Before I begin just a quick correction. Last night I was at IHOP not Dennys. They are just about the same thing in my mind except IHOP doesn’t have any old school memories for me.

Anyway, tonight I tried Krispy Kreme. I spent 3.18 and got three dougnuts in addition to my hot chocolate. Not bad considering there is free Wi-Fi there. My only qualm is that the chairs on not comfortable. Despite all that I finished chapter two with some reworkings that caused me to take the story in a different direction than I had originally planned. I just noticed that my chapter countings were off. Chapters 1 and 2 are already posted so here are chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 is nearing complition and will be ready tomarrow. I get the feeling that my chapters are really short because I don’t know how to change scenes without starting a new chapter. hmm…

One last sidenote. I think I’m in love with my supporting female character. Shes so awesome.

Without further adue, Voici mon oeuvre en train de se faire!

As Bordin walked home that night he couldn’t help but wonder by what providence he had been granted a companion such as Steekay. Steekay was everything that Bordin was not. It almost made him wonder if this wasn’t some sort of Fight Club styled illusion. Had he just conjured Steekay up in an effort to escape reality and become someone else? Steekay was confident, smooth, good looking and friendly. But he seemed real, in that larger than life kind of way. He wasn’t the guy in the center of attention he, to quote Fight Club, moved “through the crowd” and was behind the scenes. He was the person that everyone knew but that no one really knew. Whatever he did, he did to perfection and he did it all in a style that said he didn’t care what others thought and everyone envied him for it.

Bordin on the other hand, he was average to a painful extreme that made him wonder why he was alive. He was never a star, people seemed to overlook him because of how average he was. He just blended in with the background where ever he was. He was socially inept and as a result his only friend was his sister, Crimson. They had been drawn close together over the death of their parents.

Their parents, or shall we say Mr. and Mrs. Mineur worked in investment security before their untimely deaths. One day, without warning they simply disappeared. The search for them was more of a manhunt because 41 million US had disappeared with them. At first everyone assumed they had embezzled the money and abandoned their teenage children in favor of a life of pleasure on some island no one could pronounce the name of. This idea was easily rejected and was even offensive to anyone that knew them. They were a happy family. The MO simply didn’t fit. Mr. Mineur was successful and, by all reports, loved his job working with his wife. He was involved with his two children and an avid supporter of any project and dream they had. It was as close as one could picture it, a perfect family with no signs of trouble then one day they up and disappeared. The media was quick to write article after article demonizing these corporate suits as people that “abandon their children for riches.”

One can only imagine the hurt the multi-media onslaught brought to the children who, at 17 and 16 were left parentless and penniless. Time went on and the wounds began to heal. Things weren’t great with the foster family but they were okay; at least the siblings were together and could draw strength from each other. It seemed as if the months would pile into years and cover the wounds but no. Eight months after the disappearance Mr. and Mr.s Mineur were discovered by a fisherman in the bay. They had only had it a few miles and science showed they had been dead for about eight months. The official report said that decomposition had made it impossible to know exactly how they died. Most said they committed suicide after realizing that they couldn’t get away with stealing that much money. The kids had no idea what to believe, the world had been brainwashing them to believe their parents had abandoned them.

Whatever healing had occurred since the couples disappearance was completely wiped away. Bordin felt like someone had ripped his heart out a second time and this time no one could put it back in. If the idea of parental rejection had been hard to swallow the harsh reality that his parents had been weren’t even alive was impossible to deal with. Even though Bordin had been told that his parents rejected him, he still loved them and it was still comforting to know that they were still alive somewhere. Whoever Bordin had been before and whatever he might have accomplished was instantly erased leaving an empty boy who would never be the same. The only person that didn’t abandon him was his sister. Crimson at least was consolable and the already close siblings became even more so.

