Weeeell. First fic on my account, and I hope I did a decent job of doing it.

Criticize, compliment, purge with holy fire and ban it from your household. Three choices, which is it you choose?

Disclaimer: I don't own the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Johnathan Stroud is just pure awesome and owns everything. 'Kay? 'Kay.

Neglected Trash

He watched her from the paved sidewalk, his eyes looking into the glass windows. The hand that clutched his suitcase nearly dropped it, for he was shaking. Within him, anger boiled like a pot of water upon an untended stove, the flames of former feelings heating him up. His teeth ground together in his mouth, his body went stiff.

She was kissing a man. Someone Jakob felt he knew, but couldn't recall the name. Nevertheless, the sight was an arrow to his heart. His arms wrapped around her, holding her closely to him as if she were a precious childhood toy. Her eyes were closed, her lips earnestly pursed against the other's, and her arms were swung around his neck like some monkey babe with its mother. It was a display of tender, loving affection; a romance in bloom.

It made him sick. He dropped his suitcase, the hand that held it trembling. The cheap black leather hit the ground, and out came flying the papers he had slaved over hours creating. They fell into the side of the street along with the rest of the neglected garbage. He glared into the house, hoping that his anger would stop that kiss, stop it all...

He turned around and crouched down to fetch his suitcase, untarnished from being dropped, though it mattered little to him anyway. He gripped it in one hand as if he were strangling a neck. And then he rose from the pavement and walked on.

Kitty had forgotten him. As he opened the door to the factory, he took one last look at the side of the road and wondered if he should have been there instead, with the rest of the commoner trash.