Adrian Reznik (adrian_reznik) wrote in astor_ridge, @ 2011-02-09 00:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | adrian, adrian and rose, rose |
Who Adrian Reznik and Briar-Rose King
What Poolside encounters
When Monday early afternoon
Where Astor Ridge pool
Status Completed / PG
|Adrian| With the threat of an arrest hanging over him, Adrian had found that distractions had become more and more needed in the week and some odd days since he’d been visited by the ever so softspoken officer Brady. Work wasn’t a pleasant business at all, not with the knowledge that his boss thought he was stealing from the inventory (and didn’t seem to care to hide his suspicions now that Adrian knew about them) and it all added up to Adrian sleeping even less than usual. As always, extreme lack of sleep left the thirty-five-year-old a bit on the edge, but he tried to keep to himself as much as possible. However, there was only so much time you could spend cooped up in your apartment with your cat for company before restlessness got a good grip of you. Therefor, Adrian had made his way downstairs for a swim - usually a good way for him to relax
It was a little past noon and there wasn’t too many people at the pool, although it was rarely empty - Adrian wouldn’t have minded if it was, but he could deal with some people. As long as they kept out of his way, and people tended to do that while swimming. In fact, Adrian shouldn’t have been there at all, Monday being a regular workday, but he’d decided that he was sick today. On some level it felt a bit childish, but he really didn’t feel like going in to work and dealing with his boss’ sideways glances when he thought Adrian didn’t notice. Instead he was on his back in the water, moving through it without hurry until his hands touched the wall at the end of the pool. With a sigh, he put his arms on the edge of the basin, rubbing his face with one hand before pushing his hair back, running his fingers through it. The exercise did help some, but he still felt annoyed.
|Rose| Moving from their shag-tastic Ranch style home in Destiny Falls to this shining beacon of affluence had been a mixed blessing for Briar-Rose King. Mixed, because along with the bigger bedroom, the bigger kitchen, the spa, the coffee shop, the gym and (of course) the pool, there was one downside to the eighteen year old’s new situation. With all the new surroundings, it was extremely hard to concentrate on what to look at, let alone the new semester that had just started.
Horrific circumstances, of course. But she was dealing.
Mondays were fairly lax in her class schedule, with one nine am class and another at four, the redheaded Dance major had a lot of time on her hands between the two: time she had decided to take advantage of in the humid glass-cased atmosphere of Astor Ridge’s indoor pool. Like most girls her age, she had a tendency to take a quick dip for no reason other than to test the water and say she was there for a reason before lounging on one of the white lawn chairs that surrounded the sapphire pool, under the sun and huge bamboo fans. In a simple green bikini, with overly-long copper waves piled behind her head as a pillow, Rose was listening to a bass-heavy remix of Nirvana’s Smell’s Like Team Spirit on her IPod... not fully aware that something in the water had caught her eye for the majority of the song.
When that thing didn’t flip at the wall and head back the other way, Rose moved her foot out of her direct line of sight, peering down the length of her body at the top half of a...very cut older man ten feet away.
His eyes were dark, not just for the color, but with something behind them like a thundercloud. For some reason, it made the girl think of that caged lion pacing back and forth in front of his dual-paned window at the zoo.
She smiled at him when their eyes connected, right when the late-and-magnificent Kobain scraped his approval in the song. Funny how life could have a soundtrack.
|Adrian| Adrian wasn’t aware of making the decision to pay any attention to the girl in the lawn chair, but nevertheless found his eyes meeting hers. The smile she gave him more or less prompted him to give one in return, as if his body was working partly on its own. He did have enough presence of mind to notice that she didn’t look half bad, and the smile turned slightly more towards a smirk, directed more at himself than at the girl. For a moment, without warning, his eyes closed just briefly, his body deciding to try and reboot for just a second or two. When he came to again, his hands automatically grabbed at the edge of the pool to keep him from slipping into the water again. It felt worse than it looked - to anyone watching, the brief switch-off/switch-on was barely noticeable.
