Flaws

Kit picked at his skin as he sat outside of a coffee shop, smoking a cigarette and drinking strong, black coffee. His nearly black hair was messy from hands constantly running through it (his own and the pretty bird he brought back to his small apartment the previous night) and dark circles hung under his deep brown eyes. Turning his gaze to look through the large window, Kit caught sight of a pretty blonde. She was here often, and Kit paid attention to her when he was sober enough to focus on her long legs. The girl couldn’t be too much younger than his age of twenty-two, possibly two or three years, and there was never so much as a wrinkle in her clothing. Her dark blonde hair would be free of fly-aways, her sea colored eyes always rimmed with makeup, and what Kit assumed was fashionable clothing. Everything about this mystery blonde screamed perfection and Kit had immediately hated her, no matter how beautiful. It wasn’t as if he could explain why she just rubbed him the wrong way, but whenever he caught sight of her immaculate appearance his mood would drop.

The blonde exited the building and the homeless man that was sitting at one of the tables began to cough. The cold October air was probably making the man sick from the time he spent outside and the coffee shop refused to let him in if he didn’t buy anything. The girl stopped midstep and turned around. Kit half expected her to send the old man a look of disgust or snap at him, but she rummaged through her purse. Walking back towards the homeless man, she slid him two twenty dollar bills.

“Go buy yourself some warm coffee, a pastry, and cold medicine,” she spoke softly.

Kit’s jaw nearly dropped. He surely wouldn’t have done that. His heroin addiction was sucking up all of his money.

“Thank you so much, Miss,” the man responded as tears filled his eyes, “can I at least know who to thank the Lord for?”

“Evelyn,” she answered, “take care.”

The man stood and scurried into the warmth of the coffee shop, but Kit’s eyes stayed focused on the girl who still stood there. Evelyn. He shook his head with a sound of disbelief and she turned her gaze towards him, the softness for the older man had diminished and was replaced by a cold look.

“What?” She snapped and Kit knew he still didn’t like her.

“Nothing, love,” he responded lazily, his thick accent making the ‘th’ sound like a ‘f’.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes and crossed her thin arms, “what the hell is your problem?”

Kit shrugged, feeling his dislike for her grow, “girls like you just don’t give forty dollars to an old homeless man.”

“Girls like me,” she scoffed, “who the hell do you think I was trying to impress then? You?”

“Woman do strange things in my presence.”

Evelyn curled her lip in disgust, “yeah. Probably run in horror.”

“See you around, Evie,” he called as she began to walk away.

Evelyn turned around quickly and held a finger inches away from his nose, “do not call me that.”

Kit smirked as she pushed herself away and began to strut off. She was what he expected, but different at the same time.

For the first time in a long time, Kit Gregory was intrigued.