"Damn..." Jason glanced down at the flapping corner of denim hanging from the back of his right calf. He'd been climbing around on the shelves looking for a certain type of rebar for a customer, and snagged his jeans on the way down ripping the leg. "These were my good work pants, too." 

He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, and often there wasn't anyone to talk to. He shook his head as he fetched a flat trolley to load the rebar onto, and went about fulfilling the order. "Had to do this one last thing. No, couldn't just leave early. Had to do my job and rip my damn pants..."

"You could just run safety pins up the rip, it'd be punk," said the girl at the cashier's counter sympathetically. He handed her a ticket for the rebar. 

"Nah... Not for work."

After wrapping up the loading of the rebar into the customer's work truck, he was ready to go home. It seemed like he'd been loading rebar all damn week, thanks to the new construction going on in town. It was an easier job when it was just weekend warriors building decks or putting in new molding. Either way, it was 7pm and his shift was done. Jason retreated to the back office to clock out and hang up his apron, an ugly purple thing with JASON scrawled across the chest in sharpie above the logo for Hart's Home and Hardware. That was the color theme for the store, a weird radioactive eggplant purple on all the uniforms, aprons, tags, signs, logos... He'd never paint a house purple because of it, surely. He really didn't mind the job, or working hard, but that purple was just...bad.

"Adios, muchachos," he muttered to the apron, and headed out of the office and shop, looking up at the gray cloudy darkness as he exited. "At least it's not cold..."

He heard an abrupt rush of air as some large object passed through the space directly behind him. "HEY CHICKEN LITTLE!" A voice bellowed at him, the shout piercing into his ears as somebody hit the pavement directly behind him.

Jason leapt forward and looked back, a look of shock on his face. Iikka. Of course.

"Jesus, dude!" he said, recovering from his surprise. "Carl said he'd call the cops next time he caught you climbing his store again."

"The cops can't arrest Jesus." Iikka Guiomar said with a contemptuously smug smirk plastered on his face as he got up from the low crouch he had landed in. "Besides, I didn't climb the store. I climbed the building next to the store and then jumped over here. 

"Well, they'll have to let you off on a technicality," Jason said with a grin. "What's up?"

"Sky, space, and stars my friend, and also my own handsome self spying that ride of yours. I have something I need to do at the mall, and I can't climb the streets to get there. I don't suppose I could cajole you into giving me a lift?"

Jason stuck out his right leg to show off the dangling rip of fabric. "I could be convinced to go to the mall. Rebar problems."

"I'll make you a fair offer. I'll be your malefactor, and teach you everything there is to know about stepping all over whatever you please." Iikka said easily. "Assisted, of course, by the Fabulous Thunderbirds and their hit song, '[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcdypuUGRU4]Stand Back[/url].'" He pulled an iPod from his jacket and brandished it at Jason as though it were a switchblade.

Sometimes Jason greatly questioned whether Iikka lived in the same reality he did.

"Right, well. Ok then." he said, taking his keys from his pocket. He led the other boy towards the weathered looking black Mazda 3 parked in the back of the lot. He'd started working when he was 14 with a hardship permit, and saved up the money to buy a car. He'd only been driving it for about three months, and it was a rather worn car on the outside though there were only about 70,000 miles on it. It had been in a flood once, and that really brought the value down. The paint was peeling from negligence and he had to replace the carpets on the bottom with some cheap mats, but it worked, and had a nav system with an audio input jack. If Iikka wanted music, he could have it. A couple clicks from the locks unlocking as Jason pressed the button on the key fob and they were in.

"And hey, who was that I spied at the counter? Anybody I would be interested in?" Iikka asked conversationally as he got in and fastened his seatbelt before plugging his iPod's jack to the dashboard nav.

"Who, Claire?" Jason asked, trying to imagine Iikka and Claire spending time together. That would be weird. She was too mainstream, maybe. "I dunno, she's a nice girl." 

"Meh. Claire is an awful name anyway." Iikka opined.

"It's a nice girl name, you need someone with some crazy bitch name. Like, a Mandy or something." Jason retorted in her defense, "Or an Aimee, like spelled A I M E E rather than just Amy."

"Mandy is also an awful name, would it hurt to ask for somebody with a name that sounds nice to say, with a bit of resonance to it? Did you know our biology teacher named his daughter Achalasia?"

Jason snorted, "Achalasia?? That sounds like she'd be some princess or something. Poor kid."

"Turns out its actually the name of a muscular feedback disorder that occurs in the esophagus."

Jason shook his head, pulling the mazda out of the parking lot and onto Main Street. He turned on the stereo, turning up the volume a little as the brass band came into the speakers. Iikka always found interesting music, and he had better luck finding MP3's than Jason did trying to find vinyl.

"You know the way. Now accelerate to 88 miles per hour." Iikka deadpanned. "And let it be known I have right of first refusal on roadkill."

Jason stopped at a red light. Iikka gave him a look of consternation, not even bothering to admonish Jason verbally, instead just shaking his head in a soft, morbid fashion.

Jason decided to vex his friend further, and used his blinker as he made a slow right turn onto the feeder that would take him onto the highway. Then he pressed down on the gas, lurching the car foward and crossing over onto the ramp. They shot up the ramp, gaining speed, and weaved their way into the highway's far left lane. He twisted the volume up a bit more on the stereo and the engine's four cylinder did its damnedest to keep up with the demand Jason placed on it. He kept a wary eye out on his mirrors for possible cops, but it was clear.

"Now that's more like it." Iikka said, nodding in approval. "Stand back, everyone! He takes large steps."

It didn't take long, as Bradbury wasn't so big, for the two boys to arrive at the mall, park, and make their way inside. They had hardly been there ten minutes when they heard a familiar voice call towards their direction.

"Jason! Iikka! Wait up! It's Max! From school! Where we all go together!"

Iikka cringed visibly, and Jason stopped and looked over his shoulder to see Maxine rushing towards them excitably. 

"Keep walking, keep walking!" Iikka urged, pushing on Jason's shoulder, but it was too late, and they knew it. She was bubbly and hyper, and apparently had eyes on the back of her head as she spotted Mario Russo and started calling him out to "Join us too". Because apparently this mall outing was suddenly an "us" situation.

"Oh, hey there, Max," Jason said a bit awkwardly like he wanted to be elsewhere. This was quickly becoming an abnormal social gathering. How often did he ever hang out with Russo?? Not since second grade or something, surely. It wasn't that they tried not to hang around; they just lived in different social circles: Mario on the sports circle, and Jason in no real circle of people whatsoever.