(elsie) tidal waves & hurricanes

[mel5]

Brodie Hirsch was in a right foul mood.
At twenty-five, the California born roustabout had little to do with his life than roll around and drink booze. Because of this, he was obnoxiously intolerant to the stuff. Despite guzzling an inordinate amount of whisky this evening, he still felt dismally level-headed. Still, he'd decided to take the bus. No use tempting driving with that amount of liquor in his belly.
Stretching lazily on the cushioned bench seat, he tried to find a comfortable way to position his girth. Despite both of his parents be no taller than 5'7'' or so, he managed to tower over them by a good half foot or more. Family photos always tended to look odd whenever Brodie was featured.

He glanced at the small, cheap watch he had on his wrist. It was nearing eleven o'clock at night, and it had just begun to pour outside. The windows of the bus were obscured with the heavy, almost threatening rain. The bus was physically shifting with the wind, and he couldn't help but swallow an uneasy thought as he watched the bus driver struggle with the wheel. Damn, he hated not being in control of a situation. If he could, he'd step up and remove the bus driver and drive the damn thing himself. It would calm his senses a great deal.
Instead, he simply tried another position, which left his legs tucked under the bench seat in front of him. How Brodie would've loved to put his feet up. However, he couldn't, do the mass numbers of bodies on the bus. As it were, there was only one seat open, and it was beside him.

Sighing, he gave up trying to get comfy and just settled for sitting still. The bus stopped at a street corner near a small diner and the local movie theater, and it's door opened to allow passengers on. Though it was hard, he could see a small cluster of people gathered at the stop, waiting to get out of the downpour and onto the bus. Glancing back at his watch, he found the minute hand had barely moved.

It was going to be a long trip.

[elsie]

Elsie wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing on the bus in the wee hours of the evening in the middle of what was shaping up to be a rather vicious storm. Sure, there were the logical reasons, such as she was in one location and she needed to get to another faster than it would take to walk. For the most part, Elsie tried to walk around her town when possible, and bike when she needed a quicker route. She wasn’t one for using up extra gasoline for her own impatience; she didn’t think the environment would really thank her for that. The environment in a metaphorical sense; despite how people perceived her, Elsie was intelligent enough to know that the environment having feelings was a personification and not an actual truth.

Though, for some people, they might argue that there was some truth to the matter in that nature was an extension of God and that humans were placed on the Earth to take care of it. Well, if you really looked at it, humans were doing a pretty lousy job at taking care of it, weren’t they? Elsie planted her daisies in the spring and weeded the lawn; she tried to avoid more mechanical forms of transportation; and she always turned the lights out before she went out of a room. Was it enough? She thought so; she was only one girl and she had no desire to start some sweeping radical movement in attempt to save the world.

And if anything, the storm was not a sign that God was angry at the world. Instead, it was purely a matter of nature and science. Sometimes it stormed, other times it didn’t. It had nothing to do with the actions of mankind. What did, however, have to do with the actions of mankind-- or at least the perky girl waiting in the torrential downpour underneath a tree in attempts for a grain of cover-- was that Elsie needed a ride because she had been to a party while her parents were out of town and she was the only one who didn’t get drunk but didn’t have her driver’s license yet, and therefore, after a lengthy string of reasoning, she needed to get home one way or another.

Finally, the bus mercifully arrived and Elsie was saved, if not a little damp. There was one last seat on the bus and that seat was destined to be hers. She plopped down and was quiet for a moment. Unfortunately for the people around her, it was not in her nature to stay silent for long. She hadn’t spoken to a single person at the bus stop and that was a miracle in its own right.

Elsie turned her attention to the slightly older looking man beside her. ”Are you new in town?” she asked without introduction. ”You look like you’re new; I don’t recall seeing you before.” Sure, there were a lot of people in town and it was most likely impossible that she’d seen everyone, but being a waitress meant you dealt with a lot of people, and being involved in the Church meant that she knew everyone that went to those functions as well. Then there was the swimming pool that was the public education system. So while the rather displeased looking man who was being subjected to the subject of her attention could very well have lived in Capeside his entire life, Elsie took it upon herself to make the assumption that he was new.

”I do apologise if I’ve gotten you wet; it wasn’t my intention, of course, it’s just dreadfully wet outside. Well, I suppose that’s rather redundant to say, isn’t it? Unless you’re blind and deaf, you ought to know that it’s pouring buckets upon buckets out there. Trees do not make good umbrellas; I don’t suggest you walk around with a tree branch over your head for cover. My name is Elsie, by the way,” she said cheerfully as she nattered on. The bus swayed slightly with the strength of the wind and she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. ”Oh my, quite the beast this one is, isn’t it?”

ATTIRE

[/color]  i’ll get to it xD CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  nom nom nom WORD COUNT 706  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

Brodie shifted around unhappily in his seat as people began boarding the bus. With his long, denim-encased legs stretched out in front of him, his leather jacket pulled taut across his chest and his naturally fierce look, most people simply continued walking instead of sitting down beside him. He wasn't threatening, per se; just intimidating. And damn it all if he didn't know it.
Still, his piercing stare and broad shoulders seemed to have very little affect on a young, cheery looking teen. Immediately after being seated, she began to babble. He glanced at her, initially thinking she was nervous. Instead, all he found was honest and shameless curiosity. He didn't frighten or intimidate her in the least! "No," he answered bluntly before turning back to look out the window.
Brodie had been in Capeside for nearly seven years now. He'd left, come back and then left again. Somehow, though, he and Oscar always managed to end up back at their dingy little loft in the city. Capeside was the place where he'd lost it all-- his future, his goals. Still, he couldn't leave it. It was more home than New York had ever been.

