Idiosyncrasies of a Shadow // (ManxMan)

~Chapter 3~

But his smile;

It holds the power to snap me in half.

"Good morning Mr. Perry! How is your morning so far?" His tiny hands extend to greet me.

It feels good – 

"Eventful. Thank you." I take his greeting; his handshake is firm as any, despite his dainty size.

"That's great! Oh right." He pulls out a stack of cards, decorated with sharpies. It looks like each one is personalized. He holds out a card to me. Paris' name scribbled in neat handwriting. Unicorn stickers and strawberries drawn, he went as far as writing the invitation in rainbow colors. Under that is my parent's name and then, mine.

It feels different –

"It's an invitation to the school fair going from next Friday to Saturday! There will be games and shows, food and lots of other things!" He says excitedly to Paris.

Then he looks up. Straight into my eyes, his deep blue, almost violet, eyes that slice through my strong resolve, not caring one bit about the unreal height difference.

It feels... warm –

To be acknowledged.

In the sincerest and most hopeful voice, almost like an angel resuscitating a coding patient. "You'll come too, right?" A small frown on his eyebrows.

A frown that is capable of smashing a skyscraper.

"Umm... Sure." I breathe out, barely above a whisper, fighting back the urge to ask him why. Why pay attention to me?

"Then it's settled! See you soon Mr. Perry!" He giggles heartily and spins around taking Paris away and greeting another parent on the way in.

He's so small and tiny.

Doesn't make sense that his smile is like the sun.

Even less that his heart is bigger than the sun itself.

~

I own a sport equipment rental shop, its growing exponentially since our shop is quite literally purged on the edge of a lagoon, and within 10 minutes you can walk down to the beach. So we are pretty popular.

I sit silently, watching as a groups of girls walk in, greeted by my friend/ employee, Melissa. "Good afternoon, how may I help you?"

They giggle and one turns to me, "I'd like to know your number."

Mentally, I gag. I might be the farthest thing from those bullshit gay stereotypes, but I am definitely all for the hot dogs and not the tacos.

"Hon, don't bother unless you're in drag." Melissa calls from the other side of the shop, organizing the display cases. Johnny, her boyfriend chuckles from the office as he handles the finances. "Actually, don't bother at all."

The group doesn't seem fazed, obviously they don't believe it. "Snorkeling, surfboard or...?" I ask in the kindest voice I can muster at the moment. This is just beyond awkward.

"Umm... we want to try on the skates. For when winter hits."

They ended up taking an hour just putting them on and Melissa trying to get them to stop taking selfies because honestly, I can't be fucked to have anything to do with them. By the time they were done, at least 7 other clients have come in and done their rentals.

"I'm picking Paris up. Don't slice anyone with the ice skates." Throwing my jacket on and tying my hair up so it doesn't look sloppy.

"Alright. Say hi for me. We haven't seen the kid in so long." She added as an afterthought.