These thoughts and reflections carried Bordin home. Dusk was just about to arrive when Bordin walked in the door. There she was, Crimson was laying on the kitchen counter of their two bedroom apartment. She had the New York Times open and was reading it upside down laying on her back with her head hanging off the counter. From this angle the only thing Bordin could see where her pajama pants angled just enough to be seen over the news paper and her curly blond hair hanging below.

Bordin certainly knew that his sister was beautiful like a father knows his daughter is beautiful. She had always been stunning, even in high school everyone wanted to date her or be her or at least know her. She had always been popular until her parents died. Then she renounced most of her so-called friends and spent her time with her brother or delving into her studies.

“Yo, bro” she said while turning the newspaper page. She didn’t even look up.

“Hey Curls” he responded. Bordin called Crimson Curls when they were little, or rather before their parents died. When they were just toddlers they visited their French Grandmother and she always called Crimson “Bouclés D’or” or Goldy locks. Brodin started off by calling his sister “D’or” but it sounded too much like door and “Bouclée” was just silly so pretty soon the whole family and learned the nick name.

The use of the old nick name did not go unnoticed. Crimson lowered, or rather raised, her newspaper so she could see her brother. She looked at him with a discerning eye and said in the tone you use when you want more information “You’re in a good mood.”

“Yeah, well, I had a good and bad day” he said moving over by his sister and sitting down on the floor leaning on the adjacent wall so they could be at eye level.

“I met a new friend. He kept me from getting my ass kicked earlier today”

“Does this mean you’re finally coming out of the closet?” Crimson asked with the most hopeful and surprised exaggerated expression she could muster.

“No, dork-”

“aHa!” she interrupted. “So, you are in the closet! I knew it!”

Bordin glared at his sister and said in a mocking tone “fine then, forget it, I won’t tell you what happened.”

“Oh, don’t be a ninny about it. I tell people you are gay all the time. Otherwise they think its weird for us twenty something siblings to still be living together.”

“Do you think its weird?”

“I think you’re weird but no, I don’t think we’re weird. Anyway, who cares, when are you gonna bring your boyfriend by?”

“I don’t know that I will bring him by. He seems a little too cool, you know the type of guy girls swoon over.

Crimson flipped over onto her stomach and slid her legs through her arms so she could sit down on the floor across from him.

“Is that so?” she asked a bit intrigued

“Yeah, I don’t know what I think about him. He’s cool of course but he’s strange in a way. You know that guy that looks like a bum that we saw the other day down by Steve’s Market?”

“Oh no!” Crimson exclaimed in all seriousness. “What in the world happened to your neck?!” she asked while moving quickly to examine.

“I was just getting there. That crazy guy, the one I just mentioned; well, I must have looked at him wrong or something because he just about killed me.”

“Holy crap!” Crimson exclaimed in her “I’m oh, so your little sister” tone.

“Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth. Well, anyway, one word from this guy-”

“Does he have a name?” she interrupted once again.

“Yeah, Steekay; so he-”

“Steekay? What the hell kind of name is Steekay?”

“Look who’s talking. It’s not like Crimson is a very common name.”

“Yeah but it is a name. I guess you wouldn’t find Steekay weird because he makes your name look normal in comparison.”

“Anyway” he over emphasized, “one word from Stee-kay and this tall, haggard wierdo dropped me and walked off.”

“Weird.”

“Yeah.” They both stopped for a minute. Bordin fell into deep thought as he always did and Crimson just watched her brother expectantly. She was waiting for something, a reaction, anything. He didn’t move so she finally asked him “Well? How about it, what are we gonna eat tonight? I say we go out to celebrate your new lease on life. I got a flyer for this new Chinese place today, its called Dong Ho’s.”

Chinese sounded good so they went.

Crimson exchanged her pajama pants for a pair of scrubs and Bordin exchanged his shirt for one with a collar that would hide the marks on his neck.

They ordered and Crimson told the waiter that they were celebrating because Bordin had narrowly escaped death by a miracle. Bordin laughed.

“It was scary but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I mean, I’m here right!”

The waiter was obviously not that interested or didn’t understand enough english to care because he just walked off.

