To say that it had been a rough year for me would be a gross understatement. Many nights I had cried myself to sleep for the life I seemed to still be living. In spite of the fact that life seemed to be so perfect I knew it couldn't be. Everything I had ever worked for in my life, from music to relationships, had become worse and worse over time. There were a few attempts to make my situation better, but for the most part I was just existing.
I was sitting in the back seat of a restaurant as we pulled in to a parking spot. The size of the parking lot was just under the one hundred mark. We had driven a straight fifteen minutes from my apartment to this restaurant. That fifteen minutes turned into another half an hour as we had to wait for our table.
The parking lot was specular with its newness and emptiness. There was a million dollar car parked directly in front of me. To the left was a Lexus. To the right was a Cadillac. In the middle was my car.
It was a blue GMC Sierra. It was like my partner in crime. It worked so well with me. It was the perfect size. It was a four by four five door. It normally carried three passengers, but tonight it carried just myself and my date.
I looked over at my date as she was still fixing her hair and make-up. It was the middle of winter, so I was surprised she had anything to even fix.
"I'm almost ready, hun," she said to me.
She tried to sound sweet, but it had the opposite affect on me. It grated on my nerves. Every word she spoke was used solely for her own selfish purposes as she tried to get me where she wanted me to be. Every word she said was a lie.
My date was Heather, a girl from my apartment complex. I'd met her one night in the laundry room as she was walking back from the laundry room.
"Hey, can you help me with this. It was just sitting here," she said.
"Sure," I replied.
As I took the towel from her, her eyes were still on the floor. They were focused on the floor.
"Hey, can you hand it to me over here," I said as they continued to gaze at the floor.
"Sure," she said again.
I finally got her to look at me as I handed her the towel.
I was an inch and a half taller, so I wasn't too tall. I had bright hazel eyes and wavy brown hair that fell down to the middle of my back. I kept it short because I wanted to have some sort of a hairdo. A feminine hairdo.
"Thanks, babe," she said as she tucked the towel under her arm and started heading to the laundry room.
When I got home she had just moved into her new apartment, so I'd caught her fixing up her place. I had noticed a bunch of things wrong with it that needed to be fixed, but I didn't say anything that evening.
"I was just thinking about you," Heather had said.
"Why?" I'd asked.
"I'm going to go get the clothes now, so please don't come down until I get back," she said. She then left.
I wish I had said no. But I didn't. I went downstairs and waited for one of the other neighbors to come down the hall.
"Hi," I said to her.
"Hi, I'm Sarah," she said.
"Oh, I'm Mike," I replied.
We chatted a little bit. She was soon called away to her apartment.
"I've got to run, Mike," she said.
"Oh," I replied as she disappeared into her apartment.
I then walked downstairs and went outside to socialize with the people living in the complex.
I was outside for another half an hour before I was ready to go inside for the night. I stood outside smoking a cigarette when I saw her coming down the road. As soon as she got in front of me, it was like she saw the light and was chomping at the bit.
"Hi, hun," she said.
"Hi," I replied.
She stood there staring at me, twitching her right foot, looking like she was just waiting to pounce.
"What's good?" I asked
"Nothing, just taking out the trash. I love your hair," she said.
"Thanks," I replied
"I love your eyes, too. I love everything about you," she said.
I didn't know what to think about this one. She never brought up the fact that she lived across the hall from me, nor had she ever asked me about my life.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Haha, Colorado," she said.
What I found odd was the fact that she hadn't mentioned she lived in a different home immediately adjacent to where I lived. I'd never really cared enough to ask the question.
"So, what are you doing this weekend?" I asked.
This was the first real attempt at conversation that she'd initiated.
"Well, I'm getting kicked out of my house so I've got to party. I've got to do a lot of traveling, but in the meantime, I'll just be partying," she said.
She was trying to sound mysterious, but the way she said it distracted me from her annoyance and the way she spoke.
"So, where are you going to be partying?" I asked.
"Anywhere, I just have to make it happen. I just have to party," she said.
I was pretty sure she was just trying to show off to me in a big way. She was trying to show me her bravado, but I just heard her tone.