Angel's Tears - 1. New Guy in Town

I jumped up with a jolt, my hand falling unconsciously to the scar over my heart. A slight tingling spread over the two inch jagged line on my chest as I remembered the events of that day. It was such a long time ago but I can still count the wrinkles on the old bastards face, the sun spots on his hands, the hairs left on his head.

I'm 22 years old now and living on my own in a small town in Ohio. Its rough going but I manage. I try to avoid churches for obvious reasons but they always seem to come knocking at my door.

Of course I politely ask them to leave.

Its strange, not knowing anyone. For me at least. I'm a very personable type of man. I normally LOVE to talk to people and make nice. That just seems hard to do here. I've been here for about 4 months and the only people I know are the ones that interviewed me for a job. And of course that's nowhere near the same as KNOWING someone.

I've spent a lot of time trying to find a job. Not much out there right now I suppose. Though I'm hopeful for the place I'm trying today.

Sitting here in just my tight fitting boxers and my hair in a tail, and I'm sweating up a storm. Its turning out to be a sweltering summer this year and I'm not used to Ohio climate. I'm getting ready for a nice cool morning shower and my door bell rings.

I contemplate putting on some pants or at least a towel but I change my mind. Just in case its another church-goer, I decided to not go to that trouble and hopefully make them uncomfortable enough to leave. Yes, I know, spiteful. But I was getting annoyed with these visits.

I opened the door with one hand on my hip and left the other on the door. The faster to slam the door in their face. When I looked up at my visitor, not only did that hand drop away but so did my jaw. He was a beautiful man with short auburn hair and a dark tan; wearing a tight blue shirt and a nice pair of jean shorts, not too baggy and not too short.

He was a man I wanted to drool over and would probably have in my dreams later that night. Instantly I started to stumble over my own tongue.

Finally I said, "Sorry about my less that proper appearance. I was about to hop in the shower,"

"Make sure not to slip. Hopping in water isn't very safe."

So he has a sense of humor too? It's getting better. "Ummm was there something you needed?"

"Oh, right. Name's Aiden. I had noticed you around lately and figured I might come up, introduce myself, and welcome you to town. Didn't mean to interrupt anything, sorry."

"Oh no, its alright man. I'm Phoenix." Ya I changed my name to avoid people from home. "Its nice to meet you."

Here I extended my hand for the polite hand shake. He surprised me by grabbing that hand and pulling me in for a ... hug? I guess it was a hug. He still had my hand and he put it to his chest and wrapped his other arm around me to pat me on the back.

"So what brings you around these parts?" He said after he backed up (but not before I got a good whiff of his delicious cologne) and leaned on my door sill.

"I wanted to be somewhere away from the same old people. Someplace new, ya know?" I leaned against the door in the perfect position to get a good view of his beautiful figure.

"I can feel you there. It's hard living so close to the people I've known all my life. To them I'm still the guy that was fat and awkward in high school." He added emphasis to the fat part with his hands.

"There is no fucking way you were fat or weird. You look like you spend every other day at the gym and you've got a pretty cool personality so far."

"Dude, everyone changes. I was fat, had glasses that were huge, wore baggy clothes, and spent most of my time at a computer." He'd put his fingers around his eyes, make a size comparison with em, and typed on an invisible computer while he was talking. I was beginning to realize he liked to talk with his hands. In a pretty cute way too.

Point number two in his favor.

"Well you look great now. And there isn't anything wrong with staying infront of a computer most of the time. That's what I do. I write, I make photo edits, I do a little bit of web coding, and I've made a few videos. People make a living out of computers."

"Whoa, down boy! Wasn't meaning to make you mad. But I mostly spent my time playing video games and watching videos online. And no not just porn." He started laughing and, man, does he have a cute laugh.

"Nice. I've been known to play a few games too. Not too often though." Then I noticed we were still standing in my doorways chatting away. "How rude of me. I should have invited you in!" I did a quick double take into the living room and decided it wasn't TOO bad of a wreck and stepped back to let him pass by.

