more than meets the eye (open)

[JULIUS BISHOP]

[bg=212121][atrb=style,border: 3px solid #333333; -moz-border-radius: 60px;][atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2rykebd.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,10%][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true]

One minute I held the key next the walls had closed on me There were certainly days where even Julius, with all his pretty little toys and pudgy little playmates, found himself unforgivably bored. The pretentious blue-eyed tyrant was hard pressed for entertainment today something that was about as probable as unicorns. Him without a diversion was a bad combination because if he were to alleviate the tedium he’d seemingly fallen prey to then there would be a quite a few put in unsavory circumstances. The cleanup also prompted no positive thinking either but what did he care? He wouldn’t be the one worrying over it – that’s what he had adults for seeing as they were good for little more than talking out their ass. The SHIFT building was as blanch as he’d ever seen it. Their interior decorator needed to be fired. The building was furthest on his list of places one might come for the inviting atmosphere and the droning lyric-less music playing quietly in the background did nothing to make a visitor feel like they’d come out the same person. The lobby was as empty as he’d ever seen it, its only occupant being the perky receptionist who tried avidly to make her little niche of the room looking a tad more welcoming by putting a pitcher of flowering plants on her desk. It was a nice attempt but she hadn’t learned how to prune the stupid thing to make it look presentable. She probably just assumed the dead and wrinkled would magically spring back to life. “Well hello there, Julius out of school for the day?” She called kindly as he strolled over to her desk and smiled prettily at her over the tabletop. It was clear to anyone that the High School boy was neither stranger to this place nor the immediate staff to him. “Good afternoon Miss Claire, and yes school ended about an hour ago. Oh! How’s boots doing?” he added the little exclamation at the end, feigning interest. Boots was the woman’s mutt and he wasn’t saying that to be mean – the creature was stupid enough that insulting it would be a waste and far too easy. The woman’s face couldn’t have been any brighter than if she’d been a light bulb. “She’s doing great! Thanks for remembering! She had all four of her puppies and they’re all healthy. Three boys and a little girl.” She gushed and it was all Julius could do not to shrink away from the overwhelming giddiness. “You should come and see them some time Julius, you could even adopt one.” Julius couldn’t think of a worse idea but what came out instead was, “I’ll see if I can, but I don’t think my dad will allow me to have dogs in the house.” He made his best apologetic face to dissuade her but tenacious, perky Miss Claire gave him a mischievous look. “Oh I bet we can convince him to let you have one. They won’t get very big.” She assured as if it were a done deal. “We’ll have to see. I’ll wait here until dad has me buzzed up.” He smiled, relocating to the white sofa unit a meter away from her desk. He rummaged through his bag and produced ‘the Lord of the Flies’ but his eyes hardly took in the text. If his father agreed to take in one of her scraggly mongrels he might have to poison him.

template by synchronicity

[ANNABELLE HARVEST]

Harvi had had just about enough. All this whining and complaining and pointless meetings and plans.... What good did it do? She had long since decided they weren’t getting anywhere, and she knew exactly what to do, how to solve the problem. But the old mangy crones she had to work with never listen; she figured they were simply jealous. With an indignant huff and a child-like pout, Harvi made her way swiftly to the entrance hall. She could finally leave the dreadful place and do something more... Fun.

Today had been one of those bad days. Nothing interesting had happened, and nothing amusing had been said- it truly was a terrible thing. She made her way to the reception desk, as gracefully as she could. Harvi couldn’t help but scrunch her nose up at the shrivelled, dead plant on her desk. “Are you ever actually going to water that thing?” Was the first thing that came out of her mouth, a heavy English accent laced in her voice. Harvi waved a hand, “Don’t bother. I'm not in the mood for an answer.” She leant on the desk, one foot tapping behind her.

Harvi bit her lip, her expression showing she was deep in thought for a moment. Having made a swift entrance, and her mind having been somewhere else entirely, Harvi hadn’t noticed the boy sat on the sofa. She perked, head lifting to look directly into the seemingly nervous Desk clerk’s eyes. She titled her head, “Any messages? For me?” The lady shook her head. Harvi clicked her tongue in annoyance, “Alright... Bummer.” Tch. Trust men to never phone back. She was tempted to go to the man’s place and do something to annoy him; it would certainly be funny and the scum bag deserved it. Harvi had been wanting the male to phone, simply so she could dump him in the most horrendous way possible. She had had the most disgusting date of the century. Woman were so much more reliable.

