Deluge

[Alex Speare]

Alex stood by the large window of the front of the shop, glaring out at passers by with their colourful umbrella's and rain streaked faces.
It was July, for God's sake. And it was raining. Not just raining, but pouring. It was a bloody deluge.
July and rain don't go together. July and sun go together. November and rain go together well enough. July and rain do not. Alex hated it when things didn't mesh in a sensible order, it threw him off balance.
An Alex thrown off balance was not a happy Alex.

Pressing his palm moodily to the ice cold glass of the window, he wondered if he should just leave. He'd been standing in this exact spot in the queue for a good five minutes and no one had moved forward.
In front of him was a fair few people, the ones that drew his attention most were the man in the suit from four decades ago, a couple of kids that looked about his sisters age who kept glancing around furtively, a pretty girl with long legs - or at least she looked pretty from the back, and a woman at the very front of the queue who was trying to control her two unruly children.
Alex accepted no responsibility for that, and would profusely deny that he'd been pulling faces at them behind her back since he came in and joined the queue if he was confronted about it.

No. Can't leave.
He thought about it long and hard, before nodding slightly as he came to the conclusion, earning himself an odd look from the man in the suit.
Too hungry.
He didn't really have the means to cook for himself in his apartment. Or the skill. He tended to sort of...burn things rather than cook them. And plus he didn't own an oven, or a microwave, or a fridge. He did have a cupboard and in that cupboard was bread, but he was sick of a diet of bread alone.
His other alternative did not bear thinking about...he'd suffered around nineteen or twenty years of his parents abysmal cooking...he would not just drop in for dinner or anything. That might just kill him.
No, it'd have to be take-out. Take-out that didn't happen to be worth standing in the line for this long for. Take-out that would get soggy and disgusting on the long walk back to his apartment.

He should have brought a jacket, but it hadn't been raining when he left. It'd been sort of overcast, but not raining. He would also get soggy and disgusting on the long walk back to his apartment.
Tearing his gaze away from the window, he half shifted round to look at the hand-written adverts tacked up to the wall.
Piano for sale...Yoga classes...Daycare...Yard Sale...Chesil Academy Prom...
No, nothing of remote interest.

Letting out a long long sigh, he quickly muffled an amused snicker as the exhaled air ruffled the hair of the person in front of him.
Apparently, the rain hadn't thrown him off balance too much, if he was still able to find amusement in such trivial immature things. Maybe he just wouldn't look at the rain from now on. Then it would all work out.

[Jessica Boleyn]

"Your trying to poison me!" That was the response she had gotten when she set dinner on the table. Rolling her eyes, Jessica tugged her jacket closer around herself as she kept her pace heading towards Top Wok. Her response had been less the dignified. "Fine, eat crap then." She had to stifle a laugh at the thought, which earned her a few looks from the bystanders.
She quickly brushed it off as pretending to be covering her mouth for a sneeze. She always brought attention to herself somehow.
Maybe walking around in a bright red coat wasn't her best idea.

Tilting her head back, she squints her right eye as a drop of water fell into it. Of course, rain. What luck. Some summer this was turning out to be. She had yet to get a tan due to all the rain they were getting. Slipping her hands into her pockets, Jessica lets her fingers curl around the twenty Rory had thrown at her when she refused to cook anything else.
She had to feed her siblings, and it was just another night of take out. It wasn't even good take out either, it smelled liked dead cat and she could have sworn it had moved last time.

She hurried her pace a bit, she wasn't in favour for her hair frizzing. It seemed like she wasn't the only one in a hurry to get out of the rain. She just managed to take a step back as a biker rushed past her.
Letting out an annoyed groan, she wiped the water off her jacket. So much for saying dry.
And so much for paying attention.

Turning around, she slammed into someone. "Oops," She murmurs, taking a quick step back, only resulting in her foot getting caught and stumbling back a bit. At least I didn't fall. Jessica thinks thankfully, but winces slightly as she tries to get her balance back. "Ow,"

[Alex Speare]

Not looking out at the rain was apparently harder than it seemed. It kept drawing his eye. It was really quite pretty. He loved the rain and he loved the cold, just not when it was in the wrong season.
After an admirable attempt at not looking at it, he couldn't resist any longer and turned back to the window, pressing his hand back against it.

