Fresh Air [[Open]]

[Ryan Andrews]

It felt very odd to be up at seven o'clock in the morning but he hadn't been able to go back to sleep at about six in the morning after having a very startling dream. It had involved Greg and it was the same scene the kept going around and around in his head it was of the two of them promising to be friends forever. Even now those words were echoing in his head as if he had just heard them yesterday, but that wasn't the case those words had been exchanged twelve years ago. In the next part of the dream his mother was breaking the news to him that Greg was dead and just like in the memory that he had of this event he took off outside and hid in the bushes crying silently. That part didn't bother him as much as it had previously. What bothered him now was the fact that this time, things had changed to his sixteen year old self crying in the bushes. Then all of a sudden Greg appeared out of nowhere as his four year old self and once again questioned about why he was trying to shove all of those memories off to the side. That just freaked him out and after that he'd woken up shaking. After pulling some cloths on he'd decided that it would be best if he went outside. He'd been tempted to hit the alcohol a little early but he knew that his parents might be back today and they probably wouldn't want to find him passed out on the couch.

He leaned up against the railing that separated the boardwalk from the river that was ten or fifteen feet below. "Maybe I should have started to drink early perhaps I'd actually be able to catch up on all of the sleep that I missed last night." He said and shivered at the thought of what would happen if his parents came home and found him screaming in his sleep again. How much longer would the believe that he was just having a bad dream that was really stupid? They didn't even know how angry he still was at them for not telling him that Greg had died from Cancer until he was seven or eight. It had taken them a long time to even realize that he had a tattoo. His blue eyes wandered over to where a group of children were chasing each other around. A light sigh escaped him as he took his eyes off of the children. "It was a bad idea to come out here." He said and then began to make his way further down the boardwalk so that he wouldn't have to hear the children's laughter.

[Nina Quilen;;]

Nina leaned against the railing that seperated the rollercoaster from the overcrowded boardwalk paths, sipping a vanilla frappuchino. Her eyes wandered as the screams coming from the ride overhead rained down on the boardwalk, mingling with the laughter and pattering footsteps of the tourists walking around. When the girl had got up at seven am to take a walk, she had been expecting a calming, quiet boardwalk. But everyone was laughing and having a great time. It was terrible.

With a sigh, Nina tossed her empty coffee cup in the general direction of a nearby garbage can and missed. Ignoring the litter, she straightened the sleeves of her ivory satin tunic and fiddled with the silver chain, trying to make it lay straight to set the skinny, destroyed True Religion Jeans off to an advantage. Since school had ended, the girl had been making new fabulous outfits and setting them aside and looking for potential boyfriends. So far, she hadn't found anyone.

Then she saw the boy walking along the railing and shook her head. She recognized him, definitely from school. He was probably some athlete who had looked down her shirt a bazillion times. As if that narrowed down the choices. "Hey, do I know you?" she pulled on the bottom of her tunic to enhance her curves and tried to act nonchalant.

[Ryan Andrews]

It was then that he noticed a girl and not just any girl, a very nice looking one. He wasn't looking for a girlfriend though, he was never really serious with them anyway so things didn't last to long. Since it seemed to him is that all girls wanted somebody who was serious about them and completely devoted to them. And he wasn't one of those things, he loved to have flings with girls and he'd had cheated on a girl once or twice before. Most girls were just another name to him, and there were very few that he was actually attracted to. He then heard the girls question, and he knew where she probably would have seen him if she did know him. But, at the moment he knew that they were in the same grade and for some reason he hadn't really talked to her before. But he did know that she was in the upper cliques and was in the popular girl clique. "Well, you might have seen me around school or at the club, since I go there often." He said and then smiled at her, he actually was rather surprised the she didn't know his name. But he figured that as soon as he mentioned it she'd probably be like "oh you're the one who's always in the gossip column for drinking." Since that seemed to be what he was known for. Well, other than having flings with girls anyway.

"Ryan Andrews, and you are?" He asked curiously, he definitely wanted to know this girls name. One could say that he was interested in her since she was good looking. But he wouldn't mind if this girl just wanted to stay at the friend level. Since he did have friends that were girls, sure he might have went out with each of them at one time but both of them had admitted that they were better off at just being friends so no harm was really done. But then a thought crossed his mind, maybe she knew his sister since she was pretty high up in the ranks at school. Even though she was a year younger then he was she was higher in the ranks then he was of course he wasn't bothered by that. Since he wasn't really one to suck up to people to get higher up, if he wanted that to happen then he'd just try and snag one of the cheerleaders or something.

[Nina Quilen;;]

Nina watched him when he replied, placing him in her memory. She had a little file for all the popular guys at school, and at his introduction, she automatically opened his mentally. Ryan Andrews, Junior, Athlete, not one of top 3, drinker, likes to have flings, doesn't get serious about girls, drinking buddies with Thomas Dehart, single (duh), often in gossip columns. She closed it again, satisfied with the information she'd gotten, and pulled a red sweatshirt over her head, hiding her chest and arms.

"Sorry," she told him, "Doesn't ring a bell." She waited a second, picking at her nails, drawing out an awkward silence before continuing, "And I'm Nina Quilen. Do you go to Twin Lakes?" She looked up, giving him her sputter stare, hoping to make him nervous. At the same time, she gave him a once over out of the corner of her eye. He wasn't bad looking -- this could be fun.

