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Post by Juen on Jan 18, 2008 22:52:02 GMT -5
Sacha looked firmly towards the ground as a hand smacked the top of his head, a wet slap noise lifting in the air. Don't let them knock you down...he repeated mentally, because that would get him kicked and he didn't want to be kicked. So he had backed up against a tree and the other boys were now content to shove him around a bit. One had shaken a can of soda and drenched his head and shoulders with it...that had been the most creative part of this afternoon.
It was almost a weekly thing...get chased from the school until he couldn't run anymore and then push him around for a while. Call him names, push his face in the mud...all that fun stuff. The bad stuff was when he actually got hurt...that was more of a monthly ordeal. One of them finally pushed hard enough and as he swayed another grabbed his shirt and hurled him to the ground. He got a mouthful of grass...and quite a bit of it stuck in his sticky hair.
The boys and the couple of girls taking part in this game laughed and there were a few gentle kicks before they exited the scene. Laughing amongst one another and comparing blows. Sacha coughed, getting to his knees and wiping grass and dirt from his lip. He gagged a little...the taste of soil lodged in the back of his throat.
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 18, 2008 23:06:38 GMT -5
This part of the city was actually quite uncommon to Adel. He was supposed to be making a delivery, but it seemed like he got lost. Well, he knew where he was. He knew how to get out of where he was. He just didn't seem to know from there. It didn't matter anyway, he had already called in to the customer and told them. They weren't annoyed since it happened to be a friend. Patting at the bag in his hands, he felt the bread he had baked was starting to cool down. He could bake some more tomorrow, maybe... and have somebody with a sense of direction deliver it.
He was rather enjoying a walk in the park for now. But his peace was disturbed when he noticed a boy in the distance who seemed to be... struggling. He didn't catch what happened. Maybe he had fallen? A little concerned and curious, he jogged over and held the bread in his left arm against his chest while offering his right. "Are you..." he trailed off, taking in the young male's appearance. He didn't look okay... what had happened to him? He smelt the scent of the soda before he saw it. Since when did people smell like soda? His hand twitched slightly, like he was unsure. Maybe he needed something more then 'help up'. "Hey, what happened, kid?" He offered a smile, hoping he didn't look intimidating.
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Post by Juen on Jan 18, 2008 23:12:41 GMT -5
Sacha scooted his sleeve up around his hand and wiped his eyes, which prevented the transfer of grass to complete a full circle and reattach itself to his face. "It's nothing," he mumbled and looked up to the hand, he took it and used it as leverage to get back up on his feet. "Thanks," he said sheepishly.
"Just some...jerks from school," he said, feeling extremely uncomfortably in a sticky blazer. "They don't like me...so they've taken up a ritual thing...after school once a week. Today it was...well...." he shrugged, "Not as bad as I thought it was going to be...I guess next week is pounding week." He seemed both upset by this, ticked off, but at the same time nonchalant for this was a weekly occurrence. Not a good one...but repetitive all the same.
"Thanks again..." he said with a bit of a smile, "Most people just walk by."
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 18, 2008 23:24:48 GMT -5
Adel stood in a contemplative silence for a bit after he spoke, looking him over. The explanation sort of boggled his mind... he'd been through school with no troubles like that. He was almost unaware those kinds of things happened at all. But maybe it was just well hidden. Poor kid. "How can they just walk by...?" Adel asked, sounding amazed. He knew people stooped to all sorts of lows these days but just walking by when somebody was struggling? It wasn't something that made sense to him.
"Shouldn't you tell somebody...?" His voice was a little low with this comment, muttered like he didn't expect a response. Everyone had their reasons for things, and nobody would want to be beaten up all the time. He wasn't about to pry and try to convince him to do things. He liked helping people, but often he felt it was best to let others figure out the main problem themselves.
Giving the boy another quick look over, he quickly plucked a blade of grass from his sticky hair. Looking a little unhappy at the others condition, he looked down into his bag and then looked at Sacha. "Would you like some bread...?" He didn't know what else to say, really. Bread made him happy so maybe it made others happy. "It has... sunflower seeds in it. It's really good..." At the last comment, he lowered his head, bashful about complimenting his own food. He just wanted to convince the young male to take some. "My name's Adel by the way." He added in, out of habit.