For a few moments, silence reigned. However, just as Brodie was getting comfortable, she began to speak again. Sighing, he turned to stare at her, his bright blue eyes sending metaphorical daggers at her own. "Really? That's very interesting." Of course, in reality, he couldn't care the least. The sarcasm laced monotony of his voice might have been a tell, too. "It's just a storm." He grunted neutrally. Yes, it was a big storm. From the slightly wide-eyed look she had, he'd guess she wasn't a big fan of them. Brodie, of course, couldn't care less.
Instead, he studiously was set on ignoring her prattling. He chose to think about Oscar, the one person he truly loved. Well, okay, Oscar wasn't exactly a person, but he was still Brodie's best and closest friend. The old, relaxed boxer/pit bull mix was the farthest thing from pretty, but he made up for it in his sort of adorable ugliness. One of his eyes was missing and his body was riddled with scars from the abuse his previous owners had put him through. Now he was with Brodie, though-- he had been for almost ten years. Ah, he couldn't imagine life with out that animal.
...And he'd rather avoid picturing it with the girl next to him. She couldn't have been out of high school. Maybe seventeen or eighteen, tops. Which made him seven years her senior. Damn, I'm old.

[elsie]

There was a brief moment when the man looked at her and she almost fell off her seat. Not literally-- that would be rather embarrassing, wouldn’t it? But my, was he ever handsome. Elsie had to resist the urge to ask him out in the middle of the crowded bus. Could anyone really blame her if she did? Her previous boyfriend hadn’t been anywhere near as attractive as this random stranger. That wasn’t to say her ex was ugly, nor was it to say that looks were everything...she was just saying it was true; this man was attractive. And he certainly was a man. He definitely was not in high school anymore, that was for certain.

That didn’t discourage Elsie, whether or not that would please the stranger she didn’t know. Instead, she decided to kick that thought out of her brain and continue on talking to him. It wasn’t like he was doing anything and it wasn’t as if her talking was going to ruin his day. He already looked rather grumpy. Oh! She could cheer him up! Yes, that was a fabulous idea. ”Hmm, well then, perhaps my back has always been turned when you walk by,” she said lightly, his flat answer not bothering her in the slightest. Alright, it bothered her a little, but she’d learn long ago not to let it get to her. Some people were just not conversational creatures at the start of it all. It was as if you had to pry out the words from them.

When his sarcasm hit her in the face, she was only half paying attention. He had the most stunning eyes she’d ever seen stuck in a guy’s face. They were so...pretty. She could stare at them for long bouts of time, she was certain, but knew that would be considered creepy and probably clingy, according to her ex. She was trying her hardest not to be a clingy girlfriend. When she actually got another boyfriend, she would not be clingy, that is. ”Ha, ha, you’re quite the master of sarcasm, aren’t you? Someone had to be born with a piercing tongue; it just seems that was you. Too bad I remembered to leave my house with my shields up today. Do you feel that? That’s your sarcasm, hitting you in your face because it bounced off my shield,” she said, wiggling her fingers a foot away from his face. She smiled and laughed to herself. What had gotten into his pants that made them so grumpy?

”Yes, but a storm can do more damage than just make your hair wet,” she nodded. ”In fact, if you’re so impervious to the nasty weather, I dare you to get off the bus right now and walk to wherever it is you’re going,” she nodded, raising an eyebrow at him in what she assumed was a challenging manner. The rest of the bus was more or less silent. There was a boy at the front with his headphones on too loud; there was a lady eating chips and making loud crunching noises; and there was Herbert, the kind but schizophrenic man from her church, talking to the people in his head as usual. She almost considered going over to say hello, but remembered that she had to crack this man’s cool-guy demeanour. No one could be that grumpy all the time. She just caught him on a bad day-- clearly, one just had to look outside to tell that. ”You haven’t told me your name, kind sir,” she said. She was well aware no one said ‘kind sir’ these days. Hence why she said it. Elsie found it to be rather amusing. ”So...what’s your name? And don’t give me some smart-aleck response,” she said, warning him that she was already onto his game, yet throwing in a grin at the same time.

ATTIRE

[/color]  i’ll get to it xD CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  nom nom nom WORD COUNT 664  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

There was something extremely interesting outside of Brodie's window.
Of course, this is the thought any normal person would have made should they had seen him. He was practically straining in his seat to look outside. Truly, all he wanted was for the squirt next to him to get it in her head that he really wasn't all that interested in talking to her, or fostering her teeny-bopper dreams of romance. And yes, he was decently sure she was having them. With out being egotistical, Brodie knew he was an attractive man. He kept himself fit, and he'd been born with wide shoulders, narrow hips and a perfectly square jaw. Whenever he saw his mother-- albeit this was almost never-- she gushed about how handsome he was. And since this girl, Elsie, was clearly some young adult, just barely having taken her steps into the real world, he knew she was probably staring at him with sparkles in her eyes, waiting for the fireworks to start going off.
Yeah. Whoo hoo. Great. Just what Brodie needed.

