One step closed

[Adrian Smith]

Adrian picked up a box from the van which was parked outside of the apartment block where one of his old friends had moved in. He was doing this job alone as the guy was working today and could not get the day off so Adrian had asked to do it, he was getting paid for it but not much, he was doing it as more of a friendly act but he wouldn't say no to a bit of extra money. He needed it right now. Things were tight while he lived at the small house with no job but he hoped that would end soon. But he would just have too wait and see how things went, good things came to those who waited after all and he had been waiting since he had left school when he was seventeen. It would be nearly four years that he would have waited.

Carrying the heavy box up the stairs Adrian felt his legs and arms burning from the heavy load that he was carrying now and the previous one that he had been carrying up three flights of stairs. Luckily He for him he was both very fit and strong. "I should have asked for more money." He joked to himself in Spanish. He was fluent in Spanish because that was where he had grown up but he had learnt English because of the school which he had to go too so his parents taught him. But his first language was Spanish.

Pushing the door open by walking in to it backwards Adrian placed the box down with all the other in the room which looked like it would be the front room as it had a sofa in it. He stretched his arms and legs as they burned. He still had a few more boxes left to bring up. he groaned as he thought about it. He was just going to take a break for a bit so walked to the fridge and took out a muggle beer. Seeing as this friend was a muggle born he had a lot of muggle things in his place. Which Adrian didn't mind. His adoptive dad was a muggle so he was to it. He opened the glass and took a sip. The cool liquid was welcome to him. He rested the side of the cool glass on his hot sweaty forehead to cool him down a little bit.

 

[Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi had only stopped in her apartment to grab something to wear for her get together with Cameron later that evening. They were still doing the whole friend thing, which she was slowly getting used even though she didn't really like it. They were doing most of the same things they had done while they'd dated minus all of the kissing and stuff. It was rather confusing though because sometimes she got the feeling that he was just as annoyed at their new 'friend' status as she was. Finally, after nearly an hour of trying on different outfits, Cyndi settled on a dress she'd bought at the muggle mall when she'd been with her mother and a pair of flats. She took them off and put back on what she'd been wearing originally before stuffing the dress and shoes into her purse and heading for the door.

As she stepped into the hall, Cyndi noticed that whoever was moving in was still in the middle of it. After locking up, Cyndi figured she might as well do the polite thing and welcome her new neighbor. She'd have to do it eventually anyway. Stepping towards the open door, Cyndi glanced inside where there was nothing but piles of boxes and a sofa in the room. "Knock, knock" she said brightly when she noticed a guy was also in the room, his back to the doorway. She smiled expectantly, glad to see that he appeared young. It was always great to have people around her age on the floor. Most of the people in the building were but there were a few like her neighbor who had lived in the building for years. Cyndi was rather suprised not to see her in the apartment. She always seemed to want to be in everyone's business. "Welcome to the building" she added.

 

[Adrian Smith]

Adrian enjoyed his cool beer as it helped cool him down. He could not understand how some muggles could do this everyday for hours on end. it was madness to him just to be doing it for like two hours for one day. Then again he was used to using magic to do most of his labour but seeing as he had no idea who resided here and because he had to go outside in the open he could not use magic to help him this time. At least it would be his exercise for the day. If he made a habit out of this then he would be twice as buff a he was now. Though he liked his body as it was, not too over toned and not under toned. It was pretty good. If he did say so himself.

Looking around as he heard someone's voice coming from the door way Adrian didn't recognise them. She was pretty though but for now he was concentrating on Elise. "Come in." He said answering her as she said knock knock. It may not have been his house but while his friend was working he wasn't here so he wouldn't know. "Oh im not the one who's going to be living here. Its my friend actually. Im just moving his things for him while he is at work." Adrian explained to the girl before him. He guessed that she lived here though. "I take it you live here then. Your not some strange woman who decided to come say hello are you?" He joked with her as he took a sip of his beer.

 

[Cyndi Kingsley]

When the guy turned around, Cyndi realized just how good looking he was. She could tell he had a great body from behind but turned around, she noticed that he also had a handsome face. As he told her to come in, Cyndi stepped into the apartment and glanced around at how bare it all was. She listened to what he said and nodded at her mistake. It was an honest one so she didn't feel bad about it at all. "What a nice friend you are. That's really awesome of you to do" she said honestly.

As he asked whether she was a strange girl, she chuckled, thinking about her neighbor. "No...I don't think I am anyway. Yea, I live just down the hall. My neighbors the one you should be worried about. I'm sure she'll be by soon" she said, rolling her eyes. Cyndi wasn't in much of a rush. Her dinner with Cameron wasn't until later that night anyway. "I'm Cyndi by the way" she added, wondering why he wasn't using magic. Most of the people in the building were, but she supposed that if he was new, he wouldn't know that and might assume that most of the people were not. She didn't know how to broach the subject just yet, so she figured if she kept speaking to him she'd be able to determine whether he was a wizard or not.

 

[Adrian Smith]

Adrian watched her walk in to the apartment. He had to admit she was pretty but he was interested in Elise right now and would never make a move on any other girl. Besides he did not know this girl well enough to flirt with her, he had a thing about having to know a girl before trying to date her. Which was the reason he had not talked to his room mate about his feelings. "Well I get money out of it but im mostly doing it out of good will." He said with a smile as she called him a good friend. Adrian didn't have many friends but he liked to keep the ones he did have close.

