Mall Flower (Open) « Thread Started on Feb 25, 2007, 10:14pm »
It was odd that it had been about a month since AJ had last set foot into the mall. Once upon a time she came whenever she could, which tended to be almost ever day. That had been when she had had plenty of cash and her own plastic, not to mention her father’s. Those were the days of stiletto heels and a closet full of the best designer labels. If she had known how much it took to actually earn one of her coats, a pair of her favourite boots, or a new dress maybe she would have appreciated it more when she had it. Now she stood just inside the door wearing something she had worked on to make look decent. It was a simple black t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, and shoe laces tying it together instead of buttons doing it up. The low neck allowed her to wear a piece of cloth around her neck like a chocker without things looking busy. For the occasion she had also fished out an old skirt, simple and a dark black from the care she had given it. Her makeup said she had spent some time on her looks, but her shoes clashed with everything. Runners, due to her lack of good heels she didn’t even bother with her feet.
Running a hand over the bag on her shoulder she pondered the idea of it. She knew how easy it was to steal out of these types of bags, but she had developed a way of protecting what little cash she earned. Resting her hand on the top of the bag she hooked her thumb through the zipper loop and walked on. The only way someone could get in this way would be to cut it open and the clatter of stuff inside would probably fall out if she didn’t notice any other way. Looking in the windows of the stores AJ pondered over what she might buy. It had occurred to her that she could use some new material and defiantly some more thread. Thus she was here to go to the tailoring store, but once a girl always a girl. Addy stopped repeatedly to stare into windows at the latest arrivals, the pretty things she could no longer buy.
Looking into the windows she felt slightly ashamed when she caught the eyes of salespeople she had miss treated. In her shopping the teenager had often acted high and mighty, even insulting as she flaunted her money. Now she merely stood at the window looking in at the fine designs and soft materials. Slinking along Adelie found her destination and went in. Here she was comfortable and she quickly found what she needed. A few spools of thread, black, blue and white, and a couple of other things. Going up to the counter she wasted no time opening and fishing through her bag. Finding her wallet that contained her money she handed over the required bills and put it back. Looking at the bag as she walked out she wondered what to do, she had enough money for something and just didn’t know what. Sitting down on a nearby bench she sighed and absorbed the crowded atmosphere with its simple familiarity. Her eyes trailed after a group of giggling girls, or a cute guy laughing with his friends. Her old life, she thought. She also noted the kid picking someone’s pocket and the gothic looking boy with a purple Mohawk slipping out for a smoke. That seemed more of the new. Though no matter who was around AJ still felt like she was invisible. Glanced over and ignored, a bit like a wall flower.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #1 on Feb 27, 2007, 12:39am »
Weekends were boring, at least in Benji's opinion. Everyone was either busy or had too much of a hangover to answer their phones. Benji, himself, was never at a job, or anything that occupied his weekend hours, and he definitely was no drinker and/or smoker. It was rough though, hearing from many people that he would be someday just like his father, and yet they were unaware of his drinking, smoking, and abusive habits. Well, Benji couldn't really blame them, they had no clue of his father's bad sides, most of the time he would pull it off and act out a character that mostly everyone loved. Heck, even sometimes Benji even believed him to some certain extent.
It had been ages since Benji last visited the mall. He wasn't too fascinated or drawn in by all the sales. He hardly had money on him, it was usually attomatically sent to his bank account, his father is unaware of, for his college fund. If he did have money on it, he would use it for food, if his father didn't stock the fridge, new shoes, which would be about every three-four months, they do get pretty smelly after that and even Benji can't stand it, cosmetic items, mainly toothbrushes and toothpaste, diodorant, shampoo, conditioner, and other small items needed for grooming. He hardly spent the money on any clothes, or just nusience things, like most teenagers who spend the majority of their money on stupid bracelets or necklaces, posters, etc.
As he aimlessly wandered around the wall he couldn't help but feel eyes from all sorts of directions looking at him. It was like one of those sixth senses that the average people get every once in awhile. Benji was used to being the center of attention, or at least all eyes were on him, but he didn't find it very comforting when he was alone in such a humongous place, where there was so many other interesting things to look at. He was very self cautious when he visited such public places. Every minute or two his hand attomatically ran through his brown hair, as if he were brushing it away from his face. He bit his bit rather hard, he could feel his nervse acting up, but he didn't feel no pain after a few seconds.
