Boys Next Door • •

[edgar ridley penketh]

Edgar was surprised by how much he enjoyed campus life. He spent as much time there as he possibly could, just so he didn’t miss anything. He had his lunch there, studied there, and made plans with friends there. It was just such a relaxed atmosphere and unlike anything he had known before. Plus, he wanted to make the most of the time he had left as a student. He would be going into his senior year come September, and Edgar didn’t want to graduate college wishing he had done more with his time there. He’d already delayed going to college so that he could help out his grandparents, and they had made him promise not to squander his chances when he did finally go to NYU several years later. If there was anyone he couldn’t break a promise to it was his grandmother. So while there were other kids who solely went to their classes and then fled the campus like it was on fire, Edgar hung around until he had work, or needed to be somewhere else for an appointment or to deal with another matter.

Today he had nothing like that, so his books were spread out around him on the grass, and Edgar was flat on his front, scribbling away in his notebook. The Quad was one of his favourite places to be, just because of how lively it was. If he didn’t need the resources of the library he did all of his work out here. His apartment came with too much outside noise, too much clattering from the hallway; it was distracting when his brain expected quiet. Here he knew there would be noise and he could work with that. Plus, there was the space to spread out and be a little messy with textbooks and snacks, or whatever else he happened to have brought along for the afternoon. It only annoyed him if suddenly it rained, and like so many other students out there he had to scramble to gather everything together and rush for the nearest building.

Thankfully, the sky was blue and looked to stay that way. Edgar copied down the notes he wanted from his textbook into his notebook. He was compiling a revision guide of sorts for the exam he had coming up in two weeks’ time. He already felt fairly confident about it, but there was absolutely no harm in being prepared. Plus, he didn’t want to be that guy who boasted his assurance only to flunk come the actual day. He’d never be able to live with himself. Glancing around, he looked for the next book he wanted, knowing he had only held it in his hands ten minutes earlier. His dark eyes fell on it by his left hip, and instead of reaching back or sitting up like a regular person might, Edgar shuffled back on his stomach, sliding along the cool grass to seek out the book. As his fingers closed around the text, he felt his ankle hit something else, something moving. A second later he realised it had to be someone walking across the quad, and he jumped into a sitting position quickly, horror across his face at the thought he had tripped someone over. “I am so sorry!” He proclaimed, glancing around to see if the person was sprawled, stumbling, or just glaring at him like he was the scum of the earth.

• • •

TAGGED! Avery Karina Alcott
WORDS! 576!
OUTFIT! Friendly Fella!
LYRICS! Young Volcanoes - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Avery Karina Alcott]

Cooking hadn't actually been Avery's plan. Neither had New York in fact! She had actually been very content in Berne with her career in psychology. Cooking and New York had been dreams, but ones she did want to fulfill. It took a lot of talking and weighing out pros and cons but eventually her dreams became a reality and she was signing the lease agreement to a little one bedroom apartment. It was in a good neighbourhood, at least one of her neighbour's thought she was some sort of foreign actress trying to make a name for herself in America because though she spoke perfect English, with a hint of that Swiss accent, she chose to exaggerate it around the older couple. And around most people if she were being perfectly honest. She still couldn't be certain that her biological father's family wasn't still after her. She had been given a wonderful upbringing full of happy memories of making dress up with her father, baking and learning to cook. They had taken cooking classes when they'd first moved to Berne, as a sort of way of meeting new people in the area and learning a different area of the language. Jordan had been teaching her to cook since she could reach the stove but it had been something different and fun.

She didn't want to give up the life she had. Eventually she wanted to return to Berne, it was where she called home but for now, New York was the place she had wanted and now needed to be. She was learning so much more than she'd ever even though of. She'd been cooking and baking for so long that she'd honestly thought she'd known so much and as it turned out, it had felt like she'd barely scraped the surface. It was thrilling. Avery was older than the average student in her class but that didn't bother her. They were all there together because they all had a passion for food and wanted to expand and explore that passion; age wasn't a factor in that. She'd bee loving her pastry and dessert course, had never thought such a thing had even existed and was so excited to be learning all sorts of neat little tricks of the trade to make things or do them right the first time. Experimentation was as always, a huge part of the process but that was what Avery loved most about it all. She could try putting new things together and seeing just how the flavours mixed together. She threw out just as much as she kept thanks to bad mixes.

Even now, she had her final project on the counter, cupcakes secured in a plastic carrying case, waiting for her to bring them to her class and receive her critics. Quickly enough, she finished up the cleaning up she'd left from the night before and stuffed her feet into her boots, tucking her slippers away again. Campus wasn't actually that far away from her apartment and it would take her no time at all to get there. After double checking her bag for her phone and keys, Avery slipped her sunglasses onto her nose and with cupcakes in hand, locked up and started down the two blocks to the school's campus. She needed to be careful so she'd left her headphones tucked away in her bag, deciding after she'd gotten her mark, it wouldn't matter what her cupcakes looked like. Presentation was just as important and taste. She was cutting across the lawn when she was bumped and lost her footing. Quickly and without thinking, she spun around midair so that she landed on her back. All the air in her body rushed out of her lungs and she felt something in her shoulder pop and she definitely did not want to think about the searing pain slicing it's way through her ankle. It couldn't have been good but it wasn't her main concern at the moment. She could head over and speak with the nurse, get checked out at the campus medical and go from there. She was fucked if her cupcakes were ruined. There would be no second chances with this project. "Fuck, my cupcakes!"

