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 Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:31 am
Orin couldn’t remember the last time he'd spent so much time at the arcade, but ultimately he couldn't complain—at all. He'd never had so much fun at the arcade—and he wasn't even playing. He'd made himself comfortable next to a girl he'd found racing—and rooted enthusiastically for the entire duration of her racing.
He'd been ecstatic when Annabelle had gotten third place, beating out her fourth place—but he'd been totally overjoyed when, in her last round, she came in second place.
"Anna!" he proclaimed, stars in his eyes. "You are so cool, I've never seen anyone come in so high! When you save up and get a bike, you have to teach me! —But don't drive like that on the real road," he laughed. "That's really amazing. I don’t think I've ever come in second in any video game. But you make me want to come here and practice."
He stretched his legs a little bit. "And grow. I need more vegetables. And milk. And sunlight."
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:35 am
Annabelle couldn't remember the last time she had fun. For once she didn't think about powering up, patrolling, or anything like it. The woman could just feel herself being normal and she missed it so much. A wide, cocky grin was thrown at Orin before nodding. "Heck yeah! Look, when I finally get one, I'll come around and take you for a spin. With a helmet because safety first." She nodded sagely at that and then just leaned back on the fake motorcycle, still straddling it. "What are you a plant?" She laughed and reached over to ruffle that dark head of hair, effectively turning it into a mop and then stuck her tongue out at him. "Say, you hungry? I could break for some food. My treat." She swung a leg over the bike and climbed down, heels effectively clacking on the platform before she stepped onto the floor and straightened up her outfit. "You can even pick since you did such a good job rooting. I'm pretty sure it's the only reason I got second place."
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:41 am
Orin's eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but laugh even as he tried to fix his mussed up hair. It was ineffective, and though the boy probably just needed a haircut to fix his problem, it wasn't something he would ever consider. He helped himself up and said, "Well, I don't know about that, you probably would have done just fine without me! But if you want to feed me, I'm more than happy to accept! Maybe you're the secret to me going big and strong. Maybe I should be eating bigger breakfasts?" he asked, and pursed his lips in thought. "I like the breakfast place across the street—but pizza is always good if it's too late for breakfast!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:45 am
"Try eggs. More eggs. I mean in Beauty and the Beast Gaston at a bunch of raw eggs. But I wouldn't want you to eat that.. So try scrambled." She grinned and continued to listen to the boy talk about what he wanted. "I've got a secret for you. Your parents will probably be mad. But. ....There's no such thing as too late for breakfast. I eat breakfast for dinner a lot." She winked at him then and offered her hand. "So let's go to the place across the street. Pretty sure I've never eaten there. Pretty soon you'll be shooting up like a weed..." With his hand in hers, she took him out of the arcade and across the street. "Do you want to text your mom and let her know you're eating with me? I don't want anyone to think I've like... kidnapped you. Don't really like the cops."
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 10:00 am
Orin just laughed. "My dad," he corrected, "He's the worrywart. I don't have a mom in the picture, she skedaddled a long time ago—but that's good, because it means I get more time with dad. I'd say I liked not having her around, if it meant he wasn't stressing so much about money and making sure he could provide for me. He works at a restaurant, too, but it's not near here or I'd take you. He's working today, so," he shrugged.
"He usually texts me on his break so I'll let him know then! —Do you think you can grow big and strong from eating French Toast? Or Waffles? Because I want to get big, but—let's be real, Gaston is totally not the guy I want to grow up into. Is he your type of man?" he asked, seeming innocent enough.
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 10:37 am
"Well, your dad then." She frowned when he said that his mom left. A hand went to his hair, not to mess it up, but to pet it softly. "Okay. Just be sure to let him know. I don't want to be a kidnapper!" She huffed and opened the door for him, ushering him in first. "French toast? You can get big eating any of that. I'm going to get waffles. It's always time for waffles." And then this kid asked Annabelle about her ideal type of man and her nose wrinkled a little. "I don't like men? I had a girlfriend until recently... but.." She shrugged and settled down when the person took them to a booth. "Uh, what do you wanna drink?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 10:47 am
"Chocolate milk, please," Orin said, smiling. "Thank you."
