Try-State Area

- Saturday, June 11th - Fight and Flight

Emily bolted upright in bed to the sound of her phone ringing. She scrambled out of the sheets and snatched it off her desk.

Seven in the morning!

Her throat was thick with phlegm and her tongue coated in fuzz.

It's called smoking up... But there are definite downsides...

"Hello?" she croaked.

The male voice said, "Did I wake you birthday girl?"

Emily cleared her throat before saying, "Yes, you did."

Her brain was still muzzy with sleep.

I looked at the time instead of the name on the screen before... Who am I talking to?

Then he answered, "It's Evan! Don't you recognize my voice by now?"

Emily suddenly realized she had said her thought aloud. She stammered, "I'm... I'm sorry... I was sleeping and I thought..."

Evan laughed. "Relax! I'm joking."

Emily drank from her water bottle and began to wake up more. "I wasn't expecting you to call today. I mean... yesterday you said you wanted to take a break from me."

From the other end of the line, Evan coughed and sputtered on whatever he was drinking. "I did what? I didn't say that!"

"But what about the song you sent?"

Evan ignored her question and asked his own. "Can you see outside to the street from your apartment?"

"Yes. From my bedroom actually." Emily walked to the window and lifted the roller blind.

Evan stood below her on the stoop. He smiled and waved up at her. Then he pointed at his car which was double parked in front and said, "I just discovered that I can't parallel park."

Emily hung up the phone.

"Give me a minute," she yelled down to him before disappearing from his sight.

She put a bra on under her mother's Jimmy Riches pub crawl shirt which she wore to bed the night before. Then she grabbed her cut off shorts from the dresser and pulled them up as she went to get rid of the funk in her mouth.

When Emily exited the bathroom, she bumped into her mother.

"Dressed so early? I thought you were going to sleep in on your birthday?" Maggie hugged her daughter and said, "Why don't I go get breakfast from the bagel store?"

Emily pulled out of her mother's arms. "You know what Mom... let me go get them. My treat! It's like you always say, you're the one that did the work all those years ago, and I was just born on this day."

Maggie stared at Emily as she went to her desk drawer and pulled a bill from the envelope.

She pocketed the money and kissed Maggie on her cheek. "Be back in a few. I'm sure there will be a line," she said as she slipped into flip flops and out of the apartment.

Rushing down the steps, before bursting out of the front door, Emily shoved Evan down the brick stairs ahead of her. "Get in the car. Now!"

He turned to say something but Emily shoved him again. "Make a left at the corner and pick me up at the bus stop in front of the dance studio there." She trotted up the block toward the avenue.

When Evan pulled through the light and into the bus stop and Emily climbed into the passenger side seat. Coldplay's "A Sky Full of Stars" was playing. She shut the door behind her.