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 Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 1:24 pm
The weather was nice, thank goodness. If it had rained like it had been predicted to do, then he probably wouldn’t be sitting outside like he was. So, instead of staying inside, Chris decided to take his young Finnish Spitz out to the dog park to hopefully get her to release some of her pent up energy. Living in an apartment wasn’t exactly the best for an active dog, but he’d been lucky to get a good-sized place, and Annabel Lee was small, anyway. She didn't seem to mind living in an apartment, and it wasn't as though she didn't have the balcony to get some fresh air when Chris was busy doing work. Of course, that didn't stop him from feeling guilty about keeping a dog in an apartment, but he was kind of done with living at home.
While Annabel yipped and yapped and ran around with the other dogs, Christopher sat on one of the benches, just outside the gate, flipping through a few pages of a text book. He was trying to get some notes written out for his upcoming exams, before having to go home and work on projects for his architecture classes. He’d thought that high school had been a pain, but college was much more difficult, and with a lot more responsibilities attached. He'd been able to get credit for a handful of general education classes, but there were still classes he needed to take, and he couldn't start slacking now, especially since he was trying to do honors.
For now, though, he would just focus on finishing up things for his first year, as well as keeping up with baseball practice and games. Even though it was almost the end of the school year, he still had summer camp coaching to think about, as well as city leagues. Playing for DCU was the only baseball on his mind, though it definitely was the most important.
With everything already on his mind, it was no wonder Chris didn't notice much around him, although he did take the effort to look up every once in a while to make sure his dog was okay.
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 2:07 pm
"HARLEY!" Zia yelped as her dog walked her, the mammoth mutt doing pretty much whatever he pleased from the moment they both tumbled out of her car. She hadn't seen him in forever and apparently he had forgotten who was the boss in this relationship.
She was just trying to stay upright and hold onto his leash at least to the gate, which was a chore in itself in heels, especially when Harley was tightly wound from not getting out in a long time.
Graduation end-of-the-year ordeals, the BMC, her new job, it all added up to no walk time for the poor dog. But now that she was freshly fired for being a flake due to her 'vacation' and the subsequent toll that event took on her, she had some extra, unscheduled time on her hands to re-devote to her 'baby'.
"Stop it," She hissed under her breath, not wanting to full on yell at him in front of other people as she tugged and pulled back the slack on his leash so she could get him close enough to release him. The second his leash was unclasped, he rocketed off to go find a playmate, and Zia could slump against the gate, muttering her various complaints to herself.
And then, sitting on one of the nearby benches was a familiar face, and the day instantly got brighter. "Chris!" She called out, seeing that as fair warning to strut over and plop right down in his personal space. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 6:46 pm
Lucky for Chris, he was almost done with everything for the year. Just a little bit more and then he had the whole summer to think of nothing but baseball, baseball, and baseball. Oh, and working at the shelter, but that was kind of a given.
Golden eyes blinked in momentary confusion as he heard his name called out, but as a flurry of light purple made its way into his peripheral vision, a large grin found its way across his face.
"Zee!" he greeted, not minding the invasion of personal space at all, and invading hers as well as he reached out to pull her into a hug, before pulling back and looking her over. "It has been forever!" he half joked, quickly shutting his text books and putting his school stuff to the side. At the moment he could really care less about school.
"How have you been? How was your vacation? You didn't text me back at all. I didn't think you were serious about it," he admitted. He was usually able to get in contact with her through text, even if they didn't see each other in person for a month or more. Granted, he'd been busy with school... so part of it was his fault.
He continued looking her over to make sure she was okay, before finally meeting her eyes, a grin still on his face. "You look good." She always looked good... No matter what she was wearing, it always seemed pulled together and professional. Even if she wore pajamas around in public, she would make it work. As opposed to his rather boring pale yellow polo and khaki shorts. Yeah, he didn't try very hard.
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 7:13 pm
The hug was welcomed and returned with plenty of enthusiasm once Zia remembered that hugging was okay in this little compartment of life. Almost two weeks of draining militant mechanics and witnessing nothing but ugliness did enough of it's part to make her forget how to handle these little, daily pleasantries of human life. Little, happy things that were suddenly priceless and rare.
