|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:29 am
Summer had been too short for Dana, even if her reprieve from boarding school had been limited to a tight leash on the Reverend's many excursions around town. She was permitted to tear around the church like a rabid animal in socks, and probably the only person allowed and inclined to.
On one rare time when she was tagging along on errands, though, she noticed a familiar shock of purple dyed hair at the flower shop and although she hadn't been let free all summer to properly explore, the flower shop was at least one errand she managed to be dragged on without complaining.
How else was she going to slip snarky notes to the boy who worked there? Yes, texting was a thing, but texting wasn't nearly as fun or dangerous.
She had evolved into thinking of him almost as a fellow prisoner, although with a less strict warden. Even if hers was becoming less strict since she found to her delight she would not be forced to board this coming school year.
There wasn't much of a difference at home, except at night after her dad went to bed or had a late service or a long meeting, sneaking out was much easier. And much more desirable as the ongoing nightmares and turmoil left her restlessly staring up at the dark ceiling.
Not tonight, though. Matthew would have been afforded any warning, in the form of a text asking which window was his before a smattering of pebbles clattered on the window surface.
"Hey!" Was the harsh whisper as Dana grinned and stuffed her hands in her baggy hoodie. "What are you doing tonight?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:45 pm
Snarky notes weren't something Matthew was used to, but after the first couple of times, and after he realized who was leaving them, he began to sort of look forward to finding them. They almost always made him smile and always came with the appearance of the girl he had dubbed 'Angel' in his head. Her father was a reverend, or whatever, so it fit, sort of.
Summer had passed as it always did... mostly the same as winter, but warmer and without school. There had been a lot of running around with his friends and a little bit of tending the shop, all that free time meaning he got into more trouble than usual. It wasn't until more recently, as fall settled in, that things had started to change...
Nightmares had started a couple of months ago, and while he was mostly able to shrug them off, what he couldn't ignore so easily was the screams that came from the room next to his. He'd worried, without trying to look like he did, and then the news that his sister was moving out. It had come out of the blue after her injuries and despite the protests of her family, she'd stubbornly gone ahead with it. He still couldn't get used to the thought of that room standing empty... it made his chest ache and in turn, soured his mood. Even his father had finally take notice of it, though he had little way to rectify the situation. Being around his friends, once normally so enjoyable, had started to grate on him and all the time alone had left him vulnerable to the attack that eventually come and the hands that had rudely shoved into his chest to change him against his will.
Being part of this so-called Negaverse organization was just another worry on top of all the others and was a big reason why Matthew was still very much awake when the text had pinged on his phone. He'd texted back which side of the balcony was his and the rattle of stones against his glass door pulled the young man out of bed with a grin.
Dressed in bright punk glory, Matthew leaned his elbows on the balcony, draping fish-net clad forearms over the edge. Tilting his head, he gave the girl on the ground a rakish grin.
"I dunno." He drawled teasingly as he scratched his chin with a forefinger. "I was thinking about turning in early, before I was so rudely woken up by rocks on my window."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 1:25 pm
"Really, you're going to turn in early?" Dana observed the figure on the balcony and leaned forward as she leaned back on her heels, grinning from ear to ear. "That'd be a waste, this scene is ********' poetic up in here, Juliet. Betcha smell like roses an' everything."
She glanced at the distance from the balcony to the ground, with full intent of looking to see if there was something to climb on to make her way up there.
She wasn't about to admit she'd been hit by nightmares and insomnia too, but she did flash a bit of vulnerability as she looked down at her sneakers, and back to him, the grin absent.
"Can't sleep. School started again, but dad's not sending me away this year. Guess I just... thought I'd come see..." She eyed the other dark windows before looking back up to the balcony. "Can I come up? Or you come down?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:31 pm
The teen grinned, totally unrepentant as she called him out on his lie. No, of course he wasn't sleeping. What was he, fifty? Matthew watched as she look around, down and up again, wondering for a moment what she was looking for before she asked if she could come up.