He really liked umbrella's. It was one of the things he enjoyed about rain and cold and things. Umbrella's. They were so bold and simple and in such pretty colours and patterns.
He particularly liked child's umbrella's...the ones with little flaps of material stuck on the top with eye drawn on them, usually in green or something, so the umbrella vaguely resembled a frog.
Janie had one of those once. He wasn't sure if she still had it or not.

He also liked jackets. He liked his jacket. It was green, khaki green so it wasn't too garish, and it was light so he didn't get too warm because he wore lots of layers. But it was also dry, and it kept him dry. And at the moment it was hanging from the curtain rail in his apartment and doing him no good what so ever.
He also liked that woman's jacket. He didn't like the fact that she'd just got splashed by a speeding biker, but it was a nice red coat. Like all the bold umbrella's. It made for something to look at and he liked that.

A crack of thunder outside made the window shake slightly against his palm, and then the shop was rapidly plunged into darkness.
He glanced up stupidly for a moment, as if staring at the lights would make them flicker on, then decided that he really couldn't stare down a power cut.
Now there really was no point in waiting. Now he would have to decide between his parents cooking, or bread.
Bread....hell, cardboard would be more edible...
Bread it is then.

Heading towards the exit, he reached the door first and grinned triumphantly. It was as he was turning round to stick his tongue out one last time at the hyper unruly kids, that he slammed straight into someone.
He instantly stepped sideways, as a reflex, and had to bite his tongue to swallow the other reflex of telling her to watch where she was going because sometimes when he said that to strangers they thought he was being rude rather than just messing around.
"Hey! Little red riding hood!"
He clapped a hand over his mouth near immediately at this brief little outburst as he realised he'd walked straight into red coat herself. Then he realised he'd knocked her back and wished he wasn't such an oaf.
"Whoops," He supplied lamely.

[Jessica Boleyn]

Pushing a now wet lock of hair out of her face, Jessica glances up, realizing that she slammed into someone.
What else would you slam into? A chicken?
She frowned slightly at the voice in her head, it was never nice to her. It use to be, back when she was little. Then she just..-grew up and the voice just started bitching at her.
A lot like mum.

Jessica grins weakly,"Think that's what I said, just minus the w and h,"
She winced slightly as she tried to take a step forward. That was a sign something was damaged. Or at least slightly bruised.
It was second nature nowadays. Jessica was 'an accident waiting to happen' at least, that's what Dean use to say.
Clumsy was an understatement, Jessica would admit much.
"Uhm, you don't have the time do you?" She asked, her Scottish accent coming through. She had said the dinner run would take at least twenty minutes. She had an impatient three year old at home, Rory could only last so long.

[Alex Speare]

A small frown tugged insistently at his brow, instantly glancing down at her feet.
He didn't really have the sense to just glance at it briefly and then back at her. Of course, sense had always eluded him. He didn't like sense in all it's sensible ways, and anyway...didn't it make sense to just stare at the problem until it went away rather than glancing at it and then pretending that it didn't happen?
...Probably not.
His inner voice often took on the form of his little sisters, especially when it used that condescending tone to try and steer him in the right direction. That's what Abby did.

"Did I do that?" He glanced back up at her, with a sort of apologetic grimace, indicating down at the injured extremity in question.
So...he wasn't a pacifist and he certainly didn't believe in non-violent negotiation...but he really didn't like hurting people if he could possibly avoid it. If he'd been paying attention he could have not walked into her, or phased through her, or something. But because he was a clumsy oaf, he'd injured little red riding hood.
He had a fleeting urge to laugh but suppressed it well.

"Time? No, no time. Sorry."
Alex and time didn't really get along. Nor did Alex and numbers, so time was really out of the question. He didn't own watches or clocks, instead preferring to either ask the person he was with what the time was every five seconds, or just going without knowing.
His family was pretty used to it. It wasn't out of the ordinary for Alex to be told to meet whoever at the house just before the sun went down, rather than a specific hour.

