real tough kid.

It took talent to do what he did. Driving took more talent than people thought. He was an athlete through and through.

"It seems a lot easier than it actually is. It's not a scam. It's a sport. I trained every day from when I was ten all the way until I moved here." Still. He didn't expect people to really understand.

Granted, a good piece of the population definitely shouldn't have been allowed to have one -- herself included, which only further proved her point.

"No offense, buddy, but that seems like calling playing a video game a sport -- you know? Doesn't a sport require actually moving your body? Like, I was a stripper -- that is a sport."

@freddyvermeer

"Did it escape from a zoo or something?"

@mrforesight

While not one to typically complain about nature, Dorian did feel a bit peeved as he stared back at now empty soil he was just gardening in. A rooster, of all things, had managed to undo his work in a near instant and behind his back (literally).

And then the thief was gone. Which has Dorian even more flustered.

"You're probably going to think I've gone right mad, but have you seen a rooster wanderin' about? The wee bugger ate all of my seeds while I was planting them."

(For something that was all about the size of a double Whopper hamburger, the dog could be fiercely suspicious of men and therefore an ankle biter.)

At his words, she narrows her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Did you just ask me if I've seen a fucking rooster?"

@mrforesight

He rests his phone on his chest as he looks at his sister, her question a strange one for her. Scottie was a thousand times more likely to tell him not not mention their mom than to bring her up in conversation.

"Last month or thereabouts, why?"

She denies it and inhales sharply to remove it.

Scottie felt constantly in a state of purgatory in her relationship with her mother: she felt sick whenever the woman's name was mentioned, and yet felt hurt that she reached out to Atlas more often.

"No reason," she mumbles with a limp, one shoulder shrug.

"Just wondered. I haven't heard from her in two years and change. That's all."

@atlasnolan

( Had it been a few months prior when his anger had still been smouldering, the potential wouldn't have been completely unfounded. )

In the absence of a true yes or an outright no, Buddy does his best to keep steady footing on a maybe that's destabilising in nature.

He wants to walk it back, save face, regain the upper hand.

More than any of those, he wants to hold her hand.

He wants to be able to kiss her again, to tell her stupid things that have happened during his stupid days and all the other sentimental shit that when he witnessed it from anyone else made his eyes roll so hard in his head they were at risk of falling out.

"I figured it wasn't, suppose I'll never get to the bottom of who that was," Buddy concedes, giving his favourite arsonist the benefit of the doubt even if there isn't a single doubt in his mind that his one and only suspect was as guilty as it got, "One of life's many mysteries."

( There was no saving his car but there was still something to salvage between them. )

"It's not a trick. I'm actually being very fucking sincere right now which doesn't come naturally to me. I know you won't be short of options here for a first date but why waste your time on a coin toss? Heads, perfectly fine. Tails, complete loser. I'm the last guy in here who deserves a shot with you but I'm also the only one in here who knows what I want. First date with me's no pressure, I already want a second and third one."

(As if the same lighter that had started his car on fire almost a year ago wasn't the same one that she had in her purse to light her cigarettes.)

And maybe if she could go back in time she would make different choice about it. But then whenever she goes back to how she felt hearing Atlas tell her he'd seen Buddy kissing someone else on the beach, she can feel her base instincts urge to take over again. Scottie can't keep up the haughty act when Buddy says that he's sincere, her gaze falling over to his face against her better judgement.

It's so annoying that her stomach flips when the two of them make eye contact.

Sure, maybe it was eating out of the trash. But sometimes dumpster diving had it's merits.

"One date."

(She doesn't include the fact that it will be the first she's ever had."

@buddywellls

"Well, as stupid as it is, that's part of the game. My career was entirely paid for by some guy who thought I had talent." Nevermind that his love of the sport came from the same man. Nevermind that man was the reason that he no longer raced.

He knows there are a lot of people who hate athletes. Honestly, he can't blame them. He doesn't like them either. "I have money and I wouldn't give it away to some dumbass that's going to get a concussion at least once in their lifetime."

Scottie was hardly impressed by the notion -- then again, she'd witnessed first hand the amount of dumb shit that people with money would blow it on.

Ugly clothes, mediocre food, those fucking ugly pictures of bored monkeys that were supposedly going to 'appreciate in value'.

"Here I thought my OnlyFans was a good grift. Turns out I shouldn't have gone into driving. Seems like a more lucrative scam. And way fewer people in the world would have seen my tits."

@freddyvermeer