There was a sigh. Of course it wasn't heard, because it was drowned out by all the city noise... the beeping horns of cars in five o'clock traffic, the shuffling of footsteps on pavement, the closing of doors to some shops, the shouting of people... the barking of dogs, the obnoxious blaring of music coming from cars that had basses, the volume cranked up, and their windows rolled down.

Of course nobody could hear that soft, delicate sound, that was hardly louder than the sound of a whisper.

A lone figure sat on the steps of someone's apartment complex, appearing rather sexless, with a large blue sweatshirt covering the top half of the person, and slightly baggy, black jeans, with pockets in almost every place imaginable.

The sweatshirt had 'BILLA' printed across the front in white, embroidered text, and the hood of it had been pulled over the person's head. Blond hair peaked out from the sides, and hung in the figure's face, which looked to be only slightly feminine. Not enough to look to belong to a female, really, and almost... looked to belong to a young man.

The sweatshirt and baggy jeans made Nienna look shapeless, as well, and it was impossible to tell if she was male or female, what with her head hanging, her back hunched forward, with her elbows on her thighs, and her knuckles resting under her chin. Her green-blue eyes were closed, and if they were opened, would be focused on nothing in particular.

It was rather cold out today, which was why she had the sweatshirt on, with also the reason that she'd cut up her arm was a razor, practically covering every inch of skin with cuts, just a few hours ago.

She was just being nonsensical, and morose. And selfish. And self-injurous. And annoying. And burdening. And loads of other adjectives.

If anyone can be described as nonsensecal, it's Wally. A short chunky white Guy walking down the road dressed like that....I mean really. Today Wally is wearing a pair of dark blue Tommy jeans, ridicoulously sagged to show off his Tommy boxers. He's also wearing a very baggy Florida Panther's hockey jersey.

There is a ring on all of his fingers, yes thumbs too. He's got two big diamond studs in his ears, and three very "Phat" gold chains, one with a cross, one with a merceded symbol, and one is a large "W", all of which are also gold. His Tommy watch is the leat austentatious peice of jewlery he's wearing.He's got on his black tobogan, the one item hat makes sense today, it's a bit nippy out.

He has one headphone from his wlkman stuck in his ear and he's singing along with "P-I-M-P" by Fifty Cent.

"What up Dog?" he addresses the huddled figure in cheerful hoodspeak. He smiles and shows two gold capped teeth.

She opened her eyes at the greeting. She hoped he wasn't talking to her. In fact, she dearly hoped he wasn't talking to her. But he was because there was obviously nobody else around who he could possibly be talking to. Thus she sunk back into the hood of her sweatshirt even further.

"Nothing," the voice is so obviously female and even slightly pretty as she'd been informed by a friend.

"What's up with you?" The voice might be pretty, but it also carries the obvious hint of being mildly afraid. She doesn't socialize much, can you tell?

"Chillin yo? It's sorta cold out, I'm going back to my ride. My homes took me to the mall earlier, and bailed on me with fine piece of.....Well I had to walk back for my car...." he says.

"You waiting on some one or just out here freezing?" he asks dropping his hoodspeak for the moment.

Nienna just gave a nod, trying to sort all of this out in her head. Chillin meant hanging out, right? And ride meant car... homies must be friends... after a moment or two she nodded again in actual understanding. "I see." It wasn't in that dull tone of voice or sarcastic one, just soft and vaguely interested. She's not going to be rude to him, you know.

"Just freezing out here, pretty much."

"Whatz up with dat, why you wanna sit out here in the cold yo? I mean Chilin is one thing, but literally Chilling, I don't dig? I mean uh, is there a reason you're out here in this, you waitng for someone?" He has to think about not talking in hoodspeak, it's just so very much habit for him. He can tell she isn't familiar with the slang though. "Sorry, I'll try to remember, uhm, to chill with the thug speak. And sorry I called you dog, I didn't realize at first that you're a girl. I didn't mean to be disrespecting you"

It's almost amusing to her, his hoodspeak. She's not actually met anyone this incredibly 'ghetto' since her cousin, and though it brings bad memories of that, it's funny that he acts so... black. It should have annoyed her as it was hard to understand him at times, but... oddly, it didn't.

She smiled a little, pulled the hood away from her face to reveal more clearly her blond hair and blue-green eyes. She was sort of pretty in her own sort of... homely way. Other people thought different and told her that she was beautiful, but she didn't believe them.

"It's okay. I'm just out here 'cause there's nothing else to do. Nowhere else to go." He probably didn't know what it was like to not be wanted, did he?

"You weren't disrespecting me, s'okay." She gets called a lot of other worse names, so being called 'dog' didn't bother her. "As long as you don't call me 'bitch' s'perfectly fine."

She was cute when she pulled the hood back. He wondered why had she been hiding under all that mess and hunched up on some steps all alone.

