River(Open)

[airon]

Airon was having a particularly dull day. There were no bizarre people to examine, no people to study. Just paper work. Granted, he soared through the words and the notes with his nearly unnatural reading speed that did not mean he enjoyed this mundane task.

Finally, when noon rolled around, Airon threw down his pen and rushed out the door into the busy city. He wasn’t sure where he was going, as long as he could get away from work. His feet worked beneath him, carrying him to his destination, wherever that may have been.

Before long, he found himself by the water, staring out over a river and onto the highway on the other side. He exhaled a sigh, knowing that sooner or later he would need to go back to the office to finish his work, but on the other hand, he wanted anything but to do so. For the first time since he had started working for his office, he was tempted to call his employer and request the rest of the day off, but he knew if he were to do that he'd have to get into what was wrong and he simply wasn't in the mood for that. Not today.

He aimlessly picked up a stone and hurled it into the water, burying his face in his hands. He needed something to do.

[hayley]

Hayley wandered through the streets. She had nothing to do. She was too lazy to get a job, and didn't really need one since her uncle was a doctor. And as long as she was home by midnight and didn't get into any trouble, he'd give her money if she wanted it. But she usually didn't need his money.

Out of pure boredom, she'll get a small job working at a shop as a cashier or something to pass the time. She loved meeting new people, even if only for a minute or two, just to get a glimpse of their personality. She came to the river eventually, which was usually pretty dull and empty.

But today there was a young man, maybe in his early twneties throwing stones into the river. She slowled down her pace and came to a stop behind him. This was when she used her good reading-people skills to the test. He was definitely some kind of professional. Reminded her a lot of her uncle. Maybe some kind of doctor. He was bored, like she was, except he looked more like he was tired doing work that bored him. She pursed her lips slightly.

She walked up to stand beisde him to get a good look at his face. She didn't recognize him at all, so he definitely didn't come to the river often. She was always by the river, and had memorized the faces of the few who passed by every so often. He wasn't one of them.

"You look very..." she hesitated as she thought of the right word. Boredom didn't quite fit. She finally finished, "Jaded."

[airon]

He lazily glanced up at Hayley and looked her up and down before exhaling a sigh, running a hand through his hair and messing it up. She was young, probably still in her teens. She looked like an ordinary teenaged girl, but he knew how deceiving looks could be. After all, most people thought that he was lost from a field trip at his work, most were shocked to find he was actually a physiatrist. Most people wouldn’t assume that he had finished college by the time he was nineteen and was already in a practice when he was twenty.

“I guess you could say jaded. I rather prefer the term trite. For the day at least. A man can only do so much paper work.”

Airon picked up another stone and hurled it into the river. Even he had to admit that he didn’t have the best arm, but it was better than most people usually gave him credit for. HE picked up another and his eyes fell upon her again.

“Shouldn’t you be in school right about now? It’s almost one.”

((AHHHAHA! I said opern instead of open. hehe.))

[hayley]

((I've said opem before ^-^ so you're not alone))

Hayley watched him as he threw the stone. He did look kind of young to be something as professional as a doctor. But there was something about his presence that made her suspect that he was. And by that vocabulary, it only made her believe her theory more. Trite. Who says that? Doctors...

She picked up a stone herself and tossed it into the water, but it skipped a few times before vanishing below the surface. Throwing wasn't really her thing, but she was good at aiming stones at just the right angle to make it skip two or three times. That was one of the few things she'd actually learned from her father... everything else she'd learned from her own experience, or her uncle.

"No," she pursed her lips slightly. She knew she looked younger than she was. She was used to that kind of comment. But, the real question was would he believe her next statement? "I graduated... two years ago."

As crazy as that may sound, it was true. Not only had she started earlier than most students, but she skipped a grade in elementary school. She graduated high school before she even got her driver's liscense. Her friends had been extremely jealous, but that was before she'd come to New York. Now, her only friend were the few guys she worked with at random little shops with her temporary jobs, the roamers around the river, and her uncle.

[airon]

Airon wasn’t really throwing rocks to be impressive or anything, but he felt as if he needed to do something. Some people boxed. Others did target practice. Sometimes he wrote in a journal, but right now he felt like throwing stones would do enough for him.

When she said that she had graduated from two years ago, he couldn’t help but smile. “I was a few months away from fifteen when I got my high school diploma. And you?”

His interest always sparked when he met someone else who had muscled through high school long before they could even legally drive a car.

Airon picked up another rock and hurled it downward this time. He had expected the rock to still land in the water, but it stuck a man on the head and then bounced into the water. His eyes grew wide and he covered his mouth, cursing under his breath before bellowing an apology to him.

