Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) Page 7

  Still, the sofa was lumpy, and built in such a way that the cushions hit him with a seam right in the lower back. He did have the pillow from his bed, since he normally had two of them which he traded off. It was, he figured, the kind of thing that happened when you had guests. You took only one of the comfortable sleeping aids, and left the rest for them, even if they didn't need it. It meant getting up late though, for him.

  Without enough sleep too. Not good quality rest. He wasn't stiff or sore in any case, which was good. It would have sucked to get up at five-thirty and have a sore neck.

  He moved quietly, since his mother was asleep for certain. Tara, when he looked in on her, was dead, on his bed. Lying flat and unmoving. It was eerie, and not all that attractive. That was a bit of a surprise, since given his total lack of history with having a woman alone for any length of time, Ty would have figured that he'd be more into at least staring at her like a freak.

  Instead he was actually kind of nervous about it. Not that the woman, who looked to be in her early twenties right now and was probably a lot older than his mother was, had done anything wrong. It just turned out that suggestions from Ginger the day before aside, he wasn't that into molesting corpses.

  "Good to know." That was muttered, but sounded happy enough.

  It took a bit to really get ready, since he realized that he needed to take a full day of supplies with him, which meant carrying it all on a run. That meant he needed his comb, a towel, the clothing he was wearing that day, food and water. Because he didn't really want to smell like banana all day, that meant wrapping the fruit he was taking up in a large black plastic garbage bag.

  His clothing went in another one, since having it soaked with sweat wasn't going to help him. It meant, after hurrying a bit and feeling a bit like warmed over crap, that he was able to get out of the house at about six.

  It was fifteen miles to Westfield, and because he was him, instead of a normal person, that meant going carefully, trying to keep an eye out for trouble, and measuring his pace. Ty controlled where his feet went, and didn't over extend at all as he moved, his soles hitting directly in the center. They weren't really picked up much either, giving him a very smooth quality that a lot of people would have probably described as shuffling.

  It was efficient, and if not very fast, let him keep going over a distance that most wouldn't have made. This was a bit farther than he normally went, so he was feeling decent about himself as he got to the mall. Enough so that he went to the central entrance, rather than the one closest to him. The large wooden overhang that covered the glass doors looked nice, though it had fish carvings in it. He'd never been that big on fish, as decorations. It wasn't a deal breaker for him in life, but he much preferred the owl decor in the node transportation area.

  In the store there was no one visible when he got in, even though it was kind of late already. Before nine, but just a bit. That meant hurrying into the back, where the showers were kept. There were three of them, and none were in use yet, so he took the closest one to the door. It was open on one side, not having any way to close it. No curtain or anything. The white and blue tile wrapped around however, so that no one could just see in, which was probably safe enough. After all, he didn't really care if anyone saw him naked.

  Ty might be a bit thin, but he was also lean, which meant he had good abs.

  It wasn't a point anyway, and ten minutes of rapid scrubbing later he was able to find the sign in cards, which were over to the side along the wall on his left when he faced the front. There was a fridge in the back too, along with a single wooden rolling book cart that needed to be emptied. They'd had more than that, but the rest had already been taken care of.

  He hit the floor hard, sweeping first thing, since the wooden tile floor needed to be cared for constantly. It was clean, but there was dust to be removed, even after a single night. Then there was store straightening, and getting the last cart in the back onto the shelves.

  People did come in, even if it was early, but almost none of them even pretended to look at books. No, they made a straight line for the cafe in the back. The smell from the place made him hungry. Oh, he only ate fruit and veggies, with a bit of whole grain, like rice or bulgur wheat, as a rule. Eggs too, on occasion, though not often. That didn't mean his nose was broken. He could see why people wanted to eat there.

  It wasn't a lot of people, but over the course of about an hour, ten or so came in. Four of them were men and women that he could tell were Alede. They all leaked sex, lust and desire constantly. Interestingly, they all ate, too. He'd kind of thought they only fed off of sex energy.

