"You think?"
"Well, yes of course. Think about it, how can you assume that egg nog can really taste this good without a little bit of vodka laced in."
"Well shit, how am I suppose to get home now? I can't drive."
"Bull, anyone can drive a bit tipsy."
"Anyone out of their right mind!"
She pulled at the bottom of the ragged sweatshirt that enveloped her lean body and stretched across the table to hand him the drink she had been nursing for the past half hour while waiting on her phone to ring. Once it rang she could make a break from the too comfortable conversion and drive the hour it took to get to her parents house.
"Is 'this' what you usually do on the weekends?"
"What's 'this'?" He asked his dark eyebrows rising.
"Drinking in isolation."
"Isolation? I have my own mind to keep me company most nights and tonight I have been blessed by your company." He said raising the drink, his voice growing louder with each syllable. "To company and solitude!" He stood up getting more excited with each new thought that entered his mind. She giggled and watched him dance around the room with his dark jeans and sweater making him almost invisible against the low light setting of the apartment.
He settled down, put his elbows against the table, face in hands, and looked her straight in the eyes, his dark brown ones searching her for answers, answers she knew were hidden deep beneath the soul. "Tell me Edith, what does a girl like you do on a lonely Friday night?" She looked back at him a smirk working to escape from hiding on her face. "Books." She said quietly with a dare in her voice, teasing him into asking more.
"Books?!" He exclaimed, his tone aghast, "How can one enjoy the spice of life when their eyes are hidden behind a book??"
"Well I beg your pardon! I happen to enjoy the worlds of excitement I find in books. How often to you become a sword wielding ninja in England without getting off your couch?" At this point she had stood up facing him, her eyes alive with passion swirling green and gold. Her eyes were challenging and it made the air spark between the two of them, almost uncomfortable if it weren't for the table keeping them apart.
"But there is were you loose." He said moving around the table to get closer to her. "How I see it; is that thinking it and doing it are two very different things." By this point he was standing in front of her, his head tilted downwards towards her level, the dark bangs falling across his forehead. He spoke softly as only a slightly tipsy tired person could. "If I wanted to be a sword wielding ninja in England, that's what I'd do. I'd get off the couch and live that life I was wishing to live without hiding behind a book."
The smile on Edith's face immediately slid away as her mood soured. "I'm not hiding." She whispered pushing her curls out of her face she turned away from him. The silence became defining until Edith's phone began to buzz on the table. She picked it up, "Hello?"
Dejectedly he moved away and sat down in the chair he had earlier pushed away in his excitement. He could hear a voice jabbering away on Edith's cellphone as she listened closely, one arm held around her torso to prop up the other elbow that held the cellphone to her ear. She occasionally nodded her head to the person on the line unable to see her. He loved watching her, the first place he had seen her was in their english class. He had become enraptured with her the day she had walked in with her hair in a bun which was held together in cat clips. She never dressed nice and she had a voice rich and deep like auburn honey. She was memorable and for him no girl was memorable.
He was pulled out of his trance when she spoke his name, "Jude. I'll be heading off now." He looked up and saw her gazing intensely at him. Cellphone clutched at her side. He looked her in the eyes a second longer and of course she never broke his gaze.
"Alright." He sighed and pushed himself off the chair and made his way towards the door. Opening it he watched her walk out of his dimly light apartment into an even dimmer hallway. "Safe travels Edith." He yelled at her retreating figure. She glanced back at him and gave him a half smile. "Don't forget about Machiavelli!" she yelled back and then she was around the corner disappearing into the 2 a.m. hour.
Oh right, he had homework.