Tartly, he responded, "Must've been."
Brodie wasn't a cruel, or mean person, though his present interactions would probably lead someone to suspect he was. He simply didn't care for kids-- especially ones who had dreams and hopes practically oozing from their pores like this girl did. Besides reminding him of what he no longer had, it just made him feel old. Like life was passing him by. God, in just a few years, he'd been thirty. That was a disturbing concept.
Either way, it was rainy and miserable outside, and despite drinking a gallon of liquor, he felt as sober as a rock. Needless to say, his mood was hardly good, which only made his naturally jaded attitude even worse.

The girl, Elsie, was prattling on about the shape of his tongue, or something. To be honest, he wasn't really paying her any mind. When he heard her jabbering stop, he just nodded, as if he'd been completely intent on hearing and savoring her every last word.

Brodie was highly considering doing just that; getting off the bus and walking. The last thing he wanted right now was some kid pestering him. Still, his stop wasn't too far away, and he realized if he walked home, he'd thoroughly soak his nice leather jacket. Which was bad for it. He'd rather sit through Elsie's incessant yammering than trash his favorite jacket. So, instead of giving her an actual response, he just snorted.
Kind sir? Who was the sarcastic one now, he wondered? He was about to open his mouth and smart-aleck off to her, but she called him out before he could say his piece. Damn. Sighing, he said quietly, "My name is Brodie." He didn't like that she'd bested him in that. It wasn't like he could just say "I'm not gonna tell you my name, haha!" He'd look like a stubborn child! Yeah, he wasn't the most mature all the time, but he had some standards for himself.

The bus was nearing his stop, and he was counting down the minutes. Continually, he looked down at his watch. He wondered blandly if Oscar was scared. The mutt had always hated storms. I'll be home soon, buddy.

[elsie]

Was it even possible for a man to be this silent? She knew there were the strong and silent types, but she had a hard time figuring out if this mystery God was one. God in the metaphorical sense of the world; she was well aware he wasn’t actually God in the Christian sense. That would be strange; crushing on God, who was supposed to be some old beardy guy. The one thing that made it so hard for Elsie to figure out what type of guy he was, was that she didn’t like to pass judgements at first. It wasn’t really fair, now was it? She at least had to have a few conversations before she would let herself make a decision on a person. Unfortunately for the man who didn’t seem to pleased by her presence, that included him. Now that she had her radar on the man, it would take the Bermuda Triangle to make her lose track of him.

She narrowed her eyes at him slightly, pretending to glare, but had a hard time fighting the smirk that decided to lay on her face. It seemed that nothing she could do would matter since the man refused to look in her direction. Well that was just rude. She wasn’t having any of that. It was just polite to look at the person that was talking to you. She would just have to remedy this little predicament. She poked his cheek lightly in attempts to get him to look her way. ”Hellooo, I’m over here. That voice, coming from your side? Yeah, your other side? Me; the window isn’t talking to you,” she said, though she was not offended by his lack of attention. It was just another stepping stone in the challenge to get him to actually probably talk to her. ”That may be so, but hey, now I know your face and I can spot you from a crowd. You have that to look forward to,” she said with a light laugh, well aware that that was probably the last thing the gorgeous, grumpy stranger wanted.

He completely ignored her dare. How rude. He really needed to learn the rules of the whole daring game. Maybe no one ever told him as a child. How tragic. She waited patiently for him to tell her his name. How hard could it be? It was one word, one name was all she wanted from him. Was he always this stubborn? ”Lovely to meet you, Brodie, although I’m sure under sunny conditions it would be even lovelier,” she said. Plus his eyes would sparkle with the light of the sun and probably make her weak in the knees. ”So, Brodie, where are you headed? Going on an adventure? 24 hour grocery store? Home? Strip club?” she said, joking on the last account. He sounded like he needed a joke or two in his life.

ATTIRE

[/color]  i’ll get to it xD CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  nom nom nom WORD COUNT 493  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

Was it possible for a gir; to talk thins much? Brodie vaguely recalled girls from his school days being unstoppable, but nowhere near as grating at this young thing. Back then, he'd be able to discern what they wanted with int he first few lines of conversation. This girl, this Elsie, on the other hand, was a complete enigma. And there was nothing more in this world Brodie loathed more than secrets and mysteries. They tended to be followed by judgments, often negative, and they were usually against him. And, honestly, he didn't feel like being her play thing. Maybe she wanted to rebel against her parents. Maybe she had a thing for older guys. Maybe she was being stalked and wanted to use him as a human shield. Whatever it was that she wanted, it wouldn't bode well for him, so he wasn't going to have any of it.

When she poked her cheek, he had to throttle the urge to slap her hand away. She was an invasive little prat, wasn't she, getting into other people's bubbles? Well, Brodie liked his bubble, and he didn't want her anywhere near it. "Has it occurred to you that my lack of eye contact might be a hint that I don't wish to speak with you?" He snapped, turning to glare at her.
He realized a little late that looking at her was just a stupid folly to begin with. It horrified him to find that Elsie, upon inspection, was a beautiful young creature. She had an unusual bone structure; a long nose, a square jaw, but it added to her charm, strangely enough. He stared at her for almost thirty seconds, transfixed by those captivating and curious blue eyes of her. The loud clap of thunder that came was a blessing; it startled him a little, and gave him the power to break eye contact with the girl.

