ACT LIKE STRANGERS ,, gazelle

[TARIQ IBRAHIM ARAIN]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,170,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=vAlign, top][atrb=style, background-color: #eaeaea; margin-top: -20px; border-left: #cdcdcd solid 1px;] [/style][style=width: 138px; padding: 6px; opacity: 0.8; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; border-top: #c0c0c0 dotted 2px;] We make believe I've never seen your face you neither mine And catch my eye don't register a smile

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0px,true][atrb=vAlign, top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i.imgur.com/DfhFz.png);] I SAW YOU AGAIN IT FELT LIKE WE HAD NEVER MET —it's like the sun set in your eyes and never wanted to rise   It felt absolutely surreal. It was such an uncanny stroke of coincidence that a part of Tariq still held out in disbelief, his thoughts whispering that no one would turn up. He had turned up at the agreed cafe fifteen minutes early and he was already on his second cup of coffee. This morning, earliness had seemed like a way of gaining the upper hand of the situation, but all he had succeeded in doing was creating extra time to ruminate. He was still rolling the facts around in his mind, as if trying to gauge the weight of them. She - she as he now knew her to be called, Gazelle Murphy; it was still hard not to think of her as her online username, but then again, her name itself sounded like an online username - lived in Hadley. He tested the phrase out again, as if repetition would make it easier to believe. Gazelle Murphy lived in Hadley. Gazelle Murphy, Hadley. His hands tapped out their restless energy on the sides of his scalding coffee mug, on the edge of the wooden table in front of him. The girl he had been talking to for months online might as well have been living on the other side of the world, and he had probably passed her in the street; walked past her without blinking an eye, without recognising her. She who knew more about him than many of his friends, and he didn't know her from Eve. It was bizarre. No, 'bizarre' didn't cover it. The cafe was quietly busy, as befitting a weekend noon. As befitting this kind of meeting. A public place - wasn't that the first rule? A paperback book lay on the table in front of him in case she really didn't show, but his eyes skidded over the words meaninglessly, unable to take any of them in. He had seen some other Mayview students disappear up to the larger second floor, but the majority of other customers were closer to sixty than sixteen. Tariq's gaze whipped to the door every time it opened, as if it was going to be her. He had grown up in the digital age. Meeting someone in person from the internet was probably commonplace, or at least it was losing its stigma. Hell, his generation had practically been born with a mouse in their hands. Yet somehow, he couldn't quite fathom that a person he had known as text on a screen could be corporeal; the internet made for such a strange separation of mind and body that it was hard to picture them united. Sure, he and Gazelle had traded pictures and spoken on the phone - but it was different to hear a voice mingle with ambient noises in the air rather than echo out of tinny speakers; it was different to see someone in three dimensions instead of a pixellated webcam photograph. Without the context of physical presence, the gait and mannerisms that bound it all together, her features seemed strangely divorced from one another. He could describe her, but at the same time, he felt as if he had no idea what she looked like. More than that, he wasn't sure that he would live up to her expectations. More than that, he was afraid that the person he had been trading confidences with for the best part of a year would, somehow, not be the same person he met today; and that those confidences would, without that degree of anonymity to protect them, no longer remain quite so confidential. His hands shook ever so slightly as he raised the coffee mug to his lips. Typing made it treacherously easy to be personal, and he was suddenly confronted by a strong feeling of being exposed. He was sitting by the window to make himself easier for her to spot among the lunchtime crowd. Tariq glanced sidelong at his reflection, smoothing down his hair and regarding the young man shown in the glass with a critical, uncertain gaze. He was two years younger than Gazelle; it was difficult to say whether he looked it.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,477,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=style, margin-top: -10px;] — made by ayu of btn ooc: not a good post! really really overlong and rambling. i'm so sorry! <3

[GAZELLE CAOILAINN MCCOURT]