[hayley]

Aha, so he was a doctor. The only thing holding her back was his age. And, if he graduated before fifteen, that made perfect sense. But she could see his eyes light up a little bit when he told her when he graduated. It was rare to find someone else who skipped grades, even if it was only one. "Fifteen and three months," she smirked slightly.

He hadn't beaten her by much. But, he kept going. She quit when she came to live with her uncle. It wasn't that she gave up, it was just that she never felt the need to go to college. After all the mess with her parents, she couldn't focus on anything for a long time. Now she was over it, though, and college never even crossed her mind. She was only eighteen, she had no idea what she wanted to do. Not yet.

Hayley just laughed when the rock hit the man's head. She didn't really laugh because he'd hit the man, but she laughed when he cursed under his breath and covered his mouth. Like covering his mouth would mute out the word. She smiled then after he called out his apology. "You've got a good arm." She giggled a little then, "Not so much aim, though."

[airon]

Airon nodded. “I take it you didn’t go to college or anything. Don’t take it personally; I’m a physiologist so I’m constantly studying people. Sometimes it makes people uncomfortable because I’m good at my job. I’ve even been accused of being a telepath, which I’m not. I actually am very grateful for that. I’m always occupied with my own thoughts, I can’t deal with everyone else’s’ too.”

He stared at her skeptically when she commented on his arm Airon was skin and bones and he was fully aware of that fact. For a moment, he tried to figure out if she was being sarcastic or serious, but then he laughed and shook his head. “Trust me, I don’t have a good arm…I don’t think I caught your name. I’m Airon Greene.”

Airon probably could have been good at sports if he put his mind to it, but he found his time better spent doing something valuable and useful as opposed to getting battered around by a collection of athletes at least twice his size. Granted, Airon was tall, very tall in fact, but that didn’t mean that he would be able to stand a chance on a court of field.

[hayley]

Hayley shook her head. "No, I didn't. And I don't take anything personally." Not anymore, she added mentally. And then he went on about his job. She knew it. He had doctor written all over his young face. And she'd heard of physiology before, but didn't really care about it. The only doctor stuff she knew of was what her uncle came home and complained about from work.

She she raised her eyebrows curiously at his skeptical look. She was given those all the time by her uncle, and that's always what she did. But then he just laughed and replied. She looked forward again, tossing another rock into the water, not bothering to skip it this time. "Hayley."

She hoped her wouldn't mind her not saying her last name. It was just that most people would reply with, "Regency? Like Dr. Regency?" That was the only thing she hated about her uncle being a fantastic surgeon. She couldn't say her last name without people suddenly asking her a million questions about her uncle, who they usually assumed was her father.

[airon]

Airon furrowed his brow as he looked over her once again. He could have sworn that he knew her from somewhere, but he didn’t know where that could be. He rarely got out and into the social scene with most of the other doctors. He had tried before, but everyone always assumed that he was either with one of the older guests or lost. He often grew tired with explaining everything.

“Nice to meet you.” He picked up another rock and hurled it into the water once again before bending over to collect another stone. “You come around here often?”

It was then that a device in his pocket burst into song. Most people seeing him wouldn’t imagine his ringtone to be a country song called Cause The Chicks Dig It, but it was. His face flushed and his pulled the phone out of his pocket. “Excuse me.” He answered the phone and his employer was screaming at him about how the paperwork wasn’t going to finish itself. He looked down at his watch and shook his head before bluntly telling his boss that his break wasn’t over for another forty-five minutes. Then, there was silence on the other side of the line and a dead tone. Airon exhaled a sigh and shook his head before picking up another rock and hurling it further than any of the others. He loathed his employer.

[hayley]

"Likewise." Hayley just nodded with a small smile back at him as he tossed another rock. "And this is where I spend most of my time actually," she admitted. "The rest of it I spend working... And I know what you'll say to this, being all sophisticated and having the fancy job that I can't pronounce, but my jobs usually temporary and involve a cashier nametag or a stupid waitress outfit."

It was true. Hayley's jobs that she used the money for clothes were pretty bad. Minimum wage, obviously. And she didn't need to work, she just liked meeting different people, even if it was only for a minute. And she knew college wasn't her thing. And she loved her uncle, and wanted to be with him every minute he wasn't cutting into people or prescribing medication.

And then, Airon's cell phone rang. She burst out laughing as she recognized the song, but covered her mouth when she heard the shouting voice on the other line. His boss, no doubt. When he hung up and tossed another rock, she was still laughing to herself. "I'm sorry, but I have to pick on you about that ringtone. Why would you even bother having a ringtone like that if it makes your whole face to red to answer it?" she just giggled again and tossed another rock herself, even farther into the river than his had gone.

