``bounce back (c)

[aliyah]

-outfit-

Grey skies and sprinkling rain didn’t seem like the sort of weather that would make someone want to grab their camera and go snap happy on the scene, but that was exactly what Aliyah did. She had woken up just an hour before, rolled around lazily in bed happy for her day off, then heard the rain…
She was up and out of bed in seconds.
It was no accident that she had no classes scheduled for her Fridays. Those were the days she preferred to sleep in, spend the late morning to late afternoon taking pictures or stalking the theatre, then hang out in the city or go to a club in the evening.
One hand in the pocket of her raincoat, her eyes scanned the park around her. She wasn’t quite sure how she got here, and even less sure of how she would get back, but she put that fact in the back of her mind for later. Wandering was something she had a habit of doing, especially when content like she was now. She had taken some pictures before a scare where she almost dropped one of her lenses in a puddle, and had let the camera retire to her bag while she walked around. Next thing she knew, she was walking around some strange place called “Love Park”. If anyone knew Aliyah, they knew it had to be an accident. She wouldn’t go near anything with “love” in the name if you paid her to.

Her trek ended at a bench that seemed away from the general population of the park, which she preferred. Less noise was better for thinking.
‘Thinking is too dangerous a hobby for you, Lee’ she could hear her mother saying, and frowned, crossing her legs as she tilted the umbrella up, peeking up at the sky. A few drops fell on her forehead, and she wiped them off with the back of her hand, shielding her head with the umbrella again.
‘Damn…’ she thought, leaning back. It had been raining since she woke up at ten fifty four that morning. It was almost three, and it had calmed and poured throughout the day, but never stopped. Not that Aliyah minded, she quite liked the rain. Cloudy days didn’t bum her out like most people. Her mother would walk outside and frown at the sky, and say “What a gloomy day”. Rainy days held a sort of magic for her, for some odd reason. It made her smile to splash in puddles and walk around with an umbrella, tilting her head up at the sky to watch droplets of water fall. Sunny days were too normal. Rainy days were ones to remember.

Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a piece of paper, unfolding it to reveal a list. There weren’t as many things on that list as there would be on a normal day, which made her smile. Only four things, all but one of them checked off.
‘Take fifty plus pictures, done… call Mom and ask her for a little extra money to get my box sent, check... have a white chocolate mocha latte, check… talk to an old friend…’
The last one she was, for some reason, procrastinating on. She was going to call her brother, who she hadn’t spoken to for at least two weeks, but for some reason, she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. Her mind always said “wait”.
‘Later’ she thought for the third time that day, putting the list back in her pocket and leaning back, brushing her red locks behind her ear. She was enjoying the view, and was in the mood for a bit of thinking. It dawned on her sometimes, in the middle of a class, or right before bed, where she was. At Emerson. It was such an alien thought to her at first, something far off and unreachable… and now, it was a part of her life. She smiled absently, lost in her thoughts, grayish blue eyes staring blindly at the “love” statue before her, and the rain.

::tag:: levi
::words:: 681
::notes:: not the best but.... i tried! >.<
::credit:: COTI- TASTIC?! for the image

[levi]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• temporary happiness •
IS LIKE WAITING FOR THE KNIFE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Levi liked the rain. It could even be said that he loved the rain. That, or he simply liked being in the rain. He could be soaked and he wouldn’t really care. But, he’d grown up where the weather could take a change for the worse at any point, and he wasn’t unfamiliar with the rain. He’d gotten used to it and didn’t mind it at all. So today, when Levi saw that it was going to rain--or, technically, was already raining by the time he woke up--he was ready to get outside and get wet. The fact that he had to sit through two classes first was near torture. He spent half the time slouched in his seat, tapping his pencil on his notebook in front of him and scribbling down the random note now and again. All in all, he was ready to be done with classes and have some free time for an hour or two.

It wasn’t that Levi disliked school. In fact, he enjoyed it quite a bit. But, when he had something else he really wanted to do, he found it hard to concentrate. Throughout his math class, his eyes continually drifted back to the window and his tapping pencil increased in speed. Call it a fascination, but Levi really did like to be out in the rain. As soon as class was over, he was out the door and jogging back to his apartment to drop off his books. He would’ve taken his time and walked slow, but he was in a hurry to get away from the campus and somewhere completely unrelated. Somewhere that people who weren’t art students went. A park seemed like the best idea. And, at the moment, that park was Love Park. Close to his apartment and frequented by women with some fantasy about finding their true love and riding off into the sunset. Apparently, they thought that because ‘Love’ was pinned to the front of the name, it offered some magical power of matchmaking. Levi simply figured that it was just filled with desperate girls that just needed some guy to smooth talk them.