Turning around, the petite female continued to lean on the desk, eyes looking around lazily and finally coming to rest on the boy. Interest and curiosity sparked in her indigo eyes and she stood to attention. Harvi walked over to him, leaning over slightly so she could see what book it was he was apparently reading. “Hmm...” Her eyes flicked up to look at the boy’s features. “Not really a book I’d have thought a kid like you’d be reading.” She stated simply, standing up straight once again. A smiled pulled at the corners of her mouth.

“You’re quite a looker.” Was the next thing she said, having gotten no reply. Harvi sat next to him, laying back in a lazy kind of way. “For someone so young. What are you 14? 15?” She looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure it out for a moment before looking back. Please be interesting. Please be interesting....

[JULIUS BISHOP]

[bg=212121][atrb=style,border: 3px solid #333333; -moz-border-radius: 60px;][atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2rykebd.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,10%][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true]

One minute I held the key next the walls had closed on me The text on the page might as well been written in Icelandic – because hardly anyone including people in island could read that garbage. Though really it might as well have been foreign language because he must have re-read the page at least three times and couldn’t even begin to remember what it was that had been there. Everything just seemed like it was filtering in another direction and try as he might, focus was being a fickle customer and he wasn’t interested enough in the madness bound inside the hardcover to pursue her. Not that he put it down either. Julius was as uncompromising as ever. Acknowledging the lack of desire to read the chapter but refusing to stow the book away in his bag. But there were reasons for that too. If he did Claire might assume he had nothing to do and the last thing he wanted was for her to believe him not entertained. Leave it to a woman to think running errands were a good use of his time. That gargoyle he called a Stepmother was the same way. He’d pretend, simulate rapt attention on the clean pages and pray that his father or someone who knew him would let him pass into the elevators. It was the one item he was infinitely aware he couldn’t yet attain and that asking would be asinine. A fifteen year old boy with a cardkey to the upstairs of this company? There had to be rules against that or at least a lawsuit liability involved. Faintly he could hear the ticking of the wall clock but added to its steady drone came the sound of shoes on the impossibly polished floor. Julius didn’t look up; there wasn’t much need to considering the individual conveyed upon her entrance that she was not who he was waiting for nor someone that he was acquainted with. Associating with SHIFT employees outside of formal arrangements was tedious and unappealing – hell even during those ridiculous dinners he found the conversation and belittlement of his intelligence irksome to the point of wanting to toss a drink on an expensive suit and claim it was an accident. He could do it but unintentional or not he didn’t want to hear his father bitch about making him look bad. So silence was his last resort, making sure that his eyes never wavered from the page though his mind didn’t much heed the instruction to leave the new presence alone. The unknown female had a bite to her words, pointing out what he’d politely decided to ignore and to that Julius didn’t hide his smile. Someone was PMS-ing today and for once the damage wouldn’t be his fault. A surprise there or maybe even a miracle. The shoes and a shadow broke into his peripheral and it took every ounce of restraint in him to not scowl as the silhouette blocked the light from stretching over him. Though he did frown when she spoke and later plopped down beside him, sparking conversation when one clearly wasn’t wanted. Julius gave no answer to her first inquiry, leveling her with a hard stare that was met with a mirthful countenance. He didn't want to deal with this but like always, "Um, thank you. I'm 15." He gave nothing else, deeming her not worth the effort right off the bat but acting like a teen who didn't know how to react to a new situation. In many ways that was exactly what was happening.

template by synchronicity

[ANNABELLE HARVEST]

For a brief moment Harvi had the undoubtedly dull thought that she really shouldn’t be talking to this boy, that she shouldn’t be wasting time here- after all she had work to do, right? She allowed herself to snort at her own foolish thoughts. Work. Right~ Like she couldn’t handle doing it some time in the morning. She exhaled, her first attempts at conversation completely diverted off route by being utterly ignored. Harvi pouted, but that was quickly wiped off her face as he replied to her question.

