'...God, why can't you shut uuuup?' Leon sighed mentally as Daniel, his coworker and team lead, kept up a steady stream of small talk as they waited for the traffic light to change. The rest of the team had decided to share an Uber back to the office from the team lunch at Goodwin's, but Leon felt a 15 minute walk would be much better than being stuck in traffic in a Honda Civic for twice as long. So he'd volunteered when it was clear they wouldn't all fit. Sadly Daniel decided to invite himself along too.
Leon was a true introvert. He got exhausted by the stress of social interaction, and combined with the fact that he preferred being invisible at work, meant he didn't have much to show for his 10 year career, and his 31 years. He was extremely single, and honestly beyond his video gaming and anime hobbies, he was pretty boring. He didn't even try to participate in the culture, never having gone to any convention, or doing more than lurk in forums online. He also was surprisingly petty at times, and beyond his exhaustion from an unhealthy lifestyle since college, still had pretty much the same immature mind set since High school.
However, it would be hard to tell from looking at him. Leon was over 6 ft, and had inherited an overactive metabolism, which along with minor ADHD related twitching helped him from gaining weight even with his bad diet. His instinct of setting his expression in a neutral poker face, and keeping his verbal responses to a minimum was misinterpreted by colleagues as a serious and stoic demeanor.
Leon grew up as a Millenial, in Illinois. He went through school in nearby Wisconsin, and came back to Chicago for work. He moved out of his mom's home in Schaumberg somewhat under duress his 3rd year at work, with his mother's excuse that a 2 hour commute wasn't reasonable. Soon enough, his small 1 bedroom garden unit grew on him, as he now had complete freedom to eat as many bags of doritos as he wanted. He always felt like he was made for something more though.
That being said, Daniel in particular annoyed Leon. Daniel, 'please don't call me Danny', was actually just 4 months older. Daniel was born in Colombia, an oopsie baby from the second marriages of a 45 year old retired US army vet and a 35 year old Colombian romance columnist. While Leon was growing up bored in the burbs, Daniel was hiking with his parents in the rainforests and enjoying yearlong tropical weather. Daniel moved to the US by himself for college, where he went from selling blood and tutoring for rent money and found his sweetheart and got married. He had signed a mortgage for a house just 6 months ago, just in time for his second kid to be born, and he apparently had started looking into adopting a puppy. Worse, he followed all the same anime, but actually went to conventions and kept trying to pull Leon into talking about their shared hobbies. How did he have his life so put together?!
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The worse thing was that Daniel seemed to be the only one at work that saw through Leon. He talked to Leon like he was 10 years older, and kept trying to give Leon life advice. Case in point, the last 10 minutes of their 15 minute walk.
'God, just run one of us over... actually, just run this blabber mouth please?' Leon grunted again, finally walking as the light changed. To make things even worse, they were stuck behind a group of ladies in high heels, walking way too slow and taking up the whole crosswalk.
"Eeek!" one of the ladies in front of them squeeked as her ankle twisted on the pockmarked street, losing her balance. For a second Leon thought he'd get to see one of the twits fall and ruin her work dress, as he stepped to the side to pass by the expected obstacle, but he couldn't even get to enjoy that. with a lightning fast "Oopsie Daisy!" Daniel caught her by the arm and helped regain her balance.
'you'd think he'd know you'll get in trouble if you touch a woman without written permission. Leon snarked silently, as the office lady looked almost more startled by the assistance than from the initial almost fall. Well, Leon would use the distraction to his advantage and decided he would simply ignore it and continue walking. Maybe now he'd get at least a few minutes of solitude before Daniel caught back up to him.
Suddenly, a screech of tires reached Leon's ears, before he was suddenly shoved forward from behind. in a sudden rush of adrenaline, he whirled around. The lady with the broken heel was sitting up from falling on the ground behind his legs, a wide eyed look of horror on her face as she stared at the back of a Honda Oddyssey, now crumpled into what was left of a parked Escalade.
Leon's brain was suddenly running at the speed of Molasses, as he tried to understand what he was seeing under the wheels of the minivan.
"...Daniel?"
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