He was willing to be that guy.

With a pencil tucked behind his ear and the collar of his jacket flipped up in a look that screamed ‘cocky’, Levi walked down the street towards the familiar scene. He was one of the few making his way don the street without an umbrella. He was smiling, humming ‘Singing in the Rain’ to anyone that cared enough to listen. If there were a lamp post near by, he’d probably swing himself around it and belt out the lyrics of the song as well. Any attention was good attention, right? But as it was, he arrived at the park and let his eyes wander. Although he was thoroughly soaked, he didn’t mind much. He was hardly aware of it.

In fact, he was hardly aware of anything when he noticed her. She was sitting on a bench, back to him and red hair easily in view. It wasn’t hard to miss... or, for that matter, wasn’t hard to recognize. Of course, with the recognition came feelings that he would have rather kept suppressed. The fact that he still liked the girl. Liked. He was sure fooling himself with that word. Like was a lot softer than love, and he wasn’t going to admit that word even applied to him. He’d play it cool, just like he always did.

Walking up behind her, he rested his arms on the bench and looked over her shoulder in one movement. A smile spread across his lips as he caught the last few words on there. A list. Go figure. "Looks like I can help you finish off that list of yours," His smile widened momentarily as he looked down at the back of Aliyah’s head before tilting his head and leaning a little more comfortably into his position.

words ! 661 >: so short
tagged ! his lovely little ho. Better known as Ali or Aliyah.
credit ! PANIC! ITS LAUZ @ CAUTION
lyrics ! heartbreaker by p!nk
notes ! mwuahahahaa!

[aliyah]

-outfit-

When Aliyah was in the eighth grade, she had declared fate her nemesis when her friend had snuck a bag of crack into her backpack and the deans had caught and blamed Aliyah for it. Fortunately, she didn’t get in trouble, but since that day she had decided fate was against her, and there was a constant battle to overrule it. It felt like sometimes she won, sometimes it won. When she was accepted to Emerson? She had won.
When Levi appeared behind her?
Fate won.
She knew his voice immediately, but her brain seemed to freeze up.
Malfunction, malfunction… she thought, tilting her head a bit to the side. At first, it didn’t make any sense to her. Why would Levi be there?
Levi…
It had been ages since she had thought about him… well, thought about him intentionally. Usually if his name popped up in a conversation or in her head, she would push it away and change the subject as quickly as possible, no matter how awkward it sounded. He was a taboo subject back home among her friends and the people who knew her. No one, not her employers, not the store people she saw on a regular basis, not even her parents talked about him. Her older brother, who had been friends with him and was the whole reason they had met, never mentioned Levi either. If he did, he would say “my friend”, even if Aliyah knew who he was talking about, and never went into detail.

It took her a bit to remember why he would be here, and she instantly felt stupid when it occurred to her again. Of course, he also attended Emerson, for journalism. She had managed to ‘forget’ that fact as well. She knew she would run into him eventually: it was one of the first thoughts she had while reconsidering attending Emerson during her two years of hell. She would long to be there studying photography and acting all day long, doing the things she loved instead of sitting around with a bunch of party hearty lazy bums, then think ‘Levi goes there’.
In an instant, the subject would be out the window.
What an idiot I was… she thought all over again, as she had when it first dawned on her that a boy was keeping her from her dreams. And an idiotic boy at that. A stupid, idiotic, ever horny, asshole…
Stop she told herself, taking a deep breath, We have to be mature about this.
She could already feel the sarcasm stirring around in her mouth, waiting to strike and sink it’s teeth into his arrogant pride, deflating him bite by bite. Her fighting side was ready, gloves on, already dancing around the ring. She longed to embrace that side. Had it been two semesters ago, she would have. But Aliyah had matured since then.
She was a big girl now.

Drawing in a deep breath, she looked back, not even bothering to pretend to be surprised, and raised an eyebrow, allowing a smirk to form over her lips. The first thought that entered her head was ‘Damn, he hasn’t changed a bit’. Pencil behind the ear, same cocky grin. The second was ‘I missed that grin…’
The thougth was quickly dismissed, and she stood, folding her arms over her chest as she looked him over.
“Well, looks you can” she replied, trying to be cordial about the situation, “But of all people… Levi Thomas Westin…”
Full name, like she used to call him before they started dating. Back when he and her brother first met, the moment she had discovered Levi’s middle name she called him nothing but “Levi Thomas Westin, Levi Thomas Westin” for at least a year, just to get on his nerves. This time it had just slipped out. Seems like they were back at square one…
“I expected to run into you sooner or later” she said casually, though her stomach was holding an acrobatic performance somewhere in there, “Have you talked to Roran?”
Completely casual, completely un-personal, just like she wanted it. She wondered why he even came up to talk to her. Sure she had grown, but she was sure she was never going to grow up enough to forgive him. Not after taking back all the things he said like that. Like gluing a bunch of paper stars on her heart, then ripping them off, one by one, years after they had dried. That was how she had described it to her father.
He gave me such an odd look… she thought with a fond smile. She always had odd comparisons like that, but they always got her point across one way or another, even if they didn’t make much sense. She suddenly missed home, something she hadn’t even done the first day she had arrived.

