Accidental Encounter
Long legs carried a lithe frame across the side walk. The body leant right or left, evading the other students on the walk. Blonde hair bounced in a nuisance fashion over blue eyes – effectively blinding said eyes and making the legs halt as the body struck another, ricocheting off and landing a small arse on the sidewalk. The blond head shook, ridding the eyes of the blinding bangs and tilted up; looking at the shocked young woman that stared at it with unguarded eyes.
The mouth on the head opened and low, gruff and winded words spilled from behind smooth white teeth, "I'm sorry!"
Long, strong arms posed to push the body off the ground when a slender, feminine hand reached out to grip one of those strong arms. The hand was cold for lack of a glove in the chilly autumn morning air.
"Are you all right?" asked a soft, worried voice while the hand gripping the blonds arm pulled the body to stand. Hand slid over pants and the back of a jacket, ensuring that they were free of dirt and such. Blue eyes gazed down at the feminine form that their body had fallen into.
Murky brown eyes gazed back into blue ones. Blond hair fell into the blue ones, which made the soft voice giggle softly.
"I've got to go. Good-bye, Lolli-pop!" said the young woman's voice, then blue eyes watched her walk around their body and off into the crowd entering one of the buildings on the vast college campus.
The blond head shook again and turned to run again, heading to class. Teeth biting idly on the paper stem of a cherry loli-pop.
Roll took only a few minutes. Names were called and hands rose in response.
"Sanji?" was called last and one of those long, strong arms lifted into the air, showing that he was present.
"Alright. Everyone's here; get to work," said the professor who then turned to his computer and began to type on his keyboard. The college students withdrew notebooks and folders and music playing devices to settle into their projects.
Sanji stared at the assignment sheet that was given out two days ago. The assignment was to depict a person in writing, imagining them in their minds. A usually easy assignment. Only this time he didn't want to write about Zolo – his best friend – or anyone else he knew. Sanji placed his headphones over his head and pressed them to his ears. He lost himself in the music and began to write. The hour and a half passed quickly enough.
Sanji lowered his headphones and paused the music streaming from them. Looking down he scanned over the page and a half of neat cursive writing. His eyes grew wide. It was the girl from this morning. He began to read it all slowly, packing up everything except the paper. He had gotten every detail down, even the ones that he didn't realize were there. Like the necklace with an E shaped charm. Sanji re-read the paper, walking out of the class room and off toward his cooking class.
Sanji sat on one of the stools by the counter, listening to the teacher with only half his attention. He was quietly piecing the girl from this morning together using the words on the paper that was currently tucked into his "everything" folder. He shook his head lightly and looked up when the teacher asked them a question. He lifted a hand into the air but wasn't called on to answer. Thank goodness, because he didn't know. Sanji jotted down the words on the board and the measurements next to them. It was the recipe for next class. The bell rang a few minutes later and Sanji stood, walking out of the room to head for his car, intending to go meet Zolo there and ask about the girl.
At the car, the green haired swordsman was laying on the hood, snoozing in the bright autumn sun.
"Oi! Zolo, get off my damn car!" the blond shouted and lifted a long leg to kick the lazy man in the shoulder. Zolo smacked at the leg and looked at the tall blond man.
"Okay, okay, don't have to kick me," grumbled the muscled man who sat up and slid off the car in one fluid movement. Sanji just shook his head and withdrew his keys from his jacket pocket, unlocked the car and opened the back door to drop his backpack onto the crowded seat. He took out his "everything" folder and then the paper.
"Read this." He told Zolo, who had already slid into the passenger seat. Calloused fingers took the paper and held it in front of a tan face, green eyes scanning the page slowly, lazily.
He read out loud:
"Before class, roughly seven twenty, I saw a person that interested me. Actually I ran into her because I was running late. She stood at a less than average height. Brown eyes sparkled in the morning air, gleaming with delight. The one that I could see did, at least. The back of her head was covered with metallic green hair that shone even in the dim, cool light. The front was fashioned to sit under a pair of wire rim glasses, covering her right eye and it was colored black.
"Her hands were rough and cold. They had small paint smears on them, too. The sleeves of her hoodie were ragged, covered with one or two patches and lots of paint stains. But the cloth underneath the myriad of color was green with white hemming. This was all she wore against the cool winds that blew around us. Her legs were covered by a pair of heavy denim trip pants that were a stark white as compared to the gloomy gray of the morning. Metallic green chains wrapped around her legs like protective pet snakes. Her shoes were worn and had noticeable holes in them. But they looked comfortable and broken in.
