|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:05:21 GMT -5
Adrien tried to reach for him again, to hold him again -
"C'mere - we can do it in ten minutes - "
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 19:06:48 GMT -5
"Adrien, no-"
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:09:28 GMT -5
With a kind of fervor that bordered nearly on the religious and frantic, he went to his knees.
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 19:12:24 GMT -5
He had to stop himself from actually kicking Adrien in the ribs just to get him to stop. As it was, he bent down and pushed his face very close to Adrien's.
"I am leaving, Adrien, and if you're still readily visible by anyone other than me when I come back, I think you will find that you have made a very large mistake. Do you understand?"
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:13:15 GMT -5
Adrien's hands found their way to Adrian's shoulders, almost trying to massage.
"No, no, I can go and change now, I swear - "
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 19:16:21 GMT -5
"Get in the bathroom!"
He flung his left hand in a point at the door to the private washroom.
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:17:34 GMT -5
Adrien started crying, hands folded into fists as well as they could given the way every tiny joint felt weak and numb, and beat Adrian futilely on the chest.
"Why don't you just say it, we all know what you're thinking - !"
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 19:20:16 GMT -5
He grabbed Adrien by the shoulder and began nearly dragging him toward the bathroom.
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:21:16 GMT -5
Adrien clung to his arm and his side and begged him not to go and leave him, sobbing.
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 19:22:49 GMT -5
"Two hours," he said. "I'll be back in two hours. And if you're not still here-"
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:24:28 GMT -5
"Please please please, let me go with you, or - Stay! stay, please, please, Adrian - "
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 19:33:12 GMT -5
"Two hours," he repeated, before putting Adrien on one side of the threshold, himself on the other, and then closing the door between them.
As soon as it was shut, he held it fast and pulled a small hooked piece of metal that had been set on the tiny ledge of the threshold and used it to lock the door from the outside.
He stood there for a long moment afterward, breathing heavily, and slowly leaned against the wall, shutting his eyes as if he were in real, physical pain, before straightening up, pushing his hair back, and leaving the office.
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 19:40:15 GMT -5
Once he realized what had happened Adrien grabbed the doorknob and tugged at it frantically.
"Ohnoohnoonoohno - "
He banged on the door with both fists, pleading with him to come back and calling his name, these words quickly dissolving into little more than weak, tragic tears. His knees buckled, and his hands slid down the door as he sank onto them, where he started, again, slapping the door very weakly, the sound very muffled.
"C-come back," he repeated in a small, breathless, choked voice. "Comebackcomebackcome..."
He pulled his arms tightly around himself and bowed his head until it hit the door. Where moments before the doorframe had rattled, he was now exhausted, and it would be more than possible for someone having a perfectly normal conversation in Adrian's office to not be able to hear the boy's weak weeping from behind that door.
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 20:06:40 GMT -5
In spite of his automatic smile and standard warm greeting, Adrian was met in the conference room by a few inquiries after his health. He shrugged them off, smiled wider, and went back to business as soon as possible. In the back of his mind, however, there was a definite sense of dread rising up and, if not actually threatening his concentration, at least demanding part of it. It now seemed obvious that leaving a clearly hysterical boy in girl's clothes sobbing in the bathroom had been cruel at least and dangerous at worst.
After the meeting concluded (he had secured a contract with a chain of ski resorts in Colorado to allow them to each include a Veidt Sportswear shop as part of their hotel amenities) he excused himself rather faster than normal to hurry and get Adrien something to eat from the employee commissary, and returned to his office balancing a tray atop Adrien's discarded clothes.
A few employees had seen him, and thought to stop him, but then obeyed the unspoken rule that Adrian Veidt was rich enough to be entitled to whatever eccentricity he chose.
He shifted his load to one arm and finally unlocked the door again, almost tentatively. "Adrien?"
|
|
|
Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 20:10:44 GMT -5
Adrien had spent a very long time crying against the door, then letting that subsde, and then more time in terrible fear, banging on it again and trying the doorknob again. After this he had stumbled backwards, crumpled, hit his head in misery against the sink twice, and then sank down to the floor again.
That was how he stayed until Adrian's return.
He inhaled so sharply it was as though his lungs were sucking in breath without his body allowing it first, and then his breath broke in a gasp, but he turned his head, eyes still faintly teary, makeup all quite smeared over his cheekbones, darkly luminous, to peer in the direction of the door. His hair was in disarray, but it didn't hide the bruising on the upper left part of his forehead.
|
|