Untitled piece (Practice work)

[zesty_pinto]

The day she smiled at him, everything changed.

"Would I have loved her if she didn't?" Gary gave the quizzical smirk that usually escaped his lips when his mind was fixated on something "Of course." His mind was half-set between browsing the contents of his fridge as he spoke.

"But does it make you happy?" is what Dave Scotts asked him between the slice of toast that he bit chunks off of before as they crinkled muffled noises in his mouth before he swallowed "Does anything make you happy, for that matter?"

To this, his old friend said nothing, his mind busy as he drew the white wax carton of five percent milk and efficiently unfolded the mouth of the receptacle with two fingers as though he had ingrained this skill into him.

"See, you don't know either, do you?" Dave took another small bite, giving him an intermittent glance. His eyes glanced to the plain white ceramic bowl that the milk was being poured into, over a bed of corn flakes that slowly levitated from the bowl as they bouyantly rested along the milk. He took slow bites, still saying nothing.

For the past few years that he knew of his roommate and friend, Dave could not say much else about the man except that he was an eccentric in his own rights. Everyone had their own quirks, Dave knew, but the man that replied whenever he said "Gary" had taken it to a level beyond most people's perceptions. From his college days, Gary had been the one that brought a box of fraternity shirts home into the dorm with no reason other than to say that "they were lying there on the street next to some neglected table." He was the one that bought breakfast sandwiches at the local McDonald's and kept it in his pocket until it grew dark and then left it on his dinner plate to eat with the salads he usually dined upon. This was not a secret of his, either; many a freshman was shocked at having their conversations on sports interrupted by the man inquiring about the time followed by a brief question about something that could have only been from the top of his head, ranging from a quizzical question on the atomic mass (to the fifth significant integer) of some random element in the periodic table of elements, to a demand as to why one cannot predict the weather beyond a certain number of days without a high degree of inaccuracy.

To Dave, it may have been this curiosity of this man that made him appreciate him so much. Even before he knew the man, there were already tales being told of the quizzical activities of the man and if there was a "method behind his madness".

Gary picked at the flakes, one by one, putting one into his mouth followed by another as the milk stained his fingers, staring off as though he could see through those walls, through everything. Finally, he sighed and opened his mouth for a second before he spoke.

"A hyacinth in the air that will soon fade." Dave often heard him say this quip of his when he would catch him staring at the sunset. This caused Dave to blink as it was still before noon.

"What the hell?" His exclamation, not so much an exclamation as it was a question towards his friend "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"You are saying that you think you know what is right?" Gary turned to him from the flakes that were slowly decaying to mush in his bowl. The smirk on his face remained fixated with his half-knowing, half-indifferent look.

"Well, uh, yeah?" He put down the toast that was wedged by his two fingers and let it rest against the small plate that held it and the progeny of crumbs from the dun slice of the bread loaf.

"You do know..." they both blinked for a moment, Dave out of surprise, Gary out of the dryness that was beginning to cake from his eyes. He then added, "I just refuse to listen." The gaze was broken to return to his limping flakes as he continued to pick at the flakes.

Dave sighed and looked back to his toast before realizing there was no more appetite within him.

He spent his night with Lauren as they sat on the couch looking at the skyline through the darkened glamour of a lightless room; an event that once became an excuse to break into passion but was now a contemplative scene between the two of them as they shared their lives.

"So what do you think about Gary? You think he'll be all right?"

"Dave, what are you worried about?" Lauren gave a gentle smugness in her voice that reflected her lips. Her right hand gently stroked the back of his head like that of a dog's; gently and repetitive like a massage. It was dark but even she could see him blink at the reaction.

"Do I seem that tense about it?"

"Yeah?" She replied with a somnolent chuckle. "Relax, he's a big kid." She motioned closer and ran her cheek against the cloth of his shoulder "-big boy..."

Dave mouth polished into a smile, barely visible except as a silhouetted crescent that only the residual light outside could form. He looked out some more as they leaned against each other, watching the sky and themselves through intermittent glances.

The night after felt as same as it did before. Gary picked at his flakes as Dave chewed on his toast.

"Still doing okay?" He asked between the noisy chaws of the cooked bread. Gary said nothing as he picked at his flakes some more, selecting them one at a time into his mouth. His eyes continued with a fixation towards the bowl. Within his heart, Dave felt a little crestfallen at the sight of his friend as quiet as before.

"You know, maybe I should see her sometime..."

"What?" Gary took a glance back at Dave, his head propping left and right like it was loosely held there through some weak bond.

"I said, maybe I should see her sometime."

Gary turned back to look at the flakes and pick at the pieces carefully. "Tonight she'll come around."

"Yeah? Mind if I bring Lauren over?"

He tilted his head slightly as he popped a soggy flake into his mouth before saying, "Why would I mind?"

Dave blinked back in a jut of disturbance "Whoah, not saying anything in that way. I'm just saying-"

"Saying what?" Was all that Gary said before he stood up, turned to Dave, and then stared at him with his half-interested stare. The sensation to speak had left his friend as Gary waited for his reply. He forced some air into his lips to get a reply for Gary, half-tugging along the seams of his mouth in the hopes to get his answer out.

"I'm just..." He stopped himself, his mind jumbled slightly before he coughed to clear his throat and tried again for some success at expressing "...I'm just saying that it'd be entertaining." The air was still silently still like a mental wall. He quickly rebounded by adding, "...you know, like a double date."

"Mmm... Is that it?" The words did little to change the man's look at him.

"Yeah... yeah, I guess that's it."

"Oh." Gary turned, looking back at his bowl and stared intently at it as though he was going to paw more flakes into his mouth "She'll be around, just wait and see."

"Wait and see?" He couldn't stop blinking at what he said.

"Yes." He then turned and walked from the table to the corridor that led to his room, wordless except in the blandly usual way he walked.

As it grew dark, she came. Lauren couldn't come, as he informed Gary that she had to finish up a project. She smiled and gave a pleasant smile.

She smiled at Dave "You're his roommate, aren't you?"

Dave gave a reluctant nod at seeing her "Yes, I am."

Her hand brushed back long fibrous hair that threatened her sight "A pleasure!" It was almost squeeky, to Dave's distaste "Where's Gary, by the way?"

He gave a casual point to Gary's room with a slightly coiled index finger "Do you know how to get there?"

"I'll find my way, thanks!" she replied perkily as she continued through. He watched her manuever through the living room as casually as silk, heels clacking against the floor in announcement of her style. His head shook unconsciously.

As he saw her, he gripped his hand slightly, turned to a photo, and gazed at the glare of the photo of a park, him smiling politely with Gary next to him; featureless expression and hands in his pockets, looking at how his hands never reached out. His arm had wrapped around his shoulder, clenching him close as they looked back at a camera with an immortal gaze of a pleasant time from a past he could barely remember.