"I looked back up at her face when she asked, "Are you alright?" Her voice was soft and kind. Tender as baked chicken that just fell off the bone. She made me feel calm and innocent with just her words alone. My thoughts raced and then froze, like my breath as it slid from my nose in ragged pants, and I could only stare at her face. Her eyes met mine and I was sure that I would be frozen there by their stark beauty. Deep brown, like chocolate cake batter mixed to a perfection but solid, like a special dark chocolate bar.
"The last thing I saw before she left was a necklace. It was simple and charming. A black chocker with a chain dangling from the front clung to her neck, outlining the slender structure. On that chain was a simple letter charm – E. And that's all she left me with. No name, no number. Just the glimpse at her beauty and what I assume is her first initial – E."
Zolo looked at the large cursive letters and grinned at his friend. Who was blushing and looking at the road while he drove them to the popular college student hangout, Bleak.
"Damn Sanji, sounds like you're in love again," Zolo said, making the blond turn to glare at him. Sanji was in love with a new girl every two weeks, either they went out with him or he admired them from afar.
"I am in love again!" called the love cook who was pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant where loud alternative rock could be heard from the open windows. Zolo grunted and shoved his way out of the car, his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of black slacks he wore most of the time. Sanji jogged after him and copied his actions.
Walking in the door, it was obvious that the place was packed with a lunch time rush that the waitress's handled with practiced ease. The young men were seated quickly and drink orders taken by a sweet and well endowed young woman. Though Sanji seemed too enthralled with his writing to notice what he always looked for in a woman.
Sanji only came back from his second reality that was the memory of that morning when he heard a giggle that was familiar. Looking around the room he spotted the girl – E - he dubbed as her nickname. Sanji kicked Zolo under the table and thrust his chin toward a woman, in a waitress uniform. But when Zolo looked up, there was a red haired girl, not the metallic green haired one.
"She could lose a little butt," huffed the lazy swordsman.
Sanji did a double take and noticed who Zolo was talking about. "I wasn't looking at her. But I agree…" mumbled the blond sullenly.
A waitress came up to them then. She smiled brightly and held out her pad of paper. Black hair falling easily over her right eye, her glasses holding it in place.
"Wanna hear the specials? Or do you have usuals?" asked an easy, professional voice that reminded the love cook of that morning.
Once again, Sanji was speechless – so Zolo ordered for him. With the requests written on the paper E pranced away, sliding into the crowd of customers and servers.
"That was her..?"
"Yep…"
Zolo nodded his head then snorted, looking at the paper in front of Sanji. He grinned, bemused at the thought that the poor man was going to be silent all through lunch because of this. Sanji looked deflated. Zolo could only guess why.
'She didn't even notice me…' whined the blonde internally. He shook his head and frowned. Girls always noticed him. Sanji looked up and around them, wanting to get his mind off of E and on to food. He was struck with just how hungry he was at that thought. His stomach announcing it's distain over having to wait for food now that it was being cooked for it.
Zolo sipped at his soda, turning to look out the window that was a few tables away from them. He spaced out and the minutes passed, the food ordered arriving sooner than seemed it should have. The duel-color-haired young woman strolled back with the trays of food balanced easily on her arms. Zolo reached up to take one of the trays and set it on the table so that she could serve them.
"Number eight point six for Lolli-pop," she said and looked at him with a professional grin. Then turned to pick up the plates off the tray and place them in their respected places.
"…And a number fourteen point two for Zolo. See you in Kendo class." She said and Sanji's eyes grew wide. But he was unable to inquire as the lazy swordsman began to eat.
Sanji ate quickly. Filling his stomach who gurgled it's thanks happily. Zolo took his time, like he always did. When the green haired man was through with his food he leant back in the chair, watching the waiter that took their dirtied plates to the kitchen. E strolled up with the check.
Sanji took this moment to strike. He reached out and took her wrist. E was just pulling her hand away from the slip of paper now sitting on the cleared table.
*"Huh? Que?" The woman asked, looking at the blonde customer. "Something else you need?" Her head tilted to the side, her hair falling from her eye a little. Discolored skin was flashed before she righted her head. Sanji opened his mouth in an attempt to spit out the words that he had in his throat.
It took all of three minutes, but Sanji finally got what he wanted to say out in the open, "What's your name?" E looked at him for all of two seconds before she leant down a little and lifted one, paint-smeared finger to gesture to the E pendent at her neck.
