She
leaned against the lamp post, the cold metal warming her through a thin grey
hoodie, her folded arms blocking the logo across her chest except for a 'T' and
a '7'. Every night she would stop by this same lamppost on her way home and
just watch as the rest of the world went about their lives. There were the
usual suspects most nights but this close to the center of downtown, there were
always new faces to observe. She liked people watching – in a way it relaxed
her – to see glimpses of people’s lives without really invading on their
privacy.
Across the street she saw an old
couple walking hand in hand. The gray-haired woman was assisting the balding
man as he shuffled slowly, a pair of worn brown shoes the only thing protecting
his swollen, wrinkled feet from the harsh elements of the October air. She
remembered that a new seniors’ home had been erected just down the street so
their destination was not in question. She wondered, however, why they were out
at such an odd hour of night. The only couples who frequented these streets at
night tended to be thugs and hookers – not a place for a sweet elderly couple.
They continued to move along, seemingly impervious to the cold and surroundings
until the man began hacking and coughing. Instantly the woman was squeezing his
hand and using the other to pat his back with soothing forcefulness until the
coughing subsided into slight wheezing. The man took out a green silk hanky
from his baggy sweatpants and sputtered a few more times into it, wiped his
nose with a loud sniffle and returned it to his pocket. They continued walking at
a much slower pace.
Deciding
that their fate rested with themselves, she turned her attention elsewhere.
A young couple in their early
twenties turned the corner at the top of the block, stumbling into the brick
wall as they did. The woman, dressed in a short mauve skirt and black overcoat,
had managed to place the majority of her weight on the man, falling into his
side every few steps. He was giggling and running his hands up and down her
sides, groping her breasts and generally marking his territory. She hated those
couples. The ones who took a wrong turn after pouring out of some nightclub and
ended up stumbling around and generally disturbing the peace. They took a few
more steps before the woman tripped over her feet and found safety with her
back against the cold outside wall of a building. The man – not one to waste
opportunities – pressed himself over the woman, resting his hands on the brick
above her head, effectively trapping her. The giggles quickly subsided as he
lowered his head to her height and placed sloppy kisses on the side of her
mouth until he managed to reach his destination. They continued in that manner,
just sort of sloppily tonguing each other’s teeth, until the woman suddenly
broke into fits of giggles and pushed her partner away, dragging herself with
him. She fell against the side of his body and they continued to walk along the
sidewalk.
Shaking
her head, the girl continued to look around.
A car door at the top of the
street suddenly opened and what appeared to be a woman’s sparkly ass came into
view followed by a long pair of silky brown legs and a pair of impossibly high
heels. Her hand came up to grip the top of the door as her face came into view
through the door hinge. She was pretty – not overly so but she was attractive
enough – and probably worth the price any man paid for her. It was only then
that the actual car became apparent. It was a navy Ford Taurus that seemed a
little beat down by time and weather but not anymore than the rest of the cars
on the block. The fatal difference seemed to be in the slightly steamed windows,
obscuring the driver’s face from view. After a moment, the woman stood upright
with a seductive smirk still plastered on her face as she closed the door and
lightly tapped the roof of the car. She immediately took a step to cross the
street and must have missed the obvious roar of the engine because an instant
later, the car she had just stepped out of, swerved onto the street with a
screech, nearly clipping her as it passed. Jumping back onto the sidewalk,
clinging to the hem of her shirt in surprise, she recovered enough to gesture
the driver and double check that no other cars were approaching the street.
Once she was sure it was relatively safe, she sauntered across the street,
managed to pass under the spotlight as she turned to walk up the steps of a building.
Her face wasn’t caked with as much makeup as what would be expected but she was
still wearing a bit too much for the girl’s taste. She watched as the woman
pulled a key out of her small clutch and placed it in the lock. Turning it, she
didn’t bother looking over her shoulder as she opened the door and closed it
with an echoing click.
Out of the corner of her eye, she
caught sight of a man whose face was mostly covered by a dark blue hoodie. What
she did see was a slightly pointed nose and wisps of dark brown hair that
seemed disheveled and disoriented. His hands were buried deep in his generic
hoodie pockets and his jeans were starting to fade a little too much. She only
caught a sight of his eyes once as he continued to twitch his head every way
searching for some unquestioned answer. They were a pale blue under the cover
of darkness and seemed bloodshot and tired. As his hands shifted in his pockets
he rocked back and forth slightly as he continued at a fairly steady pace. His
steps didn’t falter until he looked around and made direct eye contact with
her. Neither expression changed – except for his eyes widened – nor his pace
only swayed a moment before he stalked passed her and across the street,
entering a familiar building and nearly slamming the door before he caught the
handle and guided it closed.
He
hadn’t realized he was hyperventilating until he became light-headed as he
began the three flights of stairs to his room. He paused against the door to
the second floor to hold his chest and catch his breath, his eyes shooting open
at the effort before he continued his journey, using the barely-there railing
for little support. He finally made it up the last flight of stairs and he
walked down the hallway, his footsteps echoing in the night air, clutching his
fist in his pocket he pulled out a small, rusty key. He fumbled the key between
his hands before he gripped it hard enough to shakily move it towards the lock.
No matter how many times he tried, he could not keep the key steady enough to
fit it into the hole. An arm came around his waist and a slender hand snaked
around his wrist to grip his hand with the offending object. Jumping in
surprise, he turned to see a girl with too much make up on smiling kindly at
him. He instantly relaxed and his hand steadied enough for the two of them to
guide the key into the lock and turn it. He looked at the woman with a weak
smile. She offered a head tilt and a teasing grin before she turned on her
impossibly high heels and took the few steps to cross the hall and enter the
apartment directly across from him. He watched her wink at him as she closed
the door with a gentle confirmation.
