| Such. A. Long. Day. Thankfully Biology was mostly painless, and as the bell chimes releasing students for the day very few take their time getting out, Abe however is all about missing the masses. He moves sluggishly across the lawn, his bag slung over his shoulder and his attention settling on his phone. Not far away Kevin and another boy play keep away with a nerdy boys book bag, while Scott merely looks on with a roll of his eyes. Abe is still settling in, and despite his earlier claims there's only so much one can tolerate before annoyance sets in. He catches the bag in passing, offering it over to the relieved, much smaller student. It earns him a few sneers and taunts from the other jocks, but they hold little fuels.
The good thing is that it relieves him of Kevin's attention for the moment, allowing him to come to a halt near his truck. It's all about finding his keys..which judging by the way he pats down his short and jeans, is a pretty epic search waiting to happen.
"There you go being a nice guy again," comes Saya's voice from behind him. "I saw what you did for that guy." She smiles at him. "That was nice. Really." She tosses her hair back over her shoulder with a flick of her head, and manages to roll her eyes at Kevin while she does it. Her backpack is dark purple and pink plaid, with DAKinE embroidered on the front pocket in dark sage thread. Despite the fact that it looks kind of full, she's got books clutched in her arms as well. "Hey, where do you live?" she asks. "I mean... I was hoping for a ride home, if you're going that way."
Abe chuckles lowly as she catches him. "I never said I had a problem being nice. I just pick and choose my battles. This one was worth it because he has too much to do after school to be irritating about it." Almost as if Kevin was listening (though he's long left the parking lot) Abe's phone buzzes in his pocket. Eyeing it he laughs, "Though he's not too busy to remind me I'm a pussy." He adds offhandedly before he rolls his eyes and sets the phone on top of the truck so he can return to searching for his keys. He's long ventured into his bag for them.
"I live at Faircrest but I can take you home. It can't be more than like...three miles." Maybe a little farther but he doesn't seem all too concerned about it. "Assuming I still have keys that is." He laughs, crouching own to rest the bag on the ground. "Where you live at?"
Saya rolls her eyes. "Tell him he's a dick," she suggests brightly. A little too brightly. She stands there and watches him look for his keys. "I live in Montclair, off of Newheart St.," she tells him. "My sister was supposed to come pick me up but she forgot so I told her I'd find a way home. I appreciate this."
Abe ahs as he fishes his keys from the very very bottom of his bag. "Naa. It's a guy thing. I made him look like an ass, so he has to call me a name. If I keep it going, I could upset the delicate balance of beta/alpha relations. Can't have that." He unlocks the truck, which is nothing truly special. It's black. It's a ford. Its tires are too big and his pipes are too loud...then again, /it's a guy thing/!
Climbing in he leans across and unlocks her door, allowing her into a truck that is almost shamefully clean, and it smells like sunscreen and coconuts, a typical scent for the beachfront community. "It's not a problem. I'm probably gonna just drive around for a while anyway, till I find something to do. I feel lost on days I don't have work."
Saya climbs into the truck - thankfully she's pretty spry and can manage the Everest-like journey. "You could come to ballet practice with me," Saya says in total honesty. She's not even joking! "Don't a lot of professional football players take ballet, so they can have that extra edge on the field?" She knows it's true. "The first week is free," she clarifies. And for the record - she's not impressed by the size of the tires, nor the decibels put out by the pipes. She settles in, buckles up, and puts her backpack between her feet on the floor. "It smells nice in here," she comments while she reaches into a side pocket and pulls out a bottle of water to drink from.
Abe chuckles as he starts the truck and starts the slow process of backing out. "That is perfectly okay. I just hit people." He teases lazily, "I'll leave the dancing to you." He turns the truck easily toward town. Just like with everything else, Abe is a relatively laid back driver. "So...do I need to take you home, or dance?"
"Home, first," Saya says. "My sister will drive me to dance. If she doesn't I'll just murder her with a spoon, so," she says, all nonchalant, like she's talking about homework. "So, I have to ask - if you become an engineer, what kind of engineer do you want to be? Do you wanna, like, plan cities, or design rockets?
