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Post by Simon Burkett on Sept 29, 2006 13:48:05 GMT -5
It hadn't taken Simon long to shunt his scant belongings around to accommodate anything Mickey cared to put in the wardrobe. It had taken slightly longer to shunt Jamie's things into the next room however, and by the time it was done the sun was dipping toward the horizon.
Thoughts of what had almost happened between him and Dani plagued his mind through-out. So close, and yet so far.
The threw himself down on the bed and folded his hands behind his head, staring dreamily at the ceiling.
Immediately the image of Dani's face, lips parted and close to his sprang to mind. He could almost feel her hand on his face again. They had only known each other a day.
That was probably it.
She hadn't got to know him properly yet, then she would lose interest.
If there was any interest to begin with.
Duh! She was going to kiss you idiot! Of course she is interested!
Yeah but ...
Oh shut up!
Yeah but ...
He wondered if other people had these sorts of complications.
He was still staring dreamily at the ceiling when Mickey arrived.
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Post by mickey on Sept 30, 2006 21:07:58 GMT -5
Mickey had been moving his junk out of the little space between the seats and the back of the car that served him for a trunk. Boner-inspiring though the Lambourghini was, it wasn't the best thing in the world for transport; he'd FedExed a few boxes to himself to make up for the lack of space, but most of what he desperately needed (clothing, eyeliner, a complete range of skin cleansers and moisturizers, 1 box condoms, one of his books of CDs, and a bag of Cheetos) and a few bits and bats were in a big, expensive-looking Louis Vuitton luggage that his dad had got from some corporate conference when he'd been thinking about investing in some random telecom company.
Why they'd given him luggage was fairly beyond Mickey, but it had been full of cool tech stuff, which made marginally more sense; and anyway, the luggage was useful. And black, and very cool-looking.
He trudged up the stairs with it, barely feeling the weight; Mickey didn't trust caddies, which meant he ended up lugging his clubs all over the course himself when he played, giving him some serious tone in his arms, though he didn't bulge or vein out grossly. In fact, they looked kind of chickenish from underneath most of his shirts, but he had decent arms when they were uncovered. It was one of the prime reasons he liked wandering around shirtless.
He'd probably have to put a stop to that now, wouldn't he. Damn.
He got the bag to the top of the stairs without much difficulty and pushed through his new bedroom's door, knocking on the frame a second before for courtesy's sake.
"'Ey," he greeted Simon, who was flaked out on the bed, gazing at the ceiling. Mickey tossed his bag on the other bed, which squeaked. Mickey took a second to be gently surprised. He couldn't remember the last time a bed had squeaked. "Thanks for clearing up," Mickey said, gesturing at the wardrobe, which was still open and distinctly half-empty.
"What's on your mind?" Mickey asked genially, glancing over his shoulder at Simon, who did actually look thoughtful, as he unzipped the big bag and started pulling meticulously-balled up clothing out of the bag, shaking out his shirts and refolding them so they'd fit better on the shelves.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 1, 2006 5:45:38 GMT -5
The greeting jolted him out of his musing and he turned his head to look at Mickey, "hey, no problem," he said with a smile, "I didn't have much stuff to begin with, can't get much in a backpack."
Ah hell, he wanted to know what he'd been thinking about.
He looks like a man of the world, why not ask him what he thinks?
I do not need advice on ... things ...
Oh you so do!
Shut up.
"I was ... uh, just thinking about how so many people find this place, I mean it's pretty out of the way. I only ended up here by accident, one of the woman down at the store pointed me here."
He shrugged.
"Marie reckons they're getting good at spotting ... people like us."
"Jamie, the kid who was in here before, was abandoned by his parents when ... things started to happen. How harsh is that?"
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Post by mickey on Oct 1, 2006 8:15:58 GMT -5
Mickey wondered briefly how anyone could possibly survive off the contents of a backpack for long. Could you even fit more than a week's worth of clothes in there, not to mention anything else?
Maybe it was one of those huge backpacks, like, the camping kind. Whatever.
"I was ... uh, just thinking about how so many people find this place, I mean it's pretty out of the way. I only ended up here by accident, one of the woman down at the store pointed me here. Marie reckons they're getting good at spotting ... people like us."
Mickey made a thoughtful face in return, cataloguing again just how different he in particular looked from the average population. "It's always easy to spot tourists," he said. "I think anywhere, especially a small town... but I guess there might be something different about us."
Especially if you were the one one in town with any piercings that weren't your ears. But hey, Mickey couldn't help it if he was too awesome for suburbia. And airport metal detectors. And most electronics involving powerful magnets.
"I heard about it from my cleaning lady," Mickey said. "Her son was - he didn't take the Cure, but she wanted him to, and she'd heard about it from some dude in another house. I guess it just spread around?"
"Jamie, the kid who was in here before, was abandoned by his parents when ... things started to happen. How harsh is that?"
