I swipe away the last of the counters, wanting to get home already to see my son.
As my last customer left, Demi was her name, a usual, I decided it was time to close down the shop and go home for Thanksgiving. I had a extra shift, boss wanted me to take it since everyone else was out for Thanksgiving. I agreed instantly, needing the extra money and took care of the cafe as boss left.
Shrugging my coat on and glancing at the clock, I knew I should leave now before I miss the train back home. Taking long strides across the cafe, I turn off the lights and grab my backpack, slinging it on my shoulder. I lock the front door, shoving the keys in my jean pocket before sprinting down the sidewalk to the subway. Sliding my card through the machine, I went through it and ran to the train as the doors closed.
I stretch my hand out quickly, stopping the doors from fully shutting. I sigh in relief as the doors open and walk inside. Shuffling around, I glance around the almost empty train. A man in a suit sat near, another man in dark clothing was leaning against a seat and a lady with a small girl in her arms sat in the other side of the train. Demi, one of my customers, was sitting against a window, earbuds in like always.
She smiles at me and I smiled back warmly. I started to walk to her, wondering if I should sit with her or not. Instead, thinking it was a little rush, I instead hold onto the pole near her. I sigh as the train lurch forward, going steady against the train tracks.
I wonder about her, she was very beautiful but every time that she comes to the cafe, she's either angry or sad. She never had someone else with her or brought along someone, always by herself and never sticking her nose into anyone's buisness. Always kept to herself, lost in her own world.
Guess she had her own problems like everyone else on this world, me including.
I had my five year old son to feed and also to keep a roof over our heads. I needed him, he keeps me on the ground and I love him ever since his mother left him at my doorstep, barely a few days old.
I knew he was my responsibility from now, I knew I needed to love him, to care about him, to play with him, to teach him and to be there for him as a father. I wasn't going to leave him alone even if his mother abandon us, I was there for him while he was there for me.
Ezra Jonas was his name.
My son.
I smile at the thought of him, he must be sleeping right now. In his bed with his spongebob pajamas, dreaming about maybe action figures or cars.
Xavier must've been at home too, watching over him. Xavier was a middle age man, my next door neighbor. He was alright, even told me when I moved in that if I ever needed something, I could always ask him. And so, he watch over Ezra while I was working. I'm so grateful for that, really I am.
I was snap out of my thoughts when the train came to a sudden halt, I grip onto the pole as it went completely dark.
I hold my breath, a little confuse of what's going on. This never happen before.
It was quiet for a moment before Demi spoke up from behind me.
"What's going on?"
"Mechanical difficulties, looks like we're gonna be in here a while."
A man spoke from in front of the train, I gape at him. Is he serious right now? It's almost midnight, Thanksgiving is about to end and now we're stuck in a train, freezing our asses off?
Great, just great. What I needed. Note my fucking sarcasm.
"Are you serious?" Me and Demi say in unison, gaping at the train dude who work here.
He nods, sighing as he flashes his flashlight at us. "Yeah, so sit tight kids. We'll fix everything up." He says before leaving the flashlight there, pointing it upward so it could reflect around.
I sigh, shaking my head as I took a seat. Elbows on knees, I buried my face in my hands as the people inside of the train talk about what is happening.
"I can't believe this, I got my daughter here."
"I have to get home, it's Thanksgiving and I promise to be home for my family."
"Well shit, guess no crap for me."
"Damn, now my plans are thrown out the window. Goodbye ID channel and Doritos."
I ignore them, hoping that they'll fix the train soon so we can get out of here. I badly wanted to get home, to see Ezra and lay down beside him.
He was the someone to my somebody.
The someone I look forward to coming home to, it was always him.
Hours later, we were shivering and freezing. The temperature must've drop since we were underground, but it didn't change the fact that we didn't even move.
I was wide awake with the other guy, the one with dark clothing. The man with the suit has been nodding off, probably wanting to stay up. The lady with the girl has fallen asleep, cradling her daughter in her arms to keep her warm. Demi has curled up in her seat, her head leaning against the window as she sleeps. She shivers, it was bloody cold.
I sigh, rubbing my hands together and blowing some air into them. So, so cold and it's not even winter yet.