She also had a strong desire to kick him in the balls and run home and call Roran, but she kept composed, tucking her hair behind her ear for the third time in a span of five minutes. Her mother complained constantly about pulling it back or something, putting a pin to it, but she could never bring herself too. It felt too odd.
Of course, her thoughts were everywhere. Paper stars, Roran, hair pins… since the moment she had heard Levi’s voice she hadn’t been right in the head. Her head felt light and her feet felt heavy. If she had tried to walk, she probably would have fallen. Her face felt like there was something on it, and her hand ached to remove it, even though she knew there was nothing there. Insecurity. Aliyah and insecurity were two words that did not go together.
The words echoed in her head again,
Malfunction, malfunction… heart malfunction…’

::tag:: levi
::words:: 966; typed more just for you this time... crappy but practice makes perfect, right? don't give up on me >.<
::notes:: evil little twat, lol.
::credit:: COTI- TASTIC?! for the image

[levi]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• temporary happiness •
IS LIKE WAITING FOR THE KNIFE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Levi first decided to head out to Love Park, he was expecting to find some single gal. But, in his ‘quest’ for some girl, he was not expecting to find a familiar face. He was especially not expecting to find Aliyah, of all people. He’d thought that, over the last few years, he’d shoved and removed all memory of the girl. That stubborn, head strong, annoying girl. He’d thought that he’d completely gotten over it. Then again, the mind had a way of... tricking a person. A way of suppressing memories until the worst possible moment to have them pop back up. Such as right now, standing in front of this girl, watching her act as if nothing was bothering her. Levi could play this game, too. He could act like seeing her was just like seeing anyone else, and he’d do it with a grin on his face.

That’s how it would be between them, then? They were going to go back to like when they first met--that un-proclaimed indifference--and pretend like nothing over the last few years happened. That was just fine, because he could act just as well as she could.

Tilting his head to the side, his grin faded to a smirk and his eyes traveled over her attire. At least she had come prepared for the rain, where as he looked like a soaking wet dog. (Though, Aliyah would probably say that’s what he was) “Oh, pulling out the middle name, are we, Miss Chandler?” His eyes glittered with a moment of pleasure at how this conversation was going thus far. True, three sentences had been said, but in Levi’s mind, it was enough to establish a base line of some sort. Enough to establish how the rest of the conversation would go. She was trying to remain detached, he was trying to evoke emotion. It’d be incredibly interesting to see how it played out, no doubt. His smirk widened despite his attempt to keep up the smooth air. Not that he didn’t still have that cocky look spread over his face.

“You make it sound like running into me was a bad thing.” No, running into the boy that broke your heart wasn’t bad. It was like running through a field of wild flowers and singing happy songs.

Maybe if that field was on fire.

His smirk returned and his hands slipped into his pockets in an attempt to get some feeling back into them. “Well, if you were wondering, I was hoping to run into you at some point. It’s nice to know that you’re still goin’ after your dream, kiddo.” Kiddo. If there was a way to be more condescending to her, he couldn’t think of it. But, hell, he wanted to evoke emotion right? He was fairly certain something like that would do it. That, and it was fun to see just how neutral she could remain without giving away what she was feeling.

“Roran? Not recently. Why? Feelin’ jealous that I’d be giving him my time and not you?”

Testing. That’s what he was doing. That’s what he’d continue to do. See just how far he could push her buttons before she snapped. Before she admitted something she didn’t want to admit. It was a game, with one hell of a prize to be won at the end. Not that he would let on to Aliyah that he was actually trying to get a certain emotion from her. Not that he would tell her that he wanted to know if she still cared. He wanted to know if there was still some feelings between them. Well--feelings in her. He knew there were still some in him. It was just the fact of getting over his fears to admit that. Plain and simple, right?

Ha. Simple.

words ! Short again. But I jsut realized I have work in two minutes. XD And I hate leaving with a post half finished.
tagged ! his lovely little ho. Better known as Ali or Aliyah.
credit ! PANIC! ITS LAUZ @ CAUTION
lyrics ! heartbreaker by p!nk
notes ! mwuahahahaa!