EVOLUTION - RYDER SCANLON

27

WARNING: this chapter contains mentions of abuse.

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wow, i'm a terrible person! it's been months since i've updated this story and i apologize to anyone that still reads it even though the author procrastinates everything!! <3

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MANY MONTHS AGO

Geordie followed the invisible trail of the young boy she had come to befriend with a heavy question tugging at her heart. The city rushed past her, everything from the stone-walled apartment buildings to the earthly weeds sprouting beyond the cracks of the sidewalks below. Jersey had proven to be a beautiful place, particularly not for everyone, but the atmosphere was one that Geordie had grown amazingly accustomed to.

The pavement showered in the cloudy daylight while adjoining itself with the teenager's hurried footsteps. Her mocha colored eyes focused on the creamy colored surface until it's radiance was overshadow by the shade of a decently-sized 7-Eleven. It was run down, dirty, but still it held a significance to the boy she was searching for.

She detected his disdain figure sitting down on the curb in front of the mini market's entrance. His arms covered in a half-sleeve flannel wrapped tightly around his boney knees. The miraculous eyes belonging to him wandered across the station to those who were absentminded to his existence.

Geordie took a deep breath, walking steadily to her friend, Xavier. He noticed her presence from a mile away, but did nothing to keep her from pacing in his direction. He knew well that she would bring up that thing he wanted to avoid, but he figured with the rate their friendship was building, it would happen sooner or later.

He cursed ever telling Geordie about his tradition at 7-Eleven. The story went as such: whenever Xavier longed to escape from the world he suffered, from the people whom somehow managed to create only burdens in his life, he would sit down on the curb in front of the 7-Eleven and deliberate about the people that came across. He found it comforting when he attempted to guess their origins: where did they come from? Who were they? Who did they love? What was their purpose?

Geordie plopped down on the cold curb next to him. She allowed him some space, but the idea of her refusing to leave was as crystalline as a quarts made of purified water. She had the strangest urge to grab his hand, knowing that it was what people did to other people in times of consolation. Ultimately, she decided against the straightforward action and let the silence drown the both of them under.

"...Have you seen anyone special today?" Geordie asked, hopeful that he is calmer than he was during his sudden outburst earlier in the day.

Xavier took a moment to answer. "Yeah, actually. I saw this family. Three females. Two woman, one child. Three generations: a child, a mother, and a grandmother, although it could've also been the child's aunt."

Geordie nodded. She noticed Xavier's subtle head tilt towards the empty space in which she assumed the family once occupied. He was probably remising the smiles on their faces, the nurturing radiance implemented into their love for one another.

"What do you think they were here for?" she asked.

"I don't know," Xavier answered, turning back to the girl next to him. "But they looked so ... nice. They smiled at each other. They smiled at me, too."

Geordie ravished in the idea of Xavier's love for 7-Eleven. He once told her that everyone had a story, and somehow everyone's story led them to a 7-Eleven, interacting with strangers that they would never come across again. Or perhaps, in stranger instances, the universe pulled those two souls together because it was destined for their story to continue past a simple interaction at a gas station.