“Actually,” Bordin started turning back to his sister “I think he might help me meet women.”

“Why because he’s the “type that girls swoon over?”” she quoted/asked him.

“No, he- no way! He’s right there!”

Crimson spun around in her chair nearly falling out to see a good looking man walk in wearing a red leather jacket and a young super model type looking woman.

“Wait, that’s him?”

“Yeah!” Bordin affirmed “Hey, Steekay! Steekay! Over here!” he yelled over.

Steekay looked up and smiled. He parted ways with his girl and came over to the table.

“Hey kid, Bordin right?” Steekay asked nonchalantly. Bordin nodded and Steekay continued “How come you didn’t tell me you were dating such a foxy girl when we met earlier?” Steekay leaned over and took Crimsons hand.

“I’m Steekay and you are?” he asked before kissing her hand.

Crimson just laughed.

“Her name is Crimson and she’s actually my sister.”

“Oh, great” Steekay said releasing her hand. “Listen, this Saturday I’ve got this new band thats going to be great playing. You should come, I’ll get you two free tickets.”

“Yeah, uhh, I think I’m all booked up” Crimson lied through her teeth. “What kind of weirdo still kisses girls hands?” she wondered.

“Bordin? You down?”

“uhh…yeah, sure! Why not!” Bordin bubbled with enthusiasm.

“Great, It’s at 1st and Game your ticket will be at roll call. I’ll leave two just in case Blondy changes her mind.

“Blondy?” Crimson uttered.

“Great, I’ll see you there. Hey, actually why don’t you join us?”

Crimson glared at her brother. Steekay noticed the tension and looked back at the scantly clad women he left sitting on the other side of the restaurant.

“Yeah, I would but I’m kinda on a date. I’ll catch you later though right? Saturday?”

“Yeah she looks expensive.” Crimson let go under her breath.

“Yeah, I’ll be there” responded Bordin with a nod of the head.

Steekay returned to his date, already in progress.

“What was that? Why were you rude?” Bordin asked as soon as Steekay was out of earshot.

“Forget it, he seems like he’s too cool for school. Besides, look at that hussy he is with.” she said letting some familial venom go.

“What do mean? Thats the type of girl I should be dating. You know -”

“Skanky?”

“I was gonna say classy.”

Their food had arrived and Crimson went to digging into her lo mien. Chop sticks dove adeptly around her plate but didn’t bring anything off. After a long pause Crimson dropped her chop stick on her plate and looked up at her brother. He had given up on the conversation and started eating.

“It would be good for you to date some more.” she finally said. Bordin looked up to acknowledge his sister and she continued “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean more, I meant at all.” After a second they could both laugh again. They seemed like they were fighting but thats just how they got along. Crimson always picked on her older brother and Bordin could just be him self and laugh with her.

The truth was that it really bothered Bordin that Crimson didn’t like Steekay. He seemed like such a class act and yet the only person’s opinion who mattered to him, Crimson’s, was already squared against Steekay.

“Hey, hey! I’ve dated a bit!”

“Oh yeah? Who’d you date?” Crimson asked with her cynical smile. Everything was fine and they could resume normal banter.

“You know… uhhh Sarah!” said Bordin falling all over his words. This just caused Crimson to burst out in laughter.

“Sarah?! That was in 3rd grade!”

“Yeah well… it takes a long time to get over a relationship!” he chuckled back. Sarah was beside her self having trouble breathing by now.

“You, held hands ONCE! You were together for what, a day?” she mustered out.

“It’s not like you’ve been dating a lot lately either!”

Crimson stopped laughing and all of the sudden looked very serious. Bordin looked up from his orange chicken to see tears in his sisters eyes. He knew he had said something wrong because she stood up, grabbed her coat and walked away, up the stairs and right out the front door.