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || edgar ridley penketh
Words || 705
Clothes || Cranky Cook
Music || Holding The Other --Lauren Alaina
Notes || <3

[edgar ridley penketh]

This was the chance Edgar had been waiting for. Most of the kids he had gone to high school with had their careers already and some even had babies and rings on their fingers. They were happy and had their lives sorted into such pretty little lines. They knew what their next vacation would be, and where they would be spending the holidays for the next twelve months. They had thought about if they wanted more kids, if they wanted to move to another neighbourhood, or if they should wait a little while before fighting for that big promotion that would see them relocated to another big city. Edgar was taking steps that eighteen, twenty year olds were taking and he was so much older than them. It was a little unsettling when he heard of another old classmate taking a leap that cemented his forever choice. He felt so unready for marriage and children, even though he hoped for them in his future. In his mind he was still young, still learning and taking shots. He was only just getting to learn the necessary skills for his chosen career. He couldn’t think about the rest of his life without losing himself in the tightening paralysis of anxiety.

Edgar didn’t regret postponing his education though. Taking care of his aging grandparents had allowed him to get to know them as an adult rather than as just a kid. He got to make so many precious memories with them that otherwise he might have missed out on. Everyone was so pressured to go out into the world and live life that it was easy to forget the people who had already lived theirs who were being left behind. Edgar wouldn’t change the evenings of stories and reminiscing for anything. It was true that he could have been several years into a steady career as a paramedic, financially comfortably, and possibly settling down just like his peers; at what cost? Edgar couldn’t regret wonderful home cooked meals, the fussing of someone who loved him, and the chance to get to know two people who he could have easily overlooked in a haste to grow up and escape the bonds of childhood.

One thing Edgar hadn’t managed to leave behind with the teenage pimples and childhood stammer was his slight clumsiness. He grimaced to himself, wishing once again the he had an ounce of the sense his grandmother often told him about. The girl was sprawled on the ground near him, and Edgar quickly pulled back his legs before any more harm could come from his gangly limbs. Her concern for cupcakes confused him into silence for a long moment. All he was able to do was convert oxygen to carbon dioxide, and blink. Then his brain finally reminded him to speak instead of putting on his best impression of a goldfish. “A-are you okay?” He questioned with mild hesitation. Edgar was fully expecting to be yelled and screamed at now for his brief moment of carelessness.

• • •

TAGGED! Avery Karina Alcott
WORDS! 506!
OUTFIT! Friendly Fella!
LYRICS! Young Volcanoes - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Avery Karina Alcott]

Avery was ready to do something for herself for a change. Her entire life was about staying hidden. Her entire life had been about keeping five steps ahead of anyone that might have been looking for her. As she'd been a minor when everything happened, her records were all sealed and locked up nice and tight but the thing about locks was that they could be easily broken, and people could be handsomely paid off to leave the key behind. There had been a lot of close calls when she'd been younger, less and less as she got older and they moved more frequently. They stopped a good three moves before they'd decided a new country was best to call home for a while. She'd still been young enough to make friends easily enough. She was the shiny, new bauble everyone wanted to play with; the pretty, blonde American. Like all new things, the sparkle began to dull a bit and sooner than she'd thought, she was just another student in the classroom, which was nice and helpful. With no one having their eyes on her, she blended in well enough and life became what Avery thought of as normal.

She would have happily stayed in Switzerland and will no doubt return when she's finished school but New York had boasted one of the best-specialised pastry programmes in the world and she'd been wishing and hoping for a chance at it. It opened up so many doors around the world, in a career she actually wanted to have in ten, fifteen years. She'd been in love with psychology when she'd decided to major in it. Plus she figured it would help her out in the long run, if whoever was chasing her as a child returned. Too bad it didn't help her plan her days better or let her see the future. Seeing the future would have been helpful so she could sidestep the foolish boy who happened to trip her up.

"I'm ninety percent sure I've twisted my ankle, eighty-five there's something off about my shoulder and I'm one hundred percent certain there's death in my future if these do not make it up to Harmon on the third floor." She tossed out, refusing to think about the vicious throbbing in her ankle or the funky look of her shoulder. Her grades in this very class determined everything about her future. She was not going back to psychology. She could only take so much of everyone else's bullshit; even if she was getting paid handsomely for it. This guy might have thought she was being dramatic, and maybe she was a bit, but Harmon was a crazy professor and one of the best pastry chefs in the entire world. It would take a miracle to impress her so Avery had pulled every trick out of her bottomless bag to whip up these little miracle cupcakes. "Either take them or take me up there with them. Room three oh six." She said, allowing the anger of the moment to make her voice just that bit harsher. She was not about to cry, even though everything was throbbing.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || edgar ridley penketh
Words || 527
Clothes || Cranky Cook
Music || Holding The Other --Lauren Alaina
Notes || <3

