venus of the avenue

[ FELIX WEST. 27. NON-BINARY. HE/THEY ] is here! They’ve lived in Silver Lake for [ 2 YEARS ] and are originally from [ SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA ]. They are a [ STAFF MEMBER AT READY PLAYER ONE ] and in their downtime love [ SURFING ] and [ LAUGHING ]. They look a lot like [ BOOBOO STEWART ] and live [ ON REDCLIFF STREET ].

niko: it's not often that i let someone rip me off, ya know?

niko: whatever you took from my lot, i'm giving you one chance to bring it back before i go looking for you myself.

niko: only way to get out of this is if you make me a better offer? then i might let the whole thing slide.

felix: look man, if you saw how this thing balanced the qi in my room, you'd not be so angry

felix: in fact, your own qi would be balanced, just as mine has been

There was a fleeting thought in the back of her mind questioning whether or not Felix knew the details of her failed relationship. He had to have picked up on something, working in the arcade and living next door. “Oh, it’s nothing interesting. I try to read up on recent cases from the Supreme Court or the Ninth Circuit from time to time to stay up to date on precedent. They opinions are usually to wordy even for my liking,” she responds with a shrug, realizing how boring it must all sound. Her fingers drummed against the counter. It seemed polite and fair to ask how his job was going, but did she really want to know anything besides the surface level details? “So,” she clears her throat. “Are you still working at the arcade?”

-

Felix nodded along as she spoke to show he was listening. When she mentioned their wordiness, he straightened his posture as he took a deep breath in, eyes widening slightly. “Why do they do that?-- I mean government people, philosophers, ‘smart dudes,’ they make everything so gosh darn dense that the ‘common people’ they like to speak about so much can’t even understand what they’re saying?” His frustration with this topic went far back since his attention span hardly ever stretched far enough into certain texts because of their lengthy ways of answering To be, or not to be? He wondered if it truly mattered whether or not he could make it through it anyway since details often slipped through his memory likes grains of sand spilling through the fingers of the hand that held them. Though he was well aware that Emma and Bowie had been married and that both had recently-ish separated, he somehow always managed to forget that it they had divorced each other so he often found himself speaking freely of one to the other. Like now, for example, he said without much consideration, “Oh, yeah. The other day I pranked Bowie so good! I put a bunch of fake, but very real looking poops all around the arcade, sprayed some crap-smelling perfume all around and called him in, saying we had a cat invasion!” Felix laughed as he told the story, thinking of his boss’ face when he smelt the awful scented spray.

He’s not giving her any clues and there’s no doubt in her mind that this is the expression Felix has when he’s up to something. She smiles, liking how they sit side by side protected from the night’s breeze – just the two of them and the sound of the water, every time she moves her feet in it. It’s so peaceful. Inhaling deeply, Emily looks at the blue waters for a moment. She’s thankful for how kind he is to her, and how well Felix seems to know her. Little things mattered the most, and right now the brunette is happy and at peace. 

Leaning into his touch, the brunette smiles as she listens to the story. She always thought it would be awesome, growing up with siblings. Being an only child was often lonely, especially when her parents were busy with the diner. She never blamed them – they did the best they could and they loved her dearly. “Oh my God.” A giggle escapes her, turning to look at him. “Little rascals, giving your dad a scare! Sounds fun though. Did you guys do that a lot?” she asks, wondering if they would all come up with games to play together that would sometimes give their parents a scare. “It must have been so nice growing up around people close to your age.” 

She laughs, Felix’s expression far too funny to ignore. Leaning in closer, the brunette bumps her shoulder into his. “What? Nope. No way.” Shaking her head, Emily laughs. “You know I’m the best swimmer out there. You’ve seen the pool at Oasis, how could you ever doubt my abilities to turn into a fish?” she jokes, biting down on her lip. “You know what.. let’s do it. The loser has to make the other dinner.” 

Surprised by how quickly she took on the challenge (but then not because it was Emily after all), Felix quickly took his feet out of the pool and stood up. First, apologizing for having splashed a bit of water on her, he then responded to her trash talk, “Excuse miss, but I think you’re forgetting that I was swimming before I could walk.” He held out his hands and helped her before so that he could bring their bodies together. He gave her a quick peck on the lips, then while still holding her close, asked “So, have you ever gone skinny dipping before?”