“Hey wait up!” Bordin yelled after his sister He threw some money on the table and ran out after his sister. He followed her for a block trying to get her to stop and talk to him. She finally stopped abruptly on the wide sidewalk and spun around to face him. Her breath fallowed her around as she let out most of the air in her lungs. Bordin thought about the breath raising up to the night time sky. Like a prayer candle sending a message straight to heaven. God would be able to smell her prayer and more so her pain. She was wiping tears from her face and spurted out “Its not your fault!” Then spun on her heels and kept walking.

She locked her self in her room and started sobbing alone. Bordin sat outside his sisters room waiting for it to stop. He couldn’t stand that he had made his sister cry. The noise finally stopped and for a few seconds Bordin thought she had fallen asleep. The door opened slowly and Crimson started talking-

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t freak out.” He pulled his sister down into his arms and let her cry a bit more.

“It’s okay, its not like its your fault, Curly.” Bordin wanted to make his sister feel better because nothing was worse then her unhappiness. She had been the only thing keeping him alive all these years. The sure fact that even if the world abandoned him, even if his parents would never say they loved him again he at had his unwaivering sister who would always understand, always listen because she had always been there.

“It’s just that -” Crimson said getting her crying under control. “After Mom and Dad died everything fell apart, you… you fe-” she coughed trying to fight the emotion enough to talk. She stopped, sighed, sat up and smiled. “I love you Bordin.”

“I love you too.” he said confused. She leaned over and gave him a big hug and said goodnight before standing up. She scampered into her room and shut the door behind her. Bordin just sat their wondering why his sister was insane. He did love her very much and was worried about her. He replayed the conversation they were having before she blew up and stormed out sobbing.

Silence filled their little apartment and Bordin couldn’t get up. He just sat on the cold floor opposite his sisters door and started up at her door. She had a poster of the band Europe stuck right in the middle. Instantly the song “The Final Countdown” came to his mind and he started humming it trying to digest the evenings events. He was doing a lot of that lately, digesting. As he replayed the song in his head decided to write off his sister’s reaction to stress. She was in an advanced medical program at NYU and was coming to the very end of her studies. She was waiting to hear back from an internship she wanted at the morgue. Apparently studying dead people was a little less risky than working on the living. Normally she laughed and joked and seemed to be very light minded but all this stress must have finally built up in her.

He thought about staying there until morning as some sort of protest. The desire to have his masochistic revenge was over ruled by a long day coming to a close. Bordin wanted to sleep in his bed and recover from the busy day. He stood slowly from his position and groaned as his back stretched. Twenty-three years he’d been on this earth and he had felt old for a long time. Anyway, he had work in the morning and if he tried to contemplate anything else tonight it would only bring him closer to blowing up like Crimson had.

He stumbled into his room and threw him self on top of his bed. He didn’t bother changing or brushing his teeth, “Today has been very taxing” he excused him self. Laying there on his stomach he started to sleep and as his breathing gave way to a rhythmic beat he began to dream.

Someone was laughing.

Bordin stood up his shoulders weighed the world each and as he started to take steps he had the impression that his feet were made of sand bags. It began to poor rain inside the room and the light were obscured by storm clouds. He stumbled towards the blackboard trying to turn through the green haze that covered the doorway. As he approached the doorway the laughter turned to sobbing and finally screaming that could barley be heard above the loud rain. Just as he reached the edge of the room and caught a glimpse of a gi-

The door slammed shut. He fell and landed on his back. He strained his neck away from the door to look at something else that had caught his attention. The windows were closed and outside the sky was red. Clouds twirled within themselves turning and shimmering shades of red. The dull red light reflected off the windows and played on the linoleum floors. Another storm was coming bigger and blacker than the one he was already in.