  One of them, a very good looking man in a suit that was perfectly fitting, came up to him when he was finished with his delectable meal.

  "Tyler! You're here early. How are things going? Settling in all right?" There was a gleam to the man's eyes, and he seemed to be teasing him for some reason.

  Probably because Alede could change gender, and they'd met the day before. The guy didn't look like any of the women. He had black hair, and pale white skin. Other than that and looking like a male model if they were perfect, there was no way to tell which he was. So Tyler didn't guess.

  He put his hand out to shake though, because they were both men and it was a professional setting.

  "Hi! Um, which one are you?" It was rude sounding, or could have been, but it turned out he was right.

  The man winked at him and gave a single dry pump to his hand. Professional rather than slutty.

  "Rob. I was Roberta last night. Not a bad call, realizing that we've met. Anyway, early in the day I work over at the Alede embassy. Pretty Plus, across the way? If you get a chance you should visit us over there later. Believe it or not, we can use some help, on occasion, from someone that isn't going to need to run off and have sex six times a day. You'll want to talk to Valerie, if you can't find me."

  It was actually a nice offer, so Ty smiled. He felt uneasy as hell around the female Alede, but Rob here wasn't battering him too badly. It was a little bit odd, really. He was at least as attractive as a man after all. The difference wasn't coming from inside himself then, but rather from the person in front of him.

  "That sounds like an idea, if I ever get the time? What kind of things do you need done?" Rather than go into sexual positions, the man pulled his hand back all the way, as he thought for a moment.

  "A lot of it is working with certain members of the public. We can control ourselves, most of the time, but on rare occasion, say dealing with local officials, or some of the other groups, being us is a detriment. For instance, the Trollienkeine can barely stand us. It's a scent thing, and not one we can really control for them."

  That got him to nod.

  "Oh. I don't know what that kind of person is."

  "Trollienkeine? The power lifting gym folk. Basically they're bigfoot, more or less. If you look closely you'll see that they all have to shave off most of their body hair, daily. Really, it's a bit of a shame that they aren't wild about my people. I mean, could you imagine playing your hands over..." Then the man stopped and winked again.

  The whole thing was a bit overdone.

  "So things do come up like that. As a Human you're kind of a free agent here. A neutral party. That means you can do things like that, which might be hard if one of the other groups has to be called in."

  Tyler didn't agree instantly, in case it was a trick or trap, but he couldn't imagine what that would be.

  Which was the point. Polite, and careful, seemed to be the watchwords for the day, as far as he could tell.

  "I'll look into it? That's nice of you to offer, thanks."

  That got him a pat on the arm that was clearly a bit of a come on, unless he was just so backward he couldn't tell the difference between that kind of thing and being normally friendly. He was shy though, not autistic. That being the case he made a point of smiling at the man, as he watched him walk away. That meant staring at his rather tight looking ass, which had him thinking abo
ut having sex with it.

  "So, at least bi." He muttered that just as another of those people, this Alede being female and familiar walking by without comment. Oh, she looked at him, so he recognized her as Ivy from the day before, and while she was dressed in work clothing, it was all tight in the right place. He noticed that too. "Definitely not gay."

  Then, he decided, shaking his head a bit that paying attention to what everyone had told him before was a good idea. It could be really easy to let himself do nothing but be preoccupied with sex at the bookstore. That didn't get the work done.

  Not that it was all that hard after that. He seemed to be nearly alone in the shop itself, and hadn't seen a coworker yet. He had made one whole sale by himself, for a woman that wanted a magazine about cakes. Other than that, he cleaned. At eleven, to his surprise, Kait came in, looking a bit nerdy, in a way that was far too sexy to actually count if you were paying attention.

  Really, for all that she was clearly dressed down, and trying to not be a sex goddess at the moment, she failed. Pulling his mind away, he waved to her, which got a shining smile.