[edgar ridley penketh]

Edgar had taken his time easing into adulthood, and while he was later than his peers in getting to college, he didn’t regret his choices. In a way he had been given extra time to learn the differences between teenagedom and adulthood. He hadn’t been bombarded with government demands and paperwork he barely understood while he was still trying to figure out his way around some fancy college campus. Instead he was able to get a minor grasp on that and then look at colleges with his grandmother’s push. A part of him was certain that she was furious with how he had put his life on hold, but all she ever did was shake her head at him sometimes and clip him with the kitchen towel. He had been following the goodness in his heart, that selfless organ that often guided Edgar down his chosen paths.

He didn’t mind taking his time because he knew that eventually he would have wound up on the training to become a paramedic. It might have been another school or a slightly different programme but he was certain that he would get there one day. In the end, his grandmother had been the one to insist that day come sooner and that Edgar have a try at living for himself for once. He still did a grocery shop for them, or arranged for flowers to be delivered at their home. His mother was only around the corner these days, but his own childhood experiences had left him unsure about her ability to commit to promises. Their relationship was on the strained side after the years of neglect and alcoholism. Edgar loved his mother, he understood she had problems from the marriage to his father, but he felt like she used her excuses as a crutch to get out of her own responsibilities. It was something he hoped would never happen to him should some accident or trauma befall him. Everyone had their demons, but not everyone held them up for the world to see and run away from.

Edgar was still struggling to comprehend what had just happened – what chaos had interrupted his restful afternoon in the sun. “Uh...” He looked around for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts. He wanted to help her, to look at her injuries and put his education to use. However, she seemed to be more worried about her cupcakes – and that was what had Edgar confused right now. Slowly, he realised that it must be something to do with an assignment for a class. Still, he wanted to make sure her injuries weren’t too severe, but he felt guilty for being the reason she had fell in the first place. “I’ll take them...if you promise not to move and let me look at your ankle and shoulder when I get back down?” He said, wincing a little at the thought of someone being hurt because of him. “I’m a senior paramedic studies student.” He added, since he really could be anyone here for anything. He didn’t want her to think that he was some “certified doctor” who was actually in fact an arts major with an outdated first aid certificate.

• • •

TAGGED! Avery Karina Alcott
WORDS! 856!
OUTFIT! Friendly Fella!
LYRICS! Young Volcanoes - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Avery Karina Alcott]

Avery had worked her ass off back home to get where she was and though she did occasionally feel like she was being followed and would, therefore, take convoluted routes to wherever she was going, she also felt very free. She had graduated from a world-class school with a doctorate degree in psychology and though using that degree had been the plan for just about every other person in her course, it hadn't been what Avery had really wanted. She'd done it simply because it had sounded fairly easy and she had promised her father that she would go to school. It wasn't really until well after when she'd been working in her field of study that it wasn't what she really wanted out of life. It hadn't spoken to her, reached her soul as it had for so many of her classmates; as cooking did for her. She loved whipping up new recipes to try out and offering up to her friends. Back home she had been the one to throw the dinner parties because of her group of friends, she could whip up something a little better than ramen noodles.

Her love of food was the sole reason she and her father had gym memberships. They needed them with all the different kinds of food she wanted to try her hand at. It should have been obvious when she'd been a teenager that she should have gone on to culinary school. However, she had been fearful of finding herself in some sort of dead-end job as a dishwasher or sous chef and never really getting anywhere or feeling fulfilled. It was ridiculous, there were plenty of job opportunities all over the world for a damn good sous chef or any other culinary position but she'd still gone on to become a therapist of sorts. At least with the money she'd earned and saved doing that for that short amount of time, she'd be able to open a restaurant When she had more experience and she felt she was ready. Right now, she knew there was no way she would be able to successfully run a business but she was also still in school. Avery figured she would finish school and spend a couple of years gaining the experience she wanted before branching out and with any luck, by then she'll have also found herself with many contacts in the industry that she'll be able to turn to for advice.

Avery let the strange man talk, let him offer up reasons for her to stay. She would have agreed to rob a bank if he would just take her project up to her teacher. She was a hard woman to please and though Avery never thought her recipe would please enough to see an actual smile crack that woman's face, she was hoping it would please enough to give her a passing grade. She needed that damn grade; which meant she needed her damn cupcakes up those stairs and in that classroom. "Listen. I do not give a flying fuck who you are or what you want as long as you get my final project upstairs and on that desk. I'd promise to steal the moon." Avery offered, using the arm that wasn't throbbing in pain to wave the guy away with her cupcakes. She needed a good grade on her recipe or she felt like it was pointless to even be in New York. To be fair, Avery had a habit of getting a bit dramatic when things were looking poorly for her. She needed to keep her mind occupied with something other than what she should be thinking about and being ridiculous tended to help; usually after making things worse.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || edgar ridley penketh
Words || 623
Music || Holding The Other --Lauren Alaina
Notes || <3