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Post by Juen on Jan 18, 2008 23:31:06 GMT -5
"People are really busy..." Sacha shrugged, "And it's not like I get really hurt or anything. I guess no one sees the point of picking up some soda covered kid from the dirt." He lowered his gaze to his hands, picking off the grass there, the stranger's hand touching his hair a little flustering.
"And bread....sounds okay...I mean...is that what you're carrying?" he asked pointing to the bag. He liked bread. Who didn't like bread? It was one of the staples of humanity. One of those things everybody could enjoy with so many different options. It was tough to say that you didn't like bread. "And...my name is Sacha...."
He lifted a hand to his sticky hair moving some of the strands out of his eyes and they all stuck together so once moved they stayed out of the way. Which he was both thankful for and not. The other man was very attractive though most definitely older. And while it was normal for a youth to crush on someone older...it wasn't normal to consider a relationship. He kinda hoped his bangs would fall back in his face so he could avoid eye contact with the other.
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 18, 2008 23:41:27 GMT -5
Privately, Adel thought Sacha was an adorable and fitting name. He kept those thoughts to himself though, and only continued to smile. Patting the bag again, his smile turned into a grin. "Yep, that's what I've got. Baked it about an hour ago." Aside from that, he didn't say anything else about himself. Not what the bread was for, all of that extra information didn't come to him as needed. So, he simply shifted to open the bag and held it out to Sacha. The bread's scent wafted out, enough that Adel could smell it within seconds. The loaf had been pre-sliced.
"Get a piece right in the middle, that's the best," he told him, "Probably the warmest too." He was never fan of the 'ends' himself, he often fed them to birds.
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Post by Juen on Jan 18, 2008 23:46:01 GMT -5
Sacha smiled softly and reached for a piece. It was still warm and the middle still had that gooey, stretchy texture that melted in your mouth. He peeled off the crust and ate that first. Leave the best part for last. "It's really good..." he complimented with a hidden smile, his hand in front of his mouth to keep the other from seeing a mouth full of partly chewed food.
"So...are you a baker or did you just make this at home?" he questioned, stripping off another crust and eating that, holding the moist center in his hands, anticipating how good that would taste and feel when the time came to eat it. "If you're not a baker maybe you should be one...cause this is good."
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 20, 2008 15:45:48 GMT -5
"Ah... I work at a bakery..." He couldn't help but feel proud that Sacha thought that. "Thanks." After closing the bag up, he held it under his arm and leaned over the smaller male. Inspecting the top of his head, he sighed gently. It was still upsetting somebody would do something like that. He seemed like a nice kid, unless there was something he didn't know about him.
"Were you headed anywhere?" He asked quietly, while finding another thing to pluck from the poor boy's hair. It didn't occur to him that his grooming could have been annoying or too personal... he was trying to help. "You have a home you can wash up in, right?"
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Post by Juen on Jan 20, 2008 17:26:13 GMT -5
"Yeah..." Sacha said with a distinct frown, "I wasn't actually headed anywhere but...I guess I don't have a choice but to go home now..." His tone of voice clearly gave away the fact that going home seemed worse than walking around with sticky hair. He wished there were public showers somewhere...he could clean off there and avoid going home and being watched at every turn. Babied by Androids. It was a thrilling prospect.
He lifted a hand as he finished the bread, patting his head lightly and feeling how the individual strands stuck to his hand. Home did seem like the only option he had.
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 20, 2008 19:04:47 GMT -5
Quietly, Adel tilted his head. He was lost in thought again, but only for a moment. It may have seemed odd as he had these little pauses. But when he was being more formal with somebody, like now, he thought before he said anything. "Is something wrong at home too...?" He questioned innocently. He was sincerely concerned... though curiosity could have contributed to what he resolved to say.
