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Lie Ren (strongsilentype) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-02-12 21:30:00

Gardening was cool, okay?
Who: Billy and Wally
When: Second Weekend in February
Where: Bookstore
What: Random Encounter
Rating: Low
Status: Complete


Wally was in the bookstore in the magazine section. He found that magazines were more his speed than looking for books themselves. He didn’t have a lot of patience to sit down and read a novel, though he loved to learn new things. He was really interested in the magazines about cars and gadgets. He didn’t do a lot of tech stuff, but he looked at those, too.

He turned around the aisle to look at the next set of magazines (cooking, maybe?) and nearly bumped into someone.

Don’t worry, Wally! It was only Billy Horrible, who was paying attention to things for once. “Whoa there,” he said, stepping a little out of the way from the other man and the aisle of magazines. “Careful. I tripped completely over a woman not all that long ago, and it was a mess. Seriously.” Billy was trying to be more social lately -- and so was probably over-compensating by talking to people a little too much.

“A mess?” Wally asked after a moment of deliberation. He was trying to figure out how Billy could trip over a woman. Was she laying down on the ground? Was he walking on... a bed, or something? Bizarre thoughts were running through his head for a moment as he glanced at the other man. Maybe he was carrying a cake, and it splattered all over. That would be a mess.

“Yeah. Like--- I spilled over her, mostly.” Of course, it had turned out alright. Amy had been a lovely girl, and Billy had apologized like and idiot. But really, what was new?

“Coffee?” Wally asked, sounding very confused. Not that it was any of his business, but he wondered how one person could spill over another. He must have been carrying coffee. That would make a mess.

Billy rose his eyebrows and gave a little pause. Clearly there was some miscommunication here. “No. No coffee. Just... I literally tripped over her and then fell on top of her.”

No coffee? How was that a spill? Wally didn’t really understand why the guy would use the word ‘spill’ and the word ‘mess’ if there wasn’t a spill or a mess. “Was she all right?” He asked, now a little concerned for the mental health of both the man who couldn’t see a woman under his feet, and the woman who was laying there waiting to be tripped on.

Billy just stared at the other man for a long moment, eye twitching somewhat. Social interaction was hard, and was pretty sure he’d met his quota for the day. “Well,” he said, trying to get back into that friendly zone that he’d been in just a few moments before. “I didn’t murder her or anything. Yeah. She’s fine.” It wasn’t the other guy, not really. Billy just... rarely found himself having to explain things to people. It was weird.

“That’s good.” Wally said, though he was still confused. Strange words to use. He used so few himself, that he wouldn’t have used words like ‘mess’ or ‘spill’ if there wasn’t actually a mess or a spill. He was glad that this little encounter hadn’t turned into a ‘spill’ of a ‘mess.’

“Right,” agreed Billy, who was getting the feeling that this guy wasn’t exceptionally social either. Or something. He wasn’t even really sure what to think, and that was odd all on it’s own. “No. She took it well. So.. you know. SO HEY what are you reading?”

“Magazines?” Wally said, holding up the couple that he’d picked out so far. He could have explained how he didn’t really have the patience for novels, or how he found that articles in the magazines were simply more interesting, but chose to simply hold up the couple that he’d picked out and smile.

Yes, Billy thought, I can see that. Instead, he just looked a little bemused. “Oh, right.” This guy was nice, but he just wasn’t sure how to deal with all the silence. Maybe he... just didn’t like Billy? He supposed that was possible. Lots of people didn’t like him, at least according to youtube comments.

“Novels are too long for me.” Wow. Six words. It was probably more than Wally had said to anyone in weeks. Except for possibly his boss, who kept pestering him about one thing or another. Wally just wasn’t a chatterbox. He kept things to the point. He was a thinker, not a talker. Though, when he had something he really wanted to say, he’d say it.

Perhaps novels were just too long winded for the silent-ish man? Billy rose his eyebrows and then gave a laugh, that was not quite a laugh at all. “That’s fair. I mean, hey, I liked them too.” he showed off his own stack of mags.

Wally nodded. He was carrying one about cars, and one about gardening. Gardening was cool, okay? He showed Billy, and leaned over to see what Billy was going to take home. “What interests you?”

Sure, gardening was cool. In it’s own not at all interesting to Billy sort of way. “What? Oh.” He was getting the hang of this -- less words didn’t always mean less conversation thing. He showed off his own stack -- electronics, computers, the wire. There was a theme here.

"You good with computers?" Wally asked. Hey, lookit that. More words. Wally wasn't sure if any of the words in those magazines would make any sense to him at all. He was good with mechanical things, but computers were something else entirely.

“Very,” said Billy, and it was only one word, but his answer really did tell it all. He was clearly quite confident in his skills. A pause. “Are you good at gardening?”

“Very.” Wally responded with a smile. It was true, too. He had a huge garden and spent a lot of time out in it. Communing with nature, so to speak. If only he could be in nature all the time, but that wasn’t entirely possible.

Billy grinned, then. For a moment there, he’d thought the other man a bit simple. But that clearly wasn’t the case here -- he had a wit to him that few did with so many words. It was oddly respectable. “Well, then.”

Still waters run deep. That was Wally to a T. He gave a little nod. “I’m Wally.” He said, holding his hand out for the other to shake. It was a strong, rough hand, though his handshake wasn’t painful at all. Except maybe for the painful, awkward silence.

Yeah well. There was that. Billy shook his hand and gave a proper little nod. "Billy," he said of himself. "Nice to meet you."

“You, too.” Wally said, giving him a smile. He shrugged and hugged the magazines against his chest, considering Billy for a moment. He could have sworn he’d seen him somewhere, just couldn’t place it. He only paused for that moment, then nodded and turned to head out of the magazine section and up to the register to pay.