Everly.

Rooftops

We finally stumbled our way into Al's pizza shop around 2:45. Luckily I know just about everyone who works here, so when she screams in excitement, they don't seem to mind. She basically drags me up to the counter and starts pointing through the menu. I find this somewhat adorable, I never had a girl push me and pull me around, so I kind of liked it. " We will take two large slices of the pepperoni." I shout to Michael over the counter, he throws his hands up and then smiles with a nod in agreement. "Hey! Why did you do that? I wasn't even done looking yet!" "Because once you eat this slice of pizza, you will understand why, and trust me I basically live here." I say looking up, hoping she gets the horrible joke I just tried to throw at her. "Fine." She says while stomping to a table. Had I not been a little intoxicated myself and found this girl so attractive, I might have gotten annoyed and walked out. But I stay, and decide to take a  seat across from her at the booth. "So, you live upstairs?" She got it. "Yeah  I do, with my two friends." I guess you could call them that. " We split the apartment and another guy basically lives off of us on our couch." True. "Wow, that's a lot of people for one apartment, is it even that big?" " Not quite, but we don't need that much room, we're hardly ever there at the same time anyway." Nolan was in school at NYU, and traveled all the way to Manhattan just to spite his parents who would have rather him live somewhere close to the campus, they came from money. Trenton worked at a convenience store just three blocks away, for a nice foreign couple. Jameson was going to Berkley College in Brooklyn, studying Graphic Design.  I went to NYU, and left because I was just not interested in classes anymore and decided to become a bartender at another favorite hangout spot. 

"Here ya go! Freshest slices in the house!" Michael shouts while throwing our plates across the table to each of us. They really do have the best pizza in town, even when you are sober.  "Wow, you were right this already looks and smells amazing...sorry!" So cute. "Well try it before you continue your apology any further" I joke back. Two slices in, and twenty questions later we make our way out of the pizza shop. I wave to Michael and we head toward 12th. When we get to the light she stops, and turns to look at me. Her eyes seem more able to focus on me now, and I would like to thank the pizza for that. "Wait, this is New York, and I am not ready to go home just yet!" "Well, what did you have in mind?" I am not traveling my happy ass across the river and into Manhattan at this hour, or any hour really. "I am not sure, you're the local, show me." Deciding that it is probably not a good idea to take her to anymore bars, I head toward the nearest R train. She quickly follows behind, and we're off on some sort of adventure that I'm not sure I was ready to get into. I show her the trick to using my pass twice so she doesn't need to buy one, and we wait patiently on the platform as the train roars in. She says she has been here for two days now, and the startle and excitement she shows when the train starts is very amusing. I remember that feeling, only a couple years ago, but now it feels like decades. 

"So are you going to tell me where we are going?" Nope. "You said you wanted me to show you, so that's what I'm going to do." And I was, I was going to take her to some of my favorite places to run away to when I first got here and got lost in the city of wonder. What feels like an hour of awkward stares across the train to strangers, the train finally stops right where I need it to. Coney Island. Yes, it's the middle of the night, but what better place to start than the ocean and the oldest coaster around. We hop off the train and watch as it basically flies away. It's just us two now, and I'm not sure if it's excitement or nervousness I am feeling since I am not sure I have ever felt either before. "So, you're taking me to a closed amusement park in the middle of the night? Are you planning on murdering me, cause this is not what I had in mind for adventuring the city." Every minute that passes I'm finding myself more and more fond of this girl, and she's giving me every excuse why. "Calm down, that wasn't exactly my plan... I just wanted to show you the ocean and the calmness of the park when it's closed and there's not a single person climbing the rides in hope of some thrill they will lose only seconds later." She stares straight into my eyes and for a minute I feel as if she is getting close enough to taste her breathe, that's when she grabs my arm and says, "Well then come on, show me!" We venture off through the park and onto the boardwalk. She stares for a moment down one way, and turns toward the other. Her eyes, a deep brown, but so beautiful I see nothing else. "This is truly amazing!" "See, I told you it would be good." I can see she is a little scared of the night when she interwinds her arm in mine while we walk off the boardwalk and onto the sand. The perfect night breeze catches her loose curls and throws them behind her, leaving almost her entire face exposed. And for the first time, I feel the sensation of "my stomach dropping". This must be why all those people come and wait in those awful lines for the 30 second thrill of riding rollercoasters. She slips off her shoes and I offer to take them while she dances through the warm sand. A most incredible sight if I may say so myself. "I've been to the ocean quite a few times before, but nothing compares to this." She is right, there is something truly amazing about having one of the biggest cities laid out behind you and in front of you the thousands of miles of nothing but water and mystery. "I look out there and it makes me wonder, is somewhere on the other side someone looking back toward me wondering the same thing?" Never really thought of it that way. "I'm sure we're not the only people who come here and throw all our thoughts to the waves in hopes of them drifting to where no one else can find them." This is really how I felt when I would come here. We made our way along the sand close enough to the water to wet our ankles. We talked about traveling and different places we longed to visit. A few more sights later we hopped back on the train and made our way back toward my place. I had one more thing I wanted to show her. 