"You don't seem very thrilled..." He added on, "I didn't expect you to be, but..." Trailing off, he took another moment to his thoughts. He wondered what the boy thought of him, a stranger coming up and being friendly. It wasn't a common thing these days, people often associated random kindness with creeps. A grin twitched on the corner of his mouth before falling out again.
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Post by Juen on Jan 20, 2008 19:31:28 GMT -5
"Not wrong..." Sacha said with a conflicted tone, "Overprotective...so not wrong persay but...too-right...if I could use that. Doesn't sound proper though..." He sighed and jerked a thumb in the direction of City Hall, "My dad works there..." he grunted, "And he's really protective of me...he tries to have people watching over me all the time. I wasn't allowed to go to and from school alone till I was 13."
And he didn't really tell his dad about the bullying...he didn't need full time surveillance.
A thought struck. "Uhm...I know this might seem really forward but it's kinda important..." he bit his bottom lip, "Do you know anywhere I could get cleaned up without having to go home?"
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 20, 2008 19:45:36 GMT -5
"Ah..." Adel knew the meaning of overprotective. His own mother was occasionally like that, but it wasn't like he remembered that well. He could understand well enough that he wasn't going to question. But... his father worked at city hall. That could have meant he wasn't... thrilled with the idea of cyborgs. Like most of the people in that line seemed to be. He kept a soft smile plastered on his face regardless, his thoughts not showing through.
When Sacha continued speaking though, he was surprised. Maybe he didn't think he was a creep if he was willing to ask him that. That was always nice, but he still didn't want to deceive the boy. If he hated cyborgs he wouldn't want help from one, and Adel was just the kind of person that put himself under speculation to benefit others. It wasn't a convenient trait but he'd always done it. "We could go back to my place, if you don't mind being helped like somebody 'like me'." Flashing his smile a little wider, nervous yet hopeful he wouldn't be rejected, he moved his hand to his right elbow. Tapping one fingernail against the joint, there was a distinctly metallic sound despite the cloth in between.
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Post by Juen on Jan 20, 2008 19:52:16 GMT -5
"Like you?" Sacha asked with innocent confusion and he looked to where the finger was tapping and was perplexed at first until he relied on his ears instead of what he was seeing. Because all he saw was perhaps a nervous twitch but what he heard was different. "oh..." he said slowly, "You're a...one of them..." He took in a deep breath, swallowing and casting a glance over his shoulder to City Hall. His dad wouldn't be pleased if he had heard that but...Sacha was a different person.
He looked back to the man and smiled brightly, "Why would I mind?" he asked with a smile, "You're a nice guy if you stopped to help me...nicer than anyone else in this park. Doesn't matter what your arm is made of."
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Post by Ayaa on Jan 20, 2008 20:36:18 GMT -5
At first, Adel wasn't entirely sure where this was going to head. Sacha looked... concerned... or something... for that one moment. It was always a little difficult to wait for a reaction. Honestly Adel thought he'd be turned down for a moment there. His hand, positioned against his elbow, slid slowly down until it was at his side. But then Sacha smiled.
At his words, he almost felt flustered. It was rare to hear something like that. He could have sworn his cheeks warmed for an instant. Things were certainly turning out better then he had hoped... "Ah... haha, that's good..." He said, still sounding a little embarrassed by it all. Turning around, he tilted up his head at Sacha to signal that he follow. "I don't have a car... so... I guess we'll get a taxi, eh...?"
[urhghghghh ummm like. D: respond or something then Ill post in his apartment. xDDD]
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Post by Juen on Jan 20, 2008 22:31:01 GMT -5
"Yeah sure...or we could walk if it's not far..." but judging by the fact that he was a cyborg...he probably lived in the Bennet Apartments...and they were at the far end of town. "Whatever is fine..." he said with a smile. He had caught the surprised and flustered flush that had touched the other's cheeks and he couldn't say that he hadn't expected a reaction along those lines. Cyborgs were so mistreated by society...it must have been a little strange to meet someone so accepting right off the bat.
He moved after the other, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his shoulders.
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