Mickey's face took on a tightness it always did when someone mentioned parents. Abandonment, he thought, might almost have been worse... but maybe that was dramatic. It wasn't like he'd grown up in a closet in Harlem or something.
Still!
"That's tough," he said. "I don't get - God. Why do people have kids if they're not prepared to deal with them?"
Not that mutancy or mediocrity were particularly predictable, but hey.
"How'd he get down here?" Mickey asked. "Isn't he, like, twelve?"
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 1, 2006 9:06:50 GMT -5
"Yeah, a social worker found him a got him cured. She figured he would be better off here than in an orphanage with other kids like him, I think she ended up taking his parents to court. It's not something he likes to talk about though, you know?"
Simon could understand where Jamie was coming from perfectly. At least his own exile was self imposed.
"Quite a few kids here with similar stories; stuff started happening they didn't understand and their parents didn't know how to deal with it."
He realised that he had inadvertently managed to slip on to a very angsty sort of topic. Not the sort of thing that made for light hearted banter.
"I'm not quite so sure why the place seems to attract so many gorgeous girls though."
His cheeks pinked again as he spoke, the mental image of Dani's beautiful face so close to his again returning to haunt him.
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Post by mickey on Oct 1, 2006 12:33:04 GMT -5
Mickey concentrated on schooling his face as Simon mentioned offhand the exile in which so many people, himself included, found themselves once their powers surfaed. To anyone who hadn't taken either a debate or an acting course all the way through high school and been damn good at it, it would've looked like he didn't care at all.
"I know how that one goes," was all he said.
They needed to get off-subject. Mickey didn't want to get into the "wah I hate my parents" rant. It was always exhausting.
"I'm not quite so sure why the place seems to attract so many gorgeous girls though."
Mickey gave Simon and his red cheeks an impish grin, his tongue stud gleaming.
"All the more reason to stick around," he said. (Best not to get into the "I like boys" thing until he was sure they weren't going to stone/throttle him for it.) "You and Dani look pretty close."
That might have been casual if he hadn't been giving Simon the Conspiratorial Boy Look the whole time.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 1, 2006 13:07:06 GMT -5
The comment and the look only served to deepen the pinkness to a full-blooded red that virtually radiated heat.
"N ... not really," he stuttered, "I mean, we only met each other yesterday ... we just uh ... share a couple of interests is all."
Well said! Now he'll never suspect anything!
Uh ...
Dude, your jaw virtually drags along the floor every time she enters the room.
You know, there is supposed to be medicine you can take for hearing voices!
Only if you are sick.
You are sick!
"She was looking for places to work and I needed to get some more clothes when you picked us up, that's ... all it was."
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Post by mickey on Oct 1, 2006 13:54:17 GMT -5
Oh, God, that face was priceless.
"A couple of interests," Mickey said, his eyebrows rising as he crossed to the wardrobe with a stack of pants and a stack of shirts, putting each one on one of the recently-vacated shelves carefully. "I'd say so."
"She was looking for places to work and I needed to get some more clothes when you picked us up, that's ... all it was."
Mickey shook his head as he reemerged from the closet (har har), picking up the garment bag that had been stowed inside the other suitcase, unzipping it and pulling out a few nice shirts and a tailored suit that made him look like a real person rather than a juvenile delinquent.
"For you guys having met each other just yesterday," Mickey said on his way back to the wardrobe, "you still look pretty close."
He hung up the shirts draped over one arm before following suit with his suit (har har times two), then spoke as he rearranged the shirts so they were color-coordinated.
"I think she likes you," he said, a little loudly so it would carry over to Simon.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 1, 2006 14:15:36 GMT -5
Told you.
No you didn't.
Did too.
How about you shut up now.
He coughed and went so red you probably could have cooked an egg on him. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Then he managed to pull himself together.
"We ... uh ... we just get on well is all," he said a little hesitantly.
The idea that a girl might actually like him was still an utterly alien concept to Simon, who was far more used to being mocked and laughed at for being a geek.
But she was going to kiss you.
He hardly dared to ask.
He rolled over on to his side and watched Mickey meticulously tidy his clothes. The expression of wide-eyed hope on Simon's face was something that could easily be attributed to a hungry puppy.
"You ... " he said in a little voice.
"You ... really ... think she might?"
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Post by mickey on Oct 1, 2006 14:30:27 GMT -5
Mickey made "uh-huh yeah right" noises from the closet, rolling his eyes, though of course Simon couldn't see him do it. It still felt triumphant. Well. Not really. Superior, more like.
"You ... You ... really ... think she might?"
"I really think she does," Mickey said. "Let's put the ix-nay on this might business. You gotta be more confident."