"I go by E," she said and tugged her hand away. "Have a nice day!" She smiled and turned to scamper off. Zolo took the check and went to pay. Sanji followed him, preoccupied with his newly received answer and not noticing that he had left his homework on the table. They got all the way back to the school and the day went on.
Sanji squirmed back in his chair. He ha-ated his English Grammar teacher, she made a fool of everything that English was. Sanji tossed his head and turned to look around at the students around him who were taking notes like good little boys and girls. He listened with only one ear - the other being plugged with a bud earphone. He jotted down notes as he thought he needed to.
The class ended after a long hour and a half. Sanji gathered his things and strolled down the stairs and out into the hall. He located his last class and worked through it productively. When it was over he walked toward the co-ed dorms to drop this things off in the room that he and Zolo shared, signing up at the beginning of the year to be roommates.
Zolo was already in the dorm room, music playing from the stereo and a book in his hand. He was wet so Sanji assumed he either hadn't showered after his kendo class or he had just gotten out of the shower. Sanji sniffed the air and then grimaced.
"Zoe, go shower, you stink!" Sanji shouted and tossed his bag on to the floor by his desk. The open bag spilled a folder. It was Sanji's Everything Folder. The blonde looked at it then felt himself stand there, blinking at it for several minutes.
"I left my homework at Bleak!" screeched the love cook. Zolo flinched and threw a book at him.
"Just re-write it."
"I can't! I'm surprised I wrote it once!" Sanji then went into drama queen mode and sobbed on the floor. Zolo closed his eyes and tried to drown him out.
Hours later Sanji sat at his desk with his pen in hand and his music blaring around him from the stereo on the far right corner of the rather large desk. He couldn't hear the knock on the door as it came.
E stood there with the piece of paper in hand, she looked at it awkwardly then knocked again, a little louder. There was still no answer from the other side of the thin door. "Maybe I can knock it down with a kick...?"
Zolo jingled his keys as he walked back to the room. "Don't do that, the maintenance men are still sore over Sanji doing that last time he lost his key..."
Zolo unlocked the door as E laughed at him. She watched him open the door and begin to shout at Sanji to turn down the music so he could hear when someone was at the door. Sanji jolted upright from his hunched position when he heard E's cool voice.
"Zoe, be nice, neh? I didn't mind waiting. He just would have had to deal with not getting his Japanese-lit assignment back before the due date." She waved the piece of paper in the air in front of Sanji's face and the blonde snapped out of his stupor to try and grab the sheet. E snatched it back from his reach before he could.
"You owe me for running into me this morning. That really hurt, Lolli-pop." E giggled.
Suddenly there was a loud thump close by and all the occupants of the room turned to look at the door way. A woman was on the floor there, she had bright orange hair that fell to her shoulders and tight, suggestive clothing on.
"Nami!" shouted Sanji, who leapt up, glad of the distraction. "What are you doing on the floor?"
Nami got up to all fours before Sanji hefted her up to her feet. "I followed E over here. I didn't know she was coming to this floor, we're not supposed to be here, ya' know." Nami scolded a cool E.
"I can be up here, I'm returning something that belongs to Sanji. But, you might want to run back to the third floor before the rounds are made." Nami looked scared as she thought about having to be taken back to her floor by the scrawny man that was the floor prefect. "Bye!" was all they heard as the orange and blue blur sped to the stairs. Zolo laughed quietly from his place on the bottom bunk.
Sanji looked at E and then his paper.
"What did you want?" he asked her while he offered her his rolly-chair to sit in.
"You two over for dinner," she said, not taking the offer but holding out his paper. Sanji took it and looked at her with a strange look on his face. "Over for dinner?"
"Yup!" She giggled softly, "Meet me at Bleak in thirty minutes? I need to go bribe my uncle to let us eat free."
And with that, E was gone. She closed the door behind her and Sanji watched her leave. He sat back in his chair and looked over his work. It had red pen all over it and a second page stapled to it. It was a revised version of the assignment with more detail to it than Sanji had put in, even the exact time that they ran into each other and where the sun was and the like.
"She's a perfectionist in writing." Zolo said with a chuckle as he noticed the red ink. Sanji shook his head and stood up, walked to his chest of drawers and opened the third drawer from the top.
"What are you doing?" Zolo asked.
"Getting ready to go out to dinner." Sanji said and pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans. Zolo chuckled and rolled his eyes, letting the blonde do as he wanted to.
End. *French for What?