“Aha! So I was right. I'm getting better at guessing.” No bloody wonder. It was the only interesting thing to do, guess the old guys age and then annoy him with half a million jokes or jibes. Harvi smirked, they always hated having their ages on display with flashlights to boot. Again, Harvi cocked her head to the side. “Wow. Such a fun conversation~” She spoke, sarcasm lacing her voice. Harvi sat forwards, dragging one leg to rest underneath her as her body squirmed round to face the boy. “I'm Harvi.” She decided to finally say after an annoying silence. “And you are?”

It was like trying to draw blood from a stone. And she was considering just leaving this boy alone; he wasn’t being much fun, but her interest get burning. It wasn’t everyday she saw children of such a young age just walking-or in his case sitting- around. A frown lightly creased her face. “You know. I’d really~ like it if you took that stick out o’ your arse.” She rose an eyebrow. “And relaxed. You know... Generally people have conversations when they meet up.” God. It wasn’t like they knew each other or anything, but Harvi was bored stiff, and she needed a conversation with someone- anyone, she would have really appreciated not being ignored.

“So~ Why’re you here? I’ve never seen you before.” Harvi popped the question. It was always better to find out sooner rather than later, she didn’t want to go making assumptions that had the possibility of being proven wrong. She hated being wrong.

[JULIUS BISHOP]

[bg=212121][atrb=style,border: 3px solid #333333; -moz-border-radius: 60px;][atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2rykebd.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,10%][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true]

One minute I held the key next the walls had closed on me Was distressing some anonymous teenager in the lobby of a place of business the best use of her time? Didn’t she have work to be getting back to? Where the hell was his father and why didn’t they have a leash on their missing animal? Keeping the grimace off his face was becoming a hardship. Julius had evolved into a creature that distinguished itself by its façade, disguising himself to assume whatever role he deemed would benefit his cause. But now as he was being pressed for social activity by some chick with backwards priorities, his clever masks were slipping. She wasn’t getting, or merely chose not to acknowledge, his reluctance to engage her and at last her sardonic remark got a bristling glare from the youth who had ceased all amiable operations and had fallen into his ‘fuck off’ mode. He didn’t like this woman and her twittering words, shallow smiles and exuberance – she made him feel claustrophobic with her nearness despite the wide space they were in. Harvi’s introduction didn’t incline him to do the same, glowering unhappily in the wake of her greeting. He had no obligations here, he wasn’t an employee and since he owed her nothing he’d give her nothing. “You know. I’d really~ like it if you took that stick out o’ your arse.” Okay, that did it. The boy’s book slammed shut and he scooted as far away from the violet-eyed woman as the couch would allow. His skin was trying to crawl away and he was damn well going to follow it. “You know, I’d really like someone to stick one up yours but I don’t go wishing on stars now do I?” he retorted venomously, grabbing up his tote bag and sticking the no longer needed prop to its place amongst his textbooks. He wanted to be all packed and ready when he was let upstairs – or when he was fleeing because Harvi decided that the she hadn’t invaded his personal space enough. Julius gave her a disinterested look, “My dad told me not to talk to strangers.” He said, smooth as butter and cold as ice, like it was expected of him to try and discourage her from speaking with the use of the oldest kindergarten law. “My dad works here.” Again it was a curt and precise answer, not willing to give more than the basic information because she’d take a mile if he gave the inch. “Don’t you have reports to right? Budgeting to do?”

template by synchronicity

[ANNABELLE HARVEST]

She had been hoping to get to him in some way or form and eventually it seemed to work. His book snapped shut and he moved as far away from her as he could manage on the sofa. Harvi grinned wolfishly, her arm going up to lean on the back of the piece of furniture. “Aha! So he does know how to form a proper sentence! I was beginning to wonder.” She spoke as if what he had said didn’t affect her in the slightest- which it didn’t. In fact, it was rather amusing how he went from the little innocent boy who didn’t know what to do or say, to the sharp tongued teenager. Her initial instinct had been correct. This was proving interesting. It was always fun to annoy someone, after all they all reacted differently; it was highly entertaining and for Harvi it was a good time waster.

