Past the Guard

Stateside Diner

Paxton paces the hall outside of Rylins apartment the next morning. He wants desperately to apologize to her, even though he doesn't know why he wants to. He has been nervously walking in the hall for nearly an hour before he has the courage to knock. He waits while he hears footsteps approaching the door and then the lock clicking opened. When the door opens, Paxton is met with not Rylin, but a boy. He has black hair and brown eyes, a bruise purplish on his cheek. He wears only a pair of jeans that are slung low on his waist. 

To Paxton, the boy screams trouble. He rubs his eyes while he stands in the doorway, his bare chest displayed for all to see. "Uhm." Is all Paxton can say. He is dumbstruck. Did Rylin and this boy... He glances up when he hears more footsteps, looking over the boys shoulder. 

"Who is it Titan?" It's Rylins voice, Paxton knows, but it is also fraught with emotion as though she had been crying all night. Paxton immediately feels a pang of guilt in his heart. He knows he is the one who caused her to cry. The boy, whose name is Titan glances behind him. 

Rylin is at the door then, and she freezes as soon as she sees him. "Nobody important, I see." She says to Titan, completely ignoring Paxton. "Go away." She then turns and walks back into the apartment with Paxton staring after her, guilt clouding his thoughts. He doesn't even know why she was so hurt by it, it was only a question, and he was a cop. He was supposed to dig into people, help them if he could. He didn't understand why Rylin didn't want his help. 

Titan glances at Paxton with a shrug and then closes the door, leaving the older police officer standing alone in the hallway of a crappy apartment building. 

**

Rylin glances at Titan from the corner of her eye. They are sitting in 3rd hour, which is their Sci-fi class. Titan is leaning back in his chair and staring up at the ceiling. When they got to school that morning, he had evaded Jared and Lyla's questions about his beat up face. He and Rylin had ridden to school together. 

Halfway through class, when Ms. Potter gave them free time to read their assigned book, Divergent, Titan approached Rylin. "Hey." He said pulling a chair over and sitting in it backwards. 

"Hey," Rylin responded, hiding a small smile. 

Titan smiled back at me. "Wanna go somewhere with me?" He asked. Rylins face flushed, and Titan was quick to edit his words. "Somewhere public with no closed doors." They both laughed. 

"Uh, yeah. When?" Titans smile widened and he grabbed her arm. "Now." He pulled her up out of her seat and they ran out the door, ignoring Ms. Potters voice yelling after them. Titan pulled Rylin out through the nearest exit and they ran together down the street until the school was out of sight. 

"Where are we going?" Rylin asked laughing and out of breath. Titan only smiled.

"Just follow me." 

They walked a few more blocks before Titan turned into a daycare parking lot. Rylin curiously followed him. He walked right up and went in the door. There was a smiling employee waiting. "Hello, Titan," she greeted, "welcome back." She led them inside and Rylin was met with the view of 12 bright faced preschoolers. 

That was when one of the little trouble makers jumped up and ran at Titan going full speed. "Bubba!" The boy yelled before launching himself into Titans arms. The teenager caught his little brother and swung him around, Rylin saw the first genuine smile she'd ever noticed on his face. When he put the kid down, Titan spoke to Rylin. "Rylin, this is my baby brother Caleb, Caleb, this is a good friend of mine, Rylin." Caleb hid behind Titans leg. 

"Hi, Ry," he said, shortening the girls name and making her smile. 

"Are you checking out?" The caretaker asked holding out a clip board. Titan nodded and grabbed the board, scribbling his signature on the paper before helping Caleb put on his coat. 

The trio ended up going to the park where Rylin had met with Titan the previous night. She watched while Caleb ran around, Titan chasing him and the younger boy squealing with joy every time his older brother caught him. Before long it was getting dark, so they walked back to the school and Rylin drove them home. As Titan was getting out of the truck, he turned and looked at Rylin, "now you know why I stay." With that he gave a sad smile and followed his sibling inside. 

Rylins heart broke for them. 

**

The red truck stopped outside the Stateside Diner and Rylin jumped out before running up the the door. It was late and there was but one customer in the diner. "Can I help you?" A tired looking, middle aged waitress asked. 

Rylin fidgeted. "Yeah, uh, I was hoping I could.. I mean, I saw the help wanted ad, and I wondered if I could get an interview or an application?" She watched the waitress hopefully. The woman stared at her for a few minutes before answering. "Applications are right here."  

And so, Rylin applied for a job at Stateside.