No Contract

Chapter 1: The Train Ride

The sun blinded my eyes as I walked out of my apartment, so I walked briskly to the subway across the street. Just like any other day, the buzz of city life filled my body and energized it for an exciting day. The vibrations in the air made the few trees on the sidewalk that much more vibrant, the flower buds sparkled from the raindrops of last night’s storm yet glisten  in the sun today, the red brick walls from the corner grocery store seemed to pop out today and the stoplights colors bounced off of the tinted windows and sporadically shined its light everywhere.

The crowd that I was so conveniently wrapped inside like a burrito was heading in the same direction. Each person walked with a purpose and intensity heading towards their destination.    

I recognized quite a few people at the platform of the station waiting for the number 2 train with me. To the left of me was a young male student with a purple NYU sweatshirt and skateboard in right hand. Across the railroad tracks was an elderly woman with a little boy. The train came whooshing through the station so quickly my head whipped to my right to avoid the gush of wind.

My hair covered my face and as I was moving strands of hair from my face I noticed an old high school friend just walking up to the platform barely making it. His briefcase swung at his legs in his haste. His suit suited him perfectly, tailored to perfection. His smooth curls on top of his head were glistening as if he put a little gel on the top of his head. He looked sharp and very handsome, a huge contrast from in high school. But he had the same hypnotizing brown eyes that were always wide open taking in his environment. His dimple on his left cheek was easy to spot once he smiled at the realization he made it on time. Barely. He checked his  watch on his right arm and whistled softly with a grin. 

I turned my head around not wanting to be caught staring at him. He has changed much from when we were learning Pre-Calculus. This had to be fate. Here was Jeremiah, a good high school friend who I had lost contact with.

Of course, this had to be a sign! The doors opened and we entered in the same car. He was one door further from me on the train so I made my way towards him to take a seat. I had to almost hop over a passenger’s foot because they were too busy to pay any attention to know that their feet were hazardous to the people around them. I tripped and caught myself on the pole of the train before sliding in the seat next to Jeremiah. That got his attention.

“Wow... Aba? Is that really you?” he asked surprised. 

I chuckled smiling, “The one and only.”

He just shook his head in amazement. 
“Seven years has been a long time. Tell me everything,” I demanded. 

Jeremiah was always that guy I could count on for any and everything. But that all changed when we went our separate ways for college. I ventured off to Howard University in Washington, DC and he went to Cornell University in Ithaca (New York). 

I broke my phone freshman year of college and ever since have not been able to get in contact with him. I knew his parents and always came over for dinner whenever my parents went to banquets. Yet when I came back over the summer, he and his family had moved. I was sad because I had lost a very good friend of mine.  

Jeremiah sat back in his seat in deep thought. 

“If I must tell you anything, I guess I have to start from the beginning,” he said with a grin.

“I started off my year at Cornell University and had a fairly decent year. That summer my father found work 5 miles away from campus so my parents decided to move out there. Ever since, we stayed there. Now I work on Wall Street with the New York Stock Exchange, achieving my dream. How about you?”

“Well, I went to Howard for undergrad and I went to Stanford for my masters. But I had to come back home, so now I work on Wall Street at SOM Architecture firm,” I replied smiling.

“It must be fate that we’re headed in the same direction,” Jeremiah winked. 

For the rest of the ride, we caught up with each other. Filling each other in on the stories we missed out on after all these years.