Taking this as a sign to get up, Adrian placed his hands steadily on the pool’s edge and pushed himself out of the water, surprisingly sure in his movements for someone as tired as he supposedly was. Two days awake with a good bout of drunkenness on Saturday wasn’t exactly ideal, but he’d survive. He’d done since the age of ten, no need to give in now. Getting to his feet, he took a moment to once again run his hand through his hair, fully aware of being perfectly positioned in front of the redhead. Adrian was far from vain, but he was also aware of that people found him attractive and who was he to deny them some eye candy? Besides, no one said the young woman had to look.
Tilting his head to one side and then the other, stretching his neck, he then moved to sit down on a lawn chair one down from where the girl sat, grabbing the fresh towel supposedly put there by a maid. Drying his face off, he then put the towel over his shoulders, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs, head resting in his left hand as he looked over at the redhead with the hint of a smile on his lips.
|Rose| When he had pushed himself out of the water and stood up at the foot of her chair, Rose pushed a stretched out breath of air through her lips, vibrating them in a soundless, childish expression of subconscious appreciation.
Woooow. was the only discernible thought in the girl’s head. If she had been half-assed lured into watching him in the water, Mr. Dark Eyes here had her full attention now.
Her smile tipped to the same side that he wandered over to and made himself comfortable. Really comfortable, with his half-grin in his hand and those dual dimples and solid block-of-wood frame and ohmygod What movie did you step out of? Rose wasn’t sure if the heat behind her new nostril piercing was due to healing soreness or a side effect of the blush behind her freckles.
Instead of saying hello like a normal person, the only thing that escaped her lips was a woman-child’s giggle, and she hooked the white wires that attached to the tiny speakers in her ears with one fingertip, plucking each one free in it’s turn.
|Adrian| At the giggle, Adrian gave a soft snort of amusement. This girl was at least ten years younger than him, probably more, but there was no harm in being nice, right? As she removed her earbuds, Adrian lifted his head up again, letting the hand fall to rest lightly clasped over the other. His smile grew a little, teeth showing slightly. She was definitely checking him out and he didn’t mind at all.
“Glad I can offer you something to rest your eyes on,” he said, striking up a conversation. “I couldn’t help noticing you look, you see.” With that, he stood up to move from the chair he was currently occupying to the empty one between the two of them. Sitting down again, he took the towel from his shoulders and proceeded to dry his body off. The hair was saved for last and went from slicked back to suitably ruffled, a few tresses falling to frame his face. Letting the towel fall into a heap next to him on the sunchair, he smiled at the young woman again. “I’m Adrian, in case that’s of any interest to you,” he said with a wink.
|Rose| GAWD, if Rose wasn’t blushing before, she was now. Also, possibly staring. Laughing too. Most Some girls her age had already been around the block a few times: they knew how to reign themselves in, to keep cool when the blood pressure started going up and warming her cheeks (and collarbone, and just about everywhere else), but Rose King had been relatively sheltered from the experiences which lead to self control. She knew enough to remember what a boy’s fingers felt like over her panties, over her shirt: enough to recall the sounds of nervous breath and chuckles in her ear and on her neck--but that was about it.
And this guy was no teenage boy.
“What?” He said something... ohgod, what did he say. His name? Yes, that had to be his name. Rose’s embarrassed and almost dumbfounded smile brightened a bit. “Oh! Yes. I mean,” how in god’s name did her girlfriends do this? He’s so nice. Honestly, Rose didn’t understand what all the complaints about men were--they were always nice to her. “Adrian. Like from Rocky...” Rose had seen too many movies.