“What’s this? Have you practised in front of the mirror or something? Everyone talks to strangers, Hun.” She couldn’t help but give a sharp toothed grin. “It’s how you make friends.” Harvi’s head tilted to rest on her propped up arm, her eyes never once leaving the boy but constantly scanning him up and down for the slightest change- observation always proved the best way to improve tactics. “Oh right~” She rolled her eyes as if the answer had been clear as day. “Of course. Your dad works here.” She rose an eyebrow, lifting her head once again, the next thing he said causing her to giggle slightly. “Hmpft. I'm slightly offended you’d think I do something so... Menial.” Harvi gave a mock pout, “Lets just say... I'm doing work right now.”

Ah yes. Work. A brilliant little experiment into human reactions. It was fascinating how the mind worked and how people reacted differently to situations. She smiled lightly to herself. “And you’re proving to be interesting.” A perfect waste of her time. After all, she really didn’t have much else to do. Harvi figured it was this, going out or doing some work at home- which really didn’t strike her fancy at the moment. This was much more fun.

[JULIUS BISHOP]

[bg=212121][atrb=style,border: 3px solid #333333; -moz-border-radius: 60px;][atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2rykebd.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,10%][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true]

One minute I held the key next the walls had closed on me This was getting tedious, not to mention stressing and he without an aspirin was not something anyone wanted to deal with. A hand palming his face, trying to keep himself in check by reminding himself that they weren’t exactly alone here. Miss Claire’s impression of him must have done a complete 360 by now. Having witness the usually soft-spoken and cheery high school student turn into a venom-spitting snake in the course of five minutes. Peeking through his slim fingers and frowning intensely he said at last, “Now that you’ve assured yourself of my English, would you kindly leave me alone please? You make me uncomfortable.” There, the truth as far as anyone else was aware. Probably one of the truest statements that he’d ever make considering he didn’t often find much reason to share his actual feelings with anyone. Doing so rarely benefited him unless it was some minor, frivolous pursuit. His violin lessons were a good enough example as any. He didn’t really expect her to heed his request, she seemed the tenacious type and running her off wouldn’t be easy. In fact, he’d probably just made it worse with saying he wanted her gone. She’d probably stick around just to spite him – at least that was the impression he was getting. Harvi apparently missed the sarcasm. What would practicing in the mirror do? Besides make him look like an under-socialized crazy person? Eyebrows furrowing, he listened – if you call can call the miserable tension and clear lack of interest listening. “I have friends.” Julius snarled, bristling hotly and looking a few steps away from a tantrum seeing as his ears had begun to redden as did his neck, telltale indications of his stress levels reaching maximum. “I prefer all my friends be my age not crazy adults.” Simpering, he leaned an elbow against the couches arm and balanced his cheek in his hand, vainly trying to calm down as Harvi kept chatting away. Honestly. The woman probably poked tigers in the nose in her free time. “I really don’t see how talking to me constitutes work. I am not your patient and I am not your excuse so do what you women do best and disappear would you?” This coming out in a groan of absolute despair as he lowered his forehead into his palm, staving off another blooming headache that Harvi’s nagging had brought on.

template by synchronicity

[ANNABELLE HARVEST]

Harvi’s gaze flicked momentarily to the woman behind the desk. She seemed to be nervous and curious about the two of the two of them being together like this; and she was, no doubt about it, feeling the heavy atmosphere building around them. She couldn’t help but smirk. Oho... She had chosen the perfect little person to talk to, she had no complaints. Even the way he spoke didn’t really get on her nerves- the pure reaction was enough to send a shiver of amusement down her spine, her mind buzzing as she thought of things to say in reply. “Hmm...” Harvi took a moment to pretend thought, “Na.” She casually leant back, squirming in her seat to further exaggerate her answer.”I'm rather comfortable here.” Winking, Harvi played with a bit of her hair, rather like a ditzy blonde would. Her whole appearance now was of innocence, the only give away was the gleam in her eye, the mischievous glint striking her indigo gaze.

Of course, Harvi knew that Julius really didn’t expect her to listen; after all, nothing of her attitude suggested she was the type to obey orders- especially those of a young boy. He truly was amusing, and she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to dance all over someone’s emotions.

