breathless and choking||simeon!

[simeon bradley parker]

It was too much work to try and figure out why he put up with Scarlett. She was like the opposite of what he looked for in people. She was talkative and absurd and wanted to be his friend. From a different perspective, she was probably a good friend and a lot of fun, but Simeon wasn't looking for that. He wanted to be left alone and to be in control of his interactions with people. Sure, he was happy to have a random conversation when it was on his terms, but he didn't want the baggage that came with real relationships. If Scarlett believed they had a friendship, then that was her problem. The truth was, Simeon had developed a different outlook toward a certain class of people. It had happened so slowly as to be imperceptible, but he had definitely developed more tolerance toward certain people. Compassion, no, but he was willing to put up with more shit with people he had come to know. Like Scarlett. If he could be tied down and made to listen to their problems, he'd probably feel a trace of sympathy, but that wasn't likely. At the first sign of emotional bonding Simeon put up a hefty wall between himself and the other person. He just cast his eyes up to the ceiling when she called him by the nickname again, deciding not to make an issue of it. What would he do, anyway? Duct tape her mouth shut? That idea actually sounded more appealing than it should have...

He almost laughed a the sight of her pout. Did she really think he was going to say yes? That was a little sad. Sure, she was delusional, but that was really pushing it. What in their interaction had suggested that he would do something that selfless? He wasn't going to spend his valuable time in a contagious environment making chicken noodle soup. He was grocery shopping, but he would be doing that regardless of whether he had bumped into her or not. Just... more quickly and quietly. She seemed to bounce back with characteristic ease, however. It occurred to him that he actually didn't know that much about Scarlett. He had no information on why she acted the way she did, or where she came from. That was comforting, as was the knowledge that she knew equally little about him. It meant there hadn't been any heart-to-hearts that he was unaware of.

She left him with that grisly mental image as she skipped away, and it caused him to not follow right away. Nah, she wouldn't burn her house down. She couldn't be that scatter-brained. Besides, she'd probably end up snacking on her junk food all night anyway. No charcoaled bodies. He frowned, shaking his head quickly to disperse the image. Why did he care, anyway? He walked forward, making the same right as she had. The store wasn't very busy, so there weren't many open checkout lanes to look over before he found her. ”You keep skipping away. It's like you're trying to lose me. What would I do with all of this ice cream?” He hefted the grocery basket up onto the counter and began unloading it, its carefully arranged contents proving to have fared well. The bread wasn't crushed, the vegetables and fruit weren't bruised, and everything else was equally intact. When the basket was empty he stood back and crossed his arms, looking expectantly at Scarlett. He had followed her through the store and gotten her groceries, now came the pay-off. Honestly though, and Simeon wasn't anywhere close to admitting this even to himself, it hadn't been that bad. Once he had gotten used to Scarlett and some of her personality quirks it had become harder to get irritated at her. Why give her the satisfaction, you know? He still wouldn't have helped her without the promise of something in return, or so he told himself. ”Okay, I lugged all of this stuff around for you. Your turn.”

[scarlett neveah vayro]

The idea of more shopping entered Scarlett’s mind as both her and Simeon passed through each aisle of the grocery store. She wanted to buy new dresses, and shoes and bows and colourful items and just so much but she had to control herself, she wasn’t going to be able to go somewhere in her condition. Especially in her sick condition, she would probably ruin the shops or drive the employers crazy because of the way she spoke. She didn’t want to annoy anyone else, but she began to wonder…she seemed pretty normal right now didn’t she since Simeon was helping her shop, so what if she could force him to go into other shops with her? She raised an eyebrow at that thought though, no, what was the point? He’d probably get even more frustrated with her and they were on good terms by now, now she didn’t want to make him end up hating her after a while. So she would have to let Simeon go after this shopping trip was over, she would probably annoy him later on and it would be fun all around then, but today was too much fun and he probably had much better things to do without her tailing him around. She’d just probably go back to her apartment and mope and eat all the junk foo she bought today.