She appreciated this kind of stuff when she was a little less here and a little more there. Leave it to Felix to have a genius idea to make that happen. She’s needed this, whether she knew it at the time or not. With work on its way to giving her a gray hair and the little moments at two in the morning in a solo-apartment, she could appreciate the hand squeezing her own. A tether; mostly to keep her from bursting into giggles in public. Focus, Kayla. “Mmm?” she started, coming back to Earth once Felix stepped out. She hopped out after, wrapping an arm around his to stay steady. “No, not in forever. Pretty sure the last time I came here, there was a big Roman exhibit? It was an excuse to look at hot naked people.” She snorted, leaning in to avert her gaze from passerby’s. “Fucking love art.”

-

Affection and physical touch were important to Felix. They were things he had never reserved strictly for romantics, but rather preferred applying them to his platonic relationships, though he founds that it normally ended up confusing certain friends into thinking he wanted something more. Luckily, Kayla was not one of those people and it seemed as though their friendship was only strengthened by their shared philosophy.

Happily, he supported her, wrapping his own arm over her shoulder as she leaned in. He laughed as she recounted her last experience at the museum (perhaps a little too hard considering his state of mind). “Me too,” he concurred, nodding his head over to the nearest building to indicate that’s where they should go first. As they began walking over to it, Felix looked around them to make sure someone would hear him since he loved getting a reaction out of people and wanted to see how a stranger would react to the next question he had for his friend. “How many titties do you think we’ll see today?”

“Super like them?” Amos looked at his brother skeptically. “And what if they see I’ve super liked them? Can they see that? I don’t get this app at all.” Amos wasn’t really one for internet dating, or dating apps, but he’d been single for long enough now and he wanted something at least. “Okay fine. Swipe on them.” He gave his phone to Felix. “You do it.”

-

“Yah, they can see that you’ve super liked them, which is the whhooolle point of doing it!” Felix replied with a tone of exasperation. Sometimes he wondered if the difference in them had to do with one being the oldest and the other being the youngest of the West clan or something due to the fact that they didn’t share the same genes. Whatever the reason, Felix was oftentimes amused by it and liked to tease Amos for his timidness, so he held his arms straight out, palms facing out towards his brother to reject the offered phone. “No, no, no, nope! You have to do it or else you’ll have to tell them that your baby brother Felix super likes them.”

“I could tell you right now, we don’t even have to wait in line,” she says, falling in step with Felix. Sometimes she was very pleased with her decision to move to L.A., on sunny days like this, with palm trees cropping up every now and then on the residential street. It was a world away from Vancouver (or home Sweden home). “Angela Carter was an English novelist, most famous for The Bloody Chamber, where she reimagined a whole bunch of European fairytales. Her writing is hypnotic, magical, and everything I aspire to write.”

-

Felix tried to imagine what else could be done with fairytales that Hollywood and Disney hadn’t already attempted. He was intrigued by the title because it sounded as though the author may have worked with the original tales’ blood and the characters’ ruthlessness. “Sounds magical,” he agreed as they walked down the busy street, trying to avoid bumping into strangers while listening to his friend. “Though now I’m interested to know how you, Miss Marla, might reimagine some fairytales.” The small crowd they’d passed trimmed down and he was able to walk alongside her without difficulty now. “Like... The Little Mermaid?” He asked for the mere fact that they both had red hair.

Working at the arcade was its own form of torture at this point, especially with a twisted ankle, but the shifts she shared with Felix were always significantly better. Unfortunately for him, she usually used his presence as an excuse to do all the things she didn’t want to do. Like this one. She stopped in front of him, holding a mop in one hand. “Some kid threw up in the bathroom. I would clean it, but…” She motioned to her ankle, which was mostly fine now, and shrugged helplessly. “I’ll keep you company, though.” @westfelix​

-

Just as Felix was about to tell Rory to go clean up the puke, his brown hues landed on her sprained ankle. Despite appreciating the young woman quite a lot, it was ultimately the injury which saved her from cleaning duties. He scrunched his nose as if already, he were able to smell the rancid scent of upchuck. “As long as I don’t have to endure it alone,” he nodded, regretfully accepting the task set upon him by his beloved coworker. “What even happened to you?” Felix knew Rory had told him, but the details escaped him as most things slipped from his memory. “Was it dragons again?" 