He
stared at her door with a goofy, surprised grin before he reached behind him to
turn the now unlocked knob and sink into his own apartment. He barely
remembered to grab the key and toss it into a ceramic bowl beside the door
before closing it and quickly unzipping his hoodie. Throwing the clothing
anywhere he could find, he stretched his arms above his head, still feeling
tremors in his chest as he made his away over to the tiny window offering the
only source of light in the apartment. By the time he was close enough to peer
out the window, he was dressed in a white t-shirt, a pair of striped blue
boxers and white tube socks. He looked out, clearing his head from the day’s
interesting events and just watched the people on the street.
Just under his window, he saw an
elderly couple shuffle around the corner, the woman seeming to sway with the
effort of carrying her and her partner. He briefly wondered if she was alright
before he turned to the other people on the street.
There was a girl barely twenty
years old leaning against a lamp post, illuminated by the light, not waiting
for anything in particular just looking around in curiosity. She wore a grey
hoodie but he couldn’t read the logo across her chest. She had long brown hair,
flung down her back and wide, brown eyes that were peering off into space. He
smirked. She was cute – a little young for his tastes – but she was
interesting. He’d seen her many times before but they’d never made any sort of
conversation. He always had the feeling that it would be best to leave her be.
But leaving people alone was usually the best course of action in this
neighbourhood. After all, young women stood alone under streetlamps and young
men walked around in their underwear and no one really seemed to care.
Assuming
that she would still be leaning against the same pole in a few minutes, he
turned his attention to the only other bodies in the street.
There was a woman leaning against
the side of a car, bent uncomfortably as a man kissed his way down the middle
of her neck, holding onto the back of her head, the other hand out of his line
of sight. Her hands were nowhere to be seen and the thought made his eyebrows
rise. The man continued to kiss any skin that was exposed which seemed to be
quite a bit. His other hand suddenly became visible as it came up to the top of
her tight-fitting button-down. His fingers lingered on the button of her shirt
as his eyes opened the man looked up to catch him watching them with an amused
smirk. He was suddenly drawn from his people watching as the telephone rang on
his cluttered kitchen table and he was forced to leave the sanctuary of the
window to answer it.
The
moment the man’s figure left the window, he smiled down at his girlfriend and
pulled her up to open the unlocked car door and slip inside. He slid into the
driver’s seat and pulled her down into his lap, their lips never breaking
except for short giggles and moans. Now straddling him with her knees sinking
into the seat beside his hips, she brought both of hands into his hair to play
with the dirty blonde locks as he pulled her impossibly close. Her tongue
roughly tasted the inside of his mouth as she felt his desire growing.
Encouraged, she rocked her hips into his as his fingers once again found her
top button not waiting to slip it out of the hole, giving him more skin to
caress with his other hand. After the third button had been undone torturously
slow, her tongue left his to allow him to kiss all of her exposed skin. He had
just begun to suck on her pulse point when he vaguely heard a tapping on the
clouding windows. After the second tap, he was certain there was someone trying
to get their attention. Breathing heavily, he pushed her off his lap and placed
her onto the passenger seat, allowing her to fumble with her buttons as he
pressed down hard on the window. It was down half way before he finally caught
sight of the one responsible for interrupting the alcohol-hazed make-out
session that he would barely remember in the morning.
The
girl was barely twenty years old – if that – her brown hair was clinging to her
face, obscuring her tortured features. Her grey sweater and jeans were
completely covered in blood except for a ‘T’ and a ‘7’. She didn’t say anything
save for crying incessantly and reaching her red stained hands into the car
searching for something to grab a hold of. He didn’t need to look over to know
that his girlfriend was just as freaked out, unsure what to do. The girl’s face
was streaked with freshly-shed blood and tears and her clothes appeared to have
several cuts and rips across her chest and arms. She continued to reach for
some unknown object in the car until her brown eyes slowly clouded over. Her
crying became less frantic and more subdued as she began to sink lower down the
car. She leaned forward close enough to breathe down his neck before she must
have lost her footing because she slipped faster and he cringed. He heard her
forehead make contact with the edge of the half-closed window and linger for
half a second longer than it should have before she collapsed in a pile beside
his door, her head making contact with the cold concrete.
The couple stayed silent for a
long moment, not looking at each other. After what seemed like forever, the man
pulled himself up enough to look out the window – afraid of hitting her with
the car door – and peered down. His girlfriend, meanwhile, had opened her door
and daintily ran around the car – leaving her door open – to uncomfortably
kneel beside the girl. She cringed as she brushed damp hair away from the girl’s
neck in order to check for a pulse. Finding none, she glanced up at her worried
boyfriend before standing, her legs stiff from the skirt, and glancing around.
The street was empty. The lamp
she had stood under flowed steadily and not a single sound disturbed the echo
of the city around them. Nothing moved or breathed as the woman glanced down at
her boyfriend with pure terror in her eyes. Silently, she walked casually
around to the passenger seat and closed the door as she slid in. By that time,
he had fished his keys out of his now looser jean pocket and was turning it
into the ignition. Shifting into gear, the only sound that could be heard on
the street was the sound of tires screeching as they pulled out onto the street
and drove off, leaving a barely breathing girl bleeding on the sidewalk.
© 2014 Victoria Trask All Rights Reserved