Suddenly something turned the rain off and something scampered past the door way. Bordin sat up as quickly as he could. It was like moving through water and he was sitting at the bottom of the pool. The door was open now and he moved towards the hall way. He couldn’t see past the first foot because there was crimson smoke and light blocking his vision. He stepped into the fog and found him self sitting in the passenger seat of his Dad’s X5. His heart leaped in his chest expecting to see his Dad driving but instead there was nothing. His child sister screamed in the back seat and Bordin turned his head in time to see that they were falling into the river. They hit the water and it was as if a concussion grenade went off not a foot away from the occupants. He struggled to pull the seatbelt free and turned to get his sister to help but she was gone. When he turned again there was a shark swimming towards the sinking SUV. For a moment it seemed not to noticed him. It turned, showing its profile before winking. Bordin breathed as much of a sign of relief as someone thats drowning in a dream can. But then the shark turned and started to ram the vehicle. He bit the tires popping them and spitting out the shreds. He was laughing as he slammed his gigantic body against the metal frame before turning and leaping mouth open towards Bordin. He was going to come right through the windshield and there was nothing that could be done. Bordin couldn’t even bring his arms up in defense because they wouldn’t obey his mind and as the shark dove into the windshield Bordin sat up in bed.

Cold sweat dripped down his face and he stood up. It was just a dream. He resolved to calm his nerves with a drink of water and went out his door into the hall. His sisters door was open and as he waked past he noticed that everything was gone inside. He looked up and she was laying on the kitchen floor bleeding. He rushed forward and the hallway seemed to stretch out before him. She began to scream and he couldn’t move. Something was stopping him and he turned to free him self. He wasn’t running anymore and all that stopped him was a man in a trench coat. He strained to see the strangers face and then a knife flashed into view. Before Bordin could even process what was happening it was in his throat sticking straight out. He fell back and the knife handle pointed to heaven.

In a flash Bordin was back in bed. He laid there immobile for fear. He looked at the clock by his bed. 2:35 am. He felt his pulse to make sure he was really awake this time. He was. Now, he turned on the light and pulled a book out from his night stand. He turned an sat on the side of his bed. He stared longingly at the picture inside of his old dream journal. His parents smiled back at him. It was a picture of the whole family taken just a few weeks before the disappearance. Their kind faces consoled him and the white suburban house behind them reminded him of better times.

“I miss you.” He said quietly.

Today I went to Dennys tonight to focus on my book and it was very effective. I wrote 3,077 words tonight and I like the new direction the book is taking. If I keep this up at the current rate my book will be done on the 20th and I’ll be horribly broke as I spent 11 bucks at Dennys. The second chapter is not yet finished so I won’t post it until it is. It will definitely be done tomorrow. I’m only about a paragraph away but I left early to see about a girl.

That didn’t work.

Anyway, the saga continues with a search for a cheaper place to write. I tried Starbucks the first night. That was $1.80. I should buy cookies and sit in the library.

Btw, I noticed some errors in the first chapter, the whole thing about Haggard being in Harry Potter, I realized today that its Hagred or something. I haven’t ever read Harry Potter.

“What is NaNoWriMo, you ask?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel (about 175 pages) in the 30 days of November. Everyone who finishes wins! You win your name on a list of other people who finished, and certificate (that you have to download and print out yourself), and a “Winner” image you can place on your blog.”-Courtesy of Gthing.net

I haven’t actually even re-read what I just wrote cause I’m tired, maybe I will later but if you read any big faults let me know in a comment or something and Ill fix it. Thanks.

Bordin had always been the type of person ask “why me?” The oft-repeated phrase started off as something he mumbled under his breath but after a while it had become a screaming prayer her offered at every malheur and happenstance that left him a little, less well off than he had been before. This time it came like a sweeping headache that threatened to rip him from consciousness.

When he started carrying this name it was scary and carried all kinds of bad overtones. Then Harry Potter came out and let confusion run rampant about why this scary sociopath shared a name with a giant lovable wizard’s aide. Haggard, our Haggard was scary, he was large but that wasn’t what instilled fear in anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path. Haggard earned his name when haggard still meant haggard. He was haggard in the way that his face was always unshavin, he was haggard in the way that his clothes were destroyed tares you’d expect a heroin addict to be sporting before his demise. Haggard was haggard in the way that there was still blood in his hair from the last man he whacked. But Haggard stood and looked at Steekay in fear. Sure the unkempt loaf was a murderer, maybe even a hit man but Steekay? Oh Steekay was much more dangerous.