Sadly, there was not much down there to climb. The drainpipe, maybe, but then you had to worry about ripping it out of the wall... which would be horribly embarrassing to explain to your father, because you'd also have to explain why you were climbing it in the first place. Probably better if he came down and Matthew straightened up to head back inside for a moment. Grabbing his house keys off the desk, he clipped them to his belt and went for the balcony railing, grabbing hold as he swung his feet up onto it and crouched there. Turning, the teen lowered himself over the edge until he hung by his fingertips, leaving him far closer to the ground than he had been while on the balcony. After a moment of hanging, Matthew released his hold and dropped, hitting the ground with a grunt and turning the downward motion into a roll over his shoulder to disperse the force. It ended with him in a sprawl as he came to rest, but he was laughing, giving the pain a moment to fade before he rolled onto his knees and then up onto his feet.
Brushing off his pants, the teen gave Dana a smirk, his hands coming to rest on his hips. "Well, here I am! You wanna go for a run or something? I haven't been sleeping all that well recently either, but I've found some exercise and fresh air seem to help me get back to sleep."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:21 pm
Dana mirrored his grin, completely unprepared for his jump down. She gasped and covered her mouth as he hung there, and then jumped back with muffled and gagged squeal when he dropped.
She bounced up and down and lavished him with applause muffled and silenced by her sweater sleeves covering her hands.
"Holy s**t that was amazeballs," She giggled in a not-so-quiet whisper and then looked around up at his house again, still vibrating with the adrenaline of sneaking out in the first place.
"You wanna? I know this neat place, it's totally abandoned and it's been taunting me all summer but dad was totally breathing down my neck so I could go explore," She said, already starting to walk excitedly out of his yard.
"I saw you almost every time we went to that flower shop," She announced, smiling enthusiastically. "I never coulda stopped to talk to you with my dad there, though. I've been waiting for my chance."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 8:10 pm
The feminine appreciation for his antics did a lot for Matthew's ego and it was easy to brush off the pain of his landing as he grinned, giving her a cheeky little bow.
"Thank you, thank you!" He laughed, reaching up to brush his bangs out of his face. They were orange today, looking very halloween spirit. The teen perked up when she mentioned an abandoned building and a grin pulled wide across his face.
"Oh man, I would love to take a look around. You never know the s**t you'll find in some place like that. Maybe its haunted and we'll get lucky and see a ghost." Matthew teased as he reached over to give Dana's shoulder a playful shove. "Are you a screamer, Angel? Gonna need me to hold your hand?"
Not that he'd maybe mind so much if she wanted to hang on his arm or something. He'd still find it funny, but you know. Who didn't feel big and strong when you had a girl to take care of? Shoving his hands into his front pockets, Matthew smiled to himself as she talked about visiting the shop, his sneakers scuffing on the sidewalk.
"I bet your dad would have had a conniption." He laughed. "Seeing his daughter talking to the punk behind the counter." The teen shrugged loosely, kicking at a some dirt.
"I'm there at the shop a lot, since I live right above it. More now than I used to be, because my sister moved out and how I have to pick up her shifts in the store. At least until Da finds someone to hire. He doesn't want to, but ******** if I'm gonna spend all my time selling flowers. At least school has started, so I have some excuse. Gotta 'study' and 'do homework' and stuff." As they walked, Matthew wandered back and forth, almost never going in a straight line. Anything he could get on top of, he did. Curbs, benches, plant posts... he refrained from things like cars, but only to avoid setting off an alarm. After a block or two, he caught sight of a fire escape and his grin widened as he made a beeline for it.
"Come on! Lets go up... walking on the street is boring." The teen said as he got under the hanging ladder, eying it. Giving Dana a speculative look before looking at the ladder again, he hunched down and crossed his hands. "Come on, I'll give you a boost. Just grab it and it'll come down with your weight."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 7:48 pm
"I don't believe in ghosts," Dana said with a playful snort that devolved into giggles. She patted the raggedy messanger bag she had strapped across her torso and resting on her hip. "Got my camera, though. So if they do turn out to be real they'd better show up."
She made a little gesture towards his bangs, never quite touching them, before grinning widely with two thumbs up that turned into flailing swats when he gave her a shove. "Hells no, I'm not afraid of anything. St. Mags s'practically prison, you know the kinds a tough bitches I gotta survive in that high school?" She said, bouncing on her tennies as she walked, fists up and loose as if preparing for a fight and taking one decisive punch strike at the air in front of her.
And then she bounced intentionally into his shoulder, wide grin never vanishing, even if her expression suddenly became lightly tinted with a blush.
