Re: [Mean Eyed Cat: Atticus & Sue]
Noticed the attention to his neck, but didn't comment on it. Marks were visible below his pushed-back sleeves, too, but he was already coming to accept them as part of who he was. Felt different too. Not just on the surface, but beneath the skin. Liked it. Made him feel energized. Suspected that feeling was temporary, but was into it now. Liked it. But his confidence as he stood there wasn't anything created by the runes. Hands in his pockets, he was comfortable. Was comfortable telling the guy that he wasn't interested. Was something teachers learned early; had to be able to turn kids down quickly and kindly. Didn't bother him. Also, didn't think this kid was legitimately a kid, but there was something about the way the guy sat there that reminded Atticus of the many disenfranchised youths that had made their way through his classroom over the years.
"Will make it easier for me to win," he said of the guy blowing at pool. "And there are people who aren't strangers and aren't brothers to hit on. People you know by name, for example," he suggested easily, lazily, a little entertained by the entire posturing thing the kid had going on. "How about just people who seem interested in a one-night stand?" he asked. "Which isn't me," he added, in case the clarification was required, and as he slipped off his own jacket and tossed it on a chair. He grabbed the balls to rack them. "Cue's over there," he said, deliberately not getting it for the guy, because 'gimme' was a command, and he wasn't responding to commands. He was loading balls into the wooden rack.
The balls rolled in the wooden triangle, and Atticus placed them and pulled the rack back and hung it on the hook beneath the table. "You can break," he offered, grabbing his own stick and chalking the end as he waited. "Name? I'm Atticus. Nice to meet you, and giving you my name isn't an offer," he clarified. "Try something other than hitting on me this time," he suggested comfortably as he waited for the guy to open his mouth.