Prompt 1.5
Prompt 1.5: If you chose to go inside the shop, your character is greeted by a friendly cashier with a kind smile. While perusing the shop you notice that they have what looks like kids umbrella's shaped like various animals. Cute but is it worth the chance of being seen by a friend or co-worker with one of these above your head?
[Takes place right after this!]
“Um, sir?” Gideon’s head swiveled toward the voice, looking over his shoulder back toward the register. The cashier girl. She seemed a little hesitant and a little awkward, but to her credit, she still managed a small smile. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know…”
Ah, right. Because he was standing there, frozen in the doorway, one arm laden with his case of beer, and the other balancing himself against his cane. Yyyyyeah. He probably looked like he needed help.
“Ah, nah, nah, don’t worry about it.” It’s not like there was much she could do. He wasn’t going to be struggling to get into a car, didn’t need any assistance with his ‘groceries.’ Gideon just needed to get over the wet and chill and wind and be on his way. Not an exciting prospect, but he wasn’t about to waste money on an Uber to take him approximately across the street. Maybe the rain was worth a few pity points, anyway. How could Ellie be mad at him for staying out after work when he showed up at his own apartment shaking, soaked through, and hobbling around?
’Oh, I didn’t know it was going to rain. I just wanted to stop and pick something up for you to enjoy when I got home, and then this downpour came out of nowhere- I didn’t want to bother you for a ride, since the apartment is so close…’
Yeah, it would go just like that, and Ellian wouldn’t be able to snap at him that he’d been waiting, and Gideon should’ve come straight home because, like, Ellian had been waiting for him all day long, and he could go out with his friends some other night- what the hell was with the holdup???
…Or it wouldn’t go at all like he wanted, because the teenager wasn’t really the ‘pitying’ type, and Gideon hadn’t even been a fan of that narrative imposed on him, anyway.
So… “Actually, I might need a little something,” Gideon said to the girl as he backed off from the door and moved back toward the counter. “Think I’ll grab one of those reusable bags for these.” One with big, saggy handles that he could loop over his shoulder instead of carrying in his arms. “And, mm, thiiiis umbrella, I think.” There’d been a selection of them by the door. Some pretty bland, some pretty colorful. Some with extra… embellishments.
Gideon had selected one that might have been Iron Man themed? Or something along those lines. It was extremely bright red and gold, with sparkly golden streamers dangling off of it. Probably meant for someone significantly younger than himself. The cash register girl had that weird, hesitant look on her face again. But she obliged him.
The thing was ridiculous and childish. Pretty far off from Gideon’s general aesthetic. There was basically nothing in his apartment that suggested he’d ever been into toys and games. No posters, no figures, no memorabilia-type cups, no plushies, no gaming consoles, no cartoon movies. He had cat toys for Witch and Spatter, but as far as his own interests went? There was very little anyone could call “childish.” There was very little that was even particularly colorful. So he had a loose expectation that showing up at home, surrounded by a draping of golden streamers, would be enough to throw Ellie off guard, at a minimum.
“Thanks, appreciate it,” he said to the girl after she’d finished ringing up his extra purchases.
And now with his stupid umbrella in one hand, bag of beer on his shoulder, and cane in the other hand, he really did get on his way.
And it sucked, because of course it did. The wind was brutal with all the golden streamers flying around them, and his slick work shoes were an extra pain on the wet concrete as he tried to keep from flopping to the ground. He still got wet, because even though Gideon was small, he wasn’t child-size, and this umbrella seemed to be built for someone with significantly less diameter and who was quite a bit closer to the ground.
But twenty minutes after exiting the store, he was under the overhang to his apartment building, feeling only a bit more grouchy and tired than when he’d left the bar, and probably a little trepidation for how Ellie would greet him- trepidation for the chance of being snapped at, but under that, still an anxious sort of anticipation for the thought of seeing a stupid-dumbfounded look on the teenager’s face.
He fit his key in the lock and turned the handle.
Indigo_Plateau