"You could uh. Still hold my hand anyway. Just if you wanted to. I mean," Her grin shrank to a pressed lip smile as she looked elsewhere and kept both hands resting on her hood.
"Dad doesn't have conniptions. He quietly judges and then write to my aunt about how she needs t'have a talk with me and then we have these really awkward talks and it's pretty awful. My sister tries to micromanage my s**t and play mom, but she's busy with her law degree stuff and she finally moved her a** out, so it's a little easier."
She crinkled her nose and laughed. "He doesn't make me work though. Damn."
She was distracted by flighty, romantic visions of what it was like to live above a flower shop, or any store, really. Novel and new and exciting and very, very naive visions of fantastical breeds of customers. It was much more exciting than the boring, one story home that the Caffreys were overstuffed into. She was caught up in the routine she'd have, the people she'd meet, what she'd do in a living situation she could only have a sitcom idea of.
Fantasies were halted by the suggestion to go up.
Dana's dark blue eyes blinked widely at Matthew, and then up to the ladder. She was suddenly reminded of her fall the night she'd found her henshin pen, and began to grimace before she stopped herself. "U-um..."
She turned her head enough she could cover her mouth with the index finger from one of the hands holding her hood as she took a nervous step back away from him. She wanted to be tough and impressive, especially to Matthew, and it was the only thing stopping her from saying no.
She looked up at the ladder again and swallowed before setting her jaw. "You'd better not drop me," She said with all the seriousness she could muster and a very firm nod, but her voice faltered in an unfortunate way. Nostrils flared when she realized the sudden, embarrassing mistake and she took several quick steps to close the distance before she put one shoe in his hand and jumped for the ladder.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 9:38 pm
Permission to hold her hand was filed away in the back of the teen's mind for later, feeling both cocky and a little embarrassed by it. Her blush hadn't helped, taking the comment from playful to semi-serious. Playful was a lot easier to deal with, everything else was new sort of territory. He made a face as she mentioned her sister, knowing that feeling all too well. He was less happy about Orah moving out than Dana was about her nameless sister, but the lack of mothering was nice.
"Working isn't so bad. Its like having a part time job, lots of kids have them, and its sort of different, I think, when your dad is your boss. I get away with a lot, as long as I don't scare away customers. He pays me too, to be fair." He said as he watched her get all nervous about the ladder. It brought the slightest of a frown to his face and Matthew seriously considered scraping the idea, before she seemed to gather up her courage to do it. He didn't want her scared, really... Parkour was about freedom and stuff. Being afraid of some of the stunts he pulled was a good way to trip up and get something broken. He plastered a cocky smile on his face to be reassuring, his hands firming in their brace.
"Don't worry, Angel. You got wings, remember? You're never gonna fall." He teased her gently, boosting her up with a heavy grunt of effort. Matthew kept in contact with her though, just to make sure she never felt in danger of falling, even after her hands found the bottom rung. He lowered her, letting her pull down the ladder, and set her feet on the ground before he got up to take the ladder from her.
"If you don't want to go up, we don't have to, you know." The teen said as he leaned on the ladder, giving her the time to make up her mind before leaping into it like he wanted to. "Its all about movement, about seeing the world in a new way. Normal people walk on the ground, follow paths set out by other people. Boooooring. Me, I want to make my own path, go places normal people don't think you can just because they see... I dunno, a window ledge and not a foot path. Doesn't necessarily mean we gotta go up... up just tends to be 'the road less traveled'."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 7:14 pm
Dana had considered his argument about his part time job and made a small mental reclassification. It was more like a real job where you got paid, not chores like your parents made you do.
This was different, and instantly changed her entire outlook on the situation. Chores were lame, but a job was very adult and he was probably rich and got to do whatever he wanted. Obviously. She only reacted with a starry eyed stare. "Ah..."
He was so mature and mysterious and grown up!
But he was also saying they didn't have to go up if she didn't want to, something she reacted to with puffing out her cheeks in an indignant pout. "I can do it," She said defensively. "I just... Got... I fell once."
She faltered on saying more, not sure how much she could say since it involved her henshin pen, and also because it made her sound super lame. She settled on giving a little huff of a nod. "Just. Had to think for a second is all.
