Status: Exhale. (Revising)
The Electricity in My Veins
Scene II, flesh and bones
Neah Walker was the type of guy that as a child got lost in huge grocery stores whenever you'd take him out with you even though he had promised beforehand that he wouldn't run off. Then he would go to the customer service desk and give out your description and scold you for getting lost once you came to pick him up. And you would, despite all that, still be happy when you saw the little fucker was safe. He was just that kind of guy.
Neah Walker, my best friend, age seventeen was still getting lost in oversized grocery stores.
"Stupid!" The golden eyed wonder boy snapped when he caught sight of my incoming figure. "How you always manage to get lost in places like this always amazes me." He sounded like a weary parent. The girl behind the long grey desk with the words 'customer service' written across the front, looks from Neah to me and frowns. "That’s who you were looking for?" She asks voice uncertain and an eyebrow raised in question. She was probably expecting me to be a child. His little sister perhaps.
I give her a faint smile. Neah opens his mouth and I can practically hear that insufferable voice of his saying something stupid.
"What can I say," I joke cutting Neah off. He pouts. The sunken lip and crossed arms over his lean chest not a good look for an almost eighteen year-old. "It's those damn isles. How many of them do you need roll to roll like that anyway?" She didn't look impressed with my reasoning.
"Well..." She states slowly, an incredulous look on her face. "Try to be more..." She stalls, her voice thinning out as she tries to think of something to say, and it baffles me because you would think this isn't the first time something like this has happened: a teenager getting lost in the cereal ale - or wherever Neah got lost. Big whoop! No need to pop a brain cell thinking about it. "Mindful? …next time." Her end reply is slow and uncertain and wary. So, maybe air-headed teenagers don't shop on her shifts.
She flashes 'I'm smiling because the manager is watching, not because I really care enough to try and be kind to shits like you' smile and asks sweetly: "Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir?"
"No. Having my little Alice baby back is more than enough for today."
"Ah! And thanks." He says like it was an afterthought to thank a person for putting up with his foolish. She waves the next person in line over and me and Neah leave, heading back into the prong of overzealous shoppers.
"You're such a fool, Alice." Neah mocks as we head to the drink ale. "You always getting lost like you do."
"Say one more thing and even if you have me paged next time you get lost, I won't come back for you." It was a quiet shopping trip after that.
"So, you’re thinking of blackmailing him into a date?" Neah was obediently putting every bag I handed him into the trunk of his crappy car and still not getting the point that Luka promising to make up missing dinner with me and I suggesting we go somewhere together that’s not him dropping me off for school or going out to eat together when neither of us can be bothered with cooking, isn’t blackmail. It’s clever usage.
I groan. The weight of whatever the hell I was handing Neah, and the level of his denseness, making me feel more tired than I already was.
"I’m not blackmailing him!" I snap. My hands seeming to have taken on the blunt force of my anger thrust the next bag at him before he's ready. Neah just having turned around to take the bag from me was by no means expecting something to be flying at him. The sight of him staggering a little before he righted himself and placed the bag with the others does little to appease my anger.
Fucker should've fallen.
“I’m just going to make use of a promise in a way that may or may not make it impossible for him to refuse without him feeling a crushing sense of guilt for turning me down even after he promised.”
"So, blackmailing, right?” I open my mouth to snap at him again, but the weight of my tongue feels impossible heavy, and the pitying look on Neah’s face drains all the strength in me to fight back.
“So, basically blackmailing, yeah?" I say with a nod.
Neah Walker, my best friend, age seventeen was still getting lost in oversized grocery stores.
"Stupid!" The golden eyed wonder boy snapped when he caught sight of my incoming figure. "How you always manage to get lost in places like this always amazes me." He sounded like a weary parent. The girl behind the long grey desk with the words 'customer service' written across the front, looks from Neah to me and frowns. "That’s who you were looking for?" She asks voice uncertain and an eyebrow raised in question. She was probably expecting me to be a child. His little sister perhaps.
I give her a faint smile. Neah opens his mouth and I can practically hear that insufferable voice of his saying something stupid.
"What can I say," I joke cutting Neah off. He pouts. The sunken lip and crossed arms over his lean chest not a good look for an almost eighteen year-old. "It's those damn isles. How many of them do you need roll to roll like that anyway?" She didn't look impressed with my reasoning.
"Well..." She states slowly, an incredulous look on her face. "Try to be more..." She stalls, her voice thinning out as she tries to think of something to say, and it baffles me because you would think this isn't the first time something like this has happened: a teenager getting lost in the cereal ale - or wherever Neah got lost. Big whoop! No need to pop a brain cell thinking about it. "Mindful? …next time." Her end reply is slow and uncertain and wary. So, maybe air-headed teenagers don't shop on her shifts.
She flashes 'I'm smiling because the manager is watching, not because I really care enough to try and be kind to shits like you' smile and asks sweetly: "Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir?"
"No. Having my little Alice baby back is more than enough for today."
"Ah! And thanks." He says like it was an afterthought to thank a person for putting up with his foolish. She waves the next person in line over and me and Neah leave, heading back into the prong of overzealous shoppers.
"You're such a fool, Alice." Neah mocks as we head to the drink ale. "You always getting lost like you do."
"Say one more thing and even if you have me paged next time you get lost, I won't come back for you." It was a quiet shopping trip after that.
"So, you’re thinking of blackmailing him into a date?" Neah was obediently putting every bag I handed him into the trunk of his crappy car and still not getting the point that Luka promising to make up missing dinner with me and I suggesting we go somewhere together that’s not him dropping me off for school or going out to eat together when neither of us can be bothered with cooking, isn’t blackmail. It’s clever usage.
I groan. The weight of whatever the hell I was handing Neah, and the level of his denseness, making me feel more tired than I already was.
"I’m not blackmailing him!" I snap. My hands seeming to have taken on the blunt force of my anger thrust the next bag at him before he's ready. Neah just having turned around to take the bag from me was by no means expecting something to be flying at him. The sight of him staggering a little before he righted himself and placed the bag with the others does little to appease my anger.
Fucker should've fallen.
“I’m just going to make use of a promise in a way that may or may not make it impossible for him to refuse without him feeling a crushing sense of guilt for turning me down even after he promised.”
"So, blackmailing, right?” I open my mouth to snap at him again, but the weight of my tongue feels impossible heavy, and the pitying look on Neah’s face drains all the strength in me to fight back.
“So, basically blackmailing, yeah?" I say with a nod.