[airon]

He arched a brow at her. “What do you think I’m going to say? Run off to school and do something that you don’t want to do? That was my dream, but that doesn’t mean that everyone else should do that. I think you should do whatever the hell you want, otherwise you’ll be miserable for the rest of your life and you only live once.”

Airon bit his bottom lip and hurled another rock before answering. “I don’t really have much of a social life so it’s pretty rare that my phone ever rings. Let’s face it, most people my age are busy at frat parties and getting plastered and the last thing they want to do is hang out with someone like me and most people in my practice don’t take me seriously because I’m so much younger than them. That and I don’t think they like that when they say something that’s incorrect I’ll tell them they’re wrong so it’s not very often I have to worry about being embarrassed about my ring tone and a few seconds of embarrassment is worth having a ringtone that I like. I could be worse. I was debating between that one or Ring My Bell by Anita Ward.”

[hayley]

Hayley just smiled. She was really starting to like this guy. Well, she would have expected anyone else to say something like she was too smart for those jobs, or something that she would just ignore. But he seemed different, and actually that response didn't surprise her at all. She liked it. If only her uncle looked at it that way. Uncle Morgan usually thought about it like that. Do what you want or else you'll be miserable. But a part of him wanted her to do something special, and something she loved. But it was hard to find something that fit both of those catagories.

Then she listened to what he had to say about his social life. It was actually really sad to hear. He was misjudged because of his age at work. And no one that was his age liked him because he's too smart, and they judge him for that. That's why Hayley despised stereotypes. They were terrible things. Sure, some people fit those descriptions, but not most people. She sighed, tossing another stone into the water and watching it skip a few times. She smiled again, brighter this time when he spoke of his ring tones again.

"Well, if your co-workers are so rude, then why do you do it? Do you love that un-pronouncable job that much that you just put up with it...? Every day...?" she asked then, cocking her eyebrow at him.

[airon]

“I love what I do; I just can’t stand the other people in my practice. That and most of the time I don’t have to deal with their drama. I work with mostly middle-aged men and they have more drama then most of my patients. I met one woman in my practice, she was lovely, but she was at least ten years older than I am. That didn’t stop her though. Looking back it’s funny, but then it was…terrifying.“

He caught himself rambling and laughed lightly. “Sorry, I’m so accustom to being on the listening sides of these conversations. I hate to bore you.“

Airon swooped down to scoop another stone. He stared at it for a moment before rubbing his thumb over the smooth surface. A specter might believe he would slip the rock into his pocket the way he was fondly caressing it before he hurled it into the water.

“You know, I have no idea why we’re even doing this. I knew why I threw the first stone, but I haven't got the slightest idea why I'm still throwing them and why you've joined me."

He laughed lightly at this realization before throwing yet another rock. It seemed that the stones wouldn't dwindle in their numbers.

[hayley]

I love what I do. Hayley sighed. She envied those who loved their jobs. Like her uncle. But she could never find anything that kept her interest more than a few hours. She was searching though, and a lot harder than most people who met her would think. She wanted to find something she loved, but right now it seemed pretty much impossible. But she would really be willing to go to college if it meant doing something she loved for the rest of her life.

She put her focus back on him when he said he didn't want to bore her. Actually, she had tuned him out a little, but it wasn't from boredom. "You're not boring me. I like listening to strangers," she glanced at him before throwing another stone, "or almost strangers, ramble about themselves. I think its a good way to get to know someone... just by the pointless things they ramble about."

So Hayley sat on the river bank then, not really caring if it got her jeans dirty or not, and propped her legs up on a big rock that was sticking out of the water. She dug around for another rock and then tossed it. "And why did you throw it the first time?" she couldn't help her curiosity. It could have easily been about his work, but it could also be something much deeper than that.

[airon]

He laughed lightly when she said that he had not been boring her. He studied human behavior and their mental processes. He could tell when a person was tuning him out or had their mind elsewhere. It was a benefit of the study. He often used it to his advantage to surprise someone back into the here and now. It was his own little form of amusement.

“Hayley, I’ve studied human behavior since I was sixteen and I get paid to do it five days out of the week. I can tell when someone’s bored, even when they try to hide it.”

He picked up another stone when she asked why he did it the first time. “Paperwork. I may love what I do and I may be able to read faster than anyone I’ve met, but my colleagues seem to think that because of that all the paperwork in the office rather than just mine should fall to me. Once I have enough money I will be more than happy to open my own office and hire a secretary to do all the filing.”

Airon shifted his arm behind his body and threw the rock. He wondered how many he had thrown so far. Had his curiosity been strong enough he probably would have thought back and counted the stones, but he didn’t care that much. They were just rocks after all. All he was doing was transporting them from one part of the river to an other.