Sh took a deep breath and puffed out her chest, posturing a bit before she followed him up. "But really," She said, doing her best to look smug and self assured, jumping from the ladder rung to the roof ledge and tugging on the front of her hoodie with an arrogant little pose, "It's fine."
She looked around to get her bearings and then pointed. "Our target's this way, flower boy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 11:30 am
Matthew felt very not grown up having a 'real job'. Other kids got allowances and hung out with their friends whenever they wanted. They didn't have to get up early on a Saturday and stand behind a counter while old ladies picked through a bunch of flowers that WERE ALL THE ******** SAME for the one that was SPECIAL. It was boring as s**t, and he'd been doing it since he was old enough to play quietly in the corner while his Da worked. It was really not the glamourous deal Dana thought it was, but he wasn't about to disabuse her of that notion.
Rather, he grinned cockily at her pout and held the ladder while she climbed it, coming up with ease behind her. The rattle of the metal was the only noise during the ascent, scuffed up sneakers hitting the gravel roof not long after his partner. He groaned as he ran lean fingers through his hair, giving it an indignant toss.
"Flower boy? You couldn't come up with something better than that?" Matthew said as he started toward the next building. He kept his fingers laced behind his head as he walked, only dropping them when going forward meant he had to climb over the roof ledge and let himself down onto the connected building. The ones on this street had all been built to touch, sort of strip-mall like, so for a little while, at least, they wouldn't have to go down again.
"What's it like, at Mags? Is it like Hillsworth?" The teen said abruptly, thoughtful. She'd suggested the girls there were rough... Did she get into scraps a lot? He'd been threatened with Hillsworth more than once. Meadowview was sort of boring, but everyone seemed to think it was way better than the alternatives.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:32 pm
"Should I?" Dana quipped back at him questioning the name she called him. "I could probably think of something nicer," She cooed almost like a taunt. "Angel is half a compliment even if you're being sarcastic."
She would not elaborate on how she had nearly swooned when he told her she couldn't fall. Even that, for all of her dorkiness, must be kept highly secret and only told to a journal later.
Dana herself had taken to wide, high kicked steps with the occasional spin, ambling forward with no real purpose.
"I dunno, maybe? I've never been to Hillworth, I just know that's where bad boys go," She gave a mighty shrug like she totally didn't care. "I think Mags has like, some really quiet girls who are just weird or have really religious parents. A lot of 'em are the result of their parents dumping 'em off cause they're too much trouble. Every school has mean girls, Mags has some mean bitches. I'm not real good at like..." She paused and huffed. Dana didn't want to admit that she probably fell into the 'weird' category, but that her temper and inability to take anything with grace had led to a lot of punch outs. "At like, the cliques and stuff. Basically we're just there so nuns can try to knock us into behaving. And there's some scary nuns, bro."
She glanced at him with eyes suddenly wide with interest. "Have you ever been in Hillworth?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 7:49 pm
"Ace would be better." Matthew said as he jumped up onto a wrist-thick pipe, his arms extended on either side of him for balance, and flash.
"Everyone calls me Ace. I could've called you 'Choir Girl'..." He teased, grinning as he watched his feet. "But I like Angel better. Angel and Ace." It had a nice ring to it. Not that she was his girl or anything, but it still sounded nice.
Matthew made a face at the nuns comment, his nose crinkled up as he stuck out his tongue.
"I'd be knocking some nuns right out in return, man..." He said as he paced along the pipe, wobbling with each step. "******** if anyone tries to intimidate me... I'm not some ******** sheep." It was an offensive sort of idea... he had enough trouble sometimes with the level of control the Meadowview teachers insisted on, something stricter would have brought out his fighting side. He knew his own mind, he didn't need someone telling him they knew better. Sliding a green-eyed look over his shoulder, he shrugged loosely.
"I've always gone to Meadowview. I mean, they've threatened to put me in Hillsworth after a fight or when I ditch too much, but Da and my sister can usually talk them out of it. Why, you got a thing for Hillsworth boys?" He said flippantly, grinning. "There are bad boys in Meadowview too, you know."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:20 pm
"Ace?" Dana's mouth quirked up in a crooked grin. It was the kind of mischief driven look that made it seem like a joke at his expense was on the horizon, but she ended up looking forward with a, "I like it."
