Martin 1
Sitting on the Step
Patrick Martin
“Kind of a weird time to be sitting out on the step isn’t it?”
I was fully occupied with maintaining the level of anger I had toward my friend when I heard the question. I didn’t process it the first time around.
“Huh?”
“6:00 AM is a weird time to be sitting out on the step by yourself don’t you think?”
“It is.” I didn’t want to be distracted from preparing the perfect string of swears to unleash on Steve when he finally got back to the my hall. I was hoping short answers would discourage her. They didn’t.
“Then why are you out here?”
“I’m waiting for a friend of mine. He can’t get into the building and into the elevator unless I let him in and I don’t want to him wake up my roommates.”
“So you’ve been waiting here all night?”
“No I spent most of the night with him and his girlfriend. They saw that I was getting tired of being the third person on their romantic date. There is no place for a third person when to people go into that lovers silence. There’s nothing worse than being with a person in total silence. I didn’t hide that opinion well. So Alisa, told me to go home and she would send Steve home ten minutes later. So here I am.”
“How could they tell?”
“I think they figured it out when I checked my watch three times in the same minute.”
“How long ago was that?”
“His ten minutes were up twenty minutes ago.”
“Why don’t you just leave him locked out?”
Martin 2
“Alisa would kill me and despite my best attempts to rationalize going inside and falling asleep, I’d feel bad about it tomorrow, or today depending on how you look at it.”
“But Steve won’t feel bad about leaving you out here for half an hour.”
“Probably not.”
“There’s a real friend.”
“Who, Steve or me”
“Both, but Steve sarcastically.”
“He’s a one way guy, but he has his moments”
“He’d have to otherwise he wouldn’t be your friend.” She said with a fake smile.
“That was sappy.”
“I know, I was just trying to cheer you up. Mind if I sit and wait with you?”
“No go ahead, Just watch out for the puddle of puke that some one left behind.”
“That’s lovely.”
“It was probably left there by one of my roommates.”
“Oh so you guys are drinkers.”
“My roommate is but I’m not”
“That’s good. I don’t drink either.”
I guess that proved to her that I was safe, because she sat down right next to me. At the time I passed it off as her avoiding the mess on the stairs. She made herself as comfortable as she possibly could on slightly damp concrete stairs and then asked me what my name was.
“I’m Chris”
“I’m Juliana. My friends call me Julie.”
“What can I call you?”
She smiled and said; “You can call me Julie.”
Martin 3
“So what are you doing out here now?”
“Sitting with you.”
“I know, but why did you come out here?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“That would explain the Pajamas and the bathrobe.”
“I didn’t expect to meet anyone when I left. Otherwise I would have changed.”
“I think the flannel’s cute.”
She blushed before she hid her face behind her knees.
“No it’s not. You’re lying”
“How come girls never believe compliments?”
“Because guys always lie.”
“We don’t always lie.”
“Ok but you’re lying now.” She moved her face from behind her knees. This gave me the chance to look her in the eye.
“I’m not lying.”
This time she smiled and blushed before she hid behind her knees.
“You had to embarrass me didn’t you?”
“Things were going to smoothly. I had to throw in some awkwardness.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know. I had to think of better response than I dunno. Apparently I didn’t.”
The conversation sank into silence. Not an awkward silence just silence. I tried to start a new one, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. I couldn’t even manage something dumb. After a few minutes (I think it was a few minutes, but I had only checked my watch at the beginning of the silence.), Julie leaned over and rested her head on my shoulder and I stopped
Martin 4
trying to start another conversation. We sat there for a longtime. When the sun was about halfway up Julie said,
“Do a lot of other girls know about this?”
“About what?”
“You make an excellent pillow.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, but that was mainly because it was an ungodly hour and I was still awake.
“I don’t think too many know about that.”
“Good. Don’t tell any more. I don’t want to have to share you.” She said as she tried to fluff up my arm.
“What?”
“I don’t want any competition. This is one hell of a selling point and I don’t want to have any one fighting me for you.”
“Um…ok”
“Good.” She said as she yawned.
“Maybe you should go back to your bed. It looks like you could sleep now.”
“I can’t I locked myself out when I went to the bathroom.”
“So you said you couldn’t sleep to cover.”
“Basically”
“Makes sense.”
Shortly after that, she fell asleep on my shoulder. I don’t know how much time passed after that. I didn’t care. Shortly after the sun had come up, Steve arrived. I didn’t notice him at first, so I didn’t warn him about the puddle of puke. I noticed him when he landed.
“Morning Steve.”
Martin 5
“Morning.” Steve mumbled before he tried to get up.
“Long night?”
“Sorry we kind of lost track of time.”
Julie had woken up when Steve fell and was paying close attention to the conversation.
“That’s ok so did I.”
Steve noticed Julie and appeared to be a little surprised. I stood up and opened the front door.
“Steve, why don’t you go inside? I want to say goodbye to Julie. I’ll meet you by the elevator in ten minutes.”
“Ok.”
Steve went inside and I closed the door behind him. Julie was surprised.
“Wow you’re some friend. I would be really pissed off right now.”
“I am. Let’s go get some breakfast.”
She grabbed my hand while laughing and said, “Yes.”