"Oh, yeah, that," She said, waving it off with an insincere laugh. "I forgot my phone. And, you know, the whole trip was a disaster." To put it mildly. Inside she was cringing. It was necessary to keep secrets, obviously, but such a vapid cover for a horrible memory wrought with so much pain and death suddenly made her face go pale behind that fake smile while her stomach turned in a sudden bought of nauseousness.
"U-um," She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to pass the whole episode off as a caffeine headache. "Ugh, yeah, I haven't been feeling good since."
His comment did bring about a little bit of normalcy, though, since it spawned some involuntary primping at the thought of looking especially good today. Chris was one of those friends that was always good for a fabulous ego boost and sometimes when he was really on his game Zia could almost swoon.
"So what are you doing lately? Baseball season, eh? Is that just pretty much all your summer plans right there?" She asked, trying to turn the conversation back to him, not just for a subject change, but because she forgot how dearly she missed him until right this very moment when she felt out of the loop and wanted him to spill everything so she could crawl her way back into her comfortably nosy place of knowing way too much of what her friends are doing with themselves.
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 11:14 pm
Chris frowned at her when she brought up how she forgot her phone, tempted to ask how that was possible, but since it didn't seem as though it was a particularly good memory, he decided to let it slide without further questioning... for now. Granted, she did manage to distract him with her mention of not feeling well, his eyebrows immediately furrowing in concern.
"Should you be out here, then...? You should probably be resting, Zee. Are you sick? Have you seen a doctor?" he fretted, clearly worried about his friend, subconsciously reaching up to press the back of his hand against her forehead, though it wouldn't have been the first time he's done something like that. It wasn't his fault that he happened to care about her health and well-being. It also didn't help that she started looking a little pale.
He removed his hand soon enough, though he was still frowning at her when he nodded in response to her asking about baseball.
"Yeah... We've been having a really good season. I've started a lot of the games, finished most of them. I was afraid they'd change their mind about my scholarship after we lost the first game I started, but after that we've had good numbers," he told her, feeling himself ease up a little since she seemed... more or less okay. Though he was still worried that she might not be telling him something, or at least holding back how she was really feeling.
"Summer... I'm doing the baseball camp thing again. Mom's sending Peter there, too," he added, rolling his eyes at the thought of having to take care of his obnoxious, little brother. "He's not driving your dad crazy, is he?" he couldn't help but ask, especially since they lived so close, despite the size of their yards, separating their houses.
He'd be lying if he didn't say he missed living at home, if only for the close proximity to his friend. He wasn't too thrilled about being around his little brother, but at least he'd been able to see Zia every day, when she wasn't busy, at least.
"You should come over to my apartment sometime, if you want," he offered. "You haven't seen it yet and I've been there all school year."
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 2:43 am
Zia gave him a stubborn frown and waved his hand away in a rapid version of the 'pish posh' gesture. Though the answers were probably not, no, and no, it wasn't something she wanted to get into when friend time had become an endangered resource.
"Oh, that's great!" She blurted out at the fact he was having a good season, which was followed pretty quickly by guilt she'd been too busy to watch any of his games. She made a mental note to add that to her calender. And then she gave his shoulder a friendly push. "They've got more sense than to let you go after just one game."
Her mouth opened like she was going to say something more lighthearted about baseball camp, but it seemed to have been overridden by an "Oh, gosh, Peter," which was punctuated with a crooked half smile and lowered shoulders. She knew he annoyed his brother, and on occasion her dad. Luckily for Peter, though, her father had become increasingly preoccupied with his old buddies now that more of them were retiring for good. Robert Connolly's 's new days were filled with golf and cigar bars with other, equally grumpy old men.
"Well, my dad's had his own adventures lately, Peter can run the neighborhood free of fear of him." Zia had her own reactions to Peter, and that was mostly because she was oddly uncomfortable around younger kids and reacted by offering tribute, the same way she showered the little girl Harley attracted in the park one day with ice cream when she ran out of things to say.