His energy has always been lifting her spirits after a difficult day, and that was not an exception now. She lets out a laugh, her fingers moving to tug at the hair-tie on her wrist, “– Of course. The stars.” Emily repeats, unable to hide the smile from her face. Not wasting her time, she pushes a few hair away from her face, before fixing brown locks up on a loose ponytail. Having spent countless nights stargazing, there’s something sad, yet poetic about seeing something so beautiful in the sky; knowing how it’s only a memory of the past. 

Despite vaguely knowing where they are, because of her familiarity with the area, Emily has never been in there before. It’s probably why it has picked her curiosity and Felix has always been so good with surprises because he didn’t go too far with them. He knew how little things mattered to her, and she appreciated that so much. She completely trusted him at this point, so when he spoke again, the brunette walks slightly closer to reach for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You better not get me in trouble.” she told him, voice soft like a whisper. Though, the young woman was more than prepared to start running if that’s what they needed to do. He, was the best worst influence she’s ever had. 

 A soon as the opens the door, and they walk in, she’s left staring at a pool; giggling lightly at Felix’s reaction. “Oh my God.” This was great —- wonderful. There was a pool in Oasis springs, but nothing like this one. Biting down on her bottom lip, Emily wastes no time; kicking her shoes off, then removing her shocks. “Is that how you’re planning on making me relax for the day?” she jokes, before she pushes her jeans over her ankles to keep them away from the water. “This is great.” With that, she moved to take a seat on the edge of the pool, diving both feet right into the cold water. 

-

Taking his seat right beside her, Felix quickly rolled up the ends of pantlegs and stuck his feet into the water. Though the it wasn’t exactly warm, the air around them wasn’t exactly cold either. Being indoors and all, the pool was protected from the outside climate, naturally. “Something like this, but nnnoot this,” he responded, biting down on his lower lip to keep the mischievousness behind his smile from showing. He knew he had to be careful going about getting Emily in the water and he feared if he revealed too much of his plan too quickly that she would say ‘no’ and he would be forced to give her her gift early.

So, instead of directly inviting her to a swim, Felix decided to challenge her in some way. How to do it was tricky and he thought a game of Truth-or-Dare would be a bit too transparent. He decided to tell her about a game he and his siblings would play as children while passing summer afternoons in the pool of the West family home. “We would sit at the bottom of the shallow end and see who could hold their breath the longest,” he began with a smiling, a small chuckle of laughter punctuated the first bit of his story. As he continued speaking, he reached for Emily’s hair and stroked it softly, admiring the feel of its silkiness on his hands. “One day, while I was eating my lunch, I saw my dad jump into the pool with all of his clothes on. I was so confused--everyone was and everyone rushed out to see why he’d done it. Turns out, he saw my brother and sister at the bottom of the pool, not moving, for a couple of seconds too long and he thought they had drowned. Really, they were just competing to see who would be the Breath Holding Champion.”

By the time Felix finished his story, he had to suppress some of his laughter as the image of his father, wet and irritated by silly childish games, remained vivid and clear in his mind’s eye. He tried to show Emily the soaking grimace of Papa West, but Felix lacked his father’s large mustache and piercing blue eyes that looked red from the chlorine. Still, he managed to make her laugh and that was enough for him. Once all of their laughter had rolled out of their bellies, Felix peered over at Emily and said in a serious, challenging tone: “Bet I could my breath longer than you can.”

‘Okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely do you think they’re going to swipe right for me?’ Amos asked, holding his phone over to his friend to see. ‘If I don’t swipe on them, and they swipe on me, then we’re not going to see each other… but if I do swipe on them and they don’t on me then I’m going to feel stupid. Should I risk it?’ He pauses. ‘Am I overthinking this? I am aren’t I? I’m doing it again.’