[Ryan Andrews]

Ok, so he was surprised that she didn't know who he was. But then again maybe she was just playing with him, normally he wouldn't allow something like that to happen but with her, well he'd make an exception. "Really, well hopefully my name isn't going to be a mystery for you much longer." He said with confidence he wasn't really nervous around her but during the few moments of silence he shifted his weight slightly and leaned back against the railing. He was formulating a game plan in his head. Although, he had to admit it wasn't the best one that he had thought up. But most of the time things just happened all of a sudden so he was new to this whole planning thing. Maybe he'd ask her if she felt like joining him on the rest of his walk. Since he could hear the laughter of those kids again and he really wanted to get away from it.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you Nina. And yes, I do go to the high school here I've lived here my whole life." He said and then looked up at the sky, it was going to get hot today, he could tell that already. Since it was starting to get a little humid out today was going to be one of those days where he just layed around the house enjoying the air conditioning. "You moved here a couple of years ago right?" He asked as he tried to recall any information that he had about her but he wasn't finding any.

[Nina Quilen;;]

Nina casually moved closer, looking down at her shoes while watching his face from the corners of her eyes. Such an obvious flirt -- this was going to be easier than she had first thought. "Hopefully," she informed him, pushing a nonexistent strand of hair out of her face, "Is not a word in my vocabulary." She blinked, looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes, waiting for him to say something, to make a move that would further the discussion. Her mind pulled together replies to any question she could think of him asking automatically. Say yes to a walk. Yes to go back to his place. No to hungry, no to thirsty. Yes, you're cold. No, you don't want to go around the boardwalk. If he moves to kiss or touch, act like you didn't notice and tell him you have to leave. Her mind whirled into action while the rest of her stayed calm, still, and controlled.

"Nice to meet you too," she told him, blinking again. Her eyebrows twitched almost invisably, just to give him a hint to continue. "I've probably seen you around school then. I go to Twin Lakes too." She touched her neck with the tips of her fingers, sending a cold chill down her spine. But movement there would make him look, and that was exactly what she wanted. When he asked her the question, she shifted, wondering why they were still just talking. But her reply was smooth. "You got it. From California." She waited for his next move expectantly.

[Ryan Andrews]

Was it just him or was she actually flirting back with him? Well, that was what he thought so he might as well just keep doing things the way that he was. Sure they were basically only having small talk right now but since she seemed to be playing along he could heat things up just a bit. But the first thing to do was to get out of here it seemed as if the number of people had multiplied and honestly, he didn't feel like walking through piles of melting ice cream on the boardwalk. Since now that he thought about it, that was what would happen if he continued his walk here. "Honestly, I don't know why people even like it here do they enjoy walking through sticky ice cream? So, do you feel like getting out of here?" He asked, hoping that she was getting sick of this place too. The only time that he came here was when it was starting to get dark after all of the tourists had went home and there was just a few locals walking around. It really was rather peaceful then, unlike right now. He watched as she touched her neck, his eyes followed the movements of her fingers. Yes, she certainly had drawn him in with that little move. Now he really didn't want her to go away.

She was from California, well he really felt bad for her now. Since back there it was sunny all the time and there was plenty of things to do. Sure there were things to do here but the weather could turn bad all of a sudden. "You poor thing, I can only imagine what a shock it has to be coming from sunny California out to cloudy Wisconsin. I've been out to California a few times with my parents but honestly, I think that I would pick the state over this one." He said before locking his eyes on hers. But his concentration was broken when a baby cried almost right next to him. A disgusted look appeared on his face briefly as he tried to concentrate again.

[Nina Quilen;;]

Thank Gawd. T-H-A-N-K G-A-W-D. Finally, she could leave this hell and walk around. Her ears burned with the sounds of laughter, friendly talk, screaming, and a couple making out not far away. If anything, she wanted to get away from here, and he'd offered it up. She was in love. Laughing silently, she blinked and tilted her head a little, starting to move toward the exit already. She felt like a caged animal. "Sure. Whatever." Her voice was distant, cool, but still alluring enough to urge him to go on with what he was doing. The movements came naturally to her as she began to walk down the path, swaying her hips, flicking at her hair, fluttering her hands about her chest.

Ha. So he liked California better than Wisconsin. He'd given her just exactly what she needed. She only needed to find a way to use it. And, like everything else, she knew what to do with it instantly. "I don't know," she said, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt and dropping her eyes. "Wisconsin's pretty awesome. No sunburns, no girls running around in bikinis in the winter, no guys showing off their chests and raping girls on the streets." She let that sink in before lightly continuing. "And the peole here are really nice." With a mischevious grin she added, "Though the guys are disappointing." And she moved closer to him, so their arms were brushing, and so her chest was in his direct line of sight.

[Ryan Andrews]

He watched as she began to walk he studied the way that she moved. He hoped that she was trying to lure him after her because that was what she was doing now. Then he set off after her and a few steps later he was caught up with her. "So, where do you feel like going? I drove here but I suppose that I could come get my car later. Since I think that everybody knows not to touch it unless that want me to get really angry with them." He said and then smiled at her, she probably knew how jealous some of the guys were of his car. Maybe it was because their parents couldn't afford to buy them it because it probably was half of their salary. But his dad owned a very successful business and he'd hit it big in the stock market also. His mom was always off traveling because of her job too he didn't know which parent made more but he was guessing it was his dad. Since he'd caught snatches of the conversations the two had when the were at home.

He listened to what she said about Wisconsin and California. "Yes, but sometimes I would rather be there then stuck in the thirty below windchill." He said and then looked at her, so she thought that the guys here were disappointing. "Well, I hope that you haven't just met the guys that decide that they want to go with the scruffy look. Then again, I would think that you've met the best of the best here." He said and then smiled at her, he watched as she moved closer to him. She definitely got an A for effort since she seemed to be doing everything to make him want her. He glanced at her chest for a second before looking ahead. He wasn't so sure if he wanted her to see him looking.