DEEP

5. No Better Reason

"Here we go, mister deejay."

Stone smiles, taking one beer from my hand.

"Thanks. Come on, some friends of mine can't wait to intimidate you."

With a slight movement of the head he makes me sign to follow him and we catch up with some other guys, joining the animated conversation about a certain album of a certain band. Their musical knowledge is so vast and varied that it's pretty hard to keep up with it.

The evening runs safely, the records are always spinning and the conversation is always flowing as I'm trying to ignore the fact that there's someone in the next room who obviously can't stand me for no apparent reason. I'm talking to Jeff and a guy named Chris when I notice that the beer can in my hand is now almost empty and has now completely lost its freshness.

"I'll go get another one. Be right back."

The terrible knowledge that beer is over is a feeling no one should feel. Stone's kitchen table is empty, just sprinkled with a few empty cans and a couple of ashtrays full of butts. There's no beer can left and the evening seems to have just begun.

But a glimmer of hope comes with the memory of some beers in my refrigerator, like a flash. They were left over from one of the previous nights, the one where Stone had to hide in my flat for a few hours, waiting for the girl with whom he had a one-night stand to stop knocking on his door in search of some lingering feeling towards her. Of course, she always found the door closed and not just metaphorically.

I put the key in the lock and enter my place. A strange calm and muffled music on the other side crosses the wall as I go to the kitchen without even turning on the light, the twilight created by the moonlight is enough. With the beers in hand in a precarious balance I open the front door again to go back to Stone's, but I see someone just outside. I can't catch sight of his face, but I know it's Eddie.

He's sitting there, on the first steps of the staircase right in front of my door, with his back to me as he takes what it seems to be the last sip from his can. For a few seconds I stand still as if I'm afraid to scare a wild animal, conflicted on what to do. My right hand rests on the handle as I look at the back of his head, at his wavy hair and his slightly curved shoulders in that maybe too heavy corduroy fabric. He doesn't seem to notice my presence.

I take a breath and close the door behind me with a dull sound that resonates slightly in the hallway. The noise, though not loud, makes him turn towards me.

"Hey." I say, slowly approaching him as he looks at me over his shoulder. Eddie smiles at me politely before his eyes go down in a shy grin.

"Hey. I didn't see you leave."

"Yeah, well...Stone's out of beer, had to rush to his aid." I say, then look at the finished beer in his hand. "Here."

When he takes the can from my hand, he smiles at me again, fleetingly.

"Thank you."

In a spontaneous gesture Eddie moves a bit to the side, leaving me enough space to sit. It is without thinking that I accept his veiled invitation, sitting next to him with a little sigh and without thinking too much. A slight agitation mounts inside me all of a sudden and I look at him with the corner of my eye, in a few seconds of silence.

"Everything ok?"

His eyes quickly rest on me, just before go back nailed to a fixed point on the step below. A shy and uncertain smile is now on his lips, just outlined.

"Yeah, sure." he answers me, almost in a whisper.

The building is in desperate need of repair, and the stairs are no exception. Eddie look up at the walls, seeing the many cracks and holes throughout.