"I like your accent. And your coat. Do you have an umbrella? Because, really, that would be ridiculously cool."
Usually he had more social grace than that but he felt that he should say something at least complimentary after injuring her, and whereas usually he might keep this sort of comment in when it sprung to mind, he deemed it appropriate today.

[Jessica Boleyn]

The looks they were starting to get wasn't anything new for Jessica. She didn't understand why people stared, was there something odd about standing around and talking to someone?
If so, she didn't see it. Then again Jessica had always been a naive.

"It's fine," She manages a reassuring smile, pushing her hood back off her hair. A little rain wouldn't do her any harm, alright well maybe her hair would expand to the size of a soccer ball, but she would live. "Least it's still attached to me,"

"Ah well," She murmurs, pushing her hair back off her forehead. "Never been one for being on time anyways, I'm sure Rory can hold off a bit longer."
She doubted that. Rory had the attention span of a gnat, hell three year old Dakota's attention was better.

Jessica smiled slightly, she had always been proud of her Scottish heritage. Everyone in her family had the accent, even if they hadn't been in Scotland for a few years. Last she heard that's where Luke had last been seen. "Thank you," She glanced down briefly at her bright red coat. She had never really realized it before, but it certainly was..well red. "Sorry to disappoint, no umbrella." She grinned weakly, holding her hand out to him,"I'm Jessica."

[Alex Speare]

"Why are people looking at us?" Alex glanced up again from her injured foot to quickly survey the street, then his face relaxed back into a grin as he looked back at her, "What have you done?"
He knew that usually the reason people would be staring at him would be because he'd done something stupid, spoken too loudly, or...something. He was used to him doing something that inadvertently resulted in public attention. Not this time though.

"Well, you better watch out," He nodded seriously down at her foot, "It might swell up to the size of...a hot air balloon, and then it'll fall off, or maybe just hang by a thread of sinew or something," He shook his head gravely, "I've seen it before."
He'd seen no such thing. At college, in the real world, he'd studied physical education, and as a result he'd also had to do theory lessons, so he knew a little about injuries, and he'd seen a few graphic images of really nasty injuries...which naturally, he'd just found really cool. Just like he thought everything else was really cool.

"Punctuality is very overrated," He agreed, "But I do reckon you should hurry along if you have people waiting on you."
He was slightly reluctant to say this, but he managed admirably with sincerity. He liked to find people to speak to, even if it was raining, because he didn't often find people to talk to that weren't blood related to him. He was much too old to hang around in his parents house like he used to, so he relied heavily on his collection of one-time female contacts and meetings with strangers.

"I recommend investing in one. Very useful," He tilted his head upwards at the still heavily falling rain, "Especially on days such as these."
Then he grinned as she held her hand out to him, clasping her hand in return, "Pleasure Jessica. Lovely name. I'm Alex."
That was definitely an 'in', if he looked at it objectively.

[Jessica Boleyn]

Jessica grinned wryly, holding her hands up in a gesture of surrender."I'm innocent, I've done nothing." She had always been the 'good girl', she never really looked for trouble. "I think people just have staring problems,"

She turned her attention back to her foot, gulping dramatically,"Well I wouldn't want that to happen, I like my foot where it is," She grinned slightly, she was going to have to tell that story to Dakota when she got the chance. He had been wanting a new bed time story lately.

She brushed her hair back off her shoulder, shaking her head."Nah it's fine. Just my brother, I'm sure he'll be fine. Two kids can't cause too much trouble." She laughed lightly, she knew she was wrong there. Madison and Dakota could be a handful. "I think I should get one of those watch things everyone keeps talking about, I hear they come in handy."

Jessica nodded, tilting her head back at bit to look at the sky. It didn't look like the clouds were going anywhere."Aye," She agreed,"An umbrella would come in handy right about now," She shook his hand before slipping her own into her pockets."Right back at you,"