GIVE ME A REASON }{ {BENJI}

[KASEY MARIE STRAUS]

&& Help Me,
I think It's possible,
Baby I'm fallin' for you.

Click.Clack.Click. Clack. The sound of Black heels were
drowning in the malls usual noisy ness. Shielding her eyes
were a pair of white rimmed purple lensed sunglasses, and
her skinny jeans looked skin tight. Now some people
would've thought she was eighteen or nineteen. Wrong.
Kasey Marie Straus is Twenty four years old. One of
Harbin's first year teachers in photography. Now, Why would a
teacher be shopping in a mall you ask? Well Kasey Believes
that no matter how old you are you should have your own
unique style.

Photography. The only thing

in her life that
mattered. She entered a store that read P A C S U N
in juicy red letters. Just to browse through purses and maybe
look at some hoop earing's.

T A G G E D - B E N J A M I N T O L L I N S
O U T F I T- img189.imageshack.us/img189/5710/outfit2h.png

[BENJAMIN CAIN TOLLINS.]

Benjamin didn't have the time to shop, he'd like to say. He didn't have the time, the need, the will. In all truths, he just hated it- he hated walking around a big store and looking at things he might buy. Clothes shopping was the worst, but then again, he'd never shopped for a carpet or anything. Shopping for music, CDs and sheet music was always bad, but for a different reason- he just didn't have enough money to pay for everything he wanted. With clothes, he just wanted in, wanted out. Fast.

But the problem was he had strangely dropped a size or two in jeans. He wasn't eating as well as he usually did- and he was the type of person that fought to gain weight, keep from looking scrawny. He wasn't working out as much as he used to. And this is what happens- today, he'd gone to put on a pair of pants (as opposed to the shorts he'd been used to all summer) and they practically slipped right off of him. He knew there wasn't much at the moment he could do for himself- he knew, he knew. There was no other choice. He had to go... To the mall.

Even his belt proved useless- he had to poke an extra hole at the end so it would hold his pants up; just more shit he had to buy... Feeling a bit like he was wearing a potato sack, he vowed never to eat less than five meals a day again as he slipped out and into the street, taking a short trip on the subway to the Eaton Centre. The mall was huge, and very nice- for a mall. Benji just wasn't a mall person. They were dark and full of bright lights and weird people and busy people and old people and people... People. Benji likes people, but not at malls. Mall people were bad people.

Where to start, where to start... He wanted cheap jeans, but he had this problem about jeans not fitting properly, so he'd probably have to give up a bit more cash than he wanted to. No GAP, their jeans were too short... Old Navy's pants were loose in weird areas... He walked from store to store, remembering previous purchases and his little petty grievances before he came across one he hadn't went in- PACSUN. He'd never bothered with it because of the 'sales' they frequently offered- their prices were ridiculous. Some of their clothes looked nice, but not for that much... Well, in this world, some times you just have to accept the fact that maybe you're a little thriftier than the rest of the population. Sort of like Benji.

He walked into the well-lit shop, overwhelmed by the flood of bright colours and bad pop music- Well, okay, some of the clothes were nice. Some of the girl's jeans were bright enough to induce epileptic seizures, and some of the guy jeans... How was a guy supposed to fit in those? He looked around for a bit before pulling down some dark-washed straight-leg jeans in four different sizes, not really sure exactly how much weight he'd lost. He looked at some shirts, then spent a good four minutes entertaining himself with the notion of buying those absolutely ridiculous shutter shades (they were 'on sale' for twelve dollars- he could buy sunglasses that actually worked for one at the dollar store) before loitering around the store for a bit, trying to find someone to ask if he could try these on...

There were four employees just sitting there behind the booth, practically staring at him. They knew he needed assistance. And yet they decided not to? "Fucking assholes..." He muttered to himself, walking over to the booth. As soon as they realized his intent, the employees busied themselves. Yeah, yeah. "Excuse me?" he started vehemently- he was shopping. He was already in a bad mood. "Yeah, uhm. I know you're all having a great time and all, but as a customer I'd like some damn service, thank you very much. I need to try some shit on." They all looked at eat other for a quick moment before this one kid, couldn't have been more than seventeen, nervously hopped up, grabbed the keys to the fitting rooms... "Uhm. okay. uhm... four, right? yeah. yeah. Uhm." the poor kid fumbled the entire way,and Benji felt sort of bad for him- he didn't mean to scare him. Just... Call someone to action.

"Thanks," he replied to his stutters in the form of an apology, slipping into the stall and trying on the pants to confirm his fears- the smallest pair fit perfectly. He'd dropped four sizes without even trying. If he could give this little weight-loosing power to someone else, someone that wanted it, hell, he'd be happy... But boy, did these jeans fit well. The tag on the bag made Benji cringe- fifty for two pairs of jeans?! but that only meant that he could buy another pair- and he definitely needed another. And with how they fit... There was no way he was settling for one.

He grabbed another pair of a lighter wash, gave into his desires and grabbed a purple V-neck T shirt (there was no debate of size here- he'd always been a small) and was about to ring everything up when he saw a familiar face- Kasey Straus. It'd been a while since he last saw her- ad hell, he wasn't complaining. They'd gone to school together, and definitely did not hit it off all that well- that was an understatement. They hated each other. It takes Benji a while to hate someone, dislike them at all, but this woman did it- and now, he has to work with her. That's right, he heard the news- she was starting her first year teaching at Harbin, too. No doubt she'd heard, too.

No use not trying to be civil... He decided, quickly paying for his clothes (seventy dollars?!) before walking over to her... "Hey, Kasey?" he started, a little shakey. This was weird. This was just wrong... "Hey, it's me, Benji Tollins, from school. Eh, remember?" Wow, awkward little thing. "I heard- heard you're working at Harbin, too?"