hopeless purpose (dreamnotfound)

excursions

tw:// smoking mention

"it's getting dark", spoken in a 'state the obvious' british accent.

"i can see that", the blonde responded while dramatically maneuvering his head to look down at the boy.

the two had just crossed the street, now walking through a deserted parking lot filled with out of order gas pumps, and into the town's run down convenience store.

the place never got much business anymore seeing as though the area slowly began to gentrify with old snobs, whose only aspirations in life seemed to be to get into unhappy marriages, work 9-5 jobs, divorce, then die. and of course pay for overpriced, all too sugary coffee along the way.

the man owning the store was a nice old dude who dedicated his life to it. opened it up with his wife back in the 60's, they were happy together, but she died a few years back. their kids were meant to keep the shop running after their old man passed, but with all the newer, better, and higher demand places popping up, there wasn't enough money to keep it running.

with the man now in his 80's, he still refused to let go of it, whether from pride, or in memory of his wife because it had been their dream, who knows? he was up there in age with stage three lung cancer, a direct result of all the cigars he used to indulge in, so the government let him keep the shop a bit, if it made him happy.

a small act of human decency for a man on his death bed.

and so the two walked in and gave the old man a warm greeting, to which he tipped his worn little hat with a genuine smile.

upon looking at the man, george felt a twinge of guilt for how he'd been taking the good parts of his life for granted. he looked at the man who had nothing but a soon to be out of business cheap convenience store, and felt guilt. he sees the old man a couple times a week and each time, he's welcomed in with a door chime and a cheery smile. a smile so bright, that you'd never be able to tell that the man was on the brink of his last breath.

for a brief moment, george pictured himself as the old man and wondered if he would ever be that. if he would ever get to grow old and still be perfectly content with his life, even after all those years. perhaps it could happen.

he was snapped from his thoughts as he felt a tiny, short tug at his sleeve. looking in the direction of the tug, he was met with the blonde's back, who was now skipping over to a refrigerator of energy drinks.

"which flavor do you get?" the blonde called out.

"white monster", george responded.

the blonde then spun around on his toes with a cheeky smile on his face, "i knew i liked you!"

this is where george took notice to his arms crossed across his chest, full of two white monster energy drinks.

george shook his head, feeling a smile grow on his face, despite doing his best to not let dream see it and further boost his ego.

dream saw it brushed past george, handing him his drink, while biting his bottom lip and letting out a proud giggle.

rolling his eyes, george started scanning the remaining aisles for anything that'd catch his eye.

his vision landed on the snack aisle, specifically the gummies section, as he remembered he hadn't eaten anything in over a day. now strolling over to the sweets, he grabbed a package of sour patch kids, making sure to get a share size. just in case.

now satisfied with the sustenance he'd picked out, he made his way over to the old man sitting on his burgundy duct taped swivel chair. placing his items on the counter, he attentively scanned the wall just beyond the man's head.