"Argh, that's right, I haven't seen your apartment yet," She said, suddenly realizing. It was like she had spent the entire time since he'd moved out thinking, in the back of her mind, he was in his old room at the Gallo home and had just been too busy to bump into. "I should stop by some night. I can bring you dinner and you can give me some advice with a DCU application." She had no hopes of getting into the fall semester, so she was shooting for spring and making sure she had everything in order before she was distracted again. Zia had been so gung ho about getting into more ambitious colleges or somewhere far away from Destiny City, she didn't have the foresight to apply for DCU's fall semester just in case she ended up tethered to Destiny City through some unforeseen 'event'. Not that her reasons for staying were anything she could've planned for in advance, but she had completely forgotten to try and get in somewhere local until she started receiving acceptance letters from places that were suddenly out of reach.
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 2:41 pm
Pft, her stubbornness was nothing new, and if he hadn't been at least semi-satisfied about the temperature of her forehead, he wouldn't have relented with just a wave of her hand. She should know he could be rather stubborn as well, if he wanted to be. Regardless of that, he was placated for the moment, and would leave her to suffer in silence, if she was suffering, until she admitted she really wasn't doing too well.
Chris laughed softly when she pushed at him, shrugging lightly, as if it was no big deal and didn't still make him freak out from time to time that he would one day fail miserably and they'd kick him off the team. "Yeah, I guess. Maybe they're just waiting until they can find a new starter," he suggested, though leaning away from her, lest she decide to push at him, again. Not that it hurt, but he could make things difficult, at least.
"I'm sure Peter has already taken over, then," he admitted with a roll of his eyes. It wasn't that he didn't like his younger brother! He was just annoying to him, most of the time. He did it on purpose, though! So of course he would get angry about it. But he had nothing against Zia not minding him. Heck, he was pretty sure that Peter had a crush on her, despite the age difference. That was probably the best evidence of them being related, other than the fact that his two siblings looked just like him, more or less.
"Definitely! You can come over any time you want!" he told her, sitting up a little more at the offer to bring dinner. It wasn't like he knew how to cook all that well, anyway. It was mostly takeout for him, or the occasional sandwich. And then, of course, whenever his mom had leftovers for him. It helped that they all still lived close.
"When are you planning on applying...? Are you still going to Sovereign Heights, or are you planning on taking some time off, or what...?" he wondered, reaching out to casually pick off a loose piece of long, curly lilac hair attached to her arm, holding it up for her to see before dropping it to the ground behind the bench and resting his arm on the back, as he leaned against it more. "You're shedding. I'll never understand how you keep your hair that long and still tamed..."
Ah, he'd missed having casual conversation with her... It was a nice break from everything else.
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 6:34 pm
"Phbblt, I think first your a** would be seeing a lot more bench, instead of starting at all," She teased. "I'm sure the scout that got your name in, in the first place knew what he was doing."
She laughed and nodded, her mind searching for a date that wasn't too sudden but soon enough there likely wouldn't be any disasters popping up detracting from her human life again. "Well, you know, when we do do dinner I could probably convince your mom to whip up something fresh. Or, you know, just grab something," She mused. Zia wasn't a terrible cook, but growing up with a rich, single dad who had no tolerance for domestic chores, she was just accustomed of paying someone else to do the cooking, assembling, and serving. Mrs. Gallo was probably the closest thing she equated to a genuine godsend and Zia usually concocted excuses both to mooch off her cooking and how she could stand to not diet that particular day in order to wolf down that lasagna.
"Nope, I'm finishing up my last semester at Shlip. I should have a pretty big dent in credits, and I don't have to take an entrance exam for DCU, so I'm thinking I should have everything ready to go by September so I can squeeze into the Spring semester. I'm taking time until then off." Not really by choice, but it wasn't all bad. It wasn't like she could use some extra time on her hands.
