Anna Sophia Bennett
Student
Bank Account[M:1000]
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic? Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Posts: 427
|
Post by Anna Sophia Bennett on Apr 7, 2007 0:56:47 GMT 7
Because now, The time has come for your devotion And you already got a notion Of what I need So give it, just give it, Just give it to me Adorned in a black sweater, dark blue jeans, and a pink-and-black block scarf, Anna walked through the electronic department of Sears. There was a beat in her step, rhythmic enough to give away the fact she was listening to music. Her blonde hair fell down past her shoulders, sheltering the tiny earphones that spilled the sound of Cobra Starship into her mind. Just barely exposed beneath the cover of her sweater was the silver iPod clipped to her belt-loop on her jeans. You're willing, I'm waiting. Turn out the lights She slowed her stride as she approached the electronic section, her pale blue eyes gazing longingly at digital cameras. Anna loved photography: it was possibly more intriguing to her than running. With music pumping in her ear, she stepped closer to the stand, admiring a Fujifilm 9.0MP. Anna didn't have the first clue on how to buy a camera. She didn't know what to look for or what features were important. A point-and-click was the safest thing for her - she couldn't mess those up. Even so, as she stood admiring the camera, she couldn't help but wish she had extra money to purchase something so extravagant.
|
|
|
Post by Charles Landen on Apr 7, 2007 2:12:11 GMT 7
He needed a new refrigerator. And as strongly as New Jersey thought that it was the ideal place to purchase kitchen appliances -- it really wasn't. New Jersey wasn't ideal for anything. It wasn't ideal for a blossoming career life, it wasn't ideal for receiving a higher education despite your idyllic array of options, it wasn't ideal for raising a family, and it certainly wasn't ideal for purchasing something as tantamount to living as a refrigerator. If you're going to purchase a fridge and you're within a reasonable forty/forty-five minute range of a major city or borough (namely Manhattan) you might as well seize the day and take a little road trip because you're not going to find anything high quality in New Jersey. It means well, it really does, but let's face it. When God created Poland it was an oops. When god created New Jersey it was a big fuck-up. Or maybe it's the other way around. Whatever the case, New Jersey (and while we're at it, Michigan) and Poland are the same plane and it's not a great one.
The second thing about purchasing refrigerators is that you can't just go anywhere. You might have made it to New York from New Jersey, but that didn't mean you could just swing into Brands*Mart USA and you were set. Did they even sell kitchen appliances? Of course they do, they're Brands*Mart USA and they sell every halfassed, generic brand known to man. You needed to go to a place that was customized and personal. A place where you were going to find the refrigerator just for you. That'd fit the space you have available, that wouldn't be a waste of space and that would have enough space for whatever you happened to like to keep in your fridge -- it wasn't an "in and out" procedure. What was more important than a fridge? Exactly.
The third, and by far most important thing about purchasing fridges is that...He should have gone to IKEA. That said, Sears didn't have a bad selection. But maybe an Energisk B18 W would have been a better choice. It had to be, right? It was Northern European. They did everything better. They were catchier, sleeker, they were the Macs of the world. That Sweden, Scandinavia, Norway triumverate. They knew how to rock furniture, kitchen appliances, and pretty much everything pretty well. Not so much Finland, they were pretty bland. But Sweden, Norway, and Scandinavia they really knew what they were doing. Them and the Japanese.
He stopped in midstep. He was going to take a look at the electronic's section. Televisions, he had one. And he had a better television than Sears could offer. Cell phones, he could use a replacement but there was the Apple iPhone to anticipate. Cameras. You know what, he could use a new camera. Not that he really took pictures (or really had anything to take pictures of), but hey, everyone needs a camera.
"Fujifilm is pretty lowend. Nikon's really the best camera on the market."
|
|
Anna Sophia Bennett
Student
Bank Account[M:1000]
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic? Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Posts: 427
|
Post by Anna Sophia Bennett on Apr 7, 2007 2:41:28 GMT 7
Tonight I am the drug you can't deny Tonight G-A-B-E gonna get you high My light is electric My light is electric, yeah My light is electric My light is electric, yeah Anna was vaguely aware of a sound that didn't match the Cobra Starship song on her iPod. Of course, unless the band decided to add in a random male voice since she last played the song. 'Unlikely' was the subconcious answer.
Turning her head, the teenager saw a man standing beside her. He was the only one around, making the assumption quite clear that he must have said something. He must have been the voice she heard through the beats in her eardrum. Reaching up with slender fingers, Anna pulled out her earphones and let them dangle across her sweater. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" Her tone was inquiring, not at all offensive or rude. Her pale eyes watched him beneath raised, anticipating eyebrows.