Maybe his clothes were at fault for so many eyes. They weren't exactly top-of-the-class, like all around him. His pants were cut off at least an inch above his ankle, revealing his long stockings, that he only wore to keep his feet cold on cold or rainy days. On his feet were converse, but they looked pretty worn out. The white along the sides were an ashy brown color with a mixture of black on certain spots. The shoelaces were cut short, holding together with one double knot, they were so short he couldn't even tie his shoes correctly. Wrapped around his torso was no better. His shirt was black, just plain black. It had no Hollister logo, no indication of where he got it. There was a small stain, but it was hardly noticeable, and could only be seen by a close distance. The stain probably was about one shade from the real color. The real color in the shirt wasn't really there anymore, with all the times it had been run through the washing machine, it's nature color had faded. Luckily from his head up, he looked rather groomed and rich, but too bad not too many people would notice such looks from such a far distance.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #2 on Feb 27, 2007, 6:57pm »
Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a far off land Adelie had been a princess, or at least that’s how it seemed to her at times. In those days people thought she’d turn out exactly like her mother, and at one time it had been fine, but now it was more like a nightmare. Sure she loved aspects of her old life, but it was long gone and feared in its misery. She felt she carried one thing that reminded her of her mother… Her occasional rants in French were the one thing that made her recall her mom strongly afterwards. It showed how many private conversations and arguments the two had held in the days when they had been somewhat close.
It was fairly odd that Adelie had taken time off to relax, normally she was taking every chance she could get to pull extra shifts, or look for another job. Really what else was there? She didn’t have a life, she had been avoiding it for awhile now really. Most of the time she merely did things on her own and the peace was nice, but it was getting to the point were she needed social interaction. Especially because her quite brother, who spoke more and more, was socializing far more than her. This fact was not a good thing for a past social butterfly, but it was hard to break away from the wall now that she had become the fly.
AJ missed being able to spend her money freely to a degree. Now hygienic tools and food were the most important thing, her and here brother could survive other than that. Of coarse there was rent on their apartment and everything else, but that was a given. Every once and awhile she’d pick up something that was just to treat herself, but day to day it was just making it by. Of coarse every dime she had that was extra she put away, and she had some money saved, but it would never do her any real good. She just couldn’t get enough for schooling and she had no chance at winning a scholarship. At part she wished her brother would go back to his old life, to play football again, because maybe then he could get a scholarship and get out that way. It wasn’t his way though and AJ knew why he wouldn’t go home, she wouldn’t either.
Scanning the people AJ found one that seemed somewhat familiar. She knew they hadn’t ever really talked, but it was a face she knew. The younger of the two Irving boys? Yes, it was indeed Jared’s little brother and she grimaced at the thought that he might be that same. Unlike most girls she wasn’t head over heels for the bad boy, at one point she might have been, but her interests had changed. Of coarse she was still looking for a guy who could keep up with her, but she was also looking for a kind guy. The cocky jerks got old after awhile, with all their arrogance. Thinking once again of the boy who was walking along the wall in her general direction AJ recalled the letter B and she puzzled what came next in his name. Watching him distantly as he passed she stood up and caught up. “Hey, Benji right?” she asked smiling.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #3 on Feb 28, 2007, 9:00am »
The mall hadn't changed since Benji's last visit. Everything in the displays looked just like they did before, just a newer version or different colors. Honestly, Benji had no idea why he decided to go to the mall than any other place around. He couldn't figure out why exactly he came here. Maybe it was because this was the only place he hadn't found his brother, or because he was in need of new shoes. Whatever the reason it was he was quite pleased that he hadn't seen anyone too familiar. Not that he didn't want to talk, believe me, this boy loved the attention and talking, there was something wrong with him today though.
This morning he had to get up at the crack of dawn in order to not wake his father up from his sleep, because if he did it was another excuse for his father to beat him, and that wasn't really what Benji wanted that early in the morning. From the moment he woke up to now he couldn't help but feel a little woozy, as if he had just gotten off a merry-go-round. When Benji was real little his first and only experience with a merry-go-round didn't go too well. The moment the ride stopped he vomitting on the little girl next to him, barely missing her father by an inch. Today he felt like vomitting, just like he had when he was on the ride, but he had to hold it in, no longer was he small and innocent, but if he vomitted anywhere he would be put to blame and he would be volunteered to clean it up, and that would only make it worse.
He turned around the instant when he heard his name. It was a girl, he definitely remembered seeing her around school, probably with his brother, but his mind was foggy today and he couldn't exactly pin point where he might've seen her last. She acknowledged him, this was a first, maybe they've talked before, but Benji would know a voice like that, it was a pretty vocalized tone, as if she had been in choir for so long that all the skills had developed in her normal voice as well. Benji liked it, it calmed him down a bit.