[atrb=border, 0, true][atrb=style, width: 420px; background-image: url(http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h334/forestofmagic/Backgrounds/wp_damask_187.gif); border: 10px #414141 solid] ♥ safe and sound | tag: VELVET | ### 370 | outfit | Notes: I AM SORRY THIS IS SUCKY, OK. The golden rule of the Internet; Do not trust strangers. They could be a predator, they could be looking for money, they could be lying, they could be...They could be a lot of things and, as far as knew, Tariq was none of the above. In fact, after their prolonged corespondents, Gazelle was very sure that she could trust the young man. Yes, people lied on the Internet. They lied a lot but...why lie about a regular life? There's nothing remotely fun about that. She'd been dumbfounded when it had been discovered that her long time online pen pal lived in her home town. Upon finding out such a pleasant coincidence, it made sense to meet him, didn't it? As much sense as it made to her, it was, of course, still absolutely mind boggling and, to put it lightly, insane. Sharing details of ones life was easy when the person was faceless, voiceless and a simple text on a bright computer screen...would meeting him make things more difficult or would it be as easy as it had been before? She'd trusted Tariq with a variety of rants, complaints and weepy sob stories over the past few months. He was a confidant that she valued greatly and she hoped the feeling was mutual. As she valued his friendship so much, she was also nervous for their agreed meeting. Even hearing his voice on the phone had been incredibly strange...now he was about to become a person. A real, physical, living and breathing person. With a long sigh, she left with just enough time to take her time on her walk to the cafe three blocks away from her small apartment. To say she didn't hesitant outside would be a blatant lie. She'd stood there for quite a while, in fact, letting people breeze in past her for their own lunch time meetings and get together's. When enough courage was found, she stepped inside, smoothing down the newly trimmed hair at the nape of her neck. After a moment of looking from face to face, she spotted him near the window and with careful, calculated steps, she approached him. "Tariq?"she spoke with a smile, looking incredibly hopeful and friendly.

[TARIQ IBRAHIM ARAIN]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,170,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=vAlign, top][atrb=style, background-color: #eaeaea; margin-top: -20px; border-left: #cdcdcd solid 1px;] [/style][style=width: 138px; padding: 6px; opacity: 0.8; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; border-top: #c0c0c0 dotted 2px;] We make believe I've never seen your face you neither mine And catch my eye don't register a smile

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0px,true][atrb=vAlign, top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i.imgur.com/DfhFz.png);] I SAW YOU AGAIN IT FELT LIKE WE HAD NEVER MET —it's like the sun set in your eyes and never wanted to rise   Instinctively he started to rise out of his chair, wincing at the scraping sound it made as it pushed against the floor. He was staring at Gazelle with wide eyes, as startled as a deer in headlights; he had been waiting for her to appear, but he'd built it up so much in his mind that he couldn't get over how bizarre it was. He couldn't quite accept the idea that he was standing across from Gazelle, a friend who had been so physically remote from him she might as well have lived in an alternate universe. Never in a million years had he even anticipated the slightest, merest possibility he might meet her in person. It certainly threw their dynamic off its axes. They would have to feel their way and work their friendship out all over again, making up the rules as they went along. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah. Tariq." And then, because he didn't know what else to say, "And you're Gazelle." He hovered in the space between the table and his chair, not wanting to sit down again while she was standing. His eyes kept returning to her, flickering over her face and her person, as if he still had to keep checking this was real, that she was the right person. That he hadn't mistaken her for someone else. It was strange: he recognised her face from her pictures - here were the huge dark eyes with their long lashes, here was the white skin, here was the short dark hair - and then there were other aspects which he had inferred from her descriptions of her life, like her small dancer's frame and the elegant way she carried herself... yet for all that Tariq knew, analytically, that this was the same person, there was some kind of disconnect in his mind between the girl who stood in front of him and the girl he had been sharing innermost thoughts with for so many months. Yes, it was true that the internet severed the mind from the body it belonged to. Not for the first time, Tariq wondered whether that was healthy. The silence felt uncomfortably long, but probably lasted less than a minute. Feeling self-conscious, Tariq cleared his throat, laying his broad hands flat on the table in front of him. He had played versions of this scene in his head so many times in the days before their meeting, each one portraying him as infinitely more suave and witty than he could ever be, but now Gazelle actually stood in front of him he had no idea what to say. He let out an uncomfortable laugh. "So, uh." He paused. "Want to get a coffee and sit down?"