I couldn't bare it anymore as I watch Demi shiver from the cold, I shrug off my leather jacket and stood up. I shuffle over to her and laid my jacket over her, she sighs in content and snuggles more into my jacket.
I smile before returning back to my seat, at least I had two sweaters on, a shirt and some jeans with those man leggings to cover me for the cold. Heavy duty boots were covering my feet, keeping them warm.
I rub my arms as I look around, still hoping we'll get a move on soon.
A half and hour or so later, the train turns on again and the lights flicker on again, I sigh in relief as everyone woke up, finally glad that we're moving again. As the train moves again, Demi hands me back my leather jacket.
"Thank you, but you seriously didn't need to do that. I was fine." She says as I chuckle, but hold my hand up to stop her from giving my jacket back.
"You were shivering, you weren't fine. Just keep it, the next time you see me in the cafe, you can hand it back but in the mean time, keep it." I say, smiling at her as she gives me a worried look.
"Are you sure? But you could get cold-" I cut her off.
"I'll be alright, I'm a man anyway." I say and puff out my chest to get a laugh out of her. She giggles and I smile as she slips the leather jacket over her coat.
As the train comes to a stop, we sighed as we came to the next station. Standing up, I waved at Demi as we went up the stairs. She waved back, smiling that small smile of hers.
I smiled to myself, shoving my hands in my pockets I walk down the sidewalk to my apartment. It was only three blocks away, I could walk that.
I heard footsteps behind me, thinking that it was just someone passing by I let it slide.
Someone suddenly grab me by the arm, pushing me up against the wall and holding a knife to my neck. My eyes widened, oh hell no. Don't tell me I just got jumped.
"Give me your money!" They said and I notice it was the guy with dark clothing.
Thinking about my safety and son, I said. "Man I can't, I got a son and I need to-" He cuts me off.
"Give it to me!" He yells and I gulp as he pressed it even more to my neck, blood started to seep out.
"Okay, okay." I sigh and gave him my watch, necklace and some money.
"Hey! What are you doing?! I'm calling the police!" I heard Demi shouting and my head snap to her, my eyes widened as she holds her phone out.
Shit, no.
The guy who had me pressed up against the wall, gives me a blow to the jaw. I groan as my head hits the wall, a sharp pain traveled through my skull as it came in contact with the brick wall, stumbling to the floor, my head smacks against the concrete, my vision started to get blurry and I got dizzy.
"Fucking hell! Damn it!" I moan in pain, my hand touching my head as I look for Demi.
The guy was threatening to kill her.
I spit out blood, knowing that if he was going to try something on her that it would be me, not her. I wasn't going to let him hurt her, I'm not going to be a coward.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" I yell, standing up as my vision started to come back to it's normal state. I trudge over to him, lifting my arm and punching the guy in the head.
"Oh my god," Demi mutters as I repeatedly punch the guy.
"Don't you ever hurt her! For that matter, hurt someone else and I'll beat the living crap out of you! You worthless piece of shit!" I yelled, kicking him in the stomach.
A police guy soon arrive and the guy saw him, he pushed me away from him and started to run down the ally, the police behind him.
"Oh my god, are you okay? Your bleeding!" Demi says as I stood, my feet tripping a little.
I trip a little, going forward but her hands shot out and grab my arm. She steady me as I look at her, blinking my eyes quickly to remove the spots that came into my vision.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Are you okay?" I say and press my palm against my forehead. I could feel my blood drip down the back of my head.
"Me, I'm fine. Your the one that's not fine, come on. Where do you live?" She says as she drags me out of the ally, down the street.
"At least let me buy you dinner first." I say, laughing as she blushes. She slaps me playfully on the shoulder, scoffing.
"We're strangers, we are not going to have any sex." She says and I chuckle.
"You don't need to be friends with them just to have sex, like a one night stand. Wanna be my sex buddy?" I say, smirking as her face goes even more red.
"Shut up, I'm not gonna be anyone sex buddy." She says and I roll my eyes at her.
"I'm just playing, the next block. Apartment 3356," I say and she helps me inside.
We stumble inside, Demi closes the door behind us before helping me to the kitchen. As we passed, I saw Xavier knocked out on the couch, tv on.
Demi makes me sit on the counter and I moan, the pain in my head feeling like a hangover.
