|
_______________Waffles
<>
It
was seven-thirty on a Saturday morning and
Nate was awake. He hid under his blankets
for a moment of complete confusion. His
alarm clock rung incessantly from his
bookshelf. Slowly, piece by piece Nate was
able to construct what was
happening.
"Fuck,
I left my alarm clock on," he groaned to
anyone who cared to listen, who, in his
empty house, was nobody.
In a
swift movement he picked a shoe off the
floor and hurled it in the direction of
the offending noise. He only succeeded in
making things worse; it looked like he was
going to have to wake up. Nate pulled
himself out of bed and fished his shoe out
of a pile of paperbacks.
The
problem with sleep is that you don't
really notice it unless you don't have
enough. In that way it's kind of like air.
Nate definitely hadn't had enough sleep
that night, and he noticed it. However,
being up early on weekends has its
benefits as well as its minuses. On the
plus side, you have more time than you
ever imagined. Of course the curse is that
you have more time than you ever imagined.
Nate had already taken a shower, brushed
his teeth, put on some clothes, made
himself breakfast and it was only a little
after nine o'clock. He should really still
be asleep.
Nate
sat at the table and took a bite of
toast.
"I
wonder what Alice is up to?" he said to
himself, and glanced at his
phone.
<>
As
Alice always said, "I don't drink for the
hangover, that part just ends up
happening."
This
morning it had definitely happened. To put
it bluntly, she felt like shit. Alice
pulled herself out of bed and decided that
waffles were to be the first order of
business. Once waffles were attained than
the rest of the day could be handled with
some sanity; until then, there was no
telling what would happen.
After
a rather extensive search of the kitchen
she was disappointed to find not only that
she was out of waffle mix but also that
her waffle maker was missing. This was
definitely a problem, and one that
couldn't be easily remedied. In the end,
in an emergency nutrition solution, she
decided on an orange and a glass of juice,
also made out of oranges. The three of
them(Alice, the orange, and the juice)
headed back to her room. She was midway
through peeling the orange when her phone
rang.
<>
It
was not until eleven that Nate decided to
call Alice. Any time before that would be
to early. They had both been out last
night, and nobody in their right mind
would be awake before eleven
o'clock.
"Hello?"
Alice said as she picked up the phone and
fumbled with the orange.
|
"Hey
Alice, what's up?" Nate said into the
phone as he drummed his fingers on the
table. Nate hoped his eleven o'clock call
was not too early after all.
"Yeah,
oh, I'm OK, a little tired, and out of
waffles..." Alice said.
"This
is Nate by the way," he said, kicking
himself for not saying that at the
beginning of the conversation.
"Yeah,
I figured." Alice said, and dropped the
orange on the ground. "Shit!" It rolled
away.
"What?"
Nate asked, confused.
"Oh,
my orange, err, never mind," Alice said as
she felt around under the bed for her
citrus fruit of choice.
"OK,
whatever, wanna go get coffee? With me?"
Nate asked.
Alice
stopped and looked at her watch. "Yeah,
sure, give me like forty-five minutes or
something, to wake up."
"OK,
forty-five minutes at the coffee shop,
I'll see you there." Nate said.
"Ciao,"
Alice said and hung up the phone. "Now,
what to wear?" Alice thought as she left
the orange for later and went to her
closet.
<>
Coffee
is the worlds most popular psychoactive
drug - well, the active ingredient of
coffee, caffeine. It has surpassed alcohol
and nicotine in popularity, but that's
really not suprising. Whenever you have
nothing else to do, you can get coffee,
and in a small town, that can happen two
or three times a day.
Nate's
local coffee shop was just like the local
coffee shop in hundreds of other towns.
There was a Starbucks, but only a looser
or an idiot would ever be caught dead in a
Starbucks. There were a couple people
scattered around the tables, drinking
coffee, smoking cigarettes, reading the
paper. Satisfying their various
addictions. Nate and Alice fit in
seamlessly, sitting across from each other
on one of those small coffee shop tables
that is too small for any real purpose,
but nobody minds.
"So,
why did you leave so early last night? I
wanted to hang out with you." Alice said,
sipping her coffee.
"Early,
it was three in the morning, I was tired,"
Nate said, defensively.
Alice
grinned. "Pussy," she teased Nate and they
both laughed.
"Whatever,
whatever," Nate said and
grinned.
Alice
looked at Nate, and Nate looked back at
Alice, each of them thinking the same
thought.
Eventually
Nate broke the silence, "So, what do you
want to do today?"
<>
Coffee
shops are almost like a trap, a less
deadly quicksand if you will. And there is
one in every town. When visiting a coffee
shop you have to be very
careful,
|
|