"Oh well in that case I better hurry with these boxes. I don't think i could deal with strange girls right now." He said with a chuckle as he took a sip of his beer. "You want a beer? Its only mug-" He said cutting off before starting again clearing his thoat to make it seem like a cough to cover the break in sentence. "Its only beer but better than nothing i guess." He said with a smile as he took a bottle from the fridge and handed it over to her. "Im Adrian. Nice to meet you Cyndi." He said kindly to the girl in front of him. Even though he did not live here it was nice to be talking to some one never the less

 

[Cyndi Kingsley]

Even though Cyndi had only just met the guy, she felt oddly comfortable around him. It was probably mostly due to the fact that he was simply speaking to her and not flirting with her. That was a nice change. There was also something about him that just made her feel at ease. What exactly it was she couldn't put her finger on it and she wasn't dwelling on it long enough to figure out. "Strange is right" Cyndi chuckled, thinking of all the times she had caught the odd woman peeking through her peephole when she'd arrived home and all the times she'd opened the door to ask some odd question.

As he offered her a beer, Cyndi's eyebrow lifted when she thought he was about to mention muggles. Was he about to mention muggles? She still wasn't sure as she held out her hand for the bottle. "Uh...thanks." It was freezing cold which meant that at least the fridge was running. She opened the bottle, staring at the liquid inside. She'd had drinks before but never muggle beer which this clearly was. It smelled odd but most alcohol did, so she shrugged her shoulders and took a cautious sip. The liquid was bitter and she looked at the bottle to read the label before taking another sip. "Nice to meet you and thanks for the drink, Adrian. But how do th- you drink this stuff?" she chuckled. "You can tell your friend that this is a pretty nice building he moved into. It's fairly quiet during the day. Most of the people who live here work with the Ministry or at Obsidian Harbor or they teach at the school nearby, like me and my old roommate" she said, hinting at three places that were wizard related to some extent. Sometimes, she related hated the statute of secrecy because it tested her patience.

 

[Adrian Smith]

Adrian watched as she took a sip of the beer. He did the same and savoured the taste, knowing that once he got home he would just have to stick to cheap stuff. He knew Elise was loaded but he would feel bad about using her money for food and things. Even if they were splitting the rent between the two so he had a little more money now. "Well i put the glass to my lips and drink." He said with a laugh. How else did a person drink. Although he guessed she meant how as in whiskey was sipped in shots and such. "Well there is no real way of drinking it. You just drink it like a normal drink. You can have a bottle, a pint or half a pint." He said with a shrug wondering how well he had explained it. He had never really had to explain to someone how to drink such a common drink which most muggles knew how to drink.

As Cyndi began to talk about how the place was quite quiet during the day because went off to work Adrian noted the places which she had said. He knew them all as where Wizards went and the school she was talking about could have been Hogwarts. A muggle would not think anything of the name if said. "Oh Hogwarts. Yeah i hear its good to go to. I went to Salem." He said with a shrug. Any wizard worth anything would know of Hogwarts. The famous Happy Potter attended Hogwarts so it should be well known everywhere

 

[Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi stared at Adrian, wondering what in Merlin he was talking about. When she realized that he thought she literally meant how did muggles drink beer, she busted out laughing. One of her hands clutched her stomach as she tried her best and failed to contain the peals of laughter. So much for making him think I'm not strange, she thought to herself as her laughter subsided. "I know how to drink this" she laughed, "I'm just wondering why anyone would want to...it's kind of gross" she said even as she took another sip.

When he mentioned Hogwarts, Cyndi's eyes widened and a smile crept onto her face. "You're a wizard! Awesome" she said before pulling out her wand and closing the door with it. "Are you seriously planning on carrying all those boxes up? " she asked him. When she could use magic, she did. "I could be lookout for you if you want to use magic..." she offered.

 

[Adrian Smith]

As Adrian watched Cyndi began to laugh he couldn't help but laugh with her. It was such a contagious laugh. Rolling his eyes when she said she knew how to drink it but didn't know why people would because it didn't taste nice. He had grown used to it after spending most of his life drinking muggle drinks. "Well its depends on what your used to. My dad was a muggle so im used to all the muggle drinks." He said using the term for non magical folk seeing as she knew he was a wizard now. Even though his mum had been a witch she never used magic because that would have gone against his dads orders. And only a fool would cross him.

Adrian looked around at the boxes for a moment before looking back to Cyndi and nodding. "Yeah I may as well. Its a god work out and its gives me something to do for the day." He said with a slight shrug. When he had lived in Spain he had gone to the gym, as he had had the money but now until he got a job he would just have to do a bit of manual labour here and there as a substitute. "You can use magic if you want to help but I didn't bring my wand." He said placing the bottle on the top of the fridge. "Want me to take that seeing as you don't like it." He said with a smile as he hinted at her drink

 

[Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi smiled as she listened to Adrian speak. "My mother's a muggle but she only ever drinks wine and that tastes nothing like this stuff" she said goodnaturedly. At least Adrian didn't seem upset that she didn't like the beer. She was glad because if she needed to take another sip, she thought she might be sick on the floor. Sure she'd be able to clean it up easily but it would be terribly embarassing.

She admired his decision to not use magic even though she knew it wouldn't be one she would make. It was kind of like Riley with his cooking. She was pretty sure he knew how to cook with magic but he preferred not to. Cyndi used magic whenever she could. Why not? She had the ability, right? It had been given to her for a reason and she enjoyed putting it to use. What did surprise the young woman was that Adrian didn't even have his wand with him. "You don't have your wand..." she repeated, a nervous laugh escaping her. When she was without her wand, Cyndi felt quite naked as if she'd left a piece of herself behind. She stood and gave Adrian her nearly full beer bottle. " So...what's your friend like?" she asked curiously, wondering if it was a guy or a girl. "Am I going to have to worry about another odd neighbor?" she joked.