RP: Closer to Proud
Date: September 25, 2011
Characters: Ava Byrne, anyone else
Location: Somewhere on Magnolia Ave
Status: Public
Summary: Ava sees an ad for an upcoming event.
Completion: Incomplete
It was good to be out on her bike for the first time since spring. The summer had been too hot to do much more outdoors than walk Wilbur, which meant she usually did her working out at Serenity--for the weeks when she actually worked out, anyway. When she'd first moved to town she'd had all these fanciful ideas of getting around the city on her bike like she had in DC, but FT Worth public transportation had shaken her out of that pretty quickly, and now she mostly lived in her Jeep. It was a nice day to get on her bike and wander, though. Lately she had to take advantage of every opportunity not to be at work.
She turned onto Magnolia, grateful for the breeze and the fact that Wilbur wasn't trying to clamber out of his basket.
It was crowded enough that she had to hop off her bike and wheel it along the sidewalk, checking out storefronts to see if anything looked new or interesting since the last time she'd been. There were a few dishes she wanted to try that she didn't have the right equipment for, and probably some other things on her list she could knock off while she was out.
Ava slowed in front of a familiar coffee shop that tempted her, then nearly stumbled into her bike when a woman about her age moved past her quickly, passing her a postcard advertisement on her way. Blinking, she took it without thinking, intending to drop it in the nearest wastebasket like she did with most flyers. But it was eyecatching, bright, and she took a second to actually read it, the words white over a rainbow background.
30th Annual Tarrant County Gay Pride Parade
Downtown Ft Worth
Oct 1, 2011
Annual Gay Pride Picnic
Oct 2, 2011
Her first thought as she stared after the woman was that she must be brave for passing out ads for Pride in this city and her second thought was...there was a Pride parade. In this city. She couldn't help looking up and down the busy street as she held the postcard in her hands, but no one was paying attention to her.
It wasn't like she didn't know anything about Pride events. They happened every summer in both DC and Boston and she'd thought about going, every year since she'd been 17. Dreamed of being able to go. Somehow it had always felt wrong, though...she'd never been proud, not really, and her parents, her friends could easily have opened the paper or turned on the news and seen her there. It had been completely out of the question.
Ava gripped the handlebar of her bike, an oblivious Wilbur licking at her wrist, and thought about going this year. It could be the time, finally--or not, considering she was still afraid to tell the people closest to her, or to hold hands with the girl she was dating where anyone else could see. But as difficult as it was, she yearned for a kind of belonging she'd never really felt before, and she'd already met Tyler and Rivkah and there was this faint hope that maybe, in this unlikely city, she could find it.
All she wanted was pride.
She stared hard at the card before tucking it into her bag, looking up the street but unable to focus on storefronts now. Instead she looked at the sidewalk, noticing it littered with little postcards identical to the one she'd been given, lying face up where people had dropped them, tossed them aside, walked over them. One or two of them were crumpled into balls.
Suddenly she couldn't stand to see them scattered out and discarded like that. She wheeled her bike along, walking alongside it, stooping to pick up the little cards one-by-one as she went.
Characters: Ava Byrne, anyone else
Location: Somewhere on Magnolia Ave
Status: Public
Summary: Ava sees an ad for an upcoming event.
Completion: Incomplete
It was good to be out on her bike for the first time since spring. The summer had been too hot to do much more outdoors than walk Wilbur, which meant she usually did her working out at Serenity--for the weeks when she actually worked out, anyway. When she'd first moved to town she'd had all these fanciful ideas of getting around the city on her bike like she had in DC, but FT Worth public transportation had shaken her out of that pretty quickly, and now she mostly lived in her Jeep. It was a nice day to get on her bike and wander, though. Lately she had to take advantage of every opportunity not to be at work.
She turned onto Magnolia, grateful for the breeze and the fact that Wilbur wasn't trying to clamber out of his basket.
It was crowded enough that she had to hop off her bike and wheel it along the sidewalk, checking out storefronts to see if anything looked new or interesting since the last time she'd been. There were a few dishes she wanted to try that she didn't have the right equipment for, and probably some other things on her list she could knock off while she was out.
Ava slowed in front of a familiar coffee shop that tempted her, then nearly stumbled into her bike when a woman about her age moved past her quickly, passing her a postcard advertisement on her way. Blinking, she took it without thinking, intending to drop it in the nearest wastebasket like she did with most flyers. But it was eyecatching, bright, and she took a second to actually read it, the words white over a rainbow background.
30th Annual Tarrant County Gay Pride Parade
Downtown Ft Worth
Oct 1, 2011
Annual Gay Pride Picnic
Oct 2, 2011
Her first thought as she stared after the woman was that she must be brave for passing out ads for Pride in this city and her second thought was...there was a Pride parade. In this city. She couldn't help looking up and down the busy street as she held the postcard in her hands, but no one was paying attention to her.
It wasn't like she didn't know anything about Pride events. They happened every summer in both DC and Boston and she'd thought about going, every year since she'd been 17. Dreamed of being able to go. Somehow it had always felt wrong, though...she'd never been proud, not really, and her parents, her friends could easily have opened the paper or turned on the news and seen her there. It had been completely out of the question.
Ava gripped the handlebar of her bike, an oblivious Wilbur licking at her wrist, and thought about going this year. It could be the time, finally--or not, considering she was still afraid to tell the people closest to her, or to hold hands with the girl she was dating where anyone else could see. But as difficult as it was, she yearned for a kind of belonging she'd never really felt before, and she'd already met Tyler and Rivkah and there was this faint hope that maybe, in this unlikely city, she could find it.
All she wanted was pride.
She stared hard at the card before tucking it into her bag, looking up the street but unable to focus on storefronts now. Instead she looked at the sidewalk, noticing it littered with little postcards identical to the one she'd been given, lying face up where people had dropped them, tossed them aside, walked over them. One or two of them were crumpled into balls.
Suddenly she couldn't stand to see them scattered out and discarded like that. She wheeled her bike along, walking alongside it, stooping to pick up the little cards one-by-one as she went.