Out Of Our Comfort Zone (Winter)

[Deleted]

Backdated to mid June

"What do you think of this, Win?" Zach asked of his friend. He held up an atrocious hawaiian shirt(not that he could tell, he was fashion retarded) to his chest and turned to the person who'd accompanied him on this little hell-of-a-trip to the mall. To buy a hawaiian shirt? Let's back up.

So it was summer vacation, both at the university and at Hammel. Well, Hammel hadn't broken out for vacation quite yet, though it would in about a week or so. That meant that Kai and Zach would be free to spend their hot summer month doing as they wished. Together. Alone. As opposed to last year, when they attempted a group camping trip with Kai's sister and her friends, along with Vanessa, the mother of Kai's son of 3 years, Christian. What a disaster that had been!

Then again....that was the starting point of Zach and Kai getting back together....and for that, Zach was happy. They probably wouldn't be planning this vacation together if not for that debacle.

But anyway, Kai arranged for the two of them to go on a cruise in the Bahamas, and in preparation for this trip, Kai had also given Zach a pocketbook of spending money to go and buy himself a wardrobe for the occasion...because apparently whatever Zach had in his closet already was too 'beach bum' for such a swaggy occasion. Jerk. Him and the rest of his blue-blooded socialites.

So since Zach had zero fashion sense, and Kai wasn't there to pick stuff out for him - he was engrossed in some big research thing at Hammel, could barely make time to send him a '143' in a text. Sigh, oh well - Zach had asked his good friend Winter Rowley to accompany him to the mall and help him pick out some cruise appropriate wear. Though....Zach really should have known better, this was like the blind leading the blind so far...

"Hey! Winter!" he said a little louder to his slightly distracted friend. Zach scowled slightly. "Have you listened to a word I've said?" he asked blankly.

[Winter Rowley]

It seemed to be summer vacation for everyone in Winter Rowley’s life except Winter. It was just summer for Winter; he worked through every season, rain or shine or snow, and things ran together after a while. He did have weekends off, but even those seemed to be full of activity lately. Case in point: there he stood, tall and surly and dressed in all black against a sea of vibrant seasonal color, flicking through supposedly fashionable clothing in one of the mall’s swankier department stores. He hadn’t had the heart to turn down Zach’s last-minute plea for help; he was doggedly loyal, for all the good it had ever done him or anyone else.

He paused to consider a tropical-themed tank top, which featured a geometric pineapple on the front and was such an offensively bright shade of orange that he felt compelled to squint. He rifled around in the fabric for the price tag—forty-five dollars!—and quickly resumed his browsing, looking disgusted.

He realized, then, that his friend had been talking to him. He wasn’t accustomed to listening for his first name—Zach was on a very short list of people who were allowed to use it without consequence.

“Hnn?” he said, absently. “No. Sorry. I was distracted by this—” he motioned vaguely to the rejected tank top, “—overpriced eye-burning pineapple bullshit.”

He shifted his weight so that he could better examine the Hawaiian shirt that was pending his approval. Winter studied the pattern critically, to no avail; all Hawaiian shirts looked the same to him.

“Er,” he said. “Yeah… that looks… I mean, you can wear it on the cruise, and then save it until you turn seventy-five and retire to Florida.”

[Deleted]

If anyone asked him, and Winter would no-doubt knew this, Zach would have to say that he hated summer. There were a variety of reasons behind that. The first was that there was nothing to do. He was a university student, yes, but even when in high school, Zach preferred to keep himself occupied with his studies. The second was because the idea of summer had been tainted by the concept of family, due to the family trip to their summer home every year. He couldn’t think of one without thinking of the other, and there were more than a few years that he wished he could just stay home(luckily, he was old enough that he didn’t have to put up with that crap anymore). The third had to do with money. The span between the beginning of May to the end of August was nearly three months, and he had to make whatever money he had left from spring last through the summer until financial aid was distributed the week school started. Zach only made so much from his job. Since he wasn’t busy, the no-brainer was to go out and do things, but without money, that left him vegitating on the couch with a can of RC cola. Not that he minded that, but Zach did like the option of leaving the house when he felt like it, no matter how rare it was.

Kai was a person who liked to do things. Zach should’ve guessed that he’d want to do these things once their time had freed up. Unfortunately, Kai’s idea of ‘going out’ was vastly different from Zach’s. Were it not for that guy, Zach wouldn’t have had to bother his friend Winter by making him come out into the sunlight. The both of them tried that once, in high school. Sunlight didn’t suit them.

Just like this whole line of Hawaiian shirts didn’t suit either of them as well. Zach made an equally disgusted face at that ‘eye burning pineapple bullshit’. “That thing…who wears that anyway?” They put it out there obviously because someone thought it was good enough to wear. He looked around. “….who wears any of this shit?” he asked, looking at the only half-terrible shirt he’d picked out. Rich people. Rich people who could afford to look like a box of miss-matched crayons.

Zach’s eyes glazed over at Winter’s answer, his lips occupying their usual level of scowl. “Your enthusiasm is…toxic. Try not to hurt yourself handing out those compliments.” Zach put the shirt back, rolling his eyes. “Maybe we should try somewhere else….?” Though all summer/cruise clothing looked the same to him, what was really the difference from one store to the next?

Zach smirked. “Hey….this is you, don’t you think?” Zach pulled out another terribly patterned shirt and held it out against his friend. “Neon pink is totally your color,” he said. There was an attempt at a California Valley Girl voice in there, but it was awkward and failed miserably.