it was the end of 2010

It was the eve of 2011, the end of 2010.  The lights up and down Newbury St were shining a soft white glow onto the trampled snow. The chill in the air biting at heels crammed in platforms and spiked wedges.

I watched waves of people come in looking frazzled and trying hard to cling onto the end of a year almost behind us. The looks on their faces merely mirroring their thoughts of regret, and goals left unfulfilled. They hid it, after all the hair spray and makeup was plastered onto them, they hid it well. Walking out the door knowing they were going to make the best of the last night of the year. Knowing, they had to.

I waited for her last client and climbed into her chair after closing time. She curled my short hair, only scalding my ear slightly in her hurry. After all, she had a new year to bring and an old year to say goodbye to as well.

We locked up all 5 floors and left out the front door. Wishing well and happy thoughts for the new year.

I made my way through lines thick with people. Trains filled with 2010 plastered across eyes and held on by bridges of noses. Hats with 20 on one antennae and 10 on the next. Bobbling back and forth as they swayed with the train as it stopped, and continued onward to it’s next destination. It didn’t care for new years, new days, or new stops. It had one destination to get to.

I made the 20 minute walk home in 15. Just another way of counting down the minutes. Watching time fly by, without my permission.

She came to my door while I was still getting ready. Perfectly dressed and handsome like every time my eyes set upon her.

I made her wait as I rushed from bedroom, to bathroom, to kitchen. Fussing with my stockings, then my shoes, then my dress. In her haste she had forgotten to schedule a cab. It was hopeless, we started to walk.

Arm in arm we fumbled. My wedges eating at the backs of my ankles, all the while the air biting at them. Raw, I could feel the blisters already waiting to form at the surface.

We got near the subway station, our reservation at the restaurant well under way, without our bodies in the warm seats. I took her arm fiercely in mine and turned a corner.

We entered a sushi restaurant, with all but one other patron in it. Close to 10pm, we were alone. I stared at her from across the table. This was my new years. I was starting it with her.

My previous new years erased in but a single swipe of her hand towards her beer glass. I forgot everything else. All the other times of disappointment and lost hopes of new beginnings. I was with her. What else could matter?

We laughed, and ate until we were full. She left a piece of sushi behind, like a calling card of some macabre sushi slaughterer. There is only one left alive..

We crossed the street and got onto the subway. What felt like minutes, we were at her house.

She gave me a pair of pajamas, for in our haste we hadn’t remembered I didn’t have any clothes at her house.

I put them on and we crawled into her cold bed. Foreign and strange to me, I loved it because it was hers. I imagined her laying in it late at night, watching tv or thinking of me. We laid close and kissed at midnight. The sheets warming around us. By 12:05, we were asleep.