Sean (Challenge #1)

Sean. Seventeen. Junior. Plays basketball. Part-time desk jockey at the hole-in-the-wall gas station just up the road from his house. Today he's dressed in a well-worn pair of jeans, a faded AE red and cream striped polo, brown Doc Marten boots, and his favorite off-white John Deere baseball cap. He knows he's going to be a farmer, like his father and grandfather before him. Hell, his family has owned the same thousand acres since the mid-1800s. Instead of doing his homework, he's daydreaming.There's not much business this afternoon, and he's only working until 7:30.


"Hey, Sean. How's it going?" Sean hears as the bells over the door sound.


"Fine, Mr. Clark," he says, getting up from his seat behind the counter. Mr. Clark comes in every day, right at 4pm. Gets the same thing - a Pay Day and a Diet Coke. He's dressed in his faded overalls, navy blue tee shirt, boots and old straw cowboy hat. Mr. Clark picks up his two items.


"Dollar seventy-three," Mr. Clark says, slapping his money down on the counter. The old man walks out the door, popping the soda open and taking a swig. Sean pulls the latest issue of People from the rack and flips it open.


What seems like hours later, a young woman walks in and he looks up from his magazine with the welcoming smile that he uses on every customer. She's different. She's of average height. Slender. Short blond hair. Her brightly colored tie-dyed shirt is like a beacon on this dreary December day. She wears her faded jeans low on her hips, and surprise! she's wearing Doc Martens like his.


And then she smiles at him as she heads for the restroom. Thousands of butterflies take up an excited, frenzied dance in the pit of his stomach. He's always had a picture in his head of what his perfect girl would look like, and she comes awfully damn close. Minutes later, she walks out to see Sean standing behind the counter with a bemused, daydreamy look on his face. She smiles tentatively.


"You ok?" she asks, and it shakes him out of his reverie. He looks into deep blue eyes and nods. She gives him a true smile as she's heading towards the door.


"Ha-have a good day, ma'am," Sean stammers. She looks back and finger waves at him as the bells jangle. Suddenly, he can't hold it in. He has to know her name. He vaults over the counter and heads for the exit. As he steps out into the parking lot, he sees her silhouette in her silver car as she leaves the station (and him) behind.


"She steal something?" he heard Mike ask from his right. He turned to his friend as they both go back inside.


"Nah," Sean answers out loud. But in his head, he hears "only my heart."


~~~~~


This is our first challenge from the {W}rite of Passage. This week's topic: Character.
"Find a person in public today and study their character. Make a story surrounding them. Build them in to your shorty essay."

After you're done here, check out these Characters: