New York's Present

[Charlie]

Penelope

Name: Penelope McFaller (Penny)
Age: 20

She pressed the pages on her diary closed and let out an exasperated sigh when pressing her head back against the frame of her window. Her body was amidst many cushions of sorts, and wrapped tightly in a fleecy blanket due to the sudden chill the evening had taken. Shrills of rain were tenderly lacing their way through the sound waves and cradling her body to relaxation. Momentarily did her head twist to look outside of the double glazing to the streets settled at the bottom of her block. After onlooking the people below her rushing through the rain with newspapers for shelter she chose to pull herself away from the dismal sight and walked over to the canvas propped up right on her easel. Still blank.

There was no muse, no spark of interest in any sort of creation. Her hands wavered along her pallet of colours, dried onto the surface of the pine wood surface. Wiggling her fingertips and shaking her head she turned away from it all and shrugged the fleece off from around her body, replacing it with her waterproof parker coat. She took one look to the window, a storm had started to brew. "Perhaps this is the sort of inspiration I need.." With a swing of her arm to throw open the door, she locked it behind herself and started making her way down to the doors of her block. The lift with it's emergency tape glinted with the flicker of the hallways light which had been crying after a new bulb for weeks now, she was surprised it hadn't gone dead yet.

The walk down seemed more drawn out than usual, she passed the graffiti absent mindedly. The amount of times she'd seen the words, "Thwait Block Boys" were uncountable. Popping in her headphones and pressing play on her iPod had become so familiar to her she could do it with her eyes closed. She came to the ground floor and paused before walking out of the main doors, only to fix her hood before she walked out into the harsh pouring rain. Making her way towards the park.

 

[Vbx.n]

Riley. The one thing Riley loved more than anything else. He watched the rain from the sky all the way until it made its way to the ground. It made him feel relived and the say seemed to move a lot quicker because of it. Throwing over his hoodie and then grabbing his keys from his dresser and then his cellphone, Riley made his way downstairs and out the apartment. His best friend was fast asleep on the couch with re-runs of Tom and Jerry playing on the television. When he turned nineteen he moved out of the house to be closer to his college and experience the world for how it really was besides be cradled up inside his parents house. Being how he was only 20 on the verge of 21 in a few weeks he wanted to be free. Just like the rain.

Riley walked out the building and then looked around watching people run to catch cabs, others were strolling with umbrellas and then there was some just strolling down the block. He shoved his hands into his pocket looking out onto the busy half empty street. Riley knew that he should be studying for his upcoming test that he had but he was in no mood to do it and like always he'd wait until the last minute to do it.

The cars whizzed past him and honked as he slowly strolled down the street. There was no hurry for him unlike the other people around him who looked like everything was a rush. The sky was a grayish blue and he adjusted the hoodie over his head before stopping dead in his tracks and looking at the park. Of course it was empty for the most part except for the joggers who had nothing on but a raincoat and running shoes and shorts and then the people who just chatted to friends under the umbrella.

Riley parted his lips and then looked upward as he felt a few shuttle drops reach his face. The cool feeling ran through his body only for a moment and then he stared back at the park deciding on weather or not he was going to go through. After debating for a bout three minutes he turned suddenly and then paused realizing that he was jus inches away from crashing into someone. A woman.

He took a few steps back and then gave the girl a weary smile before walking into the park. No doubt thinking about how dumb he'd look if he actually did walk into her.

 

[Charlie]

Penny's collar ruffled against her neck as the occasional heavy wind bristled against her figure - the wind causing her to waver momentarily in her step. Occasionally did her head rise to glance at the distance between her feet and the middle of the road which traffic was built up on. Other than that, her head was held down to focus on where she was planting her feet. Bopping her head to the beat of Massive Attack - Teardrop in her headphones, her shoulders firmly haunched up to either side of her head. She tensed all her upper body up to aid with the cold air that kissed her bare cheeks. Passing heavy blows of air through her pursed lips.

Her nose flared at the sweet smell of the patisserie she past, and then was instantly brought back to realisation when her body came into impact with another figure. It took her a few moment to take into account just what happened when she realised she'd been so distracted that she walked directly into a young man. She blinked and then politely smiled to reflect her apologised, and begun to bypass him to achieve a point of reaching her destination. 'Eye on the ball!' She internally said to herself in an almost self-degrading manner. Making her way further down the road she decided to bring her head up to look where she was going this time, taking a side gate into the gardens of Oak Ring park.

The flowers were beautiful around this area of the gardens, but nature was not what she enjoyed painting. She went for an abstract approach of gathering a story from the atmosphere, and tried to picture that in her mind with the aid of her subconscious for images. Most of her art to people appeared to be a blur of water colour images that didn't make any sense, but to Penelope they were so much more. When she looked at her paintings she could see the moment she captured, the people in her presence, the encounters that her feet had with the grass and gravel of the area. At this current moment a crash of thunder blew the meaningful 'artsy-fartsy' thoughts from her head and even made her jump a little bit.

Perhaps her raincoat wasn't the best choice for such a harsh storm..