"Hey. AJ right?" Benji asked, a little stubburn, but glad something came out of his mouth that had been hanging for at least ten-fifteen seconds before he had a thought to say something. In her view it seemed like he was looking for her name, but he really was just at a loss for words today.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #4 on Feb 28, 2007, 6:52pm »
Really the mall never changed drastically. A few stores did were bought out, or remodelled occasionally, or the shelves were rearranged, but other than that and the displays it was exactly the same. Adelie actually suspected a few of the things in some of the stores had been there since she was five. Well that might have been an exaggeration, but a few of the small stores had things that had been there for years. Despite the fact that it was a bit sad AJ found it made her somewhat nostalgic. Not only that, but the toys and kids things reminded her of simpler times. Back in those days when she was still learning English and the kids laughed at her accent, yet she never had cared, but laughed with them. Sometimes she felt it would be so good to return to that blissful innocence and ignorance.
This morning Addy had woken up late, her brother having let her sleep in. After he came home to grab something and she had told him off she was satisfied despite his smile. In all that start wasn’t odd for the twins. Marc let her sleep because she ‘looked to peaceful to wake’ when really he knew she wasn’t a morning person and didn’t want to deal with her. She would yell at him, they would relax and by the end of the day she would be making sure everything was taken care of for him. Sadly the guy did make the most money in their house, though she doubted all of it was legal. She actually knew none of it was legal and she wished she could change that. Really she couldn’t make that much though.
Though in truth Adelie had never been a good singer in public and had never tried to do anything with her voice she was a closeted shower singer and she wasn’t bad at that. The practiced ease of her voice came rather from practiced speech at a young age, cheerleading and manipulating. Her secret singing was just something for her and the one time she had tried to sing in a choir had been disastrously embarrassing. AJ would probably rather die than sing in public again, or no maybe that would be the thoughts of her old self. She would sing rather than die, but she doubted that those would be two choices.
Nodding slightly Addy replied, “That’s right, I’m surprised you knew.” The smile didn’t leave her face, but rather remained in a friendly manner. Part of her response did come from his slow reply, but more from her own doubt. In her mind she was very noticeable lately, and she didn’t really care, but that seemed to catch her a glance, or two.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #5 on Mar 1, 2007, 12:09am »
While he was waiting for her to say something, his eyes were attrached to a small display at the small toy shop. This toy shop looked like all the other toy shops Benji was familiar with. They all had the brightness of the lights, the smiles on the dolls/army men, and even the little children coming out of the store looked as though some of the happiness from the store rubbed off on them when they bought a new toy. It made Benji remember when his brother and him used to long to go to the store for only a few minutes, to get a taste of that. Their father didn't allow it. Instead he dragged them into boring parts of the mall. Places like Mattress King, Borders Book Store, and Jewelry Stores; not that Benji didn't like going there, he loved testing out the mattresses at the store, he loved reading, and he liked looking at the sparkling things in the clear dsplay glass, it was just that he didn't like so much when his father would take them. With his father he couldn't do any of that stuff, always afraid that if he did something wrong by accident his father would go off on him later that day.
Life was rough for him, he couldn't be fun with his dad, fun always ended in pain, at least in the Irving household. So all this freedom Benji had to sneak in sure was making him less and less afraid of his father's punch or beats every once in pain was worth it if he could come out and roam around the city, talkiing to friends and making new friends. It would sooner or later be over for him, only two and a half years left and he would be free from his father both mentally and legally. True that was still a long wait and a lot could happen, but Benji felt ready for anything god throws at him, although he isn't really religious at all.
"I'm surprised you even came over and spoke to me. We've only talked like what? Once or twice." Benji smiled, giving her the friendly smile, one that usually meant, "We need to get to know eachother more to be friends and I'm willing if you are"."Well, not that that's bad or anything." Benji added, nervous as to how she would respond to that.
« Last Edit: Mar 1, 2007, 12:12am by Benji Irving »
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #6 on Mar 1, 2007, 8:54pm »
Seeing Benji looking at the toys AJ gazed into the window and took it in slowly, perhaps delaying her response. In the past it had always been a secret, but she loved kids and wished someday to be a teacher if she could get the education. Sometimes she wanted to find somewhere to volunteer and work with children, but it was hard to find any time. If she wasn’t getting paid for the hours, she wouldn’t be able to put them in. Sometimes she swung by the library and read to the kids instead of the librarian, but that was about all she could manage. Still looking at the few happy kids playing around she smiled softly thinking about it. One of her goals in life was to have kids and raise them with love, so they could do whatever they wanted to.