Her comfortable stream of random thoughts suddenly stopped with a small, stifled noise that would've definitely been a shriek if she'd let it loose, delicately trying not to mess up her curls while looking for other evidence of shedding. "I am not!" Oh, she was. Just a little, though. That wasn't good, even though the part of her most devastated by that was Zirconia. Her vanity had always been hairccentric, but it had gone up over 9,000 since ending up in a younger body.
"Well, I work at it, obviously," She said, sticking her tongue out at him and keeping her tone light like she wasn't frantically messing with her hair right now with one hand and digging in her giant purse for a mirror in the other.
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Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 1:31 pm
He laughed in response to her teasing, shrugging lightly at her reassurances. "You never know. Maybe the guy was a flake?"
It wasn't as though he was great at anything but pitching, after all. His batting average was horrible, and he was pretty sure his entire team winced when it was his turn at the plate. And he wasn't the fastest runner, but he could at least give a mean fast ball.
"Mom could probably make something," he quickly agreed, not minding at all if his mother didn't mind making something for them to eat when Zia came over. Hey, it wasn't like he was going to say "no" to lasagna, as lame as that might sound to some. He really didn't know how he was surviving, living on his own... and then he remembered that his mom liked to stop by his place a few times a week and make sure that everything was in working order and that he had food in his refrigerator and had his dirty clothes picked up. Ah yes, it was always nice coming home after a long day of classes and baseball practice to a fresh load of laundry waiting for him in the dryer.
Maybe he had a bit of a problem, relying on his mother so much, but at least he wasn't living in his own house? And at least Annabel Lee had someone to come and check up on her during the longer days. As much as he would like to bring his dog to class with him, he didn't think his professors would let that fly.
"Oh good, maybe you'll only be stuck in college another few years, then?" he half teased, though he was glad she was getting everything she needed done for her degree. "It's going to be weird, going to the same school, don't you think...?" he asked, watching in amusement as she started freaking out about the one piece of hair that he'd pulled off her arm.
"You do know you lose at least seventy strands a day, don't you...? You're not about to go bald, Zee," he said softly, watching as she seemed to panic over trying to find a mirror. Even though he'd been amused at first, he couldn't help but feel a little concerned, sitting up a little more, though staying out of her way as much as possible. He knew better than to try and stop her from doing what she wanted.
"Are you sure you're okay...?" he wondered. Although he wasn't completely surprised by her reaction, he hadn't really been expecting it. "Are you going on a date later...?" he threw out, trying to figure out what was going on in her mind...
Women...
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Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 12:30 am
"Oh shut up and accept the fact that you're on the team. Starting on the team," Zia poked, but still in a light, teasing tone meant to be encouraging. "Besides, I'll bet it makes you popular with the college ladies."
All she could do was agree with him on the fact that Mrs. Gallo's lasagna was the way to go. If anyone had their blinders on to Chris being reliant on his mother, it was Zia, if only because his mom was one of her favorite neighbors, and she had a habit of occasionally also relying on his mom, if only just for socialization and general picket fence chatter on seemingly innocuous subject that, secretly, were things she couldn't go to her own mother for. They were like the family she wished would adopt her, even with her infamous status as her own daddy's spoiled princess.
"Ha! Hopefully. I'm taking light now so I can snag an actual job, though," Was all she said on the school subject, her tone taking a flat, and unamused turn as she started emphasizing with her hands and a narrowed glare. Obvious signs she was bitter, but she hadn't exactly let it stay secret that when she said 'stockbroker internship' he heard 'demeaning job looking pretty and useless while fetching sandwiches and coffee for your asshat drinking buddy who doesn't even work in the right industry or have me on the payroll' or what she called 'coffee wench' for short. Part of her knew she shouldn't be too pissed about it considering she had relied on her father's connections and not her own merit, but she was used to getting what she wanted, and it wasn't like him to slap her in the face like this. It was uncharted territory. And even still, as much as she'd hated that job, it was relevant to a secret she was aching to get off her chest. Zia didn't have the balls to admit she had gotten chewed out and fired over her time off, but at the time it'd happened, other, more important things had taken over.
