Riley gulped with his throat and gills simultaneously. He was staring at the price tag on the bottle of extremely expensive sunscreen. How the heck could sunscreen be this expensive? What was in it anyways? He looked at the back. While reading he came to the conclusion he had no idea what any of the ingredients were. Whatever they put in there was probably expensive too. It couldn’t just all be branding right?
She seemed like the type of girl to use something like that. You’d have to really care about protecting yourself from the sun. He usually didn’t even bother. Anything to make her happy though. He was going to feel this purchase halfway through the month, but he didn’t care. He’d live on noodle packets for all he cared.
Riley made his way over to the register with the prized bottle in both hands.
BUMP!Riley had run into a brick wall of a guy. Or perhaps it would make more sense to compare him to a car as he fell backward from the impact. He would have fallen to the ground but the stranger grabbed him by his shirt and belt. Though they were odd spots to grab, Riley felt surprisingly secure.
“Uhh hey man I’m kind of in a hurry here so…” He managed to say despite their awkward position. The gilled teen started to pry the other guy's hands from his clothes. While he was fidgeting the bottle of sunscreen slipped from his hands.
“Oh crap!”With a swift swipe, the bottle was grabbed and pulled right up to Viktor’s unamused face. He wondered how someone could be so clumsy. It wasn’t without benefit, however. For Viktor, nothing was without intention. When Riley attempted to reach out toward the sunscreen, Viktor pulled it away.
“This isn’t the kind you want. The brand, yes. It’s quite exceptional, but you want the one without the zinc oxide. Come, I’ll show you so you won’t have to waste time searching.” Viktor nodded toward the back of the aisle while stashing the unwanted sunscreen onto the closest shelf amongst shampoo bottles.
“First time buying or is it for someone in particular?” Viktor kept his eyes forward and his ears keen. It was time to put all of that time watching reality television and commercials to use.
“Uhh…” Riley stammered. What was this guy’s deal? And how come he knew this much about sunscreen? Riley looked him up and down. He was tall, ripped, and had an arrogant face. The kind of guy Riley usually avoided. For some reason, all the girls were dying to be rejected by dudes like that. The less they cared the harder they tried.
He watched him stash away the sunscreen somewhere it didn’t belong. Nice going douchebag, give the staff more work to do.
“Like I said I’m kind of in a hurry. So unless you work here….can you get out of my face?”His tone was uncertain, making his delivery less demanding. It was more of a question, easily dismissed by someone like Viktor.
“I already know you’re in a hurry.” Viktor suddenly stopped before facing Riley, looking down at him with a cold gaze. It was a bit of a power move, but Viktor managed to sigh which helped relax his posture.
“I’m only ensuring you don’t walk out of here making yourself or someone else look like a clown,… I almost knocked you over back there, so just see this as my way of paying you back.” Viktor reached for a sunscreen bottle of a similar design to the one Riley had grabbed previously.
“Guys should help each other out with stuff like this. Don’t you think?” Viktor handed the sunscreen to RIley.
Riley took the sunscreen with an appreciative nod towards Viktor.
“Appreciated man. She definitely would be angry if I showed up with the wrong one.”“She? Must be quite an impressive girlfriend… Or perhaps you're just an impressive boyfriend?” Viktor could almost feel the tension decreasing, which would only make his elicitation far easier.
She smiled at their funny made up names. Her phone buzzed at the exact right time. With an apologetic look on her face she pulled out her phone from her purse.
"Hi it's me" The girl answered in an overly sweet tone. The male voice on the other end sounded stressed. He was speaking fast and incoherently, making it difficult to determine what he was trying to say. Especially if you were attempting to listen in. A brief flash of annoyance flashed over her features. She caught it quickly and plastered on a demure smile.
"Of course I'll be right there!"She got up from her chair and smoothed down the folds of her skirt.
"It was so nice meeting you two, I'll take the bill and get out of your hair."After she paid the bill she looked over her shoulder at Alisa and Aleen'a.
"I'm sure we'll see each other soon..." The sly smile accompanying her strange choice of words made it seem like she knew something was going to go down.
An hour or so later Riley's dreams were coming true. He was having a make out session in the back of his car with the hottest girl ever. Granted he was doing a lot of the kissing and she was pretty much just sitting there, being gorgeous though. Maybe he wasn't doing it right. He slowly lowered himself over her and started to loosen his belt. Suddenly the girl snapped.
"What did I tell you about getting your gills up in my face!"With a forceful shove to his chest she pushed him off of her. The pheromones were strongly influencing his behavior, so Riley started to kiss her leg and then her arm.
She pulled away and breathed deeply.
"Stop it, you're overdoing it." The rush wouldn't let him stop, until he felt a sharp stinging sensation on his cheek. He looked up to see her outstretched palm not far from his face.
"That's enough Riley."The slap snapped him out of it and he realized what he'd done. He started to stammer an apology.
"Just shut up for a second"She was fixated on something small and metal stuck on the inside of his belt. She pulled the belt from around his waist and held it up to her face to study it more closely. She narrowed her eyes, recognizing what it was.
Interesting....
Back at the Youth CenterThe Team regrouped with Omen to exchange findings. Neither of them managed to find much. The Team being more successful having spotted an operative working with Kobra at the Hotspot. Viktor's contribution to the investigation proved to be vital. He planted a tracker on Riley, after Zach failed to secure one on Mateo, who was likely to be ruled out as a potential victim, having no meta-human powers. Omen agreed to keep watch at the Youth Center while the Team got suited up to follow the tracker back to Kobra's base of operations somewhere in Taos.
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