Brodie did his best to ignore her as they progressed, but she was a persistent chit if nothing else. He feared looking to her eyes, again, though. She was arrestingly beautiful and it felt so... forbidden to think that way. She had to be in high school still, and he was of the age where he should be thinking about marriage and a real future. Even thinking of her in that way had to be breaking at least one or two laws. "Sure it would," He muttered, glaring out the window, trying to count the lamp posts as they passed. "I'm going home. To rest. Because I'm tired. And my head hurts. A lot." That was probably the most he'd said in the past ten minutes of conversation. He was hoping she'd get the subtle implication of his words. Truly, his head felt fine, but any more of her prodding and he feared a migraine would be the least of his problems.
One more stop until home, he thought, breathing a quiet sigh of relief. One more stop till Oscar. one more stop until he was free of the small, pixieish girl sent to torment him.

[elsie]

In another world, she almost felt bad for the guy. If she was in as foul of a mood as he was, she doubted that she’d want someone like herself to prattle on about basically nothing with no chance of escape until the deserved bus stop came into view. It was a shame for him that the Elsie who sat next to him on the bus firmly believed that it was her duty to cheer him up. That was just how she was. She hated seeing other people sad; the only thing worse than that was seeing them sad and not doing anything to make them feel better. It was true that the cause of this man’s displeasure was entirely unknown-- with the exception of the displeasure in her general presence-- and Elsie’s kind words could in fact be wasted on him. If someone had died, for example, a perky girl on the bus wouldn’t make all his problems go away. If he’d just had a bad day, then there was a chance that her ever-chipper nature maybe eventually stray over to him and light up that gloomy face.

Finally, as if her finger was the answer to all her problems, the man finally, finally looked her way for longer than a second. Most girls would be frightened by his snap and never want to talk to him again. Elsie wasn’t most girls. His anger wasn’t ignored by her. She acknowledged that he was angry, mostly at her, but she then took that acknowledgement and stored it away. Instead, she intended to focus on the positive part of this particular interaction: he looked at her with his pretty eyes. ”Oh, it’s certainly occurred to me,” she said with a nod, trying not to laugh at his glare. That was supposed to be scary, wasn’t it? She wasn’t scared of looks; she was scared of the more traditional things-- spiders, the dark, etc, etc. ”But that doesn’t mean it’s the only reason you wouldn’t look me in the eyes. Let’s see, you could have social anxiety, you could be a sociopath, you could be a serial killer--” she went on, ticking the things off on her fingers as she spoke, ”you could be shy, you could be sad, you could be trying not to cry, you could be blind, you could be blinded by my beauty,” she joked on that one, ”or you could not want to talk to me. Or any combination of the above mentioned things. But if you do happen to be a serial killer, which I hope you’re not because that would be rather unfortunate-- and you’re too pretty to go to jail; all the scary men would try to do bad things to you-- just please refrain from killing me. My parents would never get over it.”

At the clash of thunder she jumped slightly in her seat along with several other patrons of the swaying bus. ”Oh dear, Zeus is certainly having his fun tonight, huh? I bet Hera is hiding away somewhere,” she laughed lightly. Or maybe Zeus was angry with Hera and they were getting into some huge fight. Just because Elsie believed in the Christian form of God didn’t mean she couldn’t have an open mind to other beliefs. ”Ohh, your head probably hurts from the weather pressure. I know that humidity can give me the worst of headaches at times. Kind of like there’s one of those elephants you see on the Discovery channel just sitting right on top of your head,” she nodded. The fact that she was talking so much and that could give him a headache never even occurred to her. Elsie found that when the man, Brodie, spoke, he had quite the dreamy voice. She tried to stop herself from imagining him whispering sweet nothings in her ear, but even the mere thought of that made her spine tingle. There she was, having inappropriate thoughts about a man she just met. Lucky for her, her thoughts were her own. ”You know what you should do? Make yourself a nice big cup of tea and slide into the bath with a good book,” she nodded as if she knew all about cures for headaches. ”Well, that or pop some Advil. Sometimes there are things only Advil can cure.” Wasn’t that just the truth?

ATTIRE

[/color]  i’ll get to it xD CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  i think she can talk more than i usually can. it’s a record. WORD COUNT 744  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

This girl was either plain dumb, or just ignoring every hint he dropped. She didn't seem to grasp the concept that he really just didn't want to talk. He'd began this bus ride in an unhappy mood, and now it was just getting worse each time she opened up her sinfully attractive mout-- Er, her annoying mouth.

Apparently, his plight was actually quite clear to her. She was just ignoring him. Awesome.
As hard as he tried, he could help but smile a little as she went off on her mini tangent. First he was a serial killer, then he was in love with her beauty, and then he was just insane. He had to bend over and place his face in his hands and make to be rubbing his eyes to hide the slight, amused smile currently betraying him. He than then sighed loudly, his baritone so low it almost sounded like a groan.
When he had his facial muscles firmly under control, he righted himself and focused on once again getting his obnoxiously long legs into a comfortable position. "I promise you sincerely, I really just don't want to talk to you." Hopefully that was scathing enough to get her to leave him alone. Brodie didn't like talking to women on principle; and he really didn't like talking to young girls. Talking to young girls who also happened to be extremely attractive to him? Very bad thing.