Abe ahs, nodding gently. "Electrical." He adds a few seconds later as he takes a turn only to find himself at a red light, "Maybe. I dunno. We'll see. I've been looking into it. I have a little time yet." He falls silent at that, accelerating again before he offers his lips a small lick. "Do you have a plan B? Like if something happens and dancing doesn't work out?"
"What does an electrical engineer do?" Saya asks curiously. "All I can think of is electrician stuff, but that's not right." She shakes her head at her own ignorance. "Um, well... I'll probably end up running either the tea house with my sister, or the Wok with my brother," she says, pursing her lips unhappily at the thought. "You know, once my parents retire. Which... they want to retire in like, five or six years - just enough time for me and my brother to graduate college and train with them to do bookkeeping for a couple of years." She sighs at the thought. "Ugh. That or I'll open my own ballet school. But I dunno."
"An electrical engineer is the one that creates the electrical components and design of stuff...like game systems or medical systems. Sometimes they do general electrician stuff but on a bigger scale. Like they may be in charge of keeping a large facility working properly. Has a lot of stuff I can do." He's quiet as she goes over her plan B, though her 'excitement' earn her a quirk of his brow. "Not that I lack faith, but always have a plan B. You just never know, ya know?"
"It's my parent's plan," Saya admits. "They want me to pursue dancing, if that's what makes me happy. But if I get injured at some point, and can't continue any more..." she shrugs. "It happens. One ligament tear in the right place, or one bad broken bone..." she shakes her head. "At least I know I'll have that to fall back on," she tells him. "So I'll never have to live under a bridge and go to soup kitchens."
Abe laughs. "Hey.I have no problem with any life choice that keeps me supplied in eggrolls." More honest words have never been spoken. "And if that choice also keeps you from becoming a vagrant in a box, then I see it as a double in, right?" He slows at the gates of her subdivision as he rolls down his window near the gate keypad. He also waves her closer. "Come on then. I'm a lowly Faircrester, I haven't the magic code." He's also a closet nerd apparently. "I wont look. Promise."
"Um, okay," Saya says. And she awkwardly sort of leans across him to reach out the window and punch in the code. This involves her toes on the seat next to him, one hand on the window sill, and the other out the window. She giggles as she punches it in. "Oh, my gawd," she says, breathless with laughter. "This is like, the ultimate awkward moment." If she were the kind of girl to wear low-cut tops, Abe would be getting an eyeful right now. But she isn't, so he isn't. She uses the oh-shit handle and the steering wheel to pull herself back in, and settles in her seat once again, reaching for the seat-belt.
Abe laughs, and even lifts his arm to help her lean. "Believe it or not," be begins seconds later, "I have been in more awkward positions. My sophomore year Matthew McKenzie's mom gave me a lap dance." He chuckles, though his cheeks redden at the confession. Then again, that family did suddenly move away the following summer. "It was...very awkward. And it was the first time I saw a girl naked....let's just say I was grateful to see they don't all look like 48 year old women." His grip tighten on the steering wheel as he forces the memory out of his mind. And as he presses the gas to coast slowly down her street.
Saya gives him a scandalized look at the lapdance tidbit. "That's gross!" she gasps. She pretends to gag. "Oh, ugh! I think I barfed a little in my mouth." But she's laughing at the same time, so it would be easy not to take her seriously. "Matthew McKenzie... I don't think I know him," she admits, wracking her brain for a face to go with the name. "You poor guy, though. Did she go to jail?"
Abe laughs, even harder at her response. "It wasn't /that/ bad. She was drunk! We've all done something stupid drunk, right?" Again, it's a guy thing! "I didn't even tell anyone..Mark was so mortified he wouldn't come back to school, and he told his dad and they up and moved. I dunno if she got the boot or they worked it out. I was supposedly the only time she ever did anything like that." He shrugs, and other than being beat red he's relatively okay with the story. "But, to be fair, her boobs weren't /horrible/. Top notch boob jobs are like that I guess. The rest of her...well...no matter how hard I try, the vision is burned into my brain. But I did remember my manners and told her thank you."