Though Adelie’s parents hadn’t been that bad in a sense she wasn’t free until she got away. Mentally she had never been able to handle being an east. Sure she had the pep and the manipulation down, but she had never been good at lying, or cruelly turning her back. Sure she did the mean stuff, but she wore her secrets dangerously on her face and had always walked a thin line, waiting to be pushed into social suicide, and maybe even the real thing. When her mother had pushed her into being bound by social status and living like all that mattered in your life was how you ranked it was hard to think that it wasn’t it. Luckily Addy’s mom had never done anything more than drag her out of a room, or slap her. That’s what made her one of the luckier kids in this town really. Loserville was a town of tragedy and pain, but even she still believed their was some happiness. Mainly with friends, the few she had.
Smiling AJ replied, “And why is that? Girls prolly talk to ya all the time.” It wasn’t like Addy didn’t know that she wasn’t talking to people that often, of coarse she did and that was why she took no offence from him stating the facts. She laughed lightly at his add on, “Nah, not a bad thing really, but not really a good thing.” Ever since she was little Adelie said what she wanted whether it was ‘I don’t like you,’ or ‘those pants do make your butt look big’. She was rather blunt so it was odd for her to use this vague way of stating she’d like to talk to him more.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #7 on Mar 2, 2007, 8:40am »
His eyes gained focus back on her, pushing his thoughts away to another time where he could feel depressed, he sure didn't want to feel that way when he was with company. Adelie was probably one of the girl that Benji rarely talked to. She was an east, and Benji was a west, but he really didn't care too much for the whole war between the three main gangs. That wasn't really where he stood, he was a west by birth, but he liked hanging out with whoever he wanted. It never accured to him that he could get in a lot of trouble for assosciating with other gangs because he was the little brother of one of the most popular wests, but Benji didn't really have any room left in his brain to worry about that.
To him she was sweet, she didn't take offense to what he said, it was the truth, Benji hated lying and acting as if they were best friends, because frankly they weren't, which was his fault and her fault. Benji could already feel his charm working already. She probably didn't realize it, but he was, to some extent, flirting with her. That's how he got to know most of the girls, flirting was the easiest way and since every girl and guy are going to do it anyways, Benji didn't try to stop himself. Once she replied, he was sure glad she seemed cool with it, although he couldn't tell if she were lying or not.
A few seconds rolled by before Benji could think of something to respond. Finally he thought of something to say, which if she knew his brother, at least knew who he was, she would understand what he was about to say. As he opened his mouth to speak, he thought quickly to double check if he really wanted to say that. "No, that's more my brother's reputation. He's the one with all the girls." The words spilled out of his mouth before he could finish thinking it over. It must've been triggered by something in his brain that wanted to say that. It didn't sound as good as it did when he was thinking about it sadly. He decided to change the subject. "So, why are you here at the mall this fine day?" He asked, trying to sound all proper, but it wasn't really working for him.
ooc: bad post I know. I was trying my best to make it sound not lameish, and I failed... sorry.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #8 on Mar 2, 2007, 8:15pm »
Most of the time AJ felt alone because of her past. It wasn’t like it was her fault that she was born an east. If she could have been a west she would have. Now that she had switched sides, chosen to be a west not an east things seemed a little wrong. Most easts wouldn’t talk to her because she betrayed them, most wests wouldn’t talk to her because she was once an east. That was how it worked, except for these few exceptions. Those who didn’t care what side of town you came from, or whether you were rich. Most of the time it seemed like those people didn’t exist then you ran into one of them. That was the type of person Addy could like though, those who could accept other people for what they were. Maybe because now her friends had to accept her brother to a certain level. Marc didn’t just like guys, he also liked girls and many people found that too odd to deal with, to the twins it was simple.
In truth it was the fact that Benji didn’t know her that allowed him to wonder if she was lying. Those who had more time to learn who she was would know she almost always told the truth, or skirted around questions. Most of the time she said things that made no sense, but were in a way the answer when she was trying to keep a secret. When it was a blunt lie people just stared at her and she knew they knew she wasn’t speaking the truth. Actually this fact annoyed her to a great deal, and she had no idea what to do, but tell the truth.
If Benji was really flirting with her she didn’t exactly notice. This was mainly because she was still used to guys grabbing her ass and bluntly flirting. All the rest of it seemed like basic conversation at times, though she could play it down, teenagers flirted naturally. “True,” AJ replied before obviously checking him out, “But you’re cuter.” Letting her words fall casually and truthfully she kept the smile on her lips. To her Jared wasn’t all that cute, or appealing and the many fans that flocked him just seemed annoying. His attempt at proper made her grin a smile of pearly whites. “Buying material and killing time,” she answered, “How ‘bout you? Doing anything I’m interrupting?”
