And with that... //Open Starter/
Sid shrugged his shoulders, bunching his coat higher up around his neck. He’d picked the wrong time to cut his hair, when it had just started getting cold and snowflakes whipped like stinging nettle down the wide collar of their coat when the wind swung.
Sid also couldn’t say why they’d decided against warmer shores as the weather had taken a turn. It was probably going to be a brutal winter sitting along the ridge of the lake, yet here they were. With a lease almost a year long, signed with a fake name and paid for in cash.
Then maybe it was time. He’d never bothered to hide his presence and had skated for years along the southern border, debating and deciding against time and again if he should try and skip across it for somewhere else. Anywhere else. Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, across the ocean to the world far far away from ducking government agents.
He always decided against it, in the end. It seemed like the easiest way to get caught, and something else...Something that made him stay in the country.
Maybe that same something that led him up the middle of it, and landed here. Somewhere unfortunately cold. And unfortunately boring. Every city Sid had visited had a soul, something unique and interesting, a voice or a language. Cleveland was almost unique in how boring it was. Sid wasn’t sure he had ever felt more of a prickling discomfort of being watched just walking down the street even though not a single soul has raised their head to even glance as Sid passed by.
He’d cut his hair a week ago, stepped into a barbers shop as he passed by it and let them cut more or less to their discretion. It was shorter than he’d had it in 5 or more years. Maybe a little more. A change that felt a little like a cold splash of water, even though Sid was already sure he missed the length.
Their coat was too thin, collar high but not to block out the wind and long enough it was catching flecks of quickly graying snow against the red with from their boots when he walked. Sid was already feeling miserable sorry for themselves, and the weather had only just dipped bellow freezing this week.
Swerving wide to avoid a santa swinging his bell, they turned into a place for coffee, more because the line was long enough he could wait there until his fingers were warm again.