"No, Big Wally B, don't be calling the ladies and the little mommas, bitches and hos unless they straight up are. That ain't right. No where else to go, and nothing to do? F'Real? Where you stay at?" he asked her.

Big Wally B. What a cute little name.

"Aahhh, 'kay. That's good." Good, but it brings images of cheap, two cent whores to mind. She shouldn't have even mentioned the subject.

"For real." She nodded solemnly. "I stay with my family a long, long way away from this part of the city. Do you live around here?"

"Not at all."He's lapsed into normal Englsih. "I just have to get may car before I go back to tha Marriot. My freinds live in this area like I said. You need a ride someplace? My car isn't far....it's not a tight ride or nothing, rental place gave me a Lexus." he wrinkles his face.

"Mmm, a'kay. No I don't need a ride, but thanks for asking. She smiled almost tightly but you couldn't tell it was fake if you didn't look hard enough. She didn't want to accept a ride from a stranger, no matter how nice he seemed.

"I don't know much about cars... is a Lexus bad?"

"Well it's not a pimping ride, it's like a suburban housewife car.....my mom drives a Lexus." Wally says laughing. "So what are you gonna do then? Stay out here and freeze? I can give you a coat, I've got several in my car." He does, because he's a fly kind of guy, needs to be able to have the right apparel and bling for the right occaision his trunk looks like a small wardrobe studio.

"Ohh, I see. Nothing too stylish, then?" Obviously he wasn't too excited about it, and when guys liked cars generally they rambled on about them and their horsepower and things like that.

"Nah, s'okay, really. My sweatshirt's fine and stuff, and I figure sit out here until I figure out something to do." She shrugged.

This guy seemed sweet, if not for being a little odd.

"You're just gonna sit out here, the world is full of freaky people you know? What do you want to do then, I'll take you somewhere if you want, Wouldn't wanna see any little aspiring thugs happen upon you. You're kinda cute." He tells her.

Yes Wally is nice, but Odd, very Odd he's stranger than many innish people.
"So what do you do, you go to school, or a job? I'm a comic, but I rap too."

She smiled a little, looked up. A smile that sported no teeth. She's too self-conscious for her own good. "Thanks. Iunno if I wanna go somewhere, I definitely don't want to stay here, but I don't like cars." Why bother explaining and rambling? Because she could?

"Ohhh, really?" A grin. A comic, hm? She wasn't surprised he rapped, though. "I still go to school. Wretched thing that it is." She stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her face unknowingly in distaste.

"I was bad at school, my parents fought with me all the time about it. Only school I did good in was pilot certification. We could walk you know, but if we do I wanna get one of my coats from the car." He said, no hood speak in any of this.

She had that cute sort of girl next door quality. "What's up with cars, though, I mean why don't you like em?"

"Mm. I wasn't bad, but I wasn't good either. I mean, I still am. Parents figure it's because I'm lazy. But yeah. Pilot certification?" She asked, seeming to be intrigued by this.

"All right. I can deal with walking I guess." Weak smile.

"They're too confining." Claustrophobia, y'know. Plus she always gets chewed out in cars so she's formed a certain dislike for them. Also with added factor of stranger in car doesn't really do it for her.

"Yeah I can fly a plane, dig, well only small planes, but still it's cool to fly. I get in my plane and fly around up there, I can look down on the world. It's like all my problems or anything bugging me stays on the ground. It's awesome. I had to get a summer job to pay and do it. My parents expected I'd be as bad at it as I was at everything else so they made me pay for it on my own. I'm glad I did though. You ever been in a plane?" He asked.

Wally doesn't mind cars, roll down the windows and crank up the base, he's set then.

"Wow, that's impressive." She would never have expected 'Big Wally B' here to have been able to fly a plane. But she should learn not to judge people by their outside appearance, even if it were a mildly good judge of character.

"Nah, never been in a plane. Afraid of heights. I'd die." She said, stressing the word 'die' a little bit too much with the faintest hint of a laugh.

"Woah, everything make you antsy, whats up with that? You seem pretty young to be all full of phonias." he told her as they walked up to his rental and he popped the trunk to reveal all his threads in there.

He took out a Florida Panthers coat, a big puffy one, it matched his jersey. "You like sports?" he asked closign the trunk.

"Heh. Iunno. Not really a lot of them, just a select few. Afraid of hieghts, small places, and spiders." Well any insect really, because she hated bugs.

With her hands stuffed into her pockets she followed him.

"That's quite a wardrobe you have there," she commented, raising an eyebrow. Then she nodded. "Mhm. Baseball and football. My dad was a football player and my brother a baseball player. I grew up in New England for like, seven years so I'm sorta fond of the teams in Boston."