He knew his manners—or, at least, most of them, and he was grateful. For food and a friend.
"I'm sorry about your girlfriend. I hope you'll be okay. If you ever need to take your mind off of it, we can go to the arcade and race or something. But it's okay if you don't like men. Personally, I'd have a hard time dating a man, but mostly because…"
He paused, waited, and then scratched his chin. "Huh. Well, actually, I don't know. If I dated a boy, we could share clothes. And I know how a guy thinks—I think—so no lost in translation errors. And he could do all the stuff I don't want to do! Like fix cars!" His lips pursed and then he shrugged. "I don't have a car though, so I don't think that really matters right now. But you might be onto something! Just, uhm. I hope we can at least be friends, even if you don't like men?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 10:53 am
Never in her life had Annabelle wanted a recorder so bad. She could pull out her phone and record this, but she wouldn't. This was so cute. The girl just beamed at him and snickered. Children's thoughts on homosexuality were honestly breaths of fresh air to her. "I'll take some orange juice, please," she waved at the waitress as she wandered away and looked back to him. "Okay, so I'm going to just get like three waffles. And if you wanted to date guys, you date guys. There's nothing wrong with it! Maybe the two of you can fix cars together on a date or something like that. You can be my friend. I'd love it. I need so many friends!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 1:16 pm
Orin's face lit up again. "I would like three waffles, too, please! But even if you weren't feeding me, I'd want to be your friend. But I'll, uhm, I'll skip on the car dates. I might just ride a bicycle to work."
He made himself comfortable in the seat and couldn’t stop beaming; he just seemed excited about all of it. "If you ever need a friend, I'll be around! I only have school that I have to worry about, and I always like an excuse to get out. Do you always play at the arcade or do you have other places you go?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 6:00 pm
"Can you eat three waffles, skinny guy?" She asked, snorting a little bit. "Don't like cars, eh? It's fine, I know very little about them, too. I walk everywhere." The woman laughed a little and couldn't help but return his infectious smile. "Hey.." She pulled her cellphone out and typed in a new contact before handing it to him. "Put your number here. We can meet up at the arcade and play if you want!" Annabelle's eyes were practically glittering gold right now. Making friends, especially with younger kids was difficult for her. So she felt this was a huge success.
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 11:55 pm
Orin snorted indignantly, but still smiled. "Of course I can eat three waffles, that's nothing!"
He reached over to oblige her; Orin was very careful with her cell phone and typed in his phone number before handing it back. "I would like that a lot! I don't have anyone else who wants to go to the arcade, ever—they all wanna go home and play on their video games at home. But arcades are more fun, I think. Plus I'm bad at video games."
He didn't seem to have a problem with talking to strangers—older, or younger. All that mattered was that he didn't get in their car, even if they offered him candy or puppies.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 7:04 am
With a hum, she took her phone back and sent him a text with the word 'hi' in it. "There. That's my number," Annabelle said, slipping her phone away. "And yeah, arcades are so much better. You can go with friends or make friends there." She smiled at him and then sighed when the waitress came back with their drinks. She picked up her orange juice and sipped at it almost immediately. She was parched! It'd been a while since she talked to someone for this long. It was good. "We would both waffles, one chocolate chip and two regular. Three for each of us that way." The waitress arched a brow at the order but shrugged. "Be right out." With that, the waitress disappeared again and they were alone. "Okay, Orin. What kind of games do you like, exactly?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 5:55 pm
A grin split across his face and Orin prepared for a very long conversation. He tucked his phone away, downed half of his chocolate milk, and leaned forward.
Talking with Annabelle was easy, and for the entire hour and a half they were there, the only time there was silence was when one of them was shoveling food down their throats. When it started getting a little later in the afternoon, Orin apologetically informed the girl that he had to run to his father's restaurant so he could walk him home, but after enjoying their time together he was already trying to make plans to meet up again.
When he left, he made sure to give her a wave—and a squeeze—and he ran off with a little skip in his step.
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