I guess I'm already ahead of the curve.”He looks over his shoulder in her direction with a smirk on his face.
Adam: “While we're giving free advice though, when you work for tips, being a bitch costs you money.”She whips around to glare at him, stopping in her tracks to do so. She looks at him before vaguely remembering him as the guy that tried to interrupt her conversation with Mikah.
Elowyn: “Being a dick doesn’t get you a drink, now does it?”She smirks before rolling her eyes and turning back around, walking in the direction of the house she lived in. She didn’t count on him following or anything really, just started to walk.
Adam: “You think you know everything…”He spins the bike around towards her and rides forward, coming alongside her.
Adam: “I'm not riding around on this because I think it makes me look good. I'm not carrying extra weight because it makes for a good workout.”He nods behind the seat of the bike where a case is strapped above the tire.
Adam: “I wasn't looking for a drink. I was trying to ask for help, but I guess I'm just wasting my time trying to give someone down here the benefit of the doubt.”She tries her best to keep her emotions in check as he talks and rides his bicycle alongside her. She turns her body slightly, stopping at a crosswalk with a DO NOT CROSS sign flashing at them.
Elowyn: “What? Are you saying that the people that live down here are trash?”She didn’t bother with hiding the look of irritation in her eyes as she stares at him, like she was trying to stare a hole through his body.
Elowyn: “You chose to go into that bar and you chose to insert yourself into the conversation I was having. That was YOUR choice, not mine. You could have chosen a gas station to ask for help. Or you know, asked one of the hundred other people in the bar for help.”She gives him a look as she starts walking again as the sign lets them cross now.
Elowyn: “So, don’t try to push your stupidity on me, guy.”He pushes the bike away from the curb, still at her side, and not wanting to let her get the last word in the argument.
Adam: “A conversation you were having instead of doing your job…”As she goes up onto the sidewalk on the other side of the street, he rides alongside it still on the road.
Adam: “Your job paying some kind of attention to possible customers…. and you can't even seem to do that well enough, so maybe the stereotype fits.”She rolls her eyes before contemplating on sticking her foot out to trip him on the bike but thinks better of it.
Elowyn: “I was talking with that lady who apparently is like a daughter to the owners. It was a serious conversation. A conversation you had no part in. And should have kept your pointy nose out of it.”She doesn’t bother looking at him as she walks, watching the houses pass them by. She wasn’t scared of the neighborhood, having lived there her entire life and just barely scraping by.
Adam: “Pointy nose?”He laughs at the attempt to insult his appearance, not taking offense to it in the least.
Adam: “That is the best you have? All this time arguing and that is the best you came up with? Way to prove my point about how bright the neighborhood is.”She runs a hand through her messy curls as they were getting dangerously close to her house. She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to know where she lived so she stops in the middle of the sidewalk again.
Elowyn: “What the hell is your problem!? Do you not know when you’re not wanted? Are you like a dog that doesn’t know the word no?”She gives him a dirty look before rolling her eyes in irritation again. She puts her hands on her hips and looks at him, expectantly. He stops, and plants both feet on the ground, just now realizing that he was following her in the opposite direction from where he thought he needed to be albeit just being a guess. He looks back over his shoulder in that direction, and then back to her.
Adam: “I can see that this is a lost cause…”It was Kris that had gotten in his head with this girl. Maybe that was why he argued with her. He wanted to prove someone he did not even know wrong.
Adam: “Enjoy the rest of your miserable day.”He spins the bike around in the opposite direction. She watches him for a moment.
Elowyn: “Don't fall off your bike!”She shouts at his back as he starts to ride away.
Elowyn: “Because I'm not fixing you up!”He rides straight across the road they had just crossed, not waiting for the light to change. Instead of turning back towards her, he waves over his shoulder quickly before hopping up onto the sidewalk and racing away to make up for the time that he lost.
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They did not cross paths again for a few days following their strange meeting, but that had not stopped Adam from talking about the experience. Especially now that he found himself back in the same neighborhood. It was more of a social call this time, instead of work pulling him this direction. As such he was dressed a lot more casually.
Adam: “I dunno man, she was pretty shitty for no reason. Not sure anyone down here is going to be worth pic---”He kicked the skateboard at his feet up and then tossed it to one of his friends behind him as his eyes found her inside the small store. They seemed to pick up on the way his words stopped coming, and traced his eyeline to her. Before anyone in the group could give him any shit for it, he pushed through the door, and pulled it closed behind him. He made his way across the store, tucking his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and stepping up behind her in line.
Adam: “I guess they let anyone in these places…”She had been on a mission to get pedialyte and soup because Lincoln was sick. She hadn't expected to run into the douchebag from the other night in the store.
Elowyn: “Clearly. They let you in here.”She doesn't bat an eye and doesn't even turn around to look at him. Her arms were full and she couldn't find the pedialyte, so he had to accept the fact that Gatorade would work just the same.
Elowyn: “Is there a reason you're in here? It is clear that you don't have a life and are trying to start something.”She looked a mess, her wild hair up in a messy bun to keep the strands from her face and to probably conceal the fact that she hadn't had time to properly wash her hair. Shower? Yes but before she could get her hair washed, she was being shouted at by Asher.
Elowyn: “I really don't have time for your antics right now. So either way whatever it is you have on your mind or get lost.”She steps forward in line. She didn't know if she could handle anything he threw at her without breaking. It had been a rough couple of days, money wise. And their father had stopped by to see their mother and that was a mess in itself.