Harvi cocked an eyebrow. “Oh~ Really now?” She stated- more or less forming a question- in a patronising tone. “And what do you do exactly? Bully them into befriending you? Or do you-“ She smiled, “-bat your eyelashes a few times and feign innocence?” She imagined the second was more likely when she put his initial reaction to her into focus. Hide the venomous core under a blanket of fluffy-goodness and you have Julius. From what she gathered anyway. In all her life Harvi had never met a child quite like Julius, she didn’t really want to think about what went on in his mind- though... It was rather interesting, to say the least. Her head tilted to the side, her eyes never once leaving his face, her gaze unblinking. Wild thoughts raced underneath those purple pools.

“Aha. Well, you wouldn’t would you?” Harvi’s tongue poked out the corner of her mouth. She frowned slightly at the last few words to leave Julius’ mouth. “Hmm? What’s this then? Want me to do a magic trick?” The sarcasm was clear in her voice, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she continued to look at him.

[JULIUS BISHOP]

[bg=212121][atrb=style,border: 3px solid #333333; -moz-border-radius: 60px;][atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2rykebd.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,10%][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true]

One minute I held the key next the walls had closed on me Of course she wasn’t going to leave him alone. Why’d he even bother to ask if he’d already anticipated the answer? Wishful thinking? His request had flown about as well as an insanity plea for a misdemeanor. How he going to get out of this was anybody’s guess. Harvi, whose interest was no less piqued than from when she’d started the harassment of the teenager, was thoroughly enjoying herself and made a performance out of dousing his hope for solitude with a fresh gallon of petrol. It was inevitable that she was able to uncover how to accurately press his buttons considering Julius had over a million of them and each annoyance was pretty much alike another thus making it almost disappointingly easy to piss off the vertically challenged youth. Julius was unable to decide what annoyed him more at this point: Harvi’s casual way of getting under his skin or her ditzy way of doing it. Even now, as she sat on her end of company sofa twirling her hair with a finger, Julius couldn’t feel anything aggravated by her. If all women promised to be as grating as the dark-haired corporate employee then he was going gay because he couldn’t put up with all this shit on a daily basis. He didn’t want to wake up in the morning beside a woman who’d sooner pick at him for everything than make him breakfast. He preferred his women to be silent and at a certain degree of manipulability and Harvi was proving to be neither of those two things, which immediately put her out of the running for Mrs. Bishop – not that she had ever been in the race to begin with. He didn’t like wrinkly crones for anything other than the occasion lemon drop and he’d sooner step into a windowless van with a man who said he had a kitten inside than accept anything from Harvi. Except maybe rope to stab her with. “I make friends the same way anybody else would. Network.” He mumbled out, deflating in the moments of unrelated fatigue brought on more from his lack of stamina for this kind of thing. “No bullying, no eyelash batting or bribery or any other negative thing you could come up with.” The words coming in an exasperated breath, eye no longer positioned on the woman and trying to fixate on one particular tile in the floor. Sort of like the, ‘if I can’t see you then I’ll stay sane’, method of dealing with the other seeing as Miss Claire was useless and daddy had either forgotten he was down here or wasn’t out of his meeting. The boy rolled his eyes – though only one of which was visible – and offered a frustrated groan in response to the final sardonic retort from the woman and deciding he’d need to just shut up all together. Putting his head in the bend of his elbow, which rested on the armrest of the couch, a curt ‘no thank you’ sounded from him but he gave no more ammunition to be used against him.

template by synchronicity

[ANNABELLE HARVEST]

“You know what I think.” Harvi practically whispered, “I think you’re someone who’s used to getting his own way.” She had just about stopped paying any attention to what Julius was saying, it wasn’t interesting after all. Why should she stop and spend some of time listening to him mumble when she could be thinking of other... More important things. Not that they were actually important in any way.

Harvi, after a moment thinking about it, shuffled her body round so she was now completely facing him. Her head cocked to the side she said, “I'll tell you something.” Harvi paused for dramatic effect, maybe even drawing a little dread from Julius. “You’ve got to find exactly what’ll hit a raw nerve. Then cling to it.” She stuck out her tongue slightly, “Thats exactly what I’ve done with you.” She giggled, “Its so fun~” Harvi could honestly sit and analyse a person all day. People could be so fascinating...

((( Yikes... Its so short OO Sorry! >.< Its like trying to draw blood from a stone with my muse at the moment T^T )))