alone together

III

'Old eyes meeting new. Meaning that it is in my responsibility to enlighten.'

Upon entrance of the house, he got a clearer view of the bright interior. Pale blue walls the color of the sky complimenting olive green furniture. Poe gazed over the room pausing in his tracks. The other let go of his hand as Poe's eyes set on a strange box machine. He walked over leaning down, thin-framed glasses slipping down his face as he poked at the needle. He laid eyes on a small, black disk. It amazed him, staring at the object starry-eyed.

"Where's the person?" He asked dumbfounded.
The man simply pursed his lips, with a slight tilt of the head. "There isn't one? Why would there be?"
"Because there can't be a voice without someone owning it. Is it yours?"

With each question, Poe would quickly be switching gazes from the machine to the man. With each question, he could see that the other's look became increasingly sympathetic with furrowed brows and a smile pasted from one side of his face to the other. Looking at Poe as if he was some kind of naïve being.

"I mean I wish. But no, that's not mine" He picked up some kind of thin cover and pointed to the bold letters. "That's them."
"But who are they?"
"The people- or rather person singing."
"But where are they? How can I hear them if they're not in front of me?"
He simply shrugged. "I'm not really sure of that part. But I don't really worry about it. It only comes on when I want it to anyways, so it doesn't matter to me"
"But don't you want to know where it's coming from? There has to be a reason for this machine to even be working!"
"There is. It's plugged in? Runs on electricity? Do you know what electricity is?"
"Of course I do" Poe sharply answered once more. He found it embarrassing that their first conversation was over the subject of some outlandish machine. He didn't want to come off as stupid. But had that train already set sail? Poe could see the drop in the other's expression. He didn't like that.

Poe's voice lowered back to a mumble. "What is it?"
"Record player. The disk has music on it, lower the needle and it plays."

Poe flatly hummed in response. It was starting to click reminded of overlooking a brief mention of the item. He just never imagined this being its appearance. Poe didn't imagine a lot of things, he just briefly skimmed over them.

"Do you use it often?"
"At night. Or when it's too silent. It's nice to hear a voice other than your own. I can't stand silence. It's so irritating after so long."
"I'm just the opposite." Poe admitted, a sheepish chuckle accompanying it.
"You don't like the sound of my voice?"
"No! Your voice is nice, different than I imagined- which is perfectly fine. I'm honestly surprised that you even acknowledged me."
"You understand that was a joke, right?" His stale tone being enough to cut Poe's lengthy explanation short.

Poe casually clicked his tongue. "Yeah. But an explanation is still good to give." he was aware from the other's expression that he wasn't buying it.

"You're very stale. Did you know that?"

His brows subtly meshed. What did that mean? Was that an insult? He had said it in such a casually so maybe not? Or maybe so? "What's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me boring?"
"No, just foreign. Awkward"

Poe could feel the heat rise to his face and cheeks. A different type of embarrassment overtake. Much different than the feeling of short morning gazes. An embarrassment putting subtle rose tints under hazelnut colored cheeks.

"You're no better yourself! You don't have to be this blunt, you should know this, just leave it in the air."
"Then how come you didn't leave that comment in the air?"
"I'm making a point"
"But if that point was any good you wouldn't have to do the exact thing I did. You wouldn't have to pull that comment out of the air if it was already established."

Poe's nose and expression crinkled, you would expect this reaction to some kind of bad smell in the air but that wasn't the case.

This was not how it went in his head. This was not how it was supported to play out. The stranger wasn't supposed to be this stuck up.
"Is this all you wanted to show me? I'm kinda busy." That was a lie, well more of an exaggeration. Which was partly the truth- just blown out of proportion. He didn't seem to catch it surprisingly. As the man mumbled a small 'oh'.

"That's all I wanted. Erm- I didn't know you were busy. Sorry."