We finally open the door to the staircase leading up to my apartment. We climb four flights of steep steps and I pause in front of the door. I turn around and she seems to be catching her breath, I forget that I do this a million times a day, and she doesn't. I apologize and hesitantly open the door. When it opens enough to see inside I realize that my friends haven't made their way back here yet and I am relieved. I wasn't ready to explain this one to them, and have her thrown tons of questions that were more than likely jokes to them. "Well, this isn't too bad actually, I expected a lot worse and a lot smaller." Thanks. "Yeah, like I said we're hardly ever around at the same time, but it does the job it's suppose to." She sits on the couch as I make my way to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water I ask her if she would like some. "Yes please! All this drinking, it definitely wears on me and my body." I laugh, because I know exactly what she's saying. I drink probably more than I should, but when you are a bartender, well it doesn't give you much of a life to do anything else here. "I have one more thing to show you before I take you back to where you are staying, and I hope you'll agree to come with me." "Okay, is it like far? Because I don't think I can do much more hiking around the city tonight." "Nope, and it will be worth it but you have to promise me that you will do it no matter what, and you can't chicken out." "Now  you are worrying me..." I like to warn people before we do this, because it is a little dangerous, although I  have not really taken any one to do this in a while. I grab her hand and we glide out the door and into the hall way to climb one more flight of stairs. At the end she looks confused until I point to a tiny little flimsy ladder looking up to the ceiling. She immediately screams no, and I have to hush her before my neighbors come and kick my ass. "You promised you would, and trust me whats on the other end is completely worth it." " I am so afraid of heights, I really don't think I can. I will fall and die and I  am just not ready to do that yet!"  I laugh because, yes she could fall but I would not let her die and I don't think she really would, although the stairwell is almost directly under the ladder giving it more of a height effect. I offer to go first so I can lift the hatch up to slide our way through. Once, I get it open and slither my body up I lean back down through the tiny opening and stretch out an arm. She pauses halfway up the ladder. "I am really freaking out and I don't think I can do this. I am shaking and I am starting to feel dizzy." She's making herself feel that way, and she's throwing me excuses. "Come on, only a couple more steps and you are here. I have my arm for you to grab and I will not let you fall, I promise. " She whines and starts to reverse. "Fine, but you're missing out! I'm going to enjoy the scenery for a bit since I put all this effort into getting up here." I stand up and walk toward the edge of the roof, taking in a deep breathe before I hear a whimper. "Okay, okay I am here, please help me because I am too scared to open my eyes, and I am afraid if I do I will fall." I run over and lean into pull her up. "Ouch!" She scrapes her leg coming up, and even though it's bleeding I think she'll live. After wiping her leg off a bit, she turns to look up and that's when it hits her, and me. Her eyes go bigger than they did at the beach and she almost makes an O with her mouth. I immediately feel that rushing, dropping feeling in my stomach again and almost fall myself. She is beautiful and with a city like that as her backdrop she almost makes it unnoticeable. "I..have...never..." She is speechless, and I can't blame her I was the first time Trenton dragged me up here. " I told you it was worth it. "Welcome to the most beautifully, crazy city in the world." There it was, all the chaos, rushing, panicking, excitement laid out before us. But all I could see was her. The breeze had become steady, but enough to blow her hair to a perfect rhythm. I take two steps closer to her and to my surprise she makes our fingers interlock. One look up toward me and before I know it, her soft, plump lips are gracing mine. I close my eyes in hope that this moment lasts longer than it feels.