He thought it might just be his dull imaginations playing tricks on him, but there might have been a little waver in her voice as she spoke about the storms. God pray she wasn't afraid of them. She'd have to have been stupid to go out in this weather.
Studiously, however, he didn't respond. He continued to try and ignore her as she rambled on about storms and pressure, but really, he just wanted to slap some duct tape over her mouth. She had an annoyingly light, melodic voice. Kind of like she said everything with a slightly musical overtone. It was pretty, and he hated it. "I'll do that," He said curtly in response to the Advil thing.

Finally at his stop, he stood quickly and used his massive size to pretty much hop over the young, small girl. With out so much of a word as goodbye, he stepped off the bus and into the rain.
The bus was pulling away when he felt something brush against him. He turned, and groaned aloud. "What," Pause, "The," Pause, "Hell."

Elsie had followed him off.

(notes: SORRY ABOUT THE GODMODDING. i just knew it was gonna happen and i needed to make my post longer. WE PLANNED THAT OUT THOUGH SO IT'S KAY)

[elsie]

The next time she saw this man, she wondered if he would act the same way. Sure, if she had caught him on a bad day today, then he might end up being far more cheery. If this was how he always was, then she would have to remedy it. How would she fix it? Elsie didn’t know yet. She didn’t want to change him-- she didn’t believe in changing people; she liked the way ended up because it was a reflection of what they’d accomplished or hadn’t-- but she wanted him to be in a better mood. That was changing something, but it wasn’t changing him, so it was okay. Besides, there was nothing wrong with cheering your friend up when they were sad or displeased, so she saw this as the same sort of thing.

Brodie was just going to be a harder nut to crack, that was all. What was it that made the man so angry? There had to be a reason; no one went around randomly just being a grumpy douche. Not that he was a douche. Yet. He was just grumpy. So far. Wait, was that a smile she spotted? As soon as she thought it appeared on his face, his hands were hiding his face and she couldn’t tell. Darn, she would have loved to have seen the man full out smile. Elsie was one-hundred percent positive that he could charm any straight woman out of her pants with his smile, and she hadn’t even seen it yet.

She blinked at him. She was supposed to be hurt by his words, wasn’t she? Yes, yes she was. ”Ahh, but you only think you don’t want to talk to me. Deep, deep, deep down somewhere, there is a part of you that wants to talk to me. If you really didn’t want to talk to me, you would have gotten up and given someone else your seat, and you definitely wouldn’t have responded to me at all. So either you do want to talk to me on some level or another, or you’re really unintelligent. I’d like to assume the best of you and say you’re a rather smart person, which only leaves the first option.” Her logic made almost no sense. Most people wouldn’t go to those lengths to not listen to someone. But she liked to pretend that she made sense sometimes. She might have sounded a bit ditzy in her explanation, but that was just how she was. It was also why a lot of people didn’t realise she actually was smart-ish. They just thought she was a ditz.

The more she talked, the more she was able to ignore the storm. Talking was a comfort for her since she was terrified of storms, despite how she tried to remain chipper about the situation. ”Good. And if that doesn’t work, get some ice to put to your forehead. Or turn off all the lights,” she said, rambling off more things that could get rid of Brodie’s headache.

The man practically vaulted over her to get off the bus. Huh. Elsie watched for a brief second as he departed, taking an extra sentence to watch his rear end, and sooner than she could think she found herself following him off the bus. She was hit by the rain once more with the force of the wind causing it to slap somewhat painfully against her cheeks, but she tried to ignore it as she followed him, unaware of where they were. Elsie heard a loud clash of thunder and found herself wandering closer to him. She accidentally brushed his arm, stopping when he stopped.

Oops, he was not pleased. ”I didn’t know where the bus was going,” she said innocently. It was true. She had just got on at the first bus stop she saw. ”I don’t ride the bus often,” she shrugged lightly, ”and didn’t want to walk home in the rain. I was just kind of hoping it would take me somewhere near my house. Buuuttt it didn’t,” she said, realising the faults of her logic on slightly. A strong gust of wind came after another clash of thunder, knocking her a few feet to the left. She regained her balance somewhat and moved wet hair out of her face. ”Windy, huh?” she said, trying to get rid of the fear flowing through her veins. She laughed nervously, her smile faltered, and she looked worriedly around. ”Better than being driven home by a drunk person though,” she said. She’d rather be lost than crushed in a car accident cause her friends had been drinking.

ATTIRE

[/color]  i’ll get to it xD CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  yay mini-stalkage! WORD COUNT 795  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

For the remainder of the bus ride, Brodie simply kept quiet. Despite her prods and attempt to get him to speak, he valiantly refused, though her odd logic and incessant chattering made it difficult to keep a straight face. But, damn it all, he was not going to let her know she amused him. Tonight was supposed to be sad and unfortunate. He'd decided that when he'd sat down at the shoddy bar just a few hours ago.