There was no greater turn-off than a guy who couldn't say what he wanted. Mostly because girls were still hung up on the archaic idea that the guy was supposed to ask 'em out. Of course, it was sort of a karmic freebie - they bore children, they kept the house most of the time, they made seventy cents to the dollar, they had PMS; guys could do the asking-out. But still! Men were learning to cook! It was getting even!
"You gonna give it a shot?" he asked, reemerging from the cloest and rooting back through his bag, pulling out a stack of CDs, which he placed on the nightstand next to an iPod stand with speakers. His iPod itself was floating somewhere in the bottom of his car, as did at least half of his smaller-than-breadbox possessions.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 1, 2006 15:03:57 GMT -5
Simon rolled back onto his back and resumed staring at the ceiling.
Confident.
Well that was him screwed then.
"I ... " he paused and sighed.
"I dunno," he finished lamely.
Dude, weak.
"It's just, how do you know for sure? Dani's so ... " he didn't finish that particular train of thought.
"I mean look at her! And me!"
You suck!
I know.
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Post by mickey on Oct 1, 2006 23:09:56 GMT -5
Mickey shoved his bag further up on the bed and plopped down on the edge. It squeaked again, stiffer than his bed in New York had been. Maybe he should buy a mattress.
"It's just, how do you know for sure? Dani's so ... I mean look at her! And me!"
"Well..." How to handle this one? Diplomacy or truth?
There was no way he'd ever win this case with diplomacy. He'd have to find a new way through: play into Simon's insecurities to lend himself credence while working around the problem at hand.
"Well, yeah," Mickey said. "At face value, sure, you're right. But you have to remember that girls are weird. They do the whole 'oh, his personality makes him hot' thing. Like, to a massive extent. Which is great for us, I always thought. I mean, when was the last time you saw a really beautiful girl with a guy that was her equal in the looks department? They're always with some loser that they think is misunderstood or artistic or whatever. Or someone like you," he amended. "You know. Smart and stuff."
Mickey himself played into the former assumption when he went for girls. Guys were so much simpler; there was so much less of the whole let's-pretend-we're-actually-interested-in-each-other and much more of the up-frontness that was the best part of being a guy.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 4, 2006 16:16:22 GMT -5
"You're right about girls being weird," he said with a sad little sigh, "I've never been very good at ... well anything to do with them really."
"I always wondered how those really geeky guys with the glasses ended up with the amazing girlfriends. I think I remember reading somewhere it was because they knew that their man would always be faithful, because they would never be able to do better."
Simon shook his head in puzzlement.
"That never seemed to make much sense to me, I mean, any guy lucky enough to have a girl ... like that," he blossomed pink again, "should just about be a rock of solidarity."
He sighed again.
"But ... how do you," he struggled for a moment, "I mean how can you be sure? I can't just ask her ... " there was a long pause, "can I?"
He turned his head to look at Mickey.
"You ... know a lot about this stuff," he said, "did you have a girlfriend before ... this?"
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Post by mickey on Oct 4, 2006 17:24:05 GMT -5
Mickey made a face at Simon's suggestion. "Naw," he said, then reconsidered. "Well... maybe. I've known some slutty nerds, though, so there goes that theory. Anyway, I think that's just the extra-crazy girls."
The fact that they were less Simon-type nerds and more girls-who-sometimes-made-As nerds didn't make much of a difference, did it?
"But ... how do you - I mean how can you be sure? I can't just ask her ... can I?"
"Well, there's no law," Mickey said reasonably. "I think they're supposed to appreciate directness."
His junk put in some sort of order, Mickey crossed to the window and pushed it open, sitting on the ledge, and lit up.
It had been, like, an hour and a half. Seriously. What was to be expected?
"You ... know a lot about this stuff. Did you have a girlfriend before ... this?"
Mickey paused in his long inhale, considering his options.
"Not right before," he said. "Not when I left." (He had, however, been sort-of dating a guy. But he wasn't going to say that.) "I mean, I've had 'em before, if that's the question."
He exhaled through his nostrils and took another long drag, feeling his nerves smooth out and stop jangling.
"Did you?" he asked. "Not when you left. Like, ever before?"
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 5, 2006 14:27:57 GMT -5
Simon shook his head, "no," he said with more than a little sadness, "nobody loves a geek."
He resumed his pensive staring at the ceiling. The sounds of the Caldecott evening drifted in through the open window; a chorus of crickets, night time birds and a hundred other living things that only came out after dark.
It was peaceful.
Simon found his mind wandering to what Dani might be doing right now. Was she on her bed staring up at the ceiling thinking of him?
Somehow he just couldn't picture it.
"I guess that makes you right about confidence huh? Explains a lot."
He sighed and had the overwhelming urge to change the subject.
He and Dani ... it was never going to happen. It was a crush, a pipe dream, the sort of heart sickness that would go away if only it could be ignored long enough.
And just for a change his horrid inner voice stayed silent.