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,477,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=style, margin-top: -10px;] — made by ayu of btn ooc: SO CUTE AHHH THIS IS KILLING ME

[GAZELLE CAOILAINN MCCOURT]

[atrb=border, 0, true][atrb=style, width: 420px; background-image: url(http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h334/forestofmagic/Backgrounds/wp_damask_187.gif); border: 10px #414141 solid] ♥ safe and sound | tag: VELVET | ### IDK | outfit | Notes: they are so qt. friends forever~ Another upside to meeting in a public place, apart from the safety of the crowd, was it's ability to initiate conversation. If all was lost upon the pair when they tried to speak, than speaking about who or what they say around them could definitely fill the awkward silence. Gazelle just hoped it wouldn't come to that. It was incredibly strange, to put a face to a written voice...but the actual sound of his voice was mind boggling. When the extent of the interaction between two people was a bunch of pixels popping up on screen, sometimes it was hard to remember a person sat an unknown amount of time and space away typing those very words. "Yes, I'm Gazelle," she replied with a short, awkward laugh. For a good few seconds, she also suffered a mild brain malfunction; to sit or stand? To make it seem like she wasn't trying to figure out the simple act of sitting down, she shrugged of her jacket and shoulder bag. "Yes, good idea...I'll be right back." She was thankful for his suggestion and after grabbing a few bills from her wallet, she turned and walked a little too quickly to order herself a hot drink. Finally, after a much awkward initial greeting, she sat herself directly across from him and struggled to find the appropriate thing to say. "So,"she prolonged her statement with a sip of her drink to give her following words another second of thought. "How are you? She really hoped the rest of their meeting wouldn't be this awkward and that their entire friendship would be ruined just because they decided to leave their houses for once.

[TARIQ IBRAHIM ARAIN]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,170,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=vAlign, top][atrb=style, background-color: #eaeaea; margin-top: -20px; border-left: #cdcdcd solid 1px;] [/style][style=width: 138px; padding: 6px; opacity: 0.8; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; border-top: #c0c0c0 dotted 2px;] We make believe I've never seen your face you neither mine And catch my eye don't register a smile

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0px,true][atrb=vAlign, top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i.imgur.com/DfhFz.png);] I SAW YOU AGAIN IT FELT LIKE WE HAD NEVER MET —it's like the sun set in your eyes and never wanted to rise   How was he? Ridiculously jittery with sweating palms, and the caffeine wasn't helping. "I'm fine, how are you?" he answered, returning the question reflexively. A pause fell for a moment as Tariq took a swig of coffee himself, trying to stop his incredulous gaze from lingering on her too long, the ghost of a smile flickering around the edges of his mouth. Nervous as he was, he was taken aback by what good spirits he was suddenly in, just to be sitting across from her. Suddenly he was struck anew by how lacklustre the internet was as a medium for friendship; it seemed so ironic, now, the idea that he could have company when typing away in solitude. But he was dwelling too much in his thoughts, and by the short silences in between her words he could tell that Gazelle was doing the same. Tariq could feel his quickened pulse responding to the pressure. This was something of a turning point: if he let the situation drift right now, an awkward tone would be set for the entire conversation and their friendship wouldn't survive this stilted small talk. His dazed mind scrabbled for a better topic. How could he and Gazelle have nothing to say? Honesty. Honesty was the basis of their friendship up until this point. His instincts with everyone else he knew - all his friends at Mayview - compelled him to be glib, facetious, and a little insincere. It felt completely foreign to speak openly, but if he treated her like a stranger, that would have been throwing all those months away. "Actually, screw it, scratch that answer," he said, interrupting himself before she got a chance to mimic the cordial but untrue I'm fine. "I got here way too early, and why I sat by the window - so I could see you coming and get out of here if you turned out to be forty or fourteen. I'm sorry, Gazelle..." but his apology was choked off by a genuine laugh. "This is my first time meeting somebody from the internet, I didn't know if you were gonna be, y'know, you. It seems stupid now, but I guess I'm just not hip to the modern age..."

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,477,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=style, margin-top: -10px;] — made by ayu of btn ooc: THESE SHY LITTLE WOODLAND CREATURES