Demi soon stands in front of me, a first aid kit in her hands and she started to clean my wounds. She gently puts a wet rag against my neck and puts an ice pack against my head. Once she was finish, she says as she rince out the blood from the rag into the sink.
"Okay your all good now, hurt like hell didn't it?" She says and I sigh, nodding a little but stop when that stabbing pain came back.
"Yeah," I groan. "like hell it did." I mumble and glance at her. I check her out to see if there was any signs of pain, but there wasn't any.
"He didn't hurt you, did he?" I say, my fists clench as I thought of what that asshole could've done to her. I didn't want her to get hurt.
"No, I'm fine. Thank you though, he almost hit me. Thanks for well, protecting me. But I could protect myself," She says, her voice husky and smooth. I grin at her, shaking my head at her as I set the ice pack down on the counter next to me.
"What? You could've kneed him in the penis?" I joke, chuckling as she turns a light shade of pink.
"No, I could've punch him, yeah punch him." She says and I chuckle.
"Sure, I would've love to see that." I say to her, smiling.
She smiles back and look down to her hands as she dried them. Putting the rag beside her, she holds her hand out to me. "I'm Demi." She says and I look at her hand then at her. I watch her, she was the first person to actually befriend me for five years. It's always been me, Xavier and Ezra. Just us guys, no one else. I'm just worried that she could hurt us in someway, I'm worry that she would leave.
I lick my lips before lifting my hand to shake hers, I hesitated, a little worried, before clasping my hand with hers. "Nick, I'm Nick." I smile a little at her, she gives me a wide smile, showing off her pearly whites. She didn't seem like the type of person to hurt you, betray you and pack their things and leave. She honestly didn't look like it. Her hands were soft and smooth as we shook hands softly.
"Nice to meet you Nick," She says.
"Nice to meet you too Demi," I say.
Demi glances at the clock and curses under her breath before getting her things. "Shit, sorry it's two in the morning and I should head home now. Thanks again for back there in ally, I don't know what I would done if he did something." She says and I follow after her to the door.
"It's fine, I'll hail you a cab. And don't mention it, anything for the lovely lady." I say and smiled as a blush crept onto her cheeks as we made our way downstairs.
"Thanks," She say and I open the door for her. She steps out into the cold night air, letting out a shaky breath as she rubs her hands together. I put two fingers into my mouth, whistling for a cab. The cab soon comes over here and parks before us. I open the cab door for Demi and before she could step inside, I grab her hand and gently took off her glove. I heard her catch her breath as I wrote down my number with a Sharpie on her palm.
"Text me sometime, yeah?" I say and smiled at her.
"Yeah, I'll definally do that." She says and smiles at me before sliding into the backseat of the cab. I shut the door after her and poke my head into the passenger seat to look at the cab driver.
"Take the lovely lady home, safe and sound sir." I say and smiled as we look at Demi, she blushes profundly.
"Yes sir, we don't want anything happening to such a doll like her." He says and I grin at Demi while she rolls her eyes at us. I step away from the cab and soon, they were off. I watch them disappear into the night before looking down at my shoes.
I sigh, before shoving my hands in my pockets. "Demi," I say and smiled as the name of her rolls off my tongue. Turning back to the front door, I trudge up the small steps and inside, locking the door behind me.
Going to the living room, I turn off the tv and went over to Xavier. Grabbing a soft blanket, I put it over him and dimmed the lights. Turning off the kitchen lights too but not before taking the napkin I had in my pocket, the one that Happy Thanksgiving to Demi and she also replaying, on the door of my refrigeator before shuffling over to Ezra's room. Opening the door softly, I came to see my son spread out on his bed. I chuckle softly before going inside, I close the door just abit so it can leave a gap before going over to his side. I fix him up so he was laying comfortably before scooting in next to him. I grab the covers and cover us till our waist and pulled Ezra closer to me. He immediately snuggles into my chest, sighing but never waking up. I smile, running my fingers through his shagy brown hair. I kissed his forehead and whisper into his ear.
"Goodnight son, I love you."
A buzz in my jeans started me before I could entiredly fall asleep. Squinting my eyes as I brought my phone up, the brightness blinding me for a bit. I wince, looking at the sudden text message that read.
'Goodnight Nick.'
'Goodnight Demi.'