Ch 2: The Blu D-Mon
Have you ever been struck by a stranger before? Not necessarily from a physical touch or anything like that, but just their presence and the way that they carry themselves. For some reason, that image of them lingers in your mind like a distant fragrance you can taste. that’s exactly the way this girl had effected him. After walking 3 blocks from the bus stop, she still revolved around in his mind. There was just something about her that felt so familiar, yet he couldn’t put his finger on it just yet. The answer seem to be right in his face, yet just out of his reaches. He pulled the phone out from his pockets for the forth time since he left of the bus. It was a basic flip phone, yet apparently customized to her likings. The cover was entirely pink, with hints of glitter scattered about, and little butterfly stickers on the edges. It was hard for him to believe such a phone belonged to a girl the same age as himself. Then again, with her charmful ways, the phone really did match her personality well. Or so he thought anyway. Twirling the phone around in his hands a bit, he thought about Lisa. What would she say about his little in counter? Knowing her, she’d probably want a full detail description of the girl. Well what did she look like? Was she pretty? What did she have on? What color is the phone again? Ohhhh, how cute! I love butterflies… Butterflies. He thought long and hard about it. But felt that it was too far of a stretch. Theirs no way that could have been Lisa. Or could it? They never have exactly seen each other before. They were practically still strangers. Who’s to say that he hasn’t passed her up once or twice before without either of them ever realizing it. But he put that Idea into the far reaches of his mind as he began to approach the job site. To avoid any unnecessary explanations he decided it was best to keep the phone hidden from his coworker and not even mention what happened today. T-Man wasn’t exactly the buddy buddy type, But he did know people. The guy that he was working with happened to bump into him one day and they found out they had similar interest. They also had a very unique bond between them. As you should have noticed by now, T-man is a child of very few words. But as for his colleague, he’s very loud and talkative, especially after he warms up to you. Normally T-man wouldn’t even associate himself around such people, but he knew he was good company. They never talked about much, just small talk mostly. His associate did most of the talking while T-Man, either nodded according to the question, commented briefly and as shortly as possible, or just didn’t respond at all. They were so used to each others company by now that T-man didn’t even notice his accent anymore. “Chello mate!” Skullz called out once T-Man was in viewing distance. He was hunched over reading a magazine on the concrete floor while sitting Indian style on a empty crate and eating an apple. “Took ya long enough. You know I almost put out a search party for ya Z?” with a slight grin, T-Man shook his head. Skullz was always coming up with some bizarre story, no matter what the occasion was. The guy just oozed with imagination sometimes, and it definitely showed in his work. In fact that was basically the only reason he was hired in the first place. If it wasn’t for T-Man per swaying the boss, well not only would skullz not have a job. He might not even have been able to walk out with his own two legs. Lets just say he made a very memorable first impression when he commented on how she looked like a fire breathing dragon. It didn’t help much either when her face turned bright red and she stared to growl at him. “ So what’s on the menu for today Z? more fairies dancing about the lemon lily tree? Or is dragon lady finally gonna give us a break this time around mate?” “You already know the answer to that one Skullz. Besides, we got to finish this one up first remember?” He pointed up to the wall right in front of him. Just then skullz realized that they were on the side of the Blissful café (the place were they work at). “Ooh yea….Kew Z!” He sprigged right up and reached for empty air. T-Man duged into his backpack for supplies and tossed a spray can over to skullz. In moments they were back in business, adding the final touches to the nearly completed portrait. T-Man handled the body of the image, while skullz did the lettering and small details to make it more eye popping (he really did want to see someone’s eyes pop out when they passed it by). About a half and hour after starting, the duo was finally finish and taking a well deserved lunch break. They didn’t go anywhere, just sat down on the curb and ate while admiring their own handy work. “So Mate,” said Skullz after taking a huge chunk out his sub sandwich. “Ben meaning to ask ya something Z.” “Yea?” Skullz looked over at T-Mans side of the portrait. “Who exactly is that girly over their mate? And old fling or something?” T-Man looked up at the part he was referring to. He had modeled the girl after someone but he didn’t want to admit it. It was suppose to be of Lisa, but he was just going by what his imagination of her told him. “Its just a picture, nothing special.” he said as calmly as possible. “Oh,… Kew Z.” replied skullz as he went back to devouring the sub. As T-Man continued to look at the picture, his mind drifted. Not about Lisa, but about the pink phone that was in his pocket. “Oh yea, got another one for ya mate.” said skullz as he rose to whip off some of the sauce that landed on his shirt with his bare hands. So after whipping off his shirt, he then wiped it onto his pants and called it a day. T-Man didn’t respond this time. As he reached into his pockets, he found that the girls phone was now missing from his possession. Franticly he looked all over the grey concert tiles. “Are you borrowing your sissy’s phone Z or is pink your new favorite color?” without even looking up, he knew Skullz had found it. “Geez mate, how old is your sissy anyway? This looks like it belongs