A Slice of Life

Character Introduction: Aleksei Popov

The weather outside was awful. Downpours, gusts of wind, and there had even been the occasional hail throughout the day. But that didn't stop the laughter coming from a group of young men on the corner of the street. They were jumping in the puddles like six-year-olds, while passerby dodged around them with wrinkled noses.

Aleksei watched from his seat at the window of Tony's Pizza Hub, glad to actually be inside for a few minutes. His pants were still soaked from the last rainstorm, and Tony's was warm. It had Italian opera quietly playing in the background, and it was better decorated than most takeouts with wooden furniture and some fake crystal chandeliers.

The owners tried hard to fight the image that their pizza was just greasy fast-food, with little success. Mostly because it was just greasy fast-food. Plus, in the club district the customers after eight were mostly either drunk or on their way to get drunk anyway. Nevertheless, Aleksei liked picking up orders from Tony's. While the pizzas were being prepared, he could look at people sauntering, and sometimes stumbling, in and out of the clubs.

Occasionally, he got an interesting view.

Aleksei's gaze lingered on one of the puddle-jumping guys. He was tall with dark hair, and each time he jumped slightly higher than his friends before splashing into a puddle with a wide smile.

"Aleksei!"

Aeng planted himself in the seat next to Aleksei, making the latter's eyes shoot to him.

"The orders are almost done," Aeng said with a pearly smile. "We have a bunch going to that area next to the station with all the companies and stuff, and one to the north. The big villa houses. Which one do you want?"

Aleksei shrugged. "Don't care. I'll take the villas."

"Yeah, do take the one to the villas," Joey meddled himself in the conversation from behind the counter. "They're loaded. They should tip well."

Lily, who was sprinkling cheese on a pizza next to Joey, chuckled. "No. They got rich because they don't tip well. Don't expect too much from ScroogyMcScrooge."

Aeng and Joey snorted. Aleksei replied with another shrug, not sure what to add to their banter since he had no clue who or what 'ScroogyMcScrooge' was. Instead, he dipped his head and checked the list of addresses before picking up the pizza boxes.

Fuck his life. It'd started pouring again outside. Not even his raincoat was ready for these amounts of water.

The cold wind made Aleksei shiver, and as he walked to his bike he caught a glimpse of the attractive dark-haired boy again. His friends were gone. He had his arms around a girl now, and she giggled between small kisses. 

Figures. Like he'd ever have the sheer luck that a guy he spotted in the street would be gay, too.

Aleksei averted his eyes with a sigh, loaded the pizza boxes into the larger delivery container, and got on his bike.