Other Places 1: Shortcuts Read Online Free PDF

purple silk shirt, with a lavender tie draped over his arm, as well as a pair of dress slacks, a slim black leather belt and a pair of shoes that would end up being much too large for him. They were about the same height, five-ten, but Troy had giant feet, nearly three sized larger than Zack's were. He'd have felt inadequate, but his were normal enough. Size ten. Troy was just a freak that way.
    "I have a lot of clothes that you can wear, until you get paid a few times and we can go and get you some of your own. It will class this place up a bit. Or... Do you have to wear a t-shirt with a logo there? That's mainly chain store thinking isn't it?" Even as he kept talking a slightly dark hand passed the clothing over. "If so, they're missing out, you'll kill in this."
    It didn't take that long to change and he had to admit that he felt better about himself in the nicer clothes. It would have been awkward having to explain that he was too poor to afford to get anything else, even at a thrift store. When he came out Troy nodded, pausing the game again.
    "There you go. Need a ride in to work? Westfield's a good way away. I'm kind of surprised you went all the way out there actually. Worked for you, so I guess that shows you know best, right?"
    "I have a shortcut. It's actually faster than if you drive." A lot faster.
    It was one of those funny things about Troy. He was open minded about almost everything, including the occult and supernatural. When Zack had mentioned once that his grandparents were Mages the guy hadn't even blinked, or acted like he was crazy for saying it. When it came to actually noticing the things around him though, it was a different matter. He'd seen Zack go through rifts a half dozen times over the last year, and come out at least as many times, but he wrote it off each time, as if his mind had been playing tricks on him.
    The great part was, that even seeing things he didn't understand, his friend hadn't blamed him for it, not even subconsciously. Most people did. That made it hard to stay friends with a lot of them. What people couldn't understand, they tended to fear, which led to thinking you were bad, if it seemed that you had anything to do with it.
    "No problem, either way. When are you getting back?"
    "I don't know. I think my boss is having some kind of emergency. She's on drugs, so I could be in for some extra hours. Seems nice otherwise. A little hyper. My plan is to work as long as possible each day." It had to be, since he needed the money too badly to play games, especially as the new guy.
    Troy snorted, letting his head nod as he went back to the game.
    "I hear that. Well, see you when I do." It was a thing he said, even when that was going to be ten minutes later. He almost never actually said the word goodbye. It was almost like he thought it would be forever if he did. Zack didn't push him on it, because he might be right. Troy was clearly better with people than he was, so if he didn't say goodbye, it might actually mean something.
    He slipped his warm jacket on, knowing that it looked kind of ratty compared to everything else he had on. After a few seconds he headed out, locking the door after him. There was very little point to having a lock if you didn't use it. Then he hit the shortcut, hurrying along, the cold trying to seep deep into his thin body. It was a lot less than fun. At least this time when he got to the parking lot through the rift in front of the elm, there were no Vampires hassling old women. In fact there were only a few cars at all. There were four parking lots however, the place being surrounded by them and this was the second smallest, if his memory served. The one across from it was actually the smallest one.
    There were two stories to the place, built more to make certain all the major nodes were contained it seemed, rather than for efficient use of the land it was on, the shape of the whole thing being just a little off. He got through the large glass door easily