"So, um..." She said, when we sat down to eat. "Nukey, can I move in with you?"
"Wait..." I said, blinking. "What?"
"Well," she continued, staring directly down into her drink, "I like being with Nukey and he's fun, he's smart, and he's nice to me."
The waiter came to ask for our orders, cutting off my reply at the first syllable. I settled for burying my nose in the menu while she ordered. I also ordered quickly, and waiting until he was well out of earshot. "I was in a car wreck once," I answered slowly, making sure the words came out in the right order. "The other driver was a young guy, probably just eighteen by a day or two, and was on his cell phone. Smashed the back of my car pretty good. It was on the paneling in the back, so it spun me a little. He was making a turn on a red, and ended up clipping me. He got out, and was waiting at the door while I sat there, dazed. Not from the wreck, I was just so jarred out of my routine that nothing was clicking. Whatever brainpower I had at the moment just wasn't connecting. It took me about two minutes of him rapping on the window before I realized I was holding up traffic. We got off to the side of the road and sorted out insurance information...
"But more to the point of the story, I feel a bit like I did then. That question, you're saying words, but the meaning isn't lining up. I'm sitting here trying to make sense of a sensible sentence without any sense of my own to rely on. Uh... Move in? I'm not even sure my apartment has enough room for that kind of thing. Before you answer, I'm not saying no or yes, but rather 'not right now.' I have about as much stability as a drunk six minutes after last call."
"But-" She began.
I interrupted. "I need a walk." I got up and walking away. It wasn't until I was a fifteen minute walk away from the restaurant before I realized I had passed the waiter bringing out my food, much less have it paid for. I ended up in the park again, my apparent go-to spot for weird moods that never seemed to go away. I did a circuit of the park, and found no benches open. I eventually decided on the least crowded one, with a blond woman sitting on the far side reading. I settled on the opposite side, and let my head loll backward.
The woman, a hint of foreign in her voice, sounded amused. "It's never easy with you, is it? Though I don't think the restaurant appreciated dashing before dining."
"It happens sometimes. I'll go back and pay be- Wait..."
She peered over her book at me. It was hard to see her eyes through the sunglasses, but the body language was clear enough.
I frowned, "I think I've seen you, maybe, but I can't remember your name."
"Empireth," she supplied, turning back to her book. "Though recognizing me doesn't exactly help the restaurant make its bills."
"Or help me understand how you know about that. I thought only the mods had stalkers."
She sniffed, still absorbed in her book. "Stalker? I'm not sure that word is completely correct."
"Says the woman who knows my past thirty-odd minutes."
"I prefer observer." She answered, finally setting the book down. "It's harder not to see you sometimes. You're rather... iconic."
"Good to know my daily dramas have a viewership. Aren't mistakes better left out of the public eye?"
"Better? Maybe. Are they? No."
I pointed at the book, frowning. "Just as well that you're not reading Teen Magazine, or somesuch."
She smiled in reply, "How do you know it's not a book about you?"
"Because no one would willingly read a story about me."
She laughed at me, which made me quite angry. "You'd be surprised."
"I've had enough surprises for one day." I said, heat spilling out of my voice. Which made it crack, which made me more angry. Clearly didn't have the same effect on her, seeing as she started smiling again, probably hiding a laugh. It pissed me off even more. I managed, just barely, not to tell her where she could shove the book. I turned and walked until I was out of the park.
Then I started running. The thunder in the distance reminded me that rain was coming. I had heard as much on the news, but I was hoping it was incorrect. I continued running, realizing I was on my way to the coffee shop. It was closer than my apartment, and better shelter for rain. Although, if it was a thunderstorm on the horizon, it probably wouldn't have made a difference, one way or the other. Still, I kept my bearing and ran as hard as my legs would carry me. I got as far as the restaurant I had left before the light drizzle had started. I turned inside, determined to pay my bill, and flagged the head-waiter. He scowled at me, and demanded to know what I wanted. I told him I was sorry about the mix-up, and I offered him a few crumpled bills. He reminded me that the woman had paid, and that it was unnecessary. I left them on the counter anyway, feeling the sweat bead up under my suit.
There was still quite a run to go to just the coffee shop, and the rain was already noticably more nasty than it had been in a long time. Just as well, seeing as the area had been in drought.
I ran through the rain toward the coffeeshop when I was blocked by a car turning into an alley. The voice from the part spoke through the opening window. "Look, Nuke, I think we got off on the wrong foot."
