= out, even in the loosest sense. Look at it as an investment in your future if you're not down for material goods. Even if you intend to =

= get scholarships or have a rich mommy and daddy, there are still a lot of |expenses| that come with going off on your own, and it feels =

= |so| much better to be able to say that you earned them yourself. =| I rolled my eyes upward to embellish my point, as if the pleasure =

= of personal accomplishment was near orgasmic...which, really, it was in a lot of ways. |Pride| was a much greater default than feeling =

= insignificant. I pulled my feet up beneath me and continued talking and chewing seamlessly with little concern for manners, gesturing =

= with my chopsticks every time they were free of some new bite of food. |= I'm not a cute little old man - sorry to disappoint - =

= =| My eyes, which tended to focus straight ahead on some unforeseeable object, like the pattern of my thoughts was written out before =

= me, and out of an inherent nervousness when talking to new people which led me to avoid eye contact because it was just |easier| that =

= way, drifted to meet Rachel Zane 's as I made the apology, and finding her expression receptive and not |bored| or annoyed or =

= otherwise disinterested or disgruntled, found her face more easily thereafter. |= and I'm good for it, so it's not taking advantage. =

= |Seize| the opportunity. C'mon, it'll be cheaper than one of those franchise lawn services - and they don't bother with flowers, sooo =

= you'd |kind| of be doing me a favor. =| I could feel Rachel Zane 's uncomfortable suspense, though she politely listened to my =

= proposal, clutching my book like she'd just stumbled upon the holy grail and looking at me like I'd extended a cute puppy and wouldn't =

= let her touch it, so I eased up on the mentoring and finally answered her question, tedium lining my voice. |= And yes. That's my work. =

= Google me. All of my stuff's up there. =| I nodded towards the bookshelves that flanked the TV, tone nonchalant. |= Not because I'm a =

= narcissist or anything, though it does help when I bring home dates. =| Ha. Cute. Like that had happened in a |long| while. |= It just =

= helps to be able to look back sometimes at what I did in an earlier edition. I mean, I'm not surprised, I'm kind of a...niche writer, =

= mostly graphic novels, horror, sci-fi, short stories, a couple of books that were more or less flops when I tried to break out of my =

= comfort zone, but you haven't heard of Apocalyptic Creed?

Active.