In The Dust

A/N: I just wrote Chapter 9 and I know what I wanna do with 10 so I'll do it right now. Lucky you. ;)

Chapter 10: Meeting The Mentor

"Why, hello, David!" I heard a confident voice bellow from inside. It was the kind of voice that you hear on TV commercials selling cars. It had this air of confidence and pride. It was infectious. I had to smile.

"Hello, Taylor. Long time, no talk." I tried to play it cool. But as he shook my hand, I knew he knew I was nervous. He smiled encouragingly, and directed me into a seat.

"How was your flight? I'm not a big fan of planes myself, only if I have first class. But that still makes me queasy." He could talk his way out of being murdered if he had to.

"It was alright, I guess. I fell asleep for a while." What? It was true. I had fallen asleep. (For ten minutes.)

"Ahh, yes. Planes are always good for napping on. They're also good for thinking." Joy. He loves reading into my thoughts and messing with my mind. A true businessman.

"Yeah… I guess. I did think for a while too. You know, about the next six months and all." LIE. "I'm just so excited I couldn't stop thinking about it." LIE. "This is a great opportunity for me, so it's mind-numbing." Why can't I stop talking for once in my damn life? This is my first meeting with my future mentor, and I'm screwing up big time.

"Yeah…" Taylor nodded his head in a kind of sarcastic way. He knew that I was flighty, and he decided to let me off the hook this time.

"So…."

"Hold on for a hot minute, Dave. It is okay if I call you Dave, right? Good. Now hold on." I loved how he asked a rhetorical question and answered it himself. Isn't it rhetorical? Whatever.

"Hey Clarissa, it's Taylor. Can you tell Robert that I'm ready for him? Thanks, you're a doll." He turned the intercom off and turned his attention towards me again.

"I want you to meet my nephew, Robert. He'll show you around these next few days. He's a really good kid, you don't need to worry about him taking you to parties and whatever else you rowdy fifteen year olds do."

"Actually, I'm sixteen."

"Yes, I know, that's what I said. Anyways, Robert is a very sociable guy, so you'll make friends with him very quickly. Oh, look, there he is now! Hey Robbie!"

The door opened, and I slowly turned around to see a guy about my age standing in the doorway, smirking at me. Wait, was he smirking at me? He doesn't even know me. He doesn't have the RIGHT to smirk at me. Maybe it was because I was dressed down. Shit, I shoulda worn a tux. Or at least something nicer than my grungy khakis and plaid button-up over an Etnies shirt with those checkered Vans. I look like a stereotypical suburban guy. And there's Taylor and Robert, wearing sports jackets and slacks and recently-polished leather shoes.

"Hi, Uncle T. Hey, new kid." He nodded at me, and smiled at his uncle sweetly. When Taylor turned around, the kid rolled his eyes. He kind of smiled at me too. I smiled back a bit unsurely. Taylor swiveled around and looked at Robert.

"Rob, why don't you show Dave around town a bit? Teach him the ropes, show him his apartment…" I had an apartment? AWESOME. "Just make sure he comes back alive tomorrow. We need to show him the grand tour of Olympia."

"K, Uncle T. See ya tomorrow." Taylor didn't hear, since the phone rang and he was suddenly emerged into conversation with Clarissa the receptionist. Robert said, "Come on, let's split," and we got out of there as soon as we could.

Once we were out of the entire studio, he stopped and took off his sports jacket and slacks. Underneath he was wearing normal clothes. Thank God. I thought he actually was a geek who wore suits to school.

"Dave?" His mannerism made it seem like he was mocking me. I would too if I met a loser who's name was Dave.

"It's Gordo. Taylor just calls me Dave….Robbie." I got back at him! He looked a bit offended by that one.

"You call me that again, I swear I'll beat the crap outta you. Doesn't Gordo mean 'fat' in Spanish?" He walked away, obviously proud of himself for coming up with a comeback. And anyways, I wasn't as fat as him. I had muscle; he had gut.

"Sure it does. But how does a white guy like you know any Spanish?" Yeah.. I would say we were getting off on the right foot.

"You have to in order to survive in the City of Angels." He smiled and held out his hand. I shook it, and we just laughed the whole incident off.

As we walked up to the Olympia Apartment Complex, we talked about random things, like my life, his uncle, school… It was cool until we got to the topic of girls.

"So, you got a girlfriend?" Good question. I hadn't really decided yet.

"Nah. There was this one girl though…"

"Tell me about her." He seemed genuinely interested. But I didn't feel like rehashing the story of my love life to a guy I had just met about twenty minutes ago.

"Rather not. All you need to know is that there's nothing between us anymore." That was news to me. I had thought we might have had something left that we would resolve later on.

"Ahh. I get it. You wanna forget her, so that's why you decided to come here?" I never really thought of it that way, but…

"Exactly."

Robert kind of laughed and said, "Well, I have the perfect party for us to go to tonight."

E/N: It's 11:45 at night, but I'm not tired, and I want to write more. So here comes more!