We’ve all seen picture of Hitler and he’s only scary because we know what he’s done. He grew up like any other kid accept for one thing, he was manipulative and he knew how to talk. Steekay was the same way, he knew how to talk. Hitler wasn’t big, he didn’t look physically menacing and while Steekay was much closer to a large male physic his muscles were the last thing you had to worry about when facing him. Haggard on the other hand wasn’t smart, sure he knew in between which ribs you had to stick a sharp object to end a man but his knowledge of science and the world ended there.

At the time, Bordin had apparently offended the bumbling behemoth. Maybe it was that he made eye contact or that he walked to close to the man that set Haggard off but whatever it was (and modern psychologists probably couldn’t tell you what it was either) it had gone off. Bordin found him self very quickly pinned against a wall wondering as he always did “Why me?” As he looked down at the massive hand clenched around his kneck holding him steadfast against a dirty, graffiti ridden wall, he contemplated his doom.

Questions like “Why me?” didn’t seem so important as the need to breath. Haggard’s grip grew ever so slightly tighter with every moment and his dead eyes locked on Bordin’s wild survival driven eyes and as the darkness seemed to creep around the two and Brodin was about to give up on hitting his executioner when everything, their world apart was interrupted by a single calm voice.

“What the hell are you doing? Put him down moron”

Instantly sound returned to Bordin’s ears and pierced the silence he didn’t even know he was experiencing Haggard’s grip failed him and dropped his captive helpless on the ground. That was when, in rubbing his kneck and trying to focus his vision that Bordin looked up and saw his savior. 6.2, dirty blond hair and a charming face. The good looking young man was no physical match for Haggard, it didn’t matter what kind of -Fu he knew and yet a demeaning word and Haggard looked very much like Bordin had a few moments earlier.

“Who told you to come over here? Get the hell out of here and find something better to do with your time” the picture of man said.

Haggard studdered an apology and walked off shrinking with every step under Steekay’s view.

“Thanks.” The half choked worlds seemed to fall out of Bordin’s mouth. Steekay half grunted half laughed as he helped Bordin regain his footing.

“I don’t know what just happened, I don’t know why that guy attacked me like that, he’s crazy.”

“Do you think he needs a reason? There is no reason because Haggard has no reason, he’s the result of a problem and he all he does is propagate more problems. Reason has nothing to do with it.” Steekay said glibly.

“Yeah, well, he should be locked up if he’s crazy like that, hes dangerous.”

That seemed to amuse Steekay because he started laughing and walking away.

“Hey! Wait up!” Bordin called up to his would be new friend as he ran up beside him.

“I’m Bordin, thanks again, I think I owe you one.”

This time Steekay stopped dead in tracks and looked up at Bordin. His quick look seemed to cut directly to the heart and dissect it in the matter of seconds.

“Yeah, I guess you do. Steekay” he said while extending his hand.

Chapter 2: Introductions and Misconceptions
People have a tendency to make friends to counter balance them selves. What is it that makes a weaker person hang on a stronger one? Whatever it was it characterized perfectly the relationship between Steekay and Bordin. Bordin was fascinated with what he saw in Steekay. He was confident, sure of whatever he said deliberate and good looking. All qualities that Bordin found lacking himself, whether they were actually there or not.

“Why did that guy-”

“Haggard” Steekay corrected

“Yeah, Haggard, why did that guy leave when you told him to?” Everything that Bordin wondered about this new found compatriot seemed to revolve around this question.

“Simple, he knows I’m serious.” Bordin didn’t get what was trying to be communicated and apparently Steekay picked up on that because he continued.

“You see, people are like women, you just have to figure them out and then they do what you like. Common, I’ll show you what I mean.”

