(Untitled)

[troyboltonav]

Who: Mike and Sid
Where: Plato's
When: Today
What: Clothing shopping
Status: Closed and incomplete
Rating: Pg

Comments

[uselessandcrap]

There was, apparently, some strange things going on in town, Sid noted, dropping a line to a girl called Lulu before he headed out to meet Mike at Plato's. Hands stuffed into his pockets and shoulders hunched to try to keep out the cold, Sid trudged out of the hotel, remembering to have left Bod's key at the front desk, just in case.

From what Sid had managed to gather from this Mike bloke, he was actually the age of Sid's departed father...and looked as though he was Sid's age. He'd, in fact, tasked the older Brit to helping him fit in. Like Sid was the right bloody person for that. Still, at the very least, he figured he might as well try and help the other boy pick out some clothes. Worst case scenario, Mike ended up looking like a chav. Best case, nobody even noticed he was middle-aged underneath the young exterior. Christ, that was weird.

As he approached, Sid noticed an older teenage boy standing about and Sid's stomach twisted uncomfortably. Please don't be Mike, please don't be Mike... he thought. Because, well...he looked like an Americanized, even man-prettier version (not that Sid would ever admit that) of Tony. This bloke was going to take one look at Sid, roll his eyes, and walk off. No sodding way was a boy that looked like that going to take a bloke who looked like Sid seriously. If the tables were turned, Sid wouldn't take Sid seriously for Christ's sake.

Inclining his chin in a sharp movement otherwise known as the universal guy move for a silent greeting, Sid approached. "Mike?" he tried and a large part of him hoped like hell that the assumption was wrong and maybe Mike was some dorky-looking, pimple-faced teenager already waiting inside to keep from catching cold in the meantime. The other half secretly thought that maybe he could seize this opportunity as a good one. ...he could have a new Tony. Maybe a new, improved Tony, who wouldn't treat him so crap, even... Oh, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if this was Mike, after all...

[troyboltonav]

Mike had actually been best friends with the biggest dork in high school his first time as a teenager even though he'd been a jock. Which was good, because now his best friend was an independently wealthy video game designer, while he was...unemployed. Apparently the geeks really did inherit the earth. Maybe this time Mike could be a geek. Or, maybe not.

The thin, pale kid with glasses coming his way stopped Mike cold for a minute, and he stared openly. This must be Sid...but he reminded Mike so much of his son. Not exactly in his looks but in the way he hunched in on himself as he was walking.

"Hey, Sid," Mike said, tipping his chin up in return greeting. "Thanks for meeting me here. And I'm sorry for staring. You just...really reminded me of Alex for a minute. My son."

[uselessandcrap]

The staring had gone mostly unnoticed by Sid but the apology for it gave way to a shrug. "'s all right. You look like my best mate Tony," he replied reflexively. "Don't mention it," he added, reaching for his pack of cigarettes automatically and completely without conscious thought to what he was doing. As he pulled one out, he lazily offered the pack to Mike with one hand and lit up his fag with the other. "'nother tip, mate, from now on, best call him your cousin or brother or something," he supplied with a small smile. "Majority of blokes our age don't have kids, yet," he pointed out. Sure, there were the fair few about, but in the interest of blending, Sid thought maybe Mike would benefit from that reminder.

[troyboltonav]

Mike had to smile at that. "Really? That's pretty funny. I take it Tony didn't come here with you then." Mike shook his head as Sid offered him a cigarette, aside from a rebellious time in his mid-twenties, he hadn't smoked. This body didn't have nicotine cravings yet which was good. "No, but thanks." He turned beet red when Sid told him to call his son his brother or cousin because people their age didn't have children...because that was exactly what had set the course of his future. He had gotten his high school girlfriend pregnant at exactly this age. "Sure, yeah. Uh, of course."

