And now, the standard disclaimers from years yonder: I do not own OMG Check Please, any of its characters, or its story. The rights go Ngozi Ukazu, the original creator and sole owner of the series. This is a work of love towards their efforts, and no profit shall be made off this work by me or anyone. Please attribute to me and them if you plan to refer to this work, as a courtesy.
Dex learned a few things today, which are:
1, people in New York eat and walk at the same time, which was distressing
2, he cannot eat and walk at the same time, which was even more distressing, and
3, there are a surprising number of small parks hidden between apartment buildings in Manhattan, taking up just the one lot recessed in from the sidewalk and offering peaceful greenery and benches where he can sit and eat, which was pleasant and not distressing.
It would be all the more pleasant, if not for a certain Manhattanite sitting right next to him, chirping his inability to coordinate his arms, legs, and mouth at the same time, despite said Manhattanite literally missing his footing on the sidewalk three times between buying the gyros from the street vendor and finding this park bench.
"Nursey, you can't say that I have no coordination when you practically tripped three times just trying to get here."
"I did not trip, not even once!"
"If it wasn't for me grabbing you in time every time, you'd be splat on the ground in those nasty puddles already, gyro spilled all over your tacky map jacket."
"I'll have you know this jacket is an -"
" - heirloom from your father, that you took out of his closet and never returned to him because you like tacky things. Right."
Nursey stuck his tongue out at Dex, and got shoved in the shoulder in return. After a bit more jostling around they both grinned at each other and returned to their companionable silence, eating their gyros. Dex was trying to do so delicately so as to not spill any on his suit, it was his only one, but the nature of gyros ("who invented these it's as if they were made to fall apart") made it such that he ended up looking very silly, leaning far forward so that the bits and pieces fell to the ground instead of on himself. He never should have trusted Nursey to convince him that gyros were a "must try New York street food". He'd never even heard of gyros before, and wasn't it bagels or pizza or hot dogs or something?
"Dude chill, you look ridiculous. Why'd you bring your nice suit anyway? I told you we were going sightseeing."
"And I told you, I had an interview with D.E. Shaw, and they wouldn't be very happy to see a potential employee come in with jeans and a map jacket."
"I don't know what you're talking about this jacket is 'swawesome it's so vintage it's -"
" - got Soviet Union and Yugoslavia on it, yeah I get it. That's really cool, actually. But the point is, this is a Wall Street company, with shitty business assholes who judge you if you don't dress up like some preppy jerk straight out of a GQ catalog. So yeah, gotta put on my nice suit, my only suit which I am trying not to ruin by the way, and smile and serve up my ass so that they might like me enough to hire me."
Dex huffed a sigh at the end, and Nursey looked across at his liney, taking in the frustration and defeat emanating from Dex. He wiped his hands and put an arm around Dex, pulling him in and squeezing for a good few seconds. Dex smiled at him, weak and small but it reached his eyes, and he flopped his head down on Nursey's shoulder, feeling better from the side hug.
"Why'd you go if you don't like them that much anyway?"
"They pay really well, and this was the only financial trading company I applied for really, cause they have this really cool private supercomputer that the owner Mr Shaw himself commissioned. They use it for trading, but also for their own research group in biomolecular simulations, and I felt like, go for a company that does some good, you know? They do important drug research, I think, I don't really understand, but it's just cool to like be a part of that, even if I'm just in some other branch doing ass work, at least I'm contributing to something. I dunno, the financials guys were total dickheads though." Dex had picked his head up to look at Nursey, and was gesticulating slightly, but didn't pull his body away.
"Huh, that's pretty cool actually, I didn't know that. But what about the other startups, you don't like them? They let you interview in jeans and a hoodie yesterday, that seems pretty chill."
"Yea, they're ok. The atmosphere is great, kinda like college just got transplanted into an office. They're all pretty young and everything, but they can't pay enough for me to live in New York and save up and pay off loans. And most of them are just these useless apps that hardly make a difference. Like who really needs and app to tell them whether there's a party in your neighborhood."
"I think it's chill man, that you're trying to make a difference. I'm just dicking around trying to be a writer. But if it helps, Dex, you can shack up with me. We could still be roommates."
Nursey dragged out the last part while waggling his eyebrows, earning him a laugh and another shove from Dex. They had gotten much closer after moving into their room in the Haus together, less (but not none) of the bitter bickering and more joking camaraderie now that they were forced into each other's presence practically all the time. Everyone thought Dex would move out, but in the end Bitty won the bet that Dex and Nursey would end up getting along. Both of them also put their heads together to prank Chowder for betting against them, the traitor.
"Nah, you can have Manhattan. I'll go live in Queens next to a Yiddish grandma or something." Dex teased, and Nursey gave the most ridiculous pout and puppy dog eyes. Dex laughed at that, but added "But I really appreciate the offer man, thanks."
Nursey kept up the act, pulling his arm away to cross them over his chest and turning away in false hurt, but was chuckling under his breath. A few leaves had landed his hair, and Dex brushed them off, then put his arm over Nursey's shoulder to yank him close and place his chin over the other shoulder to whine.
Suddenly, Nursey tensed up and exclaimed "Dude, chill!" Dex followed his line of sight, to find a man with his camera trained at them. It irritated him, that someone would so openly take a picture of them, which was totally weird and voyeuristic. But Nursey was aglow and vibrating with excitement, waving at the man.
"Do you know him?" Dex asked, confused.
"Dex, that's Brandon Stanton!"
Nursey received a raised eyebrow and no other changes, so he tried with "He's the Humans of New York guy!"