"Oh so you into the Redsox, and Patriots then, I dig. I got cousins that live in Pawtucket. What kinda music you dig, prolly not Fifty-Cent or rap huh?" he asked as they moved away from the car.

"Yepyep. Definitely. Don't like Yankees at all." She shrugged, wrinkling her nose a little. "Pawtucket? Where's that at?"

She turned and followed him, staying by his side.

"I like some sorts of rap. I like Will Smith, 50 cent, Eminem, Baby Bash and some others. Dunno. But otherwise I will forever love my rock music."

"Pawtucket's in Rhode Island. No clue what it's near, been twice for Christmas but I didn't drive, my parents did, all the way up from Palm Beach. What kind of rock?" He asks they're about a block from the car now.

"Ooooh, okay. Never been to Rhode Island. I think one of my relatives lives up there, though not sure.." You can tell she really likes said relative, can't you? "Rock, like... any rock. Metal, classic, arena... I like Marilyn Manson, Judas Priest, Slipknot, Cradle of Filth, Beatles, David Bowie... stuff like that. What about you?"

"I like Eric Clapton, Rush, Leonard Skynyrd, CCR.....but don't tell my homies."He says smiling. "So where are we walking?"

(Short *Dies*)

"I love Rush! By tor and the snow dog 'specially. I won't, I promise." As if she'd ever meet them anyway. She smiled a bit. "I dunno. Didn't really have a plan in mind. Did you?"

"No plan at all, but I never plan my vacations. What's there to do around here? coffee shops, Arcades, gotta be something." he tells her smiling. When he smiles a full smile he has a dimple but only in his right cheek.

"Ummm, well I'm sorta new here, but I know there's an amusement park, coffee shops, the mall, there's little stores on Elm Street too. I guess it's up to you, 'cause I'm making you choose."

"Well what's close, I dunno about walking really far in the cold and leaving my ride here. Or is it all about the same?" he asked. He thought it was sorta funny, his tourguide was new to town and making him pick what to do. He'd just come from the mall, it wasn't that far, but he knew if he went back and ran into his friends they'd likely hit on the girl. He also wasn't sure about an amusement park with someone afraid of heights and enclosed spaces.

"Um. Coffee shop's close. Mall's close too I guess..." but she actually really really really disliked the mall anyway, but she wasn't about to say that. She has this social dysfunction, you see, and she can't stand when there's more than two or three people around her. Which is kind of like claustrophobia, except she's afraid of people.

"You like coffee, I just came from the mall you know, I'm sorta hungry too though." He's musing aloud while he talks. Still grinning at her when he looks at her to talk. The dimple may be cute but those false gold teeth are cheesy.

I think I've failed to mention that Nienna doesn't look at people's eyes or faces very often. She'd like to, but she's very timid. Sometimes she looks up, fleetingly, or for a moment or two to see what people's expressions are. So she grins back, still no teeth shown yet. He would look cute except for all the clothing and the gold-capped teeth.

"All right. How about Monroe's, then? I don't think that could be too far. I think that's actually really close."

Wally has indeed noticed the girl is a bit shy. He's not going to make a fuss over it, if it's how she is, it's how she is. She hasn't made a point to tell him he was goofy, so why spoil a good thing?

"Okay, I s'pose, what's a Monroes though, I've never heard of it?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "It's not a thing, it's a place. Only the best diner in town." Or more like the only one she knows of.

"C'mon, I think I know the way."

He laughed,"You think you know the way?" he winked at her, "Oh GIRL You gonna get us lost." he teased. "But okay if you do we'll just checkout whereever we wind u up." he reassured her even after his teasing tone. He didn't want to make her feel self concious.

"I'm not that bad with directions." She smirked at his teasing. "But just to be sure, givin' ya a forewarning before we actually do get lost. Because that's bad." And she has the memory/attention span of a goldfish. She can remember things for about three whole seconds. Except I'm probably exaggerating.

"If I do recall, it's... this way." she said, then after thinking it over started to walk in the direction she wanted.

"I don't think we'll get lost I ought to be able to get us back to my car if nothing else." he said as he followed her. As he suspected she did not get them lost. After a short walk the were out side an "old Skool" as Wally put it diner. Wally thought it was very cool from the outside and the place smelled good. "Let's eat." he said with a big grin and he held the door for her.

She nodded. She was reassured in the fact that he could take them back to his car, so she went whichever way she remembered was right, eventually ending up at Monroes.

She walked in, offering a thanks to Wally for holding the door for her.

"Mmmmm, smells good. Umm, you pick a table." She's indecisive, can you tell?

Wally picked a booth that didn't seem to be surrounded by occupied tables, less crowded. He smiled again as theyscooted into the booth, "This is cool." he said, "like a time warp." The waitress came over and left them menus. Wally nodded at the waitress and thanked her in hoodspeak, which got him a wierd look. He grinned.