Her frantic mirror search didn't last one. Having at least one handy had become a necessity, after all, and she was happily preening her curls as she talked and double checking to make sure nothing was out of place.
"Hush, you. You have baseball, I have my hair. Let's just agree to be mutually insecure in peace."
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 7:21 pm
Christopher pouted lightly at Zia's teasing, knowing that she was just joking with him, though he did snort at her 'college ladies' comment.
"I don't know. You're in college, aren't you...? What do you think?" he grinned, teasingly flexing his arm. "I'm not a scrawny little middle schooler any more, am I?" She would know, after all. He had known her since he was in middle school. Fourth grade, to be exact, when his family moved into their house, and the Gallo and Connolly families became neighbors. He would be the first to admit that he had been an awkward little kid, but at least he and Zee had ended up friends. Therefore, Chris was allowed to tease her, just as she could tease him.
It also helped that his mother loved her... So of course his mom would do anything to help her out. From girl talk to making food for her. Which was good, because he was pretty sure that Zia's father still held a grudge against him for how many windows he'd ended up breaking with baseballs over the years. They were accidents, of course! They went over the net he'd set up to catch them!
Chris grimaced at her mention of a job, knowing that she wasn't too fond of the one she had. "You're looking for something other than what you already have...?" he wondered, though trying to be careful about making her even more bitter about things. Since they hadn't spoken in a while, he wasn't really sure how everything was going with that particular job, but he could assume from her expression that things were a bit rough. "If you need help looking for something, just ask," he told her, wanting her to know that she could still rely on him for anything she might need. It wasn't really the same since they didn't live next to each other any more, but if they hung out more than this random, lucky meeting, then he definitely wouldn't complain. His apartment got kind of lonely with only his dog to keep him company, after all.
He smiled as she primped her hair, a familiar fondness rising up as he watched her. "You shouldn't have anything to be insecure about, Zee," he told her, shrugging lightly, nonchalantly waving his hand to dismiss the subject. "You always look nice. And your hair is never out of place, so don't worry so much, okay?"
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 9:04 pm
"Whoa, put that away, lots of desperate, crazy old dog ladies hang around here," Zia laughed, grabbing his flexed arm with both hands and pulling it down. She was tempted to make the same comparison to her own middle schooler self, even with the age gap she was in a gray area as far as grade level due to the fact her dad reacted to 'your daughter has some behavioral and learning issues' with homeschooling and free reign. But when the Gallos moved in, scrawny Chris had a slight adversary in spoiled, entitled little princess Zia. But she'd like to think she grew out of that, even though she still claimed to have never been wrong a day in her life. She at least, by some miracle, ended up friends with Chris, rather than childish enemies.
Her dad still didn't like him, but he was a grumpy old man by nature who would hold those broken windows against him until one of them died. Zia's mother was a different story. She liked Chris, but Zia didn't like that she liked Chris. Caroline and Robert were just ending their divorce when they met the Gallos, and she was still hanging around more often, and still living in Destiny City. At first she just treated him polite fondness while she tried to network with his family and make friends with his mom. But there had been one or two disturbing run ins with him as they got older where she made some aggressively flirtatious comments towards the teenager. Zia wasn't sure if she was jealous or just overwhelmingly wanted to hurl when that happened, no matter how much Caroline played it off as 'just joking'.
"Eeeh," She wanted to blurt out "I got fired from what I already had!" But it was struggling to actually get out. She also couldn't figure out a way to actually explain it without sounding completely incompetent for taking time off she didn't have for that 'vacation'.
But his assurances made her smile, her grabbing his arm evolving to slightly leaning on him, and she probably would've fawned over his baseball stats in an attempt to give him the same feeling but a small commotion took her attention away. When someone ventured inside the gate to retrieve his dog, Harley had gotten a little too friendly with him, and the poor park patron hadn't reacted well to the monstrous dog trying to tackle him and hump his leg. "Hey!" She barked, trying to get his attention and hopefully quash the issue with a quick distraction for the mutt. Unfortunately it didn't work.
Moving faster than anyone should be able to in heels, Zia was already gone, off to tame and defend her beast.
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