No, she didn’t think her pout would get anywhere with Simeon but she could try right? Nothing-ventured nothing gained, but whatever right? He was already probably getting bored of her but it didn’t mean her spirits were going down. At least they were sort of friends now and that was great, she had wanted to be friends with Simeon ever since she had met him in that quiet classroom on the first day, he was just weirdly boring and freaky so she wanted to get to know him much better than usual. If she hadn’t spoken to him that first day then she probably would have been doing this shopping alone and without a help in the world, she’d be sniffling and coughing, not shopping with a smile on her face, so she guess she owed Simeon right? Because he did make her smile through this entire shopping trip, so it was great. She just wouldn’t tell him though, otherwise once he’d find out he’d try to stay away from her and she wanted his friendship, even if he was an asshole half of the time.

No she wasn’t that much of an air brain, she knew how to cook, knew how to do the simple domestic things, Simeon didn’t need to know that though, she just wanted company! “I’m not trying to lose you, I just want you to follow me while skipping! Though I see that it hasn’t worked at all!” Rolling her eyes, she smiled up at him and looked down at her ice cream. “You’d just have to find me right and give me my ice cream, simple as dear!” Shaking her head at him, she just smiled once more and watched him pick up the grocery basket full of both their things; she wondered how he had even carried that. Her food probably weighed more than half of his. She smiled happily though, nothing was broken and her ice cream looked well intact and cold. Nodding her head, she rolled her eyes at him. Opening her bag, she got out her purse and pulled out a credit card, waving it in front of his face. “Yeah yeah, I’m such a nice person aren’t I? You put the stuff in the bag though, in my hazy state I’m sure I’ll mix our stuff up together.” Smiling as the cashier scanned their products and passed it down, she waited until all the products were on the other side and put her credit card in, pressing the number pins and then putting her credit card back into her purse which went back into her bag. “You have made this shopping experience very enjoyable Simeon, thank you.”

outfit|| click!
word count|| 676

[simeon bradley parker]

As much as unfailing optimism and hyperactivity grated on his nerves, he had to admire Scarlett. Where most people moped and became reclusive, she had jumped at the opportunity for company. Although the need for food had drawn her out of her house, she had still livened up the instant she encountered him. That was saying more about her than it was about him, frankly. She was skipping, for God's sake. He didn't feel like skipping on a good day, let alone when laid low by a virus. ”Well, it's a small store. Not too hard to find a roving maniac, I suppose.” He smirked, but his tone was amiable. As the venture was winding down he had actually warmed up to Scarlett. She was still annoying, but it was a familiar irritation rather than a completely random one, appearing out of the blue like on their first encounter. The knowledge that she was just like that all the time helped too, since he really didn't want to be singled out as a target. If he was in a particularly surly mood, he probably wouldn't have taken so kindly, but the stars had been aligned just right today. Would this come back to bite him later? Probably. Undoubtedly, actually. He was simply acting too out of character to ignore it later on. You didn't just decide to make friends with the first person to declare that it would be so. Who would have thought Scarlett would actually be hard to despise?

He slipped past her to start bagging groceries as the cashier rang them up. ”Should be easy enough. Junk food for you, real food for me.” He flashed a grin at her, placing their respective items in bags as carefully as he had arranged them in the basket. He put an almost unreasonable amount of effort into the most random tasks. Well, maybe keeping your food intact was not an unreasonable concern, but it still was not the first thing you'd expect Simeon to care about.

As Scarlett was paying for the goods, Simeon finished separating them. At least she had some real food in there. Oranges and bread. Well, she couldn't starve, at least. And really, the need for ice cream was perfectly understandable. He held out her grocery bags for her to take before gathering up his own. Her little declaration took him by surprise, but really, why should anything about Scarlett surprise him anymore? ”Yeah, yeah, I try.” He smiled briefly, turned, and walked out of the store. ”Hope you feel better soon,” he called back with a wave.

ooc: Oh my god, so sucky/late/short. SORRY!