  "Ty! You came back. Excellent. I wasn't sure. I thought you might be offended by us." There was a wave at herself then, as if she might be the cause of him running away in terror.

  It might be a good plan, but it was probably too hard to get done, fleeing from her like that. He felt drawn, to tell the truth. Like he wanted to touch her. It took an act of will to fight the feeling off. That happened with a laugh.

  "Nope. I'm trying to be good and put work first, that's all. I do appreciate you helping out, by not..." He waved and smiled, not even blushing at her too much. It occurred to him that he had no way to describe what he was getting at.

  The woman did, and her smile gleamed at him.

  "For not stripping you of free will?"

  Making a considering face, he nodded at her.

  "That would be it. Yes. So, thanks for the support that way?"

  She started to move in, to hug him, he thought, but held off, her eyes going a bit wide.

  "It's brutally hard for us. Everything we do is wrapped up in sex. It takes a level of mastery not to do that kind of thing that is really rare, actually. We're... The people at our embassy, are better at it than most. It does help if we can have sex regularly. This place is good that way. Especially since we came out. That was frightening. We kind of thought that we might all be killed, but people just want to have sex, which is a good thing for us." The girl seemed chatty, and looked around at the empty store. "It will really start at about noon. Are we switching off rooms for cleaning like yesterday?"

  Tyler took a second to think, and then nodded. It was a lot of work, trying to get that done constantly, but letting the rooms smell like sex booths at a porn theater wasn't a great thing, as far as he was concerned. Not that he'd been to a place like that. Luckily he was well read, so had a clue that things like that existed.

  "That's the plan. So, what am I supposed to be doing that I'm not? Clerking, stocking, and sex room tidying..." He glanced around, thinking he was doing well, but the girl patted his arm, sending a thrill of desire for her down it. It made him stiffen in his pants, and glare at her a bit. Playfully. She did pull her hand back suddenly.

  "Oops. Sorry about that. Have you talked to Palma yet? She probably doesn't need help, but it never hurts to ask. Other than that, and keeping an eye out for people that come here, when they actually want node travel services next door, that's about it." Then she looked up, since a man walked into the store. They locked eyes, and without speaking to boring old him anymore, the freakishly hot woman drifted from behind the counter.

  It wasn't even a fight, getting the man to go with her to one of the reading rooms off to the side. Not a conversation either. She just walked up, said no more than ten words, and took his hand. Tyler could see that one happening, so wasn't too shocked about it. If she'd walked up to him in almost any situation and done the same thing, he'd have gone with her too. Not having a lot to do, he headed toward the back, in case the woman there, Palma, actually had something she needed.

  He approached the back counter, his face hesitant as he regarded the white clad and curly haired lady there. She was a bit blocky, but didn't seem fat, just cut kind of square.

  "How may I help you today, sir?" Her voice was firm, and deferential at the same time. Her hands though, were amazing. She was talking to him, but kept working the whole time, never stopping or wasting any motion. Just flowing from one thing to the next, perfectly. It wasn't super speed, but it was a thing that he tried to strive for in his martial arts practice. So far he hadn't made it.

  This lady had.

  "I was wondering if you needed anything? I'm supposed to help you, if I can?" Zack had mentioned something like that, he thought.

  "Oh? Wonderful! I'm fine for the moment, but this crowd will thin out in about twenty-three minutes. If you could sweep and mop out here? That will leave me to simply get ready for the lunch crowd." She gestured at the area that tables and chairs were set up in. They were all white, and the tables were glass topped. Crumbs and messes showed in a few places.

  "I can wipe the tables down, too. If I get a chance?"

  The lady smiled at him like he'd invented being polite.

  "Perfect, love! The rags are over here, behind the counter."

  He took that as meaning he needed to do that right then, so got to work, moving quickly and trying to copy the flow that Palma had. Tyler thought that the trick was in making a point to pay attention all the time. That and not letting himself stop to think, planning out what came next while actually moving.