They changed directions and after a few blocks on the city streets and they arrived at a cafe. One of those places that tried to look like a dive to be hip but was in reality very far from a dive. The place was like jeans with pre-worn holes and pre-frayed edges. Despite how busy and packed the whole place was they had drinks in a minute and sat down in a corner over looking the whole pseudo-dive.

“Why are we here?” Bordin’s confusion had yet to be satisfied and had only been growing since the two ton bear mascaraing as a man started choking him.

“We’re here because women are here. Women are always at Cafes” he said while gesturing towards the mass that inhabited the basement level cafe.

Sure enough there were plenty of women. They outnumbered the males in that perfect beach boys harmony of two girls for every guy.

“Now, I know you see the women. I hope you see the men too because they’re instrumental to my demonstration. Each man, no matter who he is, no matter what he hopes to accomplish with these women has a game. Take this guy over here” he said motioning towards a sleek, artsy looking man in his late twenties reading a copy of Les Miserables.

“Just look at him, Black slacks, black thin fabric sweater. The whole thing is topped off with a pre-calculated 1-day unshaven look. Not to mention glasses just as sharp as his hair. He’s a real bohemian. This guy isn’t here because he likes the atmosphere.-”

“How can you tell” Bordin interrupted

Steekay signed and looked at Bordin as if he had just asked the stupidest question he’d ever heard.

“Because he’s reading Les Miserables. He’s not just reading it, he’s displaying it. It’s part of his game.”

“As, I was about to explain” Steekay continued “thats part of his game. He’s doesn’t have a lot going for him but he does have artsy. He tries to act like an intellectual, you know, uses a Mac and talks in the physco-babble to make him self sound smart. If you ask him what his name is you know what he’ll tell you?”

“No, what?” asked Bordin still unable to see the connection.

“He’d tell quote you something in Latin give you a silly accented name he made up to better fit in to his persona.”

“I still don’t get it.” admitted Bordin. “So what? The guy is artsy.”

“It doesn’t matter that he’s artsy, it just matters that he’s something making him definable by a single adjective is easy because he makes it easy.

“He’s here because he knows that at this cafe he’s going to find women that are attracted to artsy guys so he tries to shout it as loud as possible to draw in anything with long legs. And here it is” Steekay finshed while drawing Bordin’s attention to a tall blonde girl that was sitting at the table next to artsy guy.

Artsy guy looked thoughtful for a minute as if he were trying to crunch all the numbers and equations it took for light to work and leaned over and asked the girl a question. Pretty soon they were talking like old friends.

“If we had gone to a bar we’d see another guy sitting in the corner, small and awkward waiting for the girls to get drunk enough to listen to what he had to say.

“All these guys are different, sure and because of that they all have different games. One guy is artsy, one just waits for drunk girls. People are like girls, you just have to know what you have that they want or what you can do that will make them think you have what they want and bam, asking them the time or if they want to sleep with you is about the same thing.”

“So, Haggard is gay and you made him fall in love with you?” asked Bordin in a tone that betrayed him and said that he had no clue as to what Steekay was getting at.

“Hrm!” Steekay let go under his breath like a choked “Ha.”

“I just figured out what Haggard wanted. Like I told you earlier, Haggard is a problem and all he does is cause problems. He doesn’t know why but he knows that his ability to continue in this endeavor would be greatly hindered should he cross me.”

“So you made him think you were dangerous”

“Whether I am or not, it doesn’t really matter, because to him; I am.”

“So, what’s your game? You aren’t artsy and you don’t look insecure enough to just “wait for the girls to get drunk.” so what are you?” Bordin asked finally starting to grasp the essence of their conversation.

“You over specialize and you breed in weakness” Steekay quoted.

“Shakespeare?”

“Ghost in the Shell” Steekay smiled and continued “That just means that if you stick with one, you’re stuck I like to be more flexible and let the situation dictate the game I play.

“Well, you ceartinly seem like a good friend to have” said Bordin as he toasted his new friend.

“Heh, yeah, you could probably say that” responded Steekay while smiling and returning the toast.