After disembarking from the bus, only to find Elsie right behind him, he sighed and rubbed at his eyes. The rain was coming down heavily and she was getting soaked, as was he. Her forced smile and crinkled brow let on that she was afraid, but he couldn't tell what exactly of. Be it the storm, him, the dark, Elsie could fear any of them. Not that he actually posed a serious threat, but standing there, he realized he did sort of... tower. He looking to be almost a head taller than her, at least, and twice as wide. Some girls were intimidated by that, but somehow, he didn't place her as quite that type.
It took him a few moments to decide what to do. As much as he disliked her annoying prattling, and as much as he wished he had the heart to tell her to scat, he was weak to her wide blue eyes and dismally hopeful expression. "C'mon," He basically growled and turned towards his apartment building. They'd get inside and he'd call her a cab or something.

When he reached his apartment door, he paused. "I have a dog. And he doesn't like strangers." The warning was pretty blunt, and he felt he didn't need to explain further. Of course, there was nothing he could really do if Oscar decided Elsie was an enemy. She'd probably get bitten, but, hey, it happened. Still, as he entered the door, he kept a weary eye out for his large, wizened boxer/pit-bull mix.
Chateau de Hirsch was far from tidy. It was more of a loft than an apartment; high ceilings and only two rooms. One massive one than consisted of his kitchen, dining room, living room and bedroom and a small anteroom that was his bathroom. It was open and sprawling, brimming with masculinity. Dark wood furniture, hard, marble counters, austere white couches and blankets. The entire far wall was just floor-to-ceiling windows. He had a few vintage rock concert posters hung around on the walls, but they were mostly barren. The only thing that really identified its inhabitant was all of the clothing that littered the floor. Brodie could never be accused of being tidy.
Not bothering to really invite her in, he left her to her own devices as he shucked his leather jacket, revealing the plain white tee beneath it. He toed off his boots in the middle of the floor as he ventured into his cave-like domain to find his landline.
Just as he began dialing the cab service, however, a powerful flash of lightning and thundering boom heralded a power outage. The light died immediately, and his home was plunged into darkness. "Awesome," He muttered frustratedly.

[elsie]

Okay, if there was ever going to be a time when Elsie was going to doubt herself in her entire existence, it was going to be now, if only for a brief moment in time. Looking back on it, getting on to the first bus at the first bus stop that she saw probably wasn’t the best idea in the world. The general idea of getting on a bus to take her home was solid, but it would help if the bus actually took her somewhere remotely close to her house. She didn’t really recognise where she was, especially with the ferocity of the storm, and currently had to rely on the stranger she’d met on a handful of minutes ago to make sure she didn’t get struck by lightening or ravaged by a werewolf or something horrible of that nature.

The only problem that Elsie Porter was faced with now, was that the stranger in question really didn’t like her. She may have lived in a perpetual state of cheerfulness, but it didn’t mind she wasn’t observant. There were plenty of things she observed about people; she just decided to ignore them. That lead a lot of people to believe she was stupid and oblivious and sheltered. While it was true that she was sheltered, she wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t completely oblivious. Especially when Brodie was making it quite clear that she was nothing more than a pain in his ass that wouldn’t shut up. It was a shame for him that he was so damn handsome and the way the rain was landing on him, giving him a grungy sort of romance-novel-hero quality.

To say that Elsie was surprised was the truth, but she didn’t want her surprise to show. She didn’t want Brodie to realise he could’ve gotten rid of her if he really wanted to. No, no, that would be silly. Instead she smiled and happily followed along behind him. ”You know, I’ve never gotten caught out in the rain like this. Normally I at least have an umbrella. I don’t really know what I was thinking. I suppose I could have stayed at the party because my parents are out of town and in effect don’t really know where I would be to begin with, but everyone was drunk and it’s no fun being the only sober person at a party. Okay, it’s a little fun because everyone is making a complete fool of themselves, but otherwise it’s kind of boring because you can’t have a decent conversation with anyone. And I didn’t feel right taking someone else’s umbrella in case they needed to walk home. It’s just a little water after all, anyways, so it’s not the getting wet part that I mind,” she rambled on.

”Ohh, I love dogs!” she said happily, ignoring the part where Brodie said the creature didn’t like strangers. How could Brodie know that for certain? Maybe the pet just didn’t like the people he’d met before. She wandered in and shut the door behind her, her eyes bright and curious as she took in the appearance of his place. It. Was. Amazing. Far more interesting than her boring, magazine perfect house. Just as she was letting her eyes wander, she heard the click of nails against the floor, and looked down to find just about the saddest looking dog she’d ever seen. She crouched down and looked at the creature, smiling softly. ”And are you the doggie that doesn’t like strangers, hmm? Come here, you don’t look so bad,” she said kindly to the dog. She held her hand out to the pet, uncaring if he wanted to chop off her arm, and waited. She giggled as the dog sniffed her hand, tickling her slightly, and smiled brighter when his little stump of a tail wagged and he waddled closer to her. ”That’s more like it. What’s your name, handsome?” she cooed, scratching behind the battered dog’s ears.