  Really, it had two main effects, the first was that he got more done, in a shorter time period. The second was that, the woman behind the serving counter seemed to understand what he was doing and smiled. Then loaded him with more work.

  It was just running a full tray of food over to Zack though, who was in his office in the owl room. The tray was brown, plastic and had a cork like lining to it, and was filled with pastries of a dozen different sorts. Heaped high enough that it was work not to drop any. Still he managed it, settling the thing on the desk in the back. It got a large smile from his cute boss.

  "Hey Ty. I have a set of things coming in starting at one-fifteen. You need to take off and see Ginger and Calley at noon so I'll come out and handle the sales floor. Hiram has today off, but Ben will be in to take over at six." Then he started eating instantly. It was an almost frantic thing too, like he couldn't stuff enough into his face.

  "Thanks. I need to go clean the cafe area right now. Unless someone comes in, I mean."

  "Remember to put out the wet floor signs when you mop. People are always looking for way to sue places like this."

  It was a point, and one that even his mom had mentioned a few times. There was a whole group of people in the world that just went around trying to find ways to get free money from people. Not that he didn't understand the idea, but faking being injured to do it seemed low.

  He tried to move from where he was over to the supply closet smoothly, and got the floor swept before anyone came into the store. When that happened it was a woman, and while she waved at Kait, she just glanced at books for a bit, rather than escaping to the side room with her. At first he wondered if she were an Alede, since she had that nearly unreal air about her, but the long haired woman, who was good looking enough for that, didn't seem concerned with anything except what she was doing. That meant he had time to mop, being that the area wasn't very large, after getting the yellow folding caution signs out. There was no one in the cafe area, just like Palma had said would happen. When too. Twenty-three minutes almost exactly like she'd said.

  Hustling to put the mop and bucket in the back closet, he hurried over to the woman, and tried really hard to forget that she was one. Tyler was at work, and blushing nervously wasn't exactly going to help him in life. The golden blonde, who had a bit of curl to her hair, looked up as he approached.

  "H
i! Are you finding everything all right today?" It was what clerks in stores said, so he didn't need training for it.

  The woman, who looked no more than a year or two older than he was at most, smiled.

  "I'm good for now. I'm waiting for Zack to get out here, actually. I have some things for him to do while he works." There was a brushing at her hair, which couldn't have actually been in the way being held back like it was. So it was either affectation, or habit.

  It was a funny thing to say, too. Things for him to do. Like she was his boss, or possibly wife. There had been no mention of anything like that, but Tyler could see it. The lady in front of him was easily good looking enough to get someone like Zack.

  Rather than just guess, he asked.

  "You have things for him to do while he works? That's different, isn't it?"

  "Oh, sure. It's just some basic magical patterns I want him to hold while he's not Line Walking. I'm his mentor. Also his Aunt, in case that comes up? Darla Gibson." She put her hand out to shake, which he took instantly. Rather than smile again, the woman tilted her head a little bit, as if she were suddenly curious.

  Then she surprised him a lot.

  "You know, we should get together later. For now, I think you should start a notebook, and keep track of everything you're learning. It might help you out, later. You have a unique perspective. At least you can if you keep paying attention and apply yourself. Not that you have to do what I say, but a good idea is a good idea, don't you think?" Then she let go of him, and didn't wait for a reply.

  That was because Zack was coming out of the owl door, which Tyler realized, meant it was near his own lunch time.

  Without a word, he went to the back and ate three pieces of fruit, two bananas and a pear, then washed up and headed toward the front of the store at a quick march. He didn't know where he was supposed to find the girls he needed really, even if he knew where they both worked. It could be his job to collect them, and if they were leaving the mall, it might take them a while. Zack had made a point of telling him that he'd be needed at one-fifteen, if not slightly before that, so there wasn't a lot of time to waste.