Survival Of The Fittest

There was nothing like getting to know a friend-of-a-friend through a carefully planned activity, one planned by yourself meticulously, was there?

((Kelly Nguyen continued from All the Power in the Universe Conspires to Carry You))

Kelly took a deep breath in as she stood at the door of the shelter, fighting the urge to go check her phone to make sure that Jonathan actually did know the way here and didn’t get lost or something. She had to trust that he did get the correct address here, because that's what friends did, right? Put up with the largest of idiosyncrasies with a smile, let it go with a laugh or a small smile, a small acknowledge of the oddity, and continue chatting comfortably, nary a care in the world. If she and Jonathan were friends, that’s what she would have done. More simply put, if Jonathan were Jiji, she wouldn’t have been as nervous as she was currently being.

More or less, that was because she and Jonathan weren’t friends. Sure, they got on fine the few times they had chatted, because being impolite was tantamount to death for her, really, but there was nothing that she really remembered about the guy other than him being one of Jiji’s other friends, the former bully who turned over a new life or something. That wasn’t a lot to remember about one of her classmates, and as someone who prided herself on knowing her classmates, each and every one, that worried Kelly.

Still, Kelly thought, as she tied her hair into a ponytail with a bright pink scrunchie, it was a pretty nice thing of him, for him to at least consider the possibility of getting to know her better rather than them remaining in the periphery of each other’s social circles. They may not have been friends at this exact moment, but they could be friends, couldn’t they? This was a time to never say never, she supposed, because there was no use in letting the silence gnaw away at them like fleas.

In fact, that was precisely why she had decided to invite him along to volunteer with her at the Humane Society. Jiji had been going on about how much he was into activism the last time they’d met up, and if he was so passionate about fighting for the rights of underprivileged humans, surely he’d have some sympathy for furred friends, right?

At the very least, seeing how someone reacted when confronted with dog waste and cat litter was an excellent way to find out who they truly were.

All this waiting still ate on her from the inside, though, and clad in a pink dog t-shirt, shorts, leggings, and sneakers, she was not exactly hot to trot at this very moment. Still, dressing down was important, especially around friends of a lower economic strata. No need to seem unapproachable, no need to seem like you were above them, because you weren’t.

Still, she kept a smile on her face, as she watched and waited, because the best way to greet someone was with a smile.

She hoped it would take the tension off of both of their shoulders.

This semester had been a really good one for ‘things that hadn’t really happened to Jonathan before,’ huh?

((continued from Death With Dignity))

Like, it was the first time he’d really gone out with someone else to have lunch, first time he’d asked someone out on a date (if prom was a date, if going to prom with Gyu-ri counted as a date), and now was the first time… the first time a random person he didn’t really know asked him to hang out with them, he supposed? Like, really all these experiences boiled down to was having him head to a cafe/someone’s house/the animal shelter desperately wondering whether he was going to the right place and whether he’d be welcomed when he got there but they felt different. At least once he got to his destination. The walks there never felt good because they always felt the same but hey, at least after that they’d be forgotten.

Well, they’d be forgotten until the next time he had to walk to a place to meet someone. The existential terror could get shafted to the sidelines until then.

But that would only happen once he got there. He could only forget about this walk once it ended, once he no longer had to go down the Chattanooga streets desperately wondering if he was going to the correct place at the correct time questioning why Kelly had asked him out here in the first place. Like, yeah, she was friends with Jiji and he supposed that was context enough for the two to hang out but one on one? At a place not at school? It wasn’t really something that raised his sketch meter or anything but it was still… odd. New. Something he’d have to figure out as he went along.

...Something he’d have to figure out quick, given that he was on the street of the animal shelter and he could see Kelly somewhere not far off in the distance. He moved forward, slightly slower than before now that he was at his stop but also making his way past the last fifty feet of buildings quickly so that he could get this show on the road. He greeted Kelly’s smile with an attempt of his own. Waved at her.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.” He said, the words coming out way more dry than he really intended them to.

"Oh, hey!"

So, Jonathan was definitely a fixer-upper, but she could work with that! Totally! Well, not totally but she could work with it, make this experience into something that was at the very least tolerable for the both of them, and that would be enough! So, she waved back at him, continued smiling, hoping that the sun beating down overhead wasn’t beginning to make her sweat. One, that would be really uncomfortable, two, it would suggest to him that she was nervous, which was not the message she was trying to send, and three, it was just kind of gross, you know?

At the very least, he was the one who had initiated the waving, which was why it was totally not awkward for her to return it. The logistics of the invite probably could have been better thought out, but considering he’d gone with Gyu-ri to the prom he probably wasn’t going to make any moves, and if so, she sincerely hoped a bunch of puppies and kittens could work as a good enough buffer between the two of them.

The dryness in his voice still stung a bit, but Kelly was going to make this right. She knew she always could, and so she was about to do that.

Slowly, she put her arm back down, and looked right at Jonathan. Wasn’t right to go through just yet, and in fact, she stepped just a few more inches away so as not to accidentally open the door. The smell could be a bit of a shock for new visitors, and Kelly was pretty certain that she didn’t want to have the smell be permanently associated with her in Jonathan’s mind.

“So, how've you been doing?” She asked, tilting her head at Jonathan. Allowing him to dictate the conversation would help him acclimate, and she supposed that starting things off easy was best. “Ready to help some furred friends?”