Saya fake-gags again, and shivers in revulsion. "Ewwwwwwwwwwww," she says, quite elegantly. "And no... I've never been drunk," she tells him. "I'm super into, like, staying healthy and all that. You can't dance with an alcohol-pickled liver. YOu can't keep the beat if you're too drunk. You can't keep your balance. So... I guess I never felt tempted, myself." She laughs. "Plus, I've seen Mom and Dad get a little bit drunk. Like, tipsy. They both turned almost as red as you are right now," she says, teasing him a bit for his blush. "I'd probably get the same way."
Abe laughs a bit more, but this time he chokes most of it back. Especially as she explains her lack of interest in drinking. "I see...seems like a new trend. Neither you nor Meadow. Not that I'm exactly big on it myself but BOY are you girls hard to figure out. I feel like such a horrible human being around you. I pollute, I enable bullies, I'm /racist/," this is stressed with a teasing laugh sent her way, "AND I occasionally drink. I'm so out of my league with both of you."
Saya laughs a little, even as she silently directs him to take a left at the next turn. "I'm not hard to figure out," she says. "I just want a few things. I want to dance - so I keep my body as healthy as I can. I love my family - so I try to be a good daughter and sister. I want to go to college - so I work hard to get good grades. I care about the planet - so I conserve water and I recycle and reuse and all that. I like people to be nice to me - so I try to be nice to them." She pauses. "And I want people to like me or hate for who I am, not what I look like." She shrugs a little. "There, you have all the major pieces to the puzzle. "What about you?"
Abe chuckles, taking the directions as she gives them. "Well..you're deeper than I am, first off." He admits with a laugh, "I like to /not/ be a part of drama. And I like reading. I make good grades because I listen in class and I do my homework so I don't get kicked off the football team." He sends her a weak smirk, "I am exactly what I am, but I don't look to deep into it. Life's too short to be concerned with pleasing people." It's rather clear Abe doesn't know who he is at all, then again he's relatively at ease with that small detail. He also slows as he spots a mailbox with her unmistakable last name. "BUT, the good thing is I have no intention of trying to change people, so when I do partake in delinquent behavior, however mildly, I will be sure to leave you and you're body well out of it."
"You must /be/ the change you wish to see in the world," quotes Saya. "I read that on Facebook, once. If you think about it... if you really /think/ about it, it's totally true. You can't change anyone but yourself, right? So... like, I wish everyone recycled, right? So I recycle everything. Maybe someone else will be inspired to start recycling, too." She gives him a teasing little lift of her eyebrows. "Thanks," she says when he vows to leave her out of his delinquent behavior. "I appreciate that." And she's actually not being sarcastic, even. "Home sweet home," she says, peering out the window at her rather enormous house sitting on a pristine lawn with an amazing flower bed. "Thank you for the ride. Um, you wanna come in for a Coke?" she invites.
"You sound just like an after-school special." Abe points out gently. Her invitation is also met with a small sigh, "And ya know I would, but I just realized I left my homework in my locket. You can blame the good influence you're having on me." This gets a small grin before he stops the truck. "But text me when you get out of dance an if I haven't been eaten by any strenuous activities, we can get a snack or something."
"Heh," Saya says. "I hardly ever watch TV." She drags her backpack off of the floor and puts it in her lap, and then turns to give him a grin. "Well, I can only hope any influence I have on people /is/ good," she says. She'll nod a little. "What's you're number?" she asks, digging her phone out of her backpack.
Huh? (Type "help" for help.)
"505-6522." He drones out after a second. No one knows their phone number off the top of their head!!! Abe doesn't at least. "Say Smurf." He then adds as he lifts his phone to snap a picture of her. "What's yours? Otherwise I wont answer."
Saya quickly plugs his number into her phone, and glances up just in time to give him a dazzling smile for the picture. "505-8175," she tells him. "Okay, thanks for the ride," she says again. Then she pops open the door and jumps down, landing with a solid thump of sneakers on driveway.
|