The more she looked at the man, the more she began to feel like she should recognize him. Shifting her weight to one foot and furrowing her brows, she tilted her chin. "Do you go to Rutherford?" she asked. "You look familiar," she explained with a small shrug. Although she could not place him off the top of her head, Anna knew she had met this man before. He had a unique appearance and his voice - or what she had heard of it - rang a bell.
|
|
|
Post by Charles Landen on Apr 7, 2007 4:26:18 GMT 7
"I said that Nikon's really the camera on the market."
He picked up the camera she had been looking at, and examined it. Not that he knew a whole lot about cameras himself, but after a few years of reading various Forbes top 100 lists... Wait a minute. Didn't this girl run into him once?
Like, literally, just slam into him? Who was this? What was her name...what was her name...Maybe they hadn't exchanged names. He knew her, she had definitely walked into him once. This was the clutzy girl. Right! Right, that's what he had started calling her. The clutzy girl. She'd walked into him on his way to an economics class.
"Yeah, I do."
|
|
Anna Sophia Bennett
Student
Bank Account[M:1000]
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic? Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Posts: 427
|
Post by Anna Sophia Bennett on Apr 7, 2007 7:07:03 GMT 7
"Oh," she said, turning her blue eyes once more to the camera in front of her. He picked it up and looked at it. Her eyes followed, tracing over the camera like she knew something about it. She didn't, of course, but that didn't keep her from admiring it all the same.
He confirmed her thoughts. He was a student at Rutherford. Anna's mouth dropped slightly and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. She had placed him, just like that. "I ran into you, didn't I?" Her tone almost made it seem as though she was in awe. She quickly closed her mouth, biting her lower lip and looking at him apologetically. "I'm sorry," she murmured, a look of discomfort on her small face. Even though Anna had apologized when it happened, she carried guilt around for what seemed like ages.
|
|
|
Post by Charles Landen on Apr 7, 2007 7:55:06 GMT 7
"Yeah, you did," he said in that blunt, nasally tone. The same tone he took on saying essentially everything with the exception of witticisms and jokes not stolen from The Office. Both, respectively were pretty rare thus his lispy, plain spoken expression pretty much went on ad nauseum. Not that he had much control under the fact he had a lisp and his voice was nasally, but he could have done something about his complete and utter lack of personality. He put the camera down, her countenance coming to his attention.
He placed his hand on her arm, as a sort unsaid acception of apology. But you should always play it safe, his hand returning to his pocket.
"But it's okay--it's okay."
|
|
Anna Sophia Bennett
Student
Bank Account[M:1000]
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic? Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Posts: 427
|
Post by Anna Sophia Bennett on Apr 7, 2007 8:53:54 GMT 7
Anna's face felt even more flushed when he simply agreed with her. She shifted her weight once more, nibbling her lower lip as she waited in the awkward silence that followed. How do you respond to something that simple? She hadn't meant to run into him - her music was playing and she was in much to giddy a mood to pay attention to where her feet were taking her. It was her fault, yes, but from the way he agreed it might have sounded like she had committed a crime.
He placed his hand on her arm and instantly her eyebrows went up. She turned her attention from the ground and her shoes to his hand, sitting so awkwardly on her small arm. When he seemed to forgive her, Anna contemplated patting his hand. It would seem equally strange and maybe warrant a less odd atmosphere. Or, it would just make it worse. Either way, he removed his hand before she could decide which option was less hazardous.
"Um..." she hesitated, clearing her throat and nodding slowly, a thoughtful frown remaining on her features. "Thank you." It was likely the wrong reaction, but Anna was beginning to find this man very peculiar. A very strange man. She hesitated, not sure else to say to clear the air. "Are you buying a camera?" she asked, doing her best to sound social when she wasn't sure what else to do.
|
|
|
Post by Charles Landen on Apr 7, 2007 9:11:10 GMT 7
"Yeah, maybe. I don't really know how I feel about these cameras," he tapped the Fuji again as if to test its durability, "Originally, I came in here to buy a fridge."
This girl was so awkward. Maybe it was him who was socially awkward. Or maybe it was the disasterous combination of them both being inept, at least as far as handling this situation. She was more than likely a freshman and a good five years his junior but she was so...Her decorum was so ninth grade. Lost and confused.
Or, no, maybe it was eighth grade. Eighth grade seemed to fit the bill. Ninth and tenth grade were usually "Let's find myself and thus become a feminazi", right? Stupid, loud, bitchy and obnoxious behavior decorated with incessant complaints about male patriarchy. She, on the other hand, was timid and appeared to be pretty offset by his (more than likely off color) behavior. Her demeanor was definitely eighth grade. Shy, quiet, overly apologetic...On the other hand, maybe she was seventh grade. Whatever grade she was personifying, it was in middle school.
He glanced around the store.
