High Tides

Sociopaths

The voice came from a boy. Wavy black hair. Untucked shirt. Large hazel eyes. A book in one hand.

"Interesting. So where is the fountain, then?", I ask.

"Oh just some set in Hollywood, of course", he replies.

"So why didn't you break the news to the group of people who were taking pictures by it?"

"Well they weren't laughing to themselves like a sociopath, unlike you", he smiles.

"If I'm a sociopath, I suppose it wasn't very smart of you to start a conversation with a stranger like myself."

"Oh please, I don't trust anyone who isn't a sociopath"

At this point, the boy is sitting next to me, but there is distance. He stares at the ground while I stare at him. I get a closer look at the book in his hands. It was blank. No title on the binding.

"What's that in your hands?" I ask.

"Now I wouldn't just tell any sociopath, what I have got in these top secret files", he says.

"Fair enough."

A long silence follows. I expected the boy to leave by now, but by the looks of it, it seems like he has no plans of returning home.

"Well, I better go--", I start.

"Adam Finn", he says before I finish my sentence.

"What?"

"My name, its um, Adam Finn", he replies.

"Well Adam Finn, don't go around telling sociopaths your name. You may trust them but that doesn't mean they are trustworthy", I say and stand up to leave.

"Why, the night is still young! The city is awake! Where are you going?"

"Home. Speaking of home, you ought to go home as well Adam Finn, the night may be young, but it's also naive", I say as I start to leave.

He laughs.

"So long-- whats your name?", he yells.

"I'm a sociopath! I don't have one!" I yell back, running toward the streets.

I ride the subway home to find Cher still in her room on a call. I go to bed without anything on my mind, for once.

The next morning, Cher wakes me up at 11:30 am. Strangely, even though I went to bed in a brand new surrounding, especially in the city, I slept longer than I did ever back home.

She made me breakfast, and then panicked for a few minutes on how late she was for work. I felt the need to apologize, but she could have just left a note, I would have understood.

She hands a me a room key, and tells me not to lose it. I shove it in my hoodie pocket, because that's the safest place I have with me at the moment.

As she leaves, she tells me I can go shopping around the few streets nearby and that she will be home soon. When she is about to close the door, the door of the room parallel to our room opens.

Cher closes the door, and I hear her say, "Hi Adam, how are you?".

Adam, do I know someone named Adam? Wait, wasn't that the guy who..

I run up to the door and look through the peephole to see if my thoughts were correct. There I see the boy from last nights encounter, picking up a box that delivered outside his door. What are the odds?

I see Cher on the side, looking confused. She exclaims, "My bag!", and goes to open the door.

I quickly run back to the breakfast table, acting as if I wasn't looking through the peephole. She opens the door and smiles at me. "Oh Beth, I forgot my bag! How silly of me!", and runs to her room to go get it.

The door was left wide open, and there parallel to our open door, was Adam Finn, signing his name for a delivery.

He looks through the door, and I make eye contact with him.

He grins. "Sociopath has a name! It's Beth!"

Cher walks out of her room with her bag, and sees Adam peering through our room door.

"Oh Adam! I forgot, this is my niece, Beth, she's staying for the summer. You both are around the same age!", she says.

I give a slight smile, and a wave to Adam.

It was so strange, so peculiar almost.
What were the chances of him staying next door to me? Why did he even approach me last night? He was wearing the same clothes as last night, except his curly hair was in a mess and he was wearing glasses.

"Well, bye Beth, bye Adam!", Cher says leaving us two alone.

He walked further into the room, and took in the surroundings.

"Wow this apartment looks just like Rachel and Monica's apartment from Friends", he says.