She did give him a sidelong look about knocking out nuns. It was a nice fantasy, but it wasn't her reality. She rebelled in small ways, and was usually handed out harsh punishment for it. She just shrugged. "It's kinna a vicious cycle. The more you do to fight back the more excuses they have to keep you in. I still got two more years... I don't think dad's gonna let me out."
She shrugged. "S'nice your dad actually fights to keep you out."
The fact her dad had been thoroughly convinced by the more pearl clutching aunts in the family that Dana was 'troubled' and needed outside help was a constant sore point. Especially when, even if she did supposedly need help, there were other ways that didn't involve sending her off to have someone kick it out of her.
It was easier to turn her attention to Hillworth boys versus Meadowview boys, a subject that spread a wide grin across her face. "Everyone knows Hillworth boys are hotties."
She was briefly distracted when she saw a glimpse of where they were going and ran to slid down the nearest ladder. "This way!" She shouted, darting across an alley to a vacant lot, and beyond that, an unfinished office building. The foundation was there, but the bones of its wooden frame were still visible near the second story, with the masonry work that accounted for the foundation chipped away and sporting exposed rebar. A project abandoned when it became too expensive to continue and just left in vacancy to rot. Dana could still smell old concrete dust in the twisted shell of a structure.
She practically vibrated in her tennis shoes, hands clenched in excited fists and her grin as wide as her mouth would allow.
"There's a hole that's not quite boarded up around the side," She announced, scuttling around trying to find it. Stuff in the nighttime looked different than in the day.
But during her search, she very casually mentioned, "There might be bad boys and hotties in Meadowview too, but I didn't know that until now! I decided a while ago that I wanted my first kiss to be a Hillworth boy. I've been waiting."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:56 pm
If there was a joke behind being called 'Ace', it was entirely lost on Matthew, who only associated that name with things like playing cards, the number One and the Motorhead song; Ace of Spades. It probably would have put him out, thinking she found it amusing, but her approval just made him puff up a little, a grin pulling his full lips wide.
Well, for a little while, at least.
"Who says they are?" He huffed as his brows pulled together in a scowl. Stepping forward, he dropped off the pipe with a slouching motion, visibly bristling at the idea that a school for delinquents could possibly have hotter boys than him. His attempts to get her to argue about it were stymied by her rush to the abandoned building and he followed with less enthusiasm than he had been feeling up until that point.
Dirty sneakers scuffed the cement as he walked, and feeling the need, Matthew pulled his battered pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and popped one between his lips. Long fingers cupped the skull and crossbones decorated bic he carried and a spark of light flickered to life for a moment as he lit it.
"That's stupid." Matthew grumped as he pulled the cig out of his mouth, sending smoke trailing up from his lips. "They're probably stupid as ********, getting sent to a place like that... I mean, it doesn't take half a brain to stay out of trouble enough to not get put away. I don't know why you'd want to kiss one of them or why you'd wait for one. Waiting's stupid... you should just kiss whoever you want. Its not like kissing means anything, people do it all the time..."
If he wanted to kiss someone, he sure as hell wasn't going to not do it just because they didn't go to the right school or have the right background or something stupid like that. What made Hillsworth so special? Didn't it say something, that he was good enough to not get sent there? When did he suddenly play second fiddle to a bunch of hypothetical guys? And she didn't even have a specific one in mind either, just some random dude who happened to go to that school. It was irritating, being held up to some imaginary figure and told you didn't measure up... even if she hadn't said so in so many words.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 5:48 am
Dana stopped her search and looked at him with eyes narrowed and face scrunched up in an indignant frown for a long second before she just decided to punch him in the shoulder.
Dana usually got through troubling feelings with jokes or punching.
"I got put away, you ********," She wasn't quite yelling, but her tone had definitely gone up a notch in volume. Dana was pretty gangly, but small shifts in her stance easily showed the new level of aggression. Eventually she had to stop posturing, her target was found, even if it was freshly boarded up. She tried to work her gaudy painted nails into some cracks and put all her weight into pulling a board loose.
"And besides, I don't really care if everyone's doing it all the time. It's my first one, it's gotta be perfect. So I definitely wouldn't kiss you, you giant big fat jer--aaAAH!"
She wrenched one loose and fell backwards with it, landing on her butt with 2x4 in hand. She looked shocked at first, but when she looked down she bounced with a grin of unmitigated glee. "Yes!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