Adam: “Wow… so you’re like, always a bitch. It wasn’t just a one time thing.”He shrugs lightly, and tries to shake off any sign of visible surprise. He was not even sure that she was going to remember seeing him. He certainly hadn’t thought that he was going to see her again, at least not so soon. His friends all hung around the outside of the doors, looking through the glass windows, but unable to hear the conversation. He tries to wave them off without her noticing.
Adam: “Here I was… about to give you the benefit of the doubt, and you just prove that I was right the first time.”She looks at him before shaking her head, not in the mood to deal with him.
Elowyn: “And what did you expect me to do?”She raises an eyebrow at him before turning to see if she needed to move forward in line.
Elowyn: “Did you expect me to just jump into your arms and hug you? Like I should be so excited to see you?”She raises an eyebrow at him. He shakes his head without even acknowledging that she meant it more as an insult than anything realistic.
Adam: “Maybe a.. Oh you’re that guy. Sorry I was shitty to you for no reason...”He does his best to mimic the cadence of her voice back to her, knowing that there was no way that he could strike the same tone that she did.
Adam: “Or even, hey we got off on the wrong foot, don’t be a dick next time and maybe we can just get past that.”He shrugs lightly, and tilts his head slightly to his left.
Adam: “Maybe?”She looks at him before sighing, not really having it in her to fight with him today. She moves forward and places her things on the counter.
Elowyn: “Maybe.”She grabs her purse as the cashier rings things up and she scrambles through her things and finds the right amount of cash and shoves it into the guy's hand.
Elowyn: “Thanks.”She takes the bag he offers her before looking at Adam. She offers a smile before turning to leave or at least move out his way.
Elowyn: “You...right. Sorry I was having a bad night the other night.”He steps to the side, and reaches into his pocket before slapping a bill down on the counter. He does not even look at the cashier before doing so.
Adam: “That is so much better. See, we could have started there last time and already become friends.”He looks up at the cashier finally, and points to the outside.
Adam: “I am hoping that ice machine has something useful in it because I literally need to buy all of it.”The cashier looks down at the bill on the counter, and then back up at Adam confused. Adam’s eyes shift back and forth and few times, not exactly sure what the hold up is.
Adam: “No seriously. They are only a few dollars each. Use your little magic marker to make sure it is real and then give me a thumbs up or something. Kinda got things to do.”Ellie had started to move away from him as he spoke with the cashier, but as he went about checking the bill, Adam spun around her way.
Adam: “...and if you don’t have any plans tonight, maybe you want to come have fun for a while. Nothing too dangerous.”She looks at him, a little unsure of where he was going with this. But how could she go anyways? Lincoln was sick.
Elowyn: “Fun? What's fun?”She gives him an unapologetic look as she shifts the bag to her other hand as she starts to walk in the direction of her house. The cashier gives up a sarcastic thumbs up without producing any change, and Adam follows her from the small store. His friends disperse and move a truck in front of the ice machine before tossing bags from it into the back of the truck. Adam’s focus was less on them though, and totally on her.
Adam: “See, fun is a thing that you do in order to get away from the things that suck, even if just for a few hours.”He comes up to her side, looking over at her as they walk.
Adam: “Makes the bullshit more tolerable.”She looks at him as he walks alongside her and she smiles at him a bit bit not much.
Elowyn: “Coming from a guy who probably has absolutely no responsibility. And I am not saying that in a negative manner.”She shrugs her shoulders as they stop to cross the street. She watches the light, waiting for it to change before they cross.
Elowyn: “Plus, how would I even know how to get there?”He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a phone. When he clicks the screen on, there is not much to the display.
Adam: “I actually had some thoughts about that.”He opens up the messenger on it and sends a quick text. Almost as soon as his does, a second phone chimes in his front pocket.
Adam: “Here…”He catches the strange look she gives him and tries to brush it off.
Adam: “Not going to be presumptuous enough to ask for your number or anything. This is just a throw away. I sent a message to myself. You have my number in it now. If you want to come, let me know. You don't have to decide now.”He extends the phone out to her after clicking off the screen. She looks at the phone and then over at him, frowning.
Elowyn: “I cannot take a phone from you. Under no circumstances would that be acceptable.”She looks at the phone that he was still holding out to her.
Elowyn: “I can't come anyways. My brother is sick and well…”She doesn't offer anything else but an apologetic look. He does not appear to follow the line of thinking.
Adam: “You're not taking it. You're borrowing it in order to get directions to a party. Just a couple people. Okay… maybe like a couple dozen people.”His friends pull away from the store, and quickly catch up to where they are walking. He holds a hand out to stop them from trying to yell out at him, with only his index finger extended upwards.
Adam: “Anyone can make excuses not to do things. They can also find ways around those excuses too if they really want to.”She looks at him, biting her bottom lip. She knew she could ask Asher to watch Lincoln but still.
Elowyn: “I'll think about it.”It was all she offers him before she turns before looking at the house that was just a few hundred feet away. With her eyes up at the house, he reaches out and slips the phone into the top of the bag that she is carrying before moving away from her.
Adam: “Well, you'll have to get that back to me somehow. I guess either way you will have to text me.”He offers her a wink as the truck picks up speed to meet him at the side of the road. It does not even come to a full stop before he leaps up onto the back of it with all of the ice.
Adam: “Or you know, steal it, sell it, smash it, hope to never run into me again.”She watches him as he seems pretty confident in her going to whatever party he was throwing. She raises an eyebrow at him.
Elowyn: “Maybe all of the above.”She doesn't try to give the phone back, however. The thought of getting away from the house seemed decent. If only for one night.
Elowyn: “We will see…”She turns and starts walking up the sidewalk to the house as the truck speeds away down the road.