"Haha it's alright man." He stepped over the doorway and did a quick spin to check out the place. "Not bad. I've seen people do some strange things to these places. I live almost right below you by the way. I think we are connected by the fire escape."

"That's pretty cool." I looked around the room at my sparse decoration. Old painting I'd done, a few artistic masks in earthy styles, and a lot of phoenix and dragon statuary. "Ya I tried to keep it simple. Haha I don't want to have to repaint the entire place when I move." That's the only problem with renting a place.

"So you like your namesake I see."

"Ya. I have always been obsessed with the concept of flight. Not in planes or anything like that but actual flight with wings. That and the re birthing process through flame is a beautiful concept." I almost said more but I stoped myself mid word. "Sorry I'm rambling."

"Nah it's alright. Its cool to hear what ya think. So what do you do for a living?"

"Well, nothing yet. I'm trying to find a job around here but its hard. Not many places are hiring I guess. Even though several called me in for interviews."

"Not to sound mean but they may have just been wanting to see the new face in town. Everyone pretty much knows everyone here. Sorry."

"It's alright I guess. Understandable I suppose. Maybe that's why I've had about fifty visitors from about every church in town."

"Yup. They will do anything to get a look at ya. Umm did you answer the door like this every time?" He asked pointing to my skimpy boxers.

"Shit. Sorry." I grabbed a pair of shorts from the clean hamper and threw then on. "No I didn't. Though I was hoping if you were another old lady in make you feel awkward and get you to leave. Glad your not."

He started laughing and I started blushing. "I think they would probably try to jump you. You look pretty good."

I thought he might be checking me out but you can never be sure. And in a town like this, its not safe to ask. "Uhh thanks I guess. I try to keep myself fit." In reality I did little to nothing to keep my looks other than bathing and cutting my hair. The less I stand out, the better. But my body seemed to have other ideas.

"Cool, cool. Well I should probably go. Let you get in the shower and such. It was nice meeting you. And I'm right downstairs if you need anything."

I started to walk him to the door and got a nice view of his fine rear end. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well. And I just might. Would be nice to have a friend in this place."

"Ya friends. I'll see you later man."

"See you." We were at the door by now and than he was walking down the hall and I was watching him go. Was it me or were his hips swinging a bit more than normal.

"Uh oh. I'm going to need a cold shower. Sigh." At least I've got a friend now.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Driving up to the building, I thought it was an empty theatre. Run down and crumbling. It was cute in a way; old, rustic. But I wasn't sure what kind of work I would be doing here.

I got out of the car and checked myself in the reflection of the window. I'd tried to dress casual but still business like. A nice pinstripe button up with fit jeans black shoes and a simple silver chain. I even took out my facial jewelry.

I walked to the door, knocked on the door, and waited. I started to feel awkward standing there so I knocked again. This time the door pushed open a little bit at my touch.

"Hello?" I called in, not wanting to just walk in. When no one answered I pushed it open the rest of the way and looked in.

"Is anyone here?" I almost yelled as I slowly stepped over the threshold.

"Hey! Sorry I'm in the back! Come on in," a voice called from off in the building somewhere.

I started walking through the old theatre section of the building. Looking at it, you can see that it was once magnificent. Also, that someone is trying to fix it up. If you look closely, you can even see where the fire started that ruined it. The stage and the wall behind it were both finished and the ceiling didn't look like it was about to collapse.

'The back' turned out to be where the dressing room used to be. Now it was basically an art studio. Standing behind the table was Aiden. He was topless and sweating trying to force a mound of clay to resemble the man standing naked on the stand in front of him. The man sure was a sight to see but my eyes were glued to Aiden.

"Hey! Didn't I meet you yesterday?"

"Oh hey man! Its phoenix right? Didn't realize the boss wanted me to interview you. That's pretty cool."