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #9 on Mar 3, 2007, 2:14am »
Benji was flabergasted. No one had ever, at least to his face, say that he was cuter. All throughout his life he was compared to his brother, always the not-so-cute or not-so-popular one, and no matter what he did he was still just the other Irving brother. It came to a shock that she thought he was cuter. That was one of things he was compared to. A lot would say that Jared was the cuter, more dateable, brother, and Benji was just the cute, as in baby adoreable, just-a-friend type. It drove him insane. He was completely shocked what she had said, he had no idea what to say. He wasn't sure whether to compliment her back, or just be quiet. She was very pretty, and Benji could tell, physically, she had a lot of positive aspects about herself, but Benji didn't judge too quickly on meeting a person. Sometimes the ugliest person could be his soul mate; it wouldn't matter to him, since he was convinced all through school he was just uglier.
It was hard, keeping in his feelings towards things. But Benji mastered most of the technique. No one can remember a time when he just busted up crying, or any negative comments about himself. Benji normally kept his bad aspects on the down low. Probably the only person who has witnessed him cry was the Tucker family, mainly Piper. Not all the Tucker family, just a few close ones to Benji. Aside from Jared and Cody, they stuck with him to let him get all his bottled anger out, never once asking him why he was crying. In his life he had many negative things happen to him, it was a rare occasion he was either surprised and happy about what someone said.
"Oh, you know. Killing the time as well. I need a new pair of shoes..." Benji replied. "But don't worry, I've got all day to find a good pair of shoes, I'm in no rush at all." He looked at his shoes, disappointed he had to point them out, they were so clashy with the rest of his outfit it was almost embarrassing. It was a big pet peeve of his that when he was hanging out with a really cute, attractive girl, that he couldn't wear or say anything that was either dorky, lame, ugly, or clashy; and he was definitely clashing with the shoes on. Going to the mall Benji never thought he had to dress up, he didn't even think about all the people who came to the mall. As he was standing there he couldn't help but feel also embarrassed by his shoes and trashy clothes. Not that they were very bad, Benji liked looking good, he didn't want to look bad and know he looks bad, and hear someone say he was cute, because then he knew they were lying. When she said it it didn't sound so fake, maybe they weren't bad and Benji was overexaggerating a bit, but he does that a lot.
Re: Mall Flower (Open) « Reply #10 on Mar 4, 2007, 4:38pm »
When it came o complimenting other people Adelie told the truth and complemented what was there. If she believed a person was cute, or handsome she said so. Jared was good looking for sure, but what did that really mean? And if you looked at Jared, really looked, there was something off about his appearance in AJ’s eyes that made her think he wasn’t that good to look at. Benji on the other hand was cute, in that eye catching way. If he had faults she didn’t see them, though normally it was easy to catch them. Everything about him seemed to work perfectly. Perhaps it was because his dark hair brought out his light eyes and drew her to look right into his face. She liked the way he looked, his old clothes and beat up shoes included.
“Ah, shoe shopping, fun.” Addy did indeed like to shop for shoes and other things, but of late she was painfully aware of three things. One was that she couldn’t actually afford it, two that she had very picky feet and three that if the shoe doesn’t fit you don’t buy it no matter how cute it is. It was all about the comfortable shoes these days, but AJ would never forget the feel of heels. Walking with a strut like you owned the world and dealing with the pain of the sharp toe at the end of the day. It was odd to wonder if it had been worth it and she imagined it was in a way, but her beat up runners had and would always be the best pair in her closet.
When he mentioned it AJ let her eyes fall with his to the shoes on his feet. They looked old and well worn, but that was what she found good about them. The sneakers on her feet only looked decent because they weren’t her favourite ones. All the stuff that looked decent was either a new, reworked recently, or something she saved. Those saved things were the things that she had left from her old life that she wore on occasion and saved as special items. The things she wore every chance she could and were frayed to oblivion were the ones she cherished and loved. The jeans with more patches than denim, the shirt that had once been black, but looked more white. Those casual clothes she wore at home, or with good friends when she really couldn’t care less. Those were the clothes with the best memories and the best times.
Picking up the sent of fries AJ looked at the passing container. It hadn’t been that long since the last time she had had fries. In her mind she was fighting out the craving a moment before she gave in. “Damn it, now I need fries,” she said in a rather happy tone, “Want to go grab something to eat?”
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