"Empireth," I answered, "we may very well have."
"Let me make it up to you," she said, frowning.
The rain was coming down in buckets, and I could hardly see into the middle distance. It was way too hard to be a normal shower, and definitely too hard to be standing out in the rain chatting. "How?"
"Where are you going, I'll give you a ride."
"Thanks," I answered, glaring at the sheets of blond hair in the car. The interior looked nice, and warm. Wood paneling and leather. "But no thanks."
"This weather isn't good for pedestrians," she said, pointedly. "Don't be stubborn."
"I'll be fine," I snapped, feeling the torrential rain get worse and worse. "Now get out of my way. The longer you sit here, the longer I'm out here in this."
She leveled her gaze at me, unmoving. "I'm not budging on this, now get in the car."
"No." I shot back, unable to contain the rage in my voice. "I've had enough of today. I've had enough of this, of the rain, and all the damned drama. Enough is too much. Get. Out. Of. My. Way."
Her jaw set. "No."
"That's it," I said, nerves seething enough to metaphorically boil the rain landing on my jacket. This is was good suit, too. "I've had enough, I'm leaving."
"Nuke," she yelled, reaching for me as I stepped around the car. "Don't!"
I glared, "Stay away from me!"
"You idiot," she said, simply. Stated as a fact, not an opinion or an emotion. Which just served to piss me off even more.
The rain was getting worse, to the point where visibility was completely limited to mist, the vague shape up headlights, and blackness. Despite being mid-day, it was impossible to see at all. I fought against the sheets of falling water, and felt water striking my face faster than I could wipe it off. I ran, barely keeping track of either my footing or where in town I was. It was too thick to see across the street, and I could hear very little between the grumbling thunder above.
I couldn't hardly breathe by the time I made it to the coffeeshop. The street was barren, wind whipping overhangs and overturning trashcans. I looked across the street, barely able to make out the light of the cafe through the rain, even in such little distance.
Thinking back, though the day should have been a good one, it had single-handedly defeated me. I was able to take no more thinking, no more processing, no more anything. All the stress that had gathered before my country vacation coalesced into a headache that rammed my sinuses. I got really dizzy, and my stomach threatened to retch. The rain was the worst I'd ever seen it, and didn't seem to be letting up. The only respite I could even remotely hope for was inside the cafe. I stepped into the street, water lashing into the asphalt with almighty rage. The wind picked up, lancing against my body. I rocked on my heel, but recovered my footing, and pushed. The wind fought back, and I found myself leaning completely forward, jacket whipping out behind me as I pushed ahead. The cafe was coming into sharper relief now. I could see the gentle warmth of the cool browns and light reds. It was an inviting look, made all the more pleasant by the glowing orange of lights. I had been far too long out here in the dark.
The rain whipped again, and I continued fighting the wind. I saw a shadow flicker in the door, and it burst open, a roar of air pressure tearing into the air as it opened. Puppet screamed to me, and I heard sounds of horror from inside the coffee shop. Tires screeched, then my world changed, violently ripping sideways. I was distinctly aware of a numb feeling in my legs, and then the ground appeared far below me. Buildings rushed sideways, concrete spun in colors of dark gray and blue, and I felt something akin to an explosion go off inside my head. I couldn't feel the rain anymore, though I must've been laying in it.
Red, blotchy and ugly, fanned out around me. God, what a mess. I didn't envy the guy that would have to clean this up. I couldn't move my neck, but what I saw was bone fragments. Skin lay unattached on the floor. My bone and skin, I guessed. Mother nature roared above, and I realized just how cold it was without all the blood inside of me. I started crying, I guess, my throat burning and my body feeling detached. I heard footsteps, and felt distant fingers gripping me. They burned on my too cold skin. I couldn't speak, my throat closed up as it was. My eyes were having difficulty staying open.
"Oh God no," said the fingers, very literally squeezing what life of me was left. "No, Nuke, no!"
I couldn't hear Puppet over me anymore. Maybe Aeryn, maybe Neesa, maybe LaCoil, maybe Empireth. Who knows? It might've even been Erana.
I mean, here it was, a day where some dumbass can run over a pedestrian in the middle of a rainstorm. Clearly it was too unsafe to be outside, much less driving. Yet, here we are, witnessing yet another god damned statistic in action. I choked on a gasp of air, and felt a whole lot of nothing close around me. A damned car accident. No society should work like this one does.
