There was a feeling of idle jitteriness that seemed to have brought Daniel to the edge of Lake Osprey. He just could not stand to simply sit around indoors, even on a day like this. A day where the clouds were knit so tight together that one could have mistaken them for an endless mass of a flock of sheep. Unmoving, uninhibited. Just grazing lazily in the sky, indifferent to the rays of sun they were blocking with their mass of misty wool. I was fine. More than fine, in fact. Daniel preferred it this way, sheltered from the heat of an impending Spring. Despite the fact that the man was obsessed to the point of near lunacy with nature and all of its glorious bounty, the heat of the Spring and Summer Sun was simply a sensation that he had never grown to love as others around him had. If it was possible, he would have wished for most days to be like this. Cloudy, quiet, and cool enough to hide within multiple layers of clothing.
Beside Daniel where he laid in the dry, still hibernating grass, a radio about half his age murmured between the sighs of the passing wind.
"For my intentions were good intentions/I could have loved you/I could have changed you..." the speakers crooned as the man's hazel gaze was fixed on the skies above. Thoughts of his father's most recent phone call to him clashed jarringly with musings about Flick, his quiet, suddenly withdrawn, best friend. It was only natural for him to devote the bulk of his time to Georgie. After all, they were married. Still... even a square like Flick should have known the code. Bros before hoes. The thought made him crack a smile, at least for a moment. Daniel could not deny that he felt a great deal of relief that someone like Flick had wed his older sister. Flick was safe and kind. The kind of guy who would have rather offed himself than even dream about hurting her. What more could a brother want? His best friend back, maybe... He could not help but feel like Georgie had stolen Flick away from him. Of course, he didn't resent her for it. It wasn't as though Daniel was chomping at the bit to take Flick for himself. He missed the kinship though. No one ever really
got him like Flick did.
With a groan, Daniel pulled himself up to a sitting position, dusting off flakes of dry grass and ash from his jacket. It had been a horrid idea to smoke while laying on his back. Perhaps his father was right. He was nothing short of a foolish child, playing at being an adult. His father seemed to field calls from family almost daily now about what Daniel was doing with his life and when he was going to get his act together. When was he going to settle down and give up on all of this animal rescue nonsense? It was like having the world's most stressful and exhausting secretary. Everyone seemed to be clamoring for something within him. Something they could lay claim to and turn for profit, whether it be economically or socially. Everyone, that was, except Georgie and Flick. No matter what happened within the family, Georgie seemed unfazed and unaffected, at least as far as gossip about her younger brother was concerned. Daniel would never admit it to her, but he didn't know what he would do without her.
Daniel placed the joint he was nursing between his fingers to his lips and breathed in deeply. Maybe if he smoked enough he would pass out and a were would eat his ass or something. Hopefully something cool, like a wolverine or a kangaroo... although he was pretty sure if there were a were-kangaroo around, he would have already known about it. He was just so desperate for something... anything to sweep him up and lead him to something greater. Not greater than the animal rescue, of course. That was his pride and joy. He wanted something greater than being stuck as a boring human. If only he could get in good with a group of weres. Maybe he could convince them to change him. To change the path of his fate so drastically that his parents and their ritzy cohorts could never attempt to drag it back to the "Broadhurst Family Trajectory"... Whatever that meant. He exhaled slowly, letting the smoke twist and curl from between his lips like a stretching serpent until it dissipated into the misty air.
"Flick and Georgie better get their fucking acts together and make a baby already," he grumbled between coughs.
"Maybe that would distract the rest of the family long enough to let me fade into obscurity." ..And hopefully into the ranks of a band of weres.