-

“Of course you are,” Felix rolled his eyes, chuckling as he reached for the phone to look at the individual his brother was talking about. “Just do what I do when I see people I know: Super like them.” Eyebrows wiggling, Felix’s thumb hovered over the blue star. “It’s can be read a number of ways--‘I see you’ or ‘Finally, here are my feelings.’ Either way, you come off coy and confident.”

Hands in his pockets, Felix wandered up and down his street as he thought of something to do. He’d just gotten off work and did not feel like being indoors anymore, but could not come up with anything to do. It was too chilly, too late in the day to go surfing, and even then, he wouldn’t be able to because he had sprained his wrist from landing on his all weird when he went skateboarding yesterday. Kicking pebbles, Felix felt like a small child, waiting for direction and fun. Then, upon hearing a real small child’s laughter, the brunette looked for the source and found Geni and her sweet baby girl playing their front yard. He walked over to them, stopping at the edge of their lawn. “Hi, pretty ladies,” he smiled warmly, squatting down so that he was level with Ariana. To her mother, he looked up and asked, “Mind if I join the party?”

Nic laughed. “The Requiem’s barely an hour long. Hope your attention span will hold.” He waved Felix forward hurriedly as last of the people idling in the lobby headed into the auditorium. “We’ll get drinks after, and I can explain the Latin if you’re lost. Mostly blah blah judgement blah blah flames of woe. Everyone borrows the lyrics, but the music’s the masterpiece. Let’s get to our seats before we miss it.”

-

Felix’s head lolled as he moved into the building, thinking about all the times his teachers had complained about his short attention span. “Okay, okay, okay,” was all he managed before being ushered inside. This piece had been explained to him several times, but his mind always wandered away. The music was what had always captivated him, not what was being sung. It felt like a heavy sadness to him that had the power to make his mod dip down if he let it. As they took their seat, Felix peered over at the stranger and murmured through the side of his mouth, “I’m Felix, by the way.”

Never one to carry eyedrops, Felix and Mikayla rode the tram up the hill to the Getty Museum with bloodshot eyes. They’d both eaten some very potent edibles and decided to do as they normally did: Look at art while stoned to the bone. They sat leaning against each other, giggling as they took turns playfully squeezing the other’s hand, each time a little more forceful than the last. Finally, the tram stopped and everyone filed out. As Felix stepped out into the California sunshine, he looked back at his friend with bloodshot eyes and asked, “Have you ever been here before? It’s been years since the last time I was here.”

Dante rolled her eyes after Felix finally broke into laugher, but there was a small smile on her face, she trusted her friend to make light of the situation, that’s one of the things she liked so much about Felix. “Hey,” she frowned looking turning at the other, “that’s so not true. I like you and you seem to be okay with me taking a call or emailing while we hang out” the blonde shook her head, she didn’t even realize that that might be her ignorance talking, just because people were used to her doing that didn’t mean they wear okay with it. 

“I think I’ll start with the plants and when I ‘warm up’ I can get back on the dating horse” Dante sighed rolling her eyes quickly. She then looked back at the plants, “So which one says, ‘I don’t mind being neglected for bit, but will make you happy’ to you?” the female reviewed the plants in front of her and asked Felix.

-

To show how touched he was by Dante’s words of affirmation, Felix pressed his palms on his chest and sighed with a dopey, lovestruck smile. “I like you, too,” he said whimsically before becoming a little more serious. “That’s not what I meant, though. I just mean that if you really dig a person--they make you giddy and warm and fuzzy--then you forget about your phone,” he explained, thinking of how easily he lost track of time when he spent time with Emily because  everything outside their little world didn’t appeal to him as much she did. “Don’t fret, though, single life is the best.” Again he thought of Emily and their unspoken agreement of remaining friends rather than calling the intimate relationship they shared a romantic one.

Two options came to mind--the same two that his mother suggested for him when he went plant shopping. “I say, either a pothos because they sort of like being abused--they’re kinky that way,” he leaned in and said the last part in a low voice to give the impression that he was spilling gossip. Straightening his posture back up, Felix suggested, “Or a succulent. They hardly like water so it’s okay if you don’t water them for weeks. Plus, you can get a bunch of little ones and make a cool arrangement!”