to a kindergartener Z!” He busted out laughing, but T-Man wasn’t amused. Ever time he tried to snatch it from him, Skullz would move it just out of his reach or stick his butt out so he couldn’t get it. “ah, ah ,ah. Didn’t you mum ever teach ya any mannerz mate? Gotta say pretty please with sugar and sprinklez on top.” Skullz decided he’d play around a bit more and began to mess with the buttons “Its not my phone skullz, hand it over.” T-Man said in a mello, yet stern tone. “Well I figured that much Z, you’re names not Lisa….or is it?” at first, T-Man could figure why he’d said that until he got a good look for himself. Sure enough, right below the screen was the name “Lisa” written in cursive and with a heart to dot the I. was it just a coincidence? The evidence was starting to pile up when suddenly a cheery melody played in the air. It was the phone’s ring tone. Both boys looked at the phone, then at each other, then back at the phone. “Just let it ring, it’s probably one of her friends.” T-man said as he took the phone away from skullz. But before he could put it back in his pocket, Skullz had not only snatched it back from him, but also answered it with a very merry “Chello mate!”. T-Man Panicked! He didn’t know who was on the other line, it could have been a number of people. What if it was her boyfriend, or her mother or some other relative…what if she called it herself? T-Man motion franticly for Skullz to hang up, but with a huge smile, he gave him the thumbs up, and continued to talk to the person. “So how are ya Z? nice weather we’re having aye mate?” Before Skullz could do any further damage, T-man yanked it away from him and hastily answered the phone himself. “Umm, hello? Sorry for the miss understanding. See this isn’t my phone and…” “Who is this?” interrupted the voice. He recognized it as the girl from the bus. “IT’S THE LEGENDARY PEPPER MOTH Z!!!!!!!!!” Yelled Skullz with a smile. T-Man gave him a stern look, but skullz simply ignored it and decided to tinker a bit with his Rubix cube. “Umm, sorry about that, …My name is Tim…I’m the guy from the bus remember?’ After a long pause she replied. “Oh…yes. I do. You were the boy who had all those pictures right?” T-man grinned. “Yea, that was me…and you’re Lisa correct?” “Yes…but how did you…” “Lisa Lovely?” Their was a long pause again, in which T-man started to regret saying it. He heard some noise from the other end of the line. Obviously she was not alone. Finally she replied but in a lower tone than before. “…who are you?” Hesitant himself. T-man worked up the courage and responded. “ Does Bear Bur ring any bells?” What he heard next sounded like a mixture of a squeal and a whimper. “Tim,.. is this really you? …oh my goodness.” from the sound of her voice, she seemed to be trying to conceal her excitement. He couldn’t believe it himself. The feeling in his gut was right, the girl on the bus was none other than Miss Luna16 herself, Lisa Lovely. “So, umm…” She began to stumble over her words. It was as if she didn’t know what to say, or how to respond to him now. “Yea, don’t worry. You’re phones still intact. I’ll make sure to return it in one piece.” He said rather hastily. “No, no. that’s not what I was going to ask…” with a deep breathe, she continued. “ I was wondering if you’d like to meet up sometime soon. You know, so you could give me the phone in person…” T-Man was taken back by this. He didn’t expect for her to say something like that. He figured she’d try to stay as far away from him as possible, especially after seeing how lame he was in real life. “Are you sure?” He started out. “I mean, I could just drop it off somewhere so you can get it later if you’d like.” “I would rather prefer that you hand it to me yourself…I kinda want to see you again Tonto.” (tonto was the nick name she had given him when they first started talking. She thought he was very funny and cute the way he talked. She always knew their was something different about him but didn’t know what it was). The word echoed in his mind. This had to be some kind of dream. He dared to pinch himself, but the sound of Skullz Belch was enough for him to realize that he was indeed still in the real world. Before he knew it, his heart took control of his lips. “Sure, what ever makes you feel most comfortable princess.” “Princess?” echoed Skullz. “Geez mate, you totally lucked up on this one Z!” t-Man was about to apologize on behalf of Skullz for the remark, but luckily enough, she didn’t her him anyways. “ were exactly would you like to meet up at?” “umm, I suppose the park sounds nice. I mean, if that’s alright with you of course.” “Oh, of course.” She laughed more openly now, meaning that either she had managed to find a more private place to talk or she had totally forgotten about her friends being there. “But it’s going to have to be around 7 cause I have a work out session in a bit and that could last up to about an hour and a half. Plus I‘ll have to freshen up a bit if I want to see you. Don‘t want to scar you off with my horrible odder or anything.” “Sure thing, I don’t mind it at all.” they both laughed casually. “So its official then. 7 o’clock we meet up at the park. How about we just stand near the fountain, that way it’ll be easier for us to spot one another.” “Alright then.” T- Man nodded. In a way he was still getting over the fact that she actually wanted to meet him in person again. He couldn’t help but worry how awkward the moment would be, or how fast it would go by. “alright then, guess I’ll be seeing you sooner then I thought tonto.” he could feel her warm smile threw the circuitry and the wires which separated them. “bye bye for now tonto. See you in a little bit.” “Bye Lisa.” and with a click of the phone, she was gone. “So who’s the lucky lady you’ll be courting tonight Z?” for the first time since they’ve know each other, T-man said something that shocked even Skullz. “Just a good friend of mines that’s all.” and with that, he packed up his materials and left Skullz speechless with his mouth wide open.