Elsie was taken aback when the loud noises clashed and the power went out. Hesitantly she stopped petting the dog and stood up. She was quiet for a moment, and instead just stood there dripping on Brodie’s floor. She looked out the window-- it was hard not to; there was a wall of them-- and saw that all the other places around the area were out of power, as well. As she shrugged, the soaking wet material of her thin shirt clung to her torso and she cast a glance towards the older man. ”Looks like you’re stuck with me for the night,” she said, trying to ignore how terrified she was of the storm and instead tried to remain chipper. ”Got a towel, by chance? And maybe a dryer or some place to hang stuff up? These wet clothes are starting to get a bit uncomfortable,” she said, fidgeting as the dog licked her hand, demanding more attention. ”Bet you didn’t think your night would end with a woman stripping in your apartment, huh?” she said jokingly, sending him a wink but realising that he might not have been able to see it in the dark.

ATTIRE

[/color]  HERE CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  ihadtopost. i wanted her to love the doggeh AND LOOK SHE HAS AN OUTFIT NOW. but not for long, hurr WORD COUNT 876  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

Brodie wasn't very good at a very large amount of things. Knitting, for example. Or gymnastics. Sadly, this spectrum also encompassed socializing. How was he supposed to react, supposed to know what emotion he was feeling, as he stood outside in the rain with some pesky, annoying teenager? What was he supposed to call this feeling that left his mouth and throat feeling dry as rain water slowly seeped into her clothes, gluing the sheer fabric to her narrow, comely figure? Certainly not lust! God forbid, she was practically a child... Still, standing there like she was, looking up at him with those willful blue eyes of hers, she looked like anything but a little girl.

A shudder coursed through him as he stepped away and towards the apartment building. The rain must be making him feel sick. All this was was the alcohol mixed with the booming thunder and the heavy, wet air.
Huh, he thought sullenly, maybe I am drunk after all.

As they entered the apartment, he registered that she was speaking. Of course, her voice was far too pixieish for him to actually understand-- she spoke softly and quickly. If he really wanted to listen, which he didn't, he'd have to lean in close, and he was not doing any of that.
He was horrified by the sheer betrayal Oscar made as the normally ornery animal cuddled happily against the girl. How dare he snuggle with the enemy! "His name," Brodie said shortly as he crossed the room, "is Oscar." Grunting as he stripped the snug leather from his broad shoulders, he muttered, "Stupid traitorous mutt." Of course, Brodie loved Oscar until the ends of the earth and back-- he didn't truly consider the dog to be stupid or traitorous. It was just one of those things pet owners did, like calling their animal Dummy while smiling at it so it thought they were being nice.

Frowning, he begrudgingly conceded. Unless he wanted to make her walk home in the rain, she hadn't much of a choice but to stay here. Since he'd lost his license after one too many DUIs and the next bus didn't come until one or two in the morning, it really wasn't up for debate.
Grumbling, he felt his way to the dresser and proceeded to pull out the first tee shirt he could find. Luckily, seeing as he was so big, the tee would likely work as a dress for her.

The room was massive, and trying to cross it blindly would've been dumb, unless he planned on slipping on all of his litter and trash. Pulling out a light from his pocket (he always had one on hand-- habit from the year or so he spent as a smoker) and flicked it on. With the little help it provided, he managed to make his way back across the room to Elsie. Her skin looked damn touchable in the small fire's light. Trying to push that thought from his mind he held out the shirt and said, "Here. Dryer's in the bathroom," He jerked his head to the left, "But either way, it won't work with the power out."

As she went about changing and doing whatever else she needed to do, Brodie took to finding flashlights and making navigable paths through out his home. As his eyes adjusted, moving became progressively easier.
With the few moments he had before she exited the bathroom, he waged a mini war over whether to keep his bed or give it to her. Unfortunately, his softy-side won out and he decided it wouldn't be very cool if he forced her to sleep on the couch. Even if she was a pain in the ass.

[elsie]

The dog who currently stood in front of her was quite possibly the most heartbreaking creature she’d ever laid eyes on. She wished she could speak directly with the doggie and asked what happened, but she’d yet to master the art of communicating with creatures. Elsie also knew that if she asked the grumpy man, he’d give her some snarky response like ‘he was abused’. It was quite clear the poor dog had been abused, and she sincerely did not believe it was by Brodie. Yet somehow the one eyed, scarred dog made her heart melt. ”Oscar the grouch,” she laughed lightly and patted the dog. ”He doesn’t seem that grouchy. What’s this nonsense about him not liking strangers? Maybe he just doesn’t like the strangers you’ve introduced him too before. He seems like a sweetheart,” she said, giggling to herself when the dog licked her face. She didn’t think the dog, Oscar, had a mean bone in his body.

When Elsie looked up and found Brodie had removed his jacket, she couldn’t stand back up. His t-shirt stretched over his muscles, allowing her to see what she couldn’t see through the thick leather. Holy Lord. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry, and forced herself to stand. At least it was dark and he couldn’t see the redness in her cheeks. She did have the feeling that Brodie wouldn’t even acknowledge it if he did see. He wasn’t very chatty.

