Page 28 of Solo Stan
#CYPHR #TheKindnessProject #LeadWithKindness #SupportTheArts #Raleigh
Elias had always wanted to do one of CYPHR’s famous citywide scavenger hunts. He began feeling around for his wallet. “Let’s pay and get out of here. We need to figure out where the show is before everyone el—” he began, but as he spoke, he noticed Dakarai’s lack of response. Dakarai didn’t make any effort to move. He simply folded his arms, his face remaining neutral.
Elias slowly settled back into his seat, his excitement having dissipated. “You don’t want to go to the show?” he asked, confused. Then he understood. “You do. You just don’t want to go with me.” His inner gentleman took over, and he put his credit card on the table despite insisting earlier that Dakarai be the one to pay. He then leaned back, crossing his arms as well.
“That’s not it,” Dakarai assured him. “I meant it earlier when I said I wasn’t upset with you. It’s me that I’m upset with for falling for it. I always seem to…fall for it. But it’s a habit I’m trying to break.” He quickly looked down to conceal an embarrassed smile. “We’ll be working together, and things got a little weird today, but I think we’re at a point where we can turn back and forget anything happened.”
Elias’s stomach lurched with guilt. This was exactly the sort of person he shouldn’t have led on. That had been obvious when he found Dakarai crying, yet Elias had done it anyway. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t think of what, and the two fell quiet for a moment.
The server came to take Elias’s credit card, and while they waited for her to return, Dakarai busied himself with his phone. Elias had no idea what Dakarai could be doing on that ancient thing—perhaps texting in Morse code.
“Sorry,” he said. “My best friend just landed in California. He’s checking in.”
The best friend again, huh?Elias thought.
They must have been close if they talked this much. Nia was Elias’s best friend, but he couldn’t say that he talked to her by phone once a day, much less twice.
Dakarai had a peculiar way of texting with his left index finger and right thumb, and he silently mouthed every word as he typed it. Each time Elias stared, Dakarai’s eyes met his, causing Elias to quickly look away.
“I still can’t figure out how you do that. It’s wild,” Elias said, rubbing his chest. If he could feel eyes on him, he would have seen Dakarai at the park all those years ago. “How does it feel when people are looking at you?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what it feels like to be stared at.”
Elias drew closer, resting his elbows on the table. “Who stares at me?”
“I don’t know. People,” Dakarai replied, gesturing around indiscriminately.
“Do you?”
The pupils of Dakarai’s eyes quivered slightly before he cleared his throat and said, “I mean, you’re attractive in a certain light,” and paused before he added, “a really dim one.”
Elias gripped the edge of the table and leaned in. “Why did you draw me, then? Tell me the truth this time.”
He would have assumed it was the dimples—those were what everyone always noticed about him—but Dakarai had inexplicably left them out of the sketch.
“I don’t know. I just did,” Dakarai replied.
Elias regarded Dakarai with curiosity. “And what about the first time? That day in the park five years ago.”
“How did you…? I, um.” Dakarai looked up at the ceiling, spinning his earring around before he said, “The way you werewith that little girl was—I don’t know. You were just so gentle with her, and you seemed kind.”
“Gentle? Kind?”Elias repeated with a disbelieving laugh. “No one would agree with you.”
“Maybe you don’t properly show people who you are.”
He really sees the best in others, doesn’t he?Elias thought. If it wasn’t so endearing, it’d be annoying as hell. Dakarai had to have been at least six and half feet tall with a name that got the squiggly red line treatment on Microsoft Word, and yet he made no attempts to blend in. There was no way the world was any kinder to him than it was to Elias, so how did Elias end up like this and Dakarai end up likethat?
“Everyone’s already made their minds up about me,” Elias said, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.
Dakarai’s stare bored into him. “That’s not true.You’rethe one who tried to make up my mind for me.”
The server returned with Elias’s credit card, and the conversation paused until she left again.
“Look,” Elias said, stretching his arms above his head. “You’re right. I’m not the person I was all day today at work. At least I hope I’m not. Just get to know me tonight, and if you still hate me, then we can just be coworkers, no hard feelings. But maybe,” he continued, releasing a deep breath, “if you decide differently, we could be friends? You said you only draw people you want to know better. Well, here’s your chance. I’ve got a phone from this century that can download apps; you’ve got knowledge of this city. Let’s start over—clean slate—and do the scavenger hunt together. I want to know you better too.”
Dakarai tightened his already-folded arms. “You do?”
Elias nodded.