Still nothing.
"Dude! How do you not know Humans of New York?!"
"A lot of people I approach don't know about it, actually. But it's nice to see fans too, though most of them don't recognize my face. But anyway, I'm Brandon." The man, Brandon apparently, had come up right in front of them and was extending his hand out to Dex. Warily, Dex shook his hand, but didn't say anything. Nursey didn't notice because he was too busy fanboying at the encounter.
"Oh man I can't believe it I'm finally going to be on HONY! Dude this whole thing you do is 'swawsome I did a final project one semester where I chose a set of your pictures and their stories and wrote poems about them! And another semester, I took pictures of people on campus and asked for their stories and wrote poems about that too. You're an inspiration man."
"I'm sorry about him, he's usually more chill." Dex emphasized the last word while giving Nursey a pointed look, and then went on to introduce themselves. "I'm Will, and he's Derek."
"Didn't he call you Dex though?" Brandon asked, and Dex felt a twinge of annoyance for being eavesdropped on. Nursey might be a fan of whatever it is he does, but that didn't give him license to just listen in and take pictures of random strangers. Dex didn't want to grace that with an answer, but Nursey happily supplied with "Yup, he's Dex and I'm Nursey. Hockey nicknames, we play in our college team."
"Well, I'm happy to meet you both, Dex and Nursey." Dex scowled at the use of their nicknames, and Brandon took notice, but didn't say anything, instead asking "So do you want to get featured on HONY?"
Nursey leapt up immediately with a "YES!", which got Dex to wonder if he was doing a Chowder impression. And since his best friend was so excited about it, Dex couldn't bear to refuse too, so he added "Sure, I guess."
"Alright, cool! I usually have a list of questions for individuals I approach, but for groups of people I let them introduce each other, typically that gives me good content already. Why not you guys give it a go? I'll record what you say on my phone, and snap some pictures while you talk. Then after, we can discuss what you want to include and which picture you want to have shared. How does that sound?"
" 'Swawesome!" Nursey pulled Dex to his feet and put his arm around Dex, launching straight into his speech. "So Dex here is my D-man partner in our hockey team, the all around best team there ever was, Samwell Men's Hockey! He's kinda annoying, hated my guts when we first started out, but has learned to chill since then," Dex rolled his eyes at that, but smirked good-naturedly "especially after we became roommates. He's a cool dude, wants to make a difference in the world with his Computer Science hacker skills, and just came from an interview, which is why he's looking so fly in his suit and all."
"I told you they're not hacker skills, I just build software." Dex interjects.
"And he's an all round great guy, best friend a man could ask for." Nursey continues unperturbed. "Once I got really sick and was basically put under house arrest, and he stayed with me the whole week to keep me company."
"We live in the same room, of course I stayed with you."
"He skipped all his classes. You literally did not leave the Haus."
"The lectures were all recorded and uploaded online, I could watch them from home. I didn't really need to go, and you were so miserable. Serves you right, though, for not getting your flu shot when I told you to."
"See? He loves me." Nursey grinned his cheesiest smile at Dex and ruffled his hair, still having an arm around him. Dex blushed at the display of affection, and being reminded of that story only made him more self-conscious of how he's coming across to a stranger who wants to share his personal details with the rest of the world.
"Hey, your turn bro. What glorious praise do you have for me hmm?" Nursey laughed.
"Well, this is Nursey, and he's the most annoying brat I've met, and I have 4 other siblings. He grew up here in Manhattan and was taking me sightseeing, even though I told him not to bother since I'm gonna be moving here anyway after we graduate in May."
"And I told him he's gonna hate all the touristy places later when he actually lives here, so he's gotta do it now." Nursey retaliated.
"That's true haha, the tourists just get annoying sometimes, though I get great stories too, so I'm not one to complain too much." Brandon added, which Dex did not appreciate, but let it go.
"Anyway yeah, he's a great bro, always got my back, stays up late with me when I've got a project to work through, just sitting there reading or writing or whatever, but just making sure I'm ok. He even offered to let me rent out a room at his place here. But I told him he can have Manhattan, I'll be off in Queens with Yiddish grandma neighbors, because who wants to stay with you and your flu."
"I'm hurt, I thought you loved me." Nursey put his hand over his heart dramatically, but was in actuality very moved by Dex's admission. He had never mentioned anything about intentionally staying up with Dex, they've just silently fallen into this rhythm of working together until Dex felt like turning in, but to know that he's appreciated for just being there made Nursey's heart ache with affection.
After that, Brandon asked them some questions, and then took a few more pictures where they could pose however they liked. They decided on a candid shot, taken from the waist up of both of them laughing, arms around each other's shoulders, and agreed on a gist of the story to accompany the photo. Brandon asked for both of their emails, to send them more pictures if they wanted, which Nursey was too eager to supply, and Dex figured he'd just get them from Nursey, still being uneasy with sharing out his contact information. Then Brandon left, and Nursey and Dex went on their way out of the park towards their next tourist destination.
"It's this club where the have this chill poetry reading once a month, you're lucky we got here the right week. Dude you'd be the classiest, attending a poetry slam in a suit."
"Don't I at least get to go back and change?"
"Told you we'd be out all day. Now you gotta stay out in this suit. We're in the Lower West Side, and I live in the Upper East Side, remember? It's too far to go back and come out again. Now come on, they've got drinks at the place, and you've gotta have a Manhattan in Manhattan!"
"Nah, I've told you," Dex grinned at his best friend, "you can have Manhattan."