Last Night

People come and go. Sitting at this shore at night, with the I-90 bridge lit in a mile-long string of evenly spaced lights. The waves especially violent tonight. A plane roaring overhead before it disappears into fog. Pepper spray in my pocket from Easton, the night sky heavy and dull rather than hot with heat and sunset, me swimming with skinny boy that was my first Seattle best friend. No lover eating ice cream beside me, freezing in a thin rainshell. (Me, plucking at that jacket as I try to break up with him in Cal Anderson). The cool metal of the railing of this chair as I sit above the waves, Bellevue lit in golden towers over the lake, flickering red gems. Clouds low, my head nearly in them, slight breeze.
Mum, home, in bed, in her red checkered night gown, trying to fall asleep. Me, viscous with myself for not being there, for not being able to live in New Jersey.
My gloves smell like old climbing shoes and chalk. Faintly of cat piss.

It's comforting.

The slow span of car headlights breaking the night--flash of fear I'll be seen.

End.

this is gross. don't read it.

[Phone ringing. A girl is biking. It's the nice part of her ride -- the quiet neighborhood under Union Street where trees overhang single-lane roads. The world is passing very quickly in blurred green, black pavement, and blue.]

J: Fuck. Not now. Fuck, fuck, fuck. [Pauses a long moment after receiving the call. Labored breathing from the ride, or from the call.] Hey.
N: Hey! How are you?
J: Fine.
N: Cool. I'm at my house now. Sorry I missed your note about meeting up earlier, but is there any chance you're still in the area?
J: No...I'm headed north, past the U. District.
N: To Magnuson Park?
J: What? How did you know?
N: Because I'm  behind you.

[She has a desperate moment were she wishes this is true. She's biking around a curve, up a slight incline, her phone to her ear -- but still, she looks back for him. There's just a patch of trees, dead with winter.]

N: When do you want to meet instead?
J: [Still out of breath.] Tuesday?

[He takes a long time to decide if this works for him, going back and forth between, "Yeah...I guess...wait, maybe, let me think...no, Tuesday should work, yeah.]

N: How are you, by the way? How was your trip to the east coast? How's your mom?
J: [Short. Begrudging.] She's fine.
N: Is now a bad time?
J: Yeah, I'm actually biking.

[The world is passing very quickly in blurred green, black pavement, and blue. He laughs, and her front wheel jerks violently as she over corrects and almost falls.]

N: Okay, Jess. [Still laughing, a smile in his voice.] See ya.

[Scene's colors speed up until the green and blue are overtaken by black.]