[uselessandcrap]

Shaking his head, Sid pocketed the pack again when Mike turned down the offer. "No, he's in Cardiff. For Uni...last year. 'm never going to get used to that," he sighed. The idea that Tony was off in Cardiff making loads of friends that were better than Sid and probably shagging some girl even hotter than Michelle while Sid was staying in a poof's hotel room and clothes shopping with a forty-year-old trapped in a seventeen-year-old's body was one Sid was less than enthusiastic about.

Sid dragged on the cigarette and paused, looking over at Mike as he put the pieces together. "You said he's our age?" he asked. "My age?" he corrected. It occurred to him that maybe Mike had been one of the fair few, after all. "'m just saying...if you want to blend in, yeah?" he asked gently, feeling a bit stupid and tactless. But then again, Sid was just that: stupid and tactless. Useless fucker, Tony's voice said. Still, he constantly heard Tony's voice in his head, telling him just how useless and crap he was. He wondered, sometimes, if it would ever go away.

[troyboltonav]

Mike nodded in sympathy. "It's hard when your friends move. Sometimes it feels like they moved on without you." He was a poor substitute for anyone. Geez, why did he think Sid would want to be friends with him?

Mike ducked his head a little at Sid's sudden understanding, knowing that Sid had figured out what was going on. "Yeah. Yeah, he's your age. And I was his age when I had his sister." He looked at Sid and gave him an embarrassed smile. "It's not usually the first thing I tell people about myself, but you didn't have any way of knowing. It's fine. And if this is my second chance, I don't have kids anymore. So you're absolutely right."

[uselessandcrap]

"Bit, yeah," Sid replied nonchalantly as he took the last drag of his cigarette. The truth was that it was killing him that Tony, Michelle, and Maxxie were going their own way. Almost as much as it hurt that Cass had. He tried not to think about the fact that Chris would never get to go anywhere again and the fact that Anwar was probably staying in Bristol would've helped...if Sid was still in Bristol. "I s'pose that's life, though, yeah?" he asked, flicking the cigarette away and opening the door of Plato's for them to go inside. "People leaving. People moving on. People bloody dying."

He held the door open after entering so that Mike could follow and sighed as he looked around. Bit more selection than he was expecting and trying to sift through it for things he would wear and then on top of it, finding things that Mike himself didn't find repulsive that fell into that same category was going to take more time than Sid had originally anticipated having picked a used clothing store. "My friend Jal got pregnant last year. ...er...yeah," he said, pausing to consider the time change. "Right, well, my friends Chris and Jal. So, it's not like it never happens, just...wouldn't be a great way to blend in," he replied. It was Sid's way of apologizing without having to actually do so and also his way of letting Mike know that it wasn't as though Sid thought less of him for it, because he certainly did not.

[troyboltonav]

Mike heard Sid's nonchalance but he wondered if it was real. He looked at the young man for a minute. "It sounds like you've had a pretty hard time, Sid." He'd been comparatively lucky. Everyone he knew or had known in high school was still around, still pretty healthy and still living in the same place. From what little Sid had said, it sounded like his whole world moved on regular intervals.

Mike followed Sid into the store, looking around. His first urge was to go for the Kevin Federline look, but Sid wasn't dressed like that so maybe 'bling' was not the way to go. Or was it 'bling bling'? That was another thing Mike didn't know, the slang.

Mike nodded at Sid's words, faintly amused at the idea of becoming a teen father a second time. "Thanks, man. And I promise not to get any other girls pregnant," he said, trying to turn it into a little bit of a joke. "Actually, that would be pretty gross considering how old I am."

[uselessandcrap]

Mike thought Sid had had a hard time. Sid didn't much want to think about just how hard a time, so he let the comment slide as though he'd never heard it.

Without taking into account the difference in Mike's body shape to his own, Sid started pulling jeans, t-shirts, and waffle long sleeved shirts off the racks, holding them out to look at them briefly before handing them back to Mike. "I feel like poof saying this, but...it's all about the layers, mate," he said. He looked over his shoulder at Mike, paused, and then pulled a facial shrug before taking a black knit beanie off an accessory shelf and putting it on top of the pile. "Yeah?" he asked with a small smile.