"What about you?"
|
|
Anna Sophia Bennett
Student
Bank Account[M:1000]
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic? Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Posts: 427
|
Post by Anna Sophia Bennett on Apr 7, 2007 11:43:08 GMT 7
She watched him tap the camera, a fading puzzled expression lingering on her delicate features. disappeared almost completely when he mentioned purchasing a fridge. "Oh, are you moving into a new apartment?" It was a quick assumption, but Anna didn't stop to contemplate the other options before she spoke. She was innocent and ignorant, at best.
Anna lifted the bottom of her sweater just enough to expose the silver iPod and turn it off. She didn't want to take a chance of it shutting off in the subway. Although not quite paranoid, Anna preferred to have something to do instead of just sitting on the train, waiting for the inevitable. Music soothed that boredom and kept her from socializing with potential "serial killers" - as her mother liked to call strangers in New York.
She shook her head when he reciprocated the question. "I couldn't afford that," she said with a more relaxed smile. Living on a budget, unlike most of her friends, Anna found herself lusting much more than she probably should. She lived with what she had and when she needed anything she couldn't afford, she had two choices: wait and save, or ask her parents. Anna had never really known the financial freedom so many Rutherford students had.
"I'm just passing time, really," she said with a small shrug. "Class ended early and I didn't feel like running, so I came downtown. Although," she added with a friendlier smile and twinkle in her pale blue eyes, "It's almost just as boring here alone than being crammed in my dorm."
|
|
|
Post by Charles Landen on Apr 7, 2007 12:52:44 GMT 7
"As a matter of fact...I am not...I've lived there for a little while. Four or five years awhile."
What posessed him to go out and purchase a new fridge was paranoia. Paranoia and an obsession with having the most ubiquitous apartment known to New Jersey. In a shocking turn of events, moreso the former than the latter. He had this inherent fear that his fridge would lead to some sort of mass destruction in his perfectly structed apartment. It was something that he thought was bound to happen. He didn't know when, he didn't know how, but it was bound to happen. He replaced his fridge once every two years and he replaced his stove just as often. He'd rather spend the six-hundred dollars getting it replaced then risk it. He'd been losing sleep over it, so he thought he might as well. It never hurt to get new things.
"Are you a freshman by anychance?"
Someone had told him once that he was going to be immortalized at thirty but was eternally a freshman. He was never quite sure what that meant until he met Anna. He was pretty sure that she was the poster child for that. There was still something paradoxal about that statement, but Anna pretty much fit the bill for that statement. Half of it at least. She was so mind-numblingly innocent. Like a freshman. Well, in his opinion more like an eighth or seventh grader, but rolling with the stereotype. It wasn't anything that she had said, just the way she carried herself. She had the naivete of a Mormon. Assuming they were all like Donny Osmond, and Donny Osmond was as squeaky clean as he portrayed himself to be.
"You know, because I thought you might be."
|
|
Anna Sophia Bennett
Student
Bank Account[M:1000]
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic? Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Posts: 427
|
Post by Anna Sophia Bennett on Apr 7, 2007 23:15:34 GMT 7
"Oh, wow." Five years was not that extravagant, but it made up a quarter of Anna's short years. Five years ago she was only fourteen - her mind had not even dappled in college or moving away from home. Five years, to her, was a long time.
"Is there something wrong with your fridge?" she inquired, her eyes curious despite the seemingly dull topic of choice. She didn't normally talk about fridges, or any home appliance, with anyone. Ever. Anna didn't even know the first thing about what to look for when you decided to buy something that important. The most important thing she had purchased in the past eight months was a new hairdryer.
She cocked her head to one side, tilting her chin upwards just enough to evoke a curious expression. "I am," she said after a moment. Wondering how he knew, she asked, "Is it obvious?" It wouldn't really bother her if he said yes. She knew she wasn't as bold or striking as some other freshman. She looked young and she had the persona of innocence. After awhile, Anna had simply come to terms with it.
"What grade are you?"
|
|
|
Post by Charles Landen on Apr 8, 2007 5:49:51 GMT 7
"Sort of. There's something wrong with it sort of."
Sort of was code for: 'not really, no'.
"I'm a senior. I don't really think of myself as a student anymore though."
There comes a time when you let go of school and shoot off into adulthood. There's a certain youthfulness attached to being a student, a student of anything. You're in school. You're still under guidance. Graduation was a mere few steps away, he was as much of a student now as he was in his senior year of high school.
It wasn't so much as he didn't like thinking of himself that way, as the title itself was beginning to melt away. It was the same concept of thinking of yourself as a child. There comes a point in time when you're no longer a child, really, and you and everyone around you sees it. Well, that and he was a temp at an office. It was a tier under having an actual career. He thought of himself more as a budding business man than anything else.
|
|