She sat up for some reason, letting her hair fall from it’s haphazard hold behind her head to frame her shoulders and dangle a good four inches below her chest. She tucked her hands on the chair just under her bent knees. Again, no idea why. “I’m Rose.”
|Adrian| Adrian nodded slowly, appreciatively. “Rose. A pretty name for a pretty young lady.” He didn’t really care, at the moment, if he was coming on a bit strong - to him, it was in all innocence and the annoyance and tension was forgotten for a while. Any distraction that worked would be welcomed by him. He had no intentions to mislead this girl in any way. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. I like to think I’d remember hair like yours. Are you recently moved in, or have I just not had the fortune of meeting you until today?”
His thumb came up to brush a drop of water from his chin, also brushing back the strand of hair responsible for putting the droplet there. The sun shone down through the glass ceiling, warming his back in a most pleasant way. Deciding he wanted to recharge some and acknowledging the fact that he could still be social lying down, he grabbed his discarded towel and spread it on the chair (out of old habit, seeing how the chairs were comfortable enough as they were) before lying down. Putting one hand behind his head for support, he stretched out in the sunlight, a pleased smile curling his lips. His face turned towards Rose again, one eye closed against the sun.
|Rose| Rose had leaned her cheek on the bone of her knee, subconsciously delighted at the cool contrast of the skin there to the blaze beneath her face. However, her eyes hadn’t left him, even when he spoke and smiled and stretched out behind the sun...
...sigh.
“Um.” She started, then smiled bright and embarrassed by her lack of eloquence. She wanted to dig out her phone from the pile of clothing next to her chair, take a picture of him, and send it to every friend she had. Just for bragging rights. See this?! It complimented me. Damn right, I about exploded.
“No, we just moved in--last week.” She squinted a little when the sun hit her eyes, reflecting green and amber-gold.
|Adrian| “Last week? Well, welcome to Astor Ridge..!” Adrian flashed his teeth in a grin, before closing both his eye and turning his face towards the ceiling. “You’ll get settled in no time. It’s a pretty comfy place. A bit odd at times, but I’ve found the good outweighs the bad in general. I’ve lived here for ten years, so I guess I’ve gotten used to it.” Just as soon as he’d settled into his new position, he shifted again, turning over on his side with his head propped in his hand.
“What do you do, Rose?” he asked with a curious look on his face. “I know a woman’s age isn’t a suitable topic for discussion, but I can’t quite place you anywhere. All I know is that you’re younger than me, which really isn’t a hard feat.” He gave a chuckle, waiting to see what her answer would be.
|Rose| If he was planning on carrying on a coherent conversation with her, he really needed to stop moving. Every shift in position, subtle flex and release of muscle and exposed skin was a new piece of sugary candy to a very hyperactive teenage imagination. Rose caught most of it, forcing herself to keep her gaze in the vicinity of his face, and while there, they naturally gravitated to his eyes.
Still dark, still tense, but less so. Or maybe that was her own wishful thinking--she really wasn’t sure at this point. Rose cleared her throat, hoping that might reset her thought process. It did, though for how long was up for speculation.
“Ten years. I mean, eighteen years. I’m eighteen years old.” Inwardly, Rose grimaced, but the expression only twitched her smile a little more toward one cheek. She cleared her throat again. “I go to Kenyon, and thinkin’ about a job down at the coffee shop but I dunno if I’ll have enough time.” While he seemed absolutely perfect and comfortable in his own skin (flaunting it? Not like she’d know the difference), Rose’s body seemed to be tightening, tensing as a means of venting energy that suddenly started screaming for release. Her pale-pink painted toenails curled in and out. One slender hand had started toying with a long piece of her hair. On stage, with choreography, the girl was slated to be one of the best--had a long and esteemed career ahead of her: but on the fly in front of a guy who looked like him... Rose was a smiley, giggly ball of nerves.
|Adrian| One eyebrow raising at her answer, Adrian nodded once more. “I had you around twenty, twenty-two maybe,” he admitted, “but eighteen works just fine.” Worked just fine for what? Nothing special - if nothing else, at least his flirting wasn’t out of bounds. Which supposedly was a good thing, if anyone would have any complaints to make. People complained about the oddest things nowadays. “Kenyon, huh? I went there a bunch of years ago, I imagine it might’ve changed some since then.”