"So you had no idea? That's cool. Who's the naked dude?"

"Right, sorry. This is John. He's modeling for me today. Making a statue to cast. Calling it 'come hither' maybe." He did have his arm out and his finger crooked with a look on his face that said bang me. "Break time John. Take twenty."

"Whatever man. I'm going out for a burger and a beer."

"Alright. See ya when you get back." He waved his hand in a definite 'get lost' kind of way over his shoulder. Sorry about my less then appropriate appearance and John's."

"Ah sarcasm, I know that language. Haha." I walked toward him arm out waiting for a business like hand shake. I should have known better. He grabbed me in the same way as earlier. "So, are we going into an office or what?"

"Nah, why should we? We don't have one anyways. This is the best we have as you might have noticed on your way in." He wiped sweat off his face and threw the towel on the table, walked over to a small couch, sat down, and beckoned me over to join him.

"Alright. That works." I walked over to the couch and sat down gently. It seemed sturdy enough. "So, what's your first question."

"Those painting on your wall."

"Ya?" He didn't say anything for a bit. "What about them?"

"Are they yours?"

"Well ya I own them. But your asking if I painted them. Yes I did. And I made the masks as well as a few of the statues."

"That's good. That's what I wanted to hear." He certainly was smiling enough to make it seem sincere. "The one right over your couch, the one with the two tigers, explain it to me."

It went on like that for a while. I felt like I had explained every single piece of art in my living room right down to my choice of paint brand by the end.

"Okay, now here's the last question. How are you with nudity? What I mean is, can you be around it and not get personal?"

"Sure I can admire a beautiful body. I actually love nudity. In tasteful concepts I mean. Porn is nice but its not beautiful. Take that model from earlier. John? He's a beautiful man with some good body structure and great lines. He also knows how to pose and is good with expressions."

"Okay. Good analysis again. Just so you know, there is no dating and or sleeping with the models. Just a good measure to be on the safe side." He winked at me. Or was that my imagination? "Now, what are YOUR questions? They are just as important."

"Well the first one is what will I be doing here? Will I be modeling, casting, answering phones, or what?"

"Well you would probably, assuming you get the job, be answering our phones and calling in our appointments, customers, orders, and such. At least to start. I could definitely see you modeling for us some time. And maybe down the road you could be filling some customer orders or doing advertisements. We haven't seen any of your work of that nature yet so who knows. How's that sounding?"

I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open. This sounded like the perfect job. Though I didn't want to sound desperate so I played it down a bit. "Ya that sounds pretty good. All stuff that I can handle."

"Alright. Well, I knew you'd turn out alright. At least your not a pervert. Ha, what's your next question?"

I went through a few boring things like what kinda customer they got and the hours and such. The usual work questions. Then something clicked in me about his questions. "Did you know I would be interviewing here today? I know you said you didn't but they way you asked about my art, it seemed like you saw it for a reason."

"Actually no. Though since I had seen it, I figured I might as well use it. If you hadn't been you, I would have grabbed that portfolio over there and asked you about the works in it. Although it wouldn't have been so personal to you or as real an answer."

"Ah, got it. So then, who's the boss? The one that makes all the decisions?"

"He's in the city. He has some office. I've never been. You might get called there for a second interview or you might get called back here. That is if he likes you. What I need you to do, is take a card from the pile up there and email any pictures you have of your work to him. Include a full body shot as well. Any state of dress or undress."

"Alright. Good thing I just got the net set up at my place." Just the day before to be exact. "Anything else I need to do?"

"That's it. Now get out of here. I have to get back to work and you have a task. Hopefully ill see you here again soon."

"Alright. Ill see you around. And thanks for the opportunity."

"Dude, no need to use the pleasantries with me. The big guy ya, but not on me. We're cool, right?"

"Right. We'll, later dude." I walked out of that place skipping and making plans. I felt amazing. Couldn't wait to see if I got the job and find out who the 'big guy' was.