Boy King

                      If there was anything Emily was unreasonably good at, it was being alone. Not that she preferred it over having close friends and family, but being by herself never unnerved her. Rather, it calmed her and kept her sane. Too much going on at any given time was enough to make her head spin, so the first thing she noticed about her new home out in the spacious green, was the silence. It stretched on as the paddocks did, her only friends for miles being the trees and the clouds. She didn’t mind a life in the countryside, it reminded her of the coast back home. Perhaps no beaches, but the rolling hills and long stretches of old road felt the same. There wasn’t much traffic out here, and that also calmed Emily, no rush of a city life ready to suffocate her. Just animals in the yard, craft fairs on weekends and enough time to read so many books, Emily didn’t even know where to start.

                      She didn’t have to work if she didn’t want to, that was a blessing and a curse that came with Scott. For the first few weeks, she found it helpful, allowing her to set up the house as she pleased and discover what little towns laid near by. Eventually though, she started to go stir-crazy, and was now on the quiet hunt for at least a party time job to occupy her for the winter. Taking clippings from the paper and hoarding her options, right now she had the choice of being a receptionist for a family practice in town almost forty minutes from here, or a store clerk for an old gentleman who made his own custom furniture. The jobs both diverse from what she was used to, Emily was nervous about contacting both of them. So she sat on it for the time being instead.

                      Still, she’d already accomplished the biggest and most traumatic move of her life, so moving to the country was a piece of cake, so to speak. And she liked the privacy the most, knowing it made Scott happy too. Now if she could convince him to expand her collection of canines, that would be another Christmas miracle. 

         “Oh, you didn’t….” She chuckled, feeling flattered even if it was a make-believe scenario.

“I did.” He said with a rather convincing faux nod. Despite her being awake now, and the next phase of Christmas was getting up to open presents, he sank down into the bed, an arm wrapping around her torso, pulling the girl to his body. It was still strange, no matter which way he thought about it. He loved her, he loved her more than he’d ever hated himself, and he still wasn’t sure what the emotion was. All he knew was he could look at her and feel complete, and that was what he needed, everything else was second. Everything else he could do without. 

                  With a gentle pressure to her side, Emily stirred. Eyes cracking, the first thing she noticed was the fluffy white frame around the window outside that overlooked the back yard. Winter in the States had never exactly been her favourite thing, given that it held memories that still hurt to think about sometimes. The catastrophic storm, pneumonia, her aunt’s funeral, Audrey’s death, the hospital…. But that didn’t deter her spirit for Christmas. That was then and this was now. She’d spent a lot of the week wrapping Christmas presents with extreme care and over the top decorations, she’d pressured Scott into helping her decorate the biggest, grandest tree he could find, enjoyed the annual Christmas markets, bought too much eggnog and now, snuggled into fannel blankets with a lump of fur at her feet, Christmas had never felt better. Ring on her finger, husband beside her, and a growing family of furry children — Emily had everything she’d ever wanted and more.

                  Rolling over, she pushed hair out of her eyes and smiled sleepily.

         “Did Santa come?” She mumbled, smoothing a hand under her cheek against the pillow. “Or did you scare him off?”

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s one of the rules on the wall. You drink more than two, you don’t drive.” He shrugged, tossing the newly acquired keys into the bowl with the rest of them, “The owner doesn’t want to deal with that. And to be honest, I don’t blame him.” 

“either your footsteps are incredibly loud, or you’re terrible at sneaking up on people, mate.”

“This is a sidewalk? Free for every person to walk on? Sorry kid, you’re not the ending destination.” 

Suri was a bit distracted because something was starting to smell like vomit. When she turned and noticed the homeless man next to her she made a gagging noise. Then she heard the familiar voice call her name and sighed. He was asking her if she wanted to seat and part of her thought she was better off standing here next to a guy covered in vomit. No, gross. She made her way towards the empty seat beside Scott, placing her bag over her lap. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He said with a small condescending smile. With little thought, he took his hand and patted her thigh. To anyone else it looked like they were friends, but he knew she’d know the difference. “So how have you been?” 

“I bet I could find a way.” Joey smirked, yet her face twisted into a distasteful grimace at the image of the fabric shoes after she was done with them. “Do you mind, though?”

“There’s a lot of people who could find lots of ways to do lots of things. It’s just-- how far you want to go, and I promise, you really don’t want to shine the unshineable shoes.” he said with a shrug before shaking his head, “I mean, yeah, a little.” 

        Insane. The word, sadistically, made her give a gentle smile. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t. Who knew at this point? Some days were good and some were awful. Today was a good day.

         The smile turned into a laugh as he hugged and released her. Folding her arms, Emily put on a small facade. “I want in, 50–50. Then we’re cool.”

“You have half?” he looked at her astounded. Like she’d just said the most impressive line of curse words known to man. “That’s like-- like you’re asking for half of everything I own!” He faked shock, going along with his joke, “Jeeze, might as well like, be married to you.” he shook his head with a laugh, taking a step closer to her so he could wrap his arms around her, “You’ll never know where all my secret hidey-holes are. I’ll never tell you.” Which was clearly a lie. After all, he’d already told her one. It was a long time ago so maybe she didn’t remember, but he wasn’t going to refresh her memory now. If for nothing more than ruining his perfect joke. 

he sighed, his arms dropping to his sides in sheer defeat. he was so bad with electronics– he still wrote all his manuscripts out by hand and then paid a friend of his to transcribe it digitally. a needless task, but his sanity depended on it. “no idea… here’s hoping some hot girl snagged it hoping she could use it as a talking point when i go and get it back.” he was half kidding, but mostly serious. he was new in town and hardly knew anyone. that, and the stress of starting in a new school district had left him worn and, more importantly, bored.

“That’s how you plan to pick up women?” Scott asked, almost astounded, “You steal their phones and hope they find you to give them back, then they’re almost trapped in conversation?” Scott held his hands up in surrender “More power to you.” Even if he did think it was excessively creepy. 

coincidence was a tricky fellow. his eyes narrowed and concentration peeked, he stared at the phone, the blinking screen and default background screaming at him after every incorrect password he typed. “shit,” he muttered, turning the phone over in his hand, the standard black case doing little to peak his interests. sighing, he shook his head, “this isn’t my phone,” he confirmed, clutching it in his grip. “hey, uh… anyone got an iphone with a black case? i think ours were switched,” he proclaimed, unabashedly, gesturing with the phone still clutched in his grip.