She smiled happily at Brodie and gladly took the t-shirt. ”Thank you kindly,” she said, her voice chipper, and looked towards her left. She shrugged as she wandered over to the bathroom. ”That’s fine, I’ll just hang stuff up, I suppose,” she muttered and closed the door behind her. She paused. She opened the door. ”I need a flashlight. I mean, it would be interesting to attempt to change in the pitch black little box, but I somehow feel like a lot more damage than good would come from it,” she said. She wandered out, grabbed one of the flashlights Brodie had set out, and returned to the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she rested the flashlight on the edge of the counter.

Elsie found that she was more than glad she didn’t wear much make up, otherwise the rain would have made her look like some sort of forest dwelling rodent. She stripped off absolutely everything, except her underwear, and hung everything up on the rod of the shower curtain. She found a towel to pat herself dry before slipping into Brodie’s shirt.

She paused once more. She lifted the material to her nose and inhaled the lingering scent. It was a strange mix of cigarettes, warm Fritos, and...she wasn’t quite sure what the last one was, but it was unmistakably the odor of a man. All in all, it was damn sexy. If Brodie thought that he was ever getting his t-shirt back, he was mistaken. Smiling to herself, she found a comb and ran it through her long blonde locks before grabbing the flashlight and returning to the main room of the apartment.

”Is your headache gone?” she asked and wandered over to the kitchen area. She began rummaging around without permission, the flashlight bouncing around unsteadily as she tried to do too many things at once. She settled for sticking it under her arm and only using her right arm to the extent of a t-rex. ”I’ll make you some tea, everyone likes tea,” she nodded. She located a couple of mugs but had a harder time finding any sort of tea. ”God, do you live on booze and coffee? Where’s your tea? Gotta have it somewhere, even if it’s not manly enough for you,” she laughed, pulling out a box of cookies she’d found. Yum.

Her bare feet were cold on the floor of the kitchen, but the warmth of the April evening kept her from completely freezing without pants on. She hadn’t even bothered to check how much the t-shirt covered; her butt, at least, she was certain. ”So, Brodie,” she said, rummaging through his things even if he didn’t want her to, ”tell me about yourself. Surely you have more to you then a few short sentences an adorable dog. Where is that pooch anyways? Oscar? Oscar!” she called out, and waited for the clicking of the dog’s nails on the floor.

ATTIRE

[/color]  HERE CREDIT SAM !?  of Confronting the Faceless. Don't remove the credit or I will find you. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore NOTES  hungrryyy WORD COUNT 756  [/center][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[mel5]

Brodie's only response to his dog's betrayal was a grumble. Maybe Oscar was sick. He'd make note to check the dog out later, to make sure it's lack of depth perception hadn't ran him into a wall while his master was away. Poor fella.
He still remembered finding Oscar, all those years ago. The dog was practically ancient now, but he'd been pretty young then. Scared and alone, like Brodie. Maybe a little abandoned. The two supported and comforted each other. Oscar didn't need other dogs for company, and like wise, Brodie didn't need other humans.
Now, if only he could figure out to do with the annoying third part that had invaded his life, home, and mind...

There wasn't much to do after his quick, yet acceptable cleaning of his loft/apartment. He waited for Elsie to get out of the bathroom, and was surprised at how quickly she was finished. Most girls took forever tweaking and perfecting themselves, but from her time, it seemed she'd stuck to the essentials.
When he'd heard his rickety bathroom door swing open, he glanced up, and found himself just short of shell shocked. All she was wearing was his tee. And underwear. Maybe. He couldn't see. Goddamn, was this legal? He felt disgusted with himself for feeling so damned attracted to her, but at the same time, he couldn't mollify the roaring in his ears or the erratic heart beating in his chest. No matter how shameful he should feel, he couldn't conjure up the emotion. "Uhh..." It took Brodie a minute to come back down to earth. "Yeah, yeah, it's fine." He touched his head gingerly, his lie painfully obvious. Honestly, though, he hated complaining. And he didn't want to suffer Elsie Porter hovering around him, ready to assist. God forbid, the alcohol he'd downed earlier might really kick in and he might just pull her down on the bed or something.
Nope. Not gonna happen.
Brodie raised a scornful eyebrow as she criticized his food choice. "No, I don't," He muttered, watching her make a mess of his already precariously organized shelves, "I also enjoy Spaghetti-O's and WonderBread." Too late, he realized he'd cracked a joke. Damn, he was coming undone. Clearing his throat, he added, "And I don't have tea. Never have." The drink had always been too... well, to be frank, emasculating. Besides, there was nothing in tea he couldn't get from coffee or some other vitamin. So he was fine.

Brodie had to avert his gaze to avoid checking out her underwear clad behind. He needed to buy longer tee shirts. He was so focused on not focusing on her that he almost missed her question. "I..." Brodie wasn't particularly fond of divulging his innermost secrets, but he felt a bit bad for stonewalling the girl at every turn. Deciding to throw her a bone, he said, "I'm twenty-five. Born in New York. I like mexican food, coffee and my privacy. There, now you know all about me." True, from any one else, it was a pretty crappy response, but from Brodie... Well, it was still a crappy response. Still, it was better than nothing.
Oscar, who seemed to be in love with Elsie, happily trotted over when he heard his name called.
"Look," Brodie said, hoping to just plow through the subject so he could go to bed. "It's late, and we should go to bed... or, I don't know, something. You can have the bed. I'll take the couch. "