He had another question on the tip of his tongue, but became distracted by Rose’s apparent inability to hold still, something that brought the smile back to his face. “Don’t know if you have the time?” he finally said. “And yet you can find enough time to be hanging out by the pool at lunchtime as if you didn’t have a care in the world. I daresay you could probably find some time.” A single crease between his eyebrows. “What do you do?”
|Rose| Something about that particular phrasing struck a chord with Rose, and brought her out of her hormonal stupor (just a little bit). Mainly because she’d heard a similar muse from her mother during the summer. One corner of the girl’s lips pulled into her cheek, cutting to a dimple as she canted the look at him--still very invested in the conversation, but now she actually had her feet on the ground.
Her head was still a bit in the clouds, though.
“I have time now, sure...” The fingertips that had been curling her hair flicked the length back behind one freckled shoulder. Rose had a thin, bird-like frame, but it was softly defined, and lean. There was a reason why, and it was’t just genes. “But I won’t once practices go twice a day instead’a four nights a week. I’m a dancer.”
She still leaned forward against her thighs, and draped her arms around bent legs, linking fingertips lazily in front.
|Adrian| “A dancer?” Adrian looked suitably impressed, eyebrows raising again. “Well, now that you mention it, you do have the body for it.” The smile came back. “At least for all I can tell when you’re sitting bunched up like that.” He found he almost wanted to reach out and straighten the girl up, but he doubted that was the correct way to go about it. “If you practice two times a day, you shouldn’t have reason to curl up like that.” It was a kinder smile now - not that he thought Rose was self-conscious, but hey, neither of them really had any reason to be shy. Adrian rarely was and, as understandable as her reaction to him was, it still amused him.
|Rose| Rose’s already evident grin brightened like a toothpaste commercial, and she felt that rush of heat behind her cheeks for the nnth time in the last ten minutes. She laughed a little into her knee, pulling off the perfect giggly teenage-blusher impression without having any idea of the sort. She wasn’t self-conscious, usually because she wasn’t very self-aware. She took care of her body, her health and appearance, but for the most part, Rose had a tendency to forget that people were looking.
When it was brought to the front of her attention by someone of the likes of him, she suddenly felt a rush of conflicting pride and shyness. She tried to swallow it back, squinting back at him and the sun through the roof, and unfurled a bit, back to her original position of laying back on the lawn chair. Attempts were made to convince herself that she didn’t feel awkward. They were mostly successful.
“So what do you do?” she asked, letting her smirking grin infiltrate the bright tone of her words. “You look like you could be a baseball player.” Rose liked athletes, but she really liked baseball players, and it wouldn’t be completely out of the question to think one lived here.
|Adrian| Seeing how he’d been checked out good and proper already, Adrian didn’t really have any second thoughts about returning the action as Rose lay down again. An appreciative half-smile pulled the left side of his mouth up, his eyes dropping from the girl before him only as she returned his question to him. Smoothing out a crease on his towel with his thumb, he gave a one-shouldered shrug and a light snort. “Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you quite a bit, I’m quite far removed from the world of sports. I’m a pharmacist,” he said, meeting her eyes again. “Not a very glamorous job, I’m afraid, but it pays the bills.”
His arm was getting bored with supporting his head, so he changed position to lie on his back again, one hand behind his head and the other resting on his stomach. “I have to admit, don’t think anyone’s said I look like I could be a baseball player before.” The relaxation this pose offered threatened to cause him to fall asleep, but for now he’d be alright. He tilted his head to the side to be able to look at Rose still, one eye closed against the sun. “Are you a natural redhead?” A seemingly random jump between subjects, but Adrian was the kind of person who asked what was on his mind more often than not.