"So ... " he said at long last, "you must have a fair bit of cash in the bank to afford a car like that."
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Post by Shadowcat on Oct 5, 2006 20:05:37 GMT -5
Mickey gazed worriedly at Simon as the other kid - well, guy, really - stared at the ceiling. Either he was going to (a) kill himself for love or (b) go on a killing spree. Mickey considered it his personal duty to get Simon some nookie before he hurt himself or, worse, others, among whom would probably be Mickey, for reasons of proximity.
Mickey blew his smoke out the window in the direction of a large post-oak tree and the birds that chirped in it. Their chipper cheeping ceased immediately. He wondered how much smoke it would take to give so small an organism lung cancer.
"I guess that makes you right about confidence huh? Explains a lot."
"It's the key," Mickey said. "Seriously. You should work on that."
"So... you must have a fair bit of cash in the bank to afford a car like that."
"Had to save for a little bit," Mickey said, shrugging. "But yeah. Come from money. S'nothing I did, just my dad."
He blew more smoke out the window. One of the birds fell off a branch before flapping away, though Mickey imagined with less than its usual vigor. "It's not actually good for as much as you'd think," he said. "Makes the material bits of life easier, of course, but then everything else is hard because you're not used to working."
The concept of friends had thrown him for a while - the choosing of your own. In Mickey's world before about the fourth grade, friends ]were people of a similar status that happened to share your locale.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 6, 2006 14:10:39 GMT -5
"Must be nice though, being able to buy stuff like that," Simon had never exactly been hard done by, his parents were not massively wealthy, more what would be considered comfortably normal. They had enough to put their children through college and had trust funds set up for them and that was about it.
Simon was sharply reminded of the fact that he had emptied his fund and given half of it to Marie for the accommodation.
He really was going to have to get a job. Four hundred dollars wouldn't last long.
"So," he said, turning to look at Mickey again with a grin that was all for show, "you going to get a job like the rest of us paupers?"
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Post by mickey on Oct 6, 2006 17:38:50 GMT -5
"Must be nice though, being able to buy stuff like that."
Mickey shrugged again, impassively. It was a good gesture; it could be interpreted many different ways, most of them either positive or neutral. It was bad form in a round, of course, but Mickey was a different person in rounds.
For one thing, he wore pants designed for men. And a tie. A tie that wasn't meant to be ironic.
"So, you going to get a job like the rest of us paupers?"
Mickey rolled his eyes and grinned back. "Yeah, I am," he said. "Dunno who's gonna hire me, but I'll figure something out. I hate sitting around all the time."
He flicked his butt out the window. Hopefully he wouldn't start a forest fire.
"Where are you going to work?" he asked. "Any ideas?"
It'd be nice to work with someone who wasn't totally hickified, but Mickey seriously doubted any of these little stores were going to take on more than one new worker at a time - especially if Mickey was the second. Or even the first. Plus, if what Simon said was true, they'd be able to spot their allegiances a mile away.
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Post by Simon Burkett on Oct 7, 2006 16:42:09 GMT -5
Simon shrugged back, "I'm going to have a look around and see if anybody needs any computer work doing, though having looked around town I'm not too hopeful at the moment. Not sure I could face working in a store or anything like that I'm ...uh ... not too good with people."
He smiled ruefully.
"In case you hadn't noticed."
Now that they were off the subject of girls he could feel his mood lifting a little. It was good to have a room-mate, though he could never have imagined having a roomie like Mickey when he had been at university.
Necessity made for strange bed-fellows.
"I'll probably take another walk into town tomorrow and have a look around, I know ... "
Dani is taking her applications in.
Damnit!
"Probably going to stop by that little coffee shop again, it was nice in there."
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Post by mickey on Oct 7, 2006 17:28:03 GMT -5
Mickey made unconvinced noises. "Again," he said, "confidence. As long as you act like you know what you're doing everyone will assume you really do. People are easy."
It never entered Mickey's head, of course, that people might not be easy for someone who hadn't grown up with the entire aim of his existence being to please people. It just seemed like something everyone should know how to do but lazily didn't bother to learn, like parallel parking or how to spell 'judgment.'
"I'll probably take another walk into town tomorrow and have a look around, I know ... Probably going to stop by that little coffee shop again, it was nice in there."
"You know," Mickey mused, "I don't think I've ever been to a coffee store that wasn't a Starbucks? It seems like they're dying out. I'll have to check it out at some point."
He'd have to put on his Regular Person pants tomorrow if he wanted to land anything that wasn't scraping something awful off the top of something else awful. Of course, janitorial labor might be... character-building.
His character was built enough, really, wasn't it?
"I wonder if there's an IHOP around," he said. "They're never too picky... that, or did you pass any legal firms on your way through?"
It was probably stretch, but there had to be some ambulance-chasing loser in need of a clerk, right?
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