Choices

Dan

I was woken up to the sound of stomping heels, clicking against the hardwood floor outside of my room. I walk toward the door and open it to find two stumbling girls, hung over from a night of partying. My roommates Heather and Kaitlin both wobble into their rooms and don't even look back. I shake my head in disapproval and hop back into bed. My alarm then wakes me, only a few hours later. And I, like usual, hop into the shower. I wash away the sleep with the sweet, refreshing yet warm water. I step out into the bathroom and approach the fogged mirror. I wipe my hand across it to reveal my wet self. I begin to wonder if this routine needs to be changed.

I get ready for work as usual. But today I decide that I want to eat breakfast. I walk into the kitchen and look through the cabinets for some cereal and find just that. I find the one with the highest sugar content and pour my lucky charms into a bowl. As I begin my search for some milk inside the refrigerator, Leah approaches me looking quite guilty.

"Hey Nora......" she begins nervously not making eye contact with me.

"Huh?"

"Remember how Ramie and I were talking to you about getting a fish?"

"yeah." I say recalling those whole two hours of me saying no to them getting a dog.

"Well...we got a dog." she says with a smile.

"Funny." I say and begin to eat my cereal.

"No-um-I'm serious."

"Leah....." And in that moment a small golden retriever pup runs out of her bedroom to chew on my shoe laces.

"But we named him Fish....." I chuckle slightly and try to keep on a straight face. " Isn't he just so cute?" she says with a big smile as she leans down to pet him.

I can't help myself but do the exact same thing and flop his adorable ears.

~

At work the day goes by fairly quick. But when I am about to clock out, a very attractive guy, with brown hair tucked away under a met's cap and freckles that go on his neck, walks into the coffee shop. He carefully walks towards the register and smiles at me.

"Hey." He says with a dimpled smile.

"Hello. Um-how can I help you today." I say trying to keep the smile forming on my lips at bay.

"Um-" his smile turns down into this goofy looking frown that just makes him seem happier in some way, as if he's trying to control his smiling. "I'll take a chicken croissant...."he says looking up at the menu. "And....a medium iced mocha with an extra shot of expresso."

"Coming right up." I say with a smile. "name?" I ask.

"Dan-uh-Daniel." He says with a soft chuckle

"Okay." I go to the back and pick out a medium cup and scribble the letters D-A-N in bubbly handwriting and make his order. I deliver his croissant in a paper bag that also sported the word Dan on it.

"That'll be eight twenty seven." I say with a smile.

"Keep the change." he says handing me a ten dollar bill. He then proceeds to walk out of the door with that soft jingle I've never really noticed as much as now. I smile and rest my elbows on the counter. I just wish I';s asked him out boldly or something. I don't know, written my phone number on the cup, or saying something like "That'll be eight twenty seven, plus a date." But that just isn't me. I chuckle and get back to work. Ramie, Heather and Leah all stop by the cafe and chat for a while. I serve them all some coffee and myself some green bubbly tea. Cause why not? After my shift's over, we decide to head down to the mall together.

~

Ramie's car is barely big enough to fit the four of us as we drive down the road to the mall, we listen to some generic pop that Leah and Ramie seem to enjoy. Me and Heather? not so much. When we arrive at the mall, we all go through the stores and completely clean them out. Ramie, being a Private school teacher (student teacher) gets paid more than all of us so she's usually the one who pays for pretzels.

"So are we going to Garrett's party?" asks Leah enthusiastically

"I don't know man, I don't really like Garrett." I say with a shrug.

"You don't have to marry the man." says Ramie with a laugh.

"True." I chuckle. We all buy some new shoes and head back home.

We, like the girls we are, get ready in one room (Leah's room. She's got the best makeup) I try on a pair of maroon converse and a burgundy skirt to compliment the black short sleeve crop top I would wear. I put on a pair of rose gold sunglasses, because I'm so cool, plus if my makeup smudges at night, I can just put them on. Ramie finishes putting on her outfit that is very spring, appropriate, a black skirt with soft pastel pink flowers printer on it with a pastel pink top and a denim jacket. She slips on her white vans and a silver bracelet that just ties the whole look down like a cute little knot. Leah then comes out of the bathroom wearing her new Adidas sweatshirt crop top with a pair of white skinny jeans and red vans. Her hair is let down loosely with crisp waves. Heather is the last one to get ready. She comes out of the bathroom wearing a white t-shirt and a long grey sweater, ripped blue jeans and white high tops.

I gotta say, we all looked hot.

~

At the party, Leah goes off to flirt with some guy she likes named Dax or Rex or something while ramie goes off to suck face with Zach, her current boyfriend. And Heather? God only knows. But yet again here I am, alone, at a party of some dude we barely know, great. I find a spot on the couch, with no people making out near me, and take a seat to sip on my beer. As I awkwardly scroll through my twitter feed, with nothing else to do, a man sits next to me, He' only moderately taller than me, but he's facing away from me, hiding his face. But honestly I wasn't that interested.

I continue to scroll through my feed when he accidentally bumps his elbow into by boob. A normal person would have said sorry and moved on. But that is not what happened.

"Oh-uh-sorry I didn't mean to_"

"It's okay-"

"I-mean-not that I wouldn't- I mean I would- but I don't- that is that um- they're great-"he goes off. And I can't help but burst out in laughter. What the hell?

"It's okay, really..." I say recovering from the laugh I'd just had. I finally looked up at the awkward man before me and recognized him from earlier this morning.

"You-uh- you were at Cup'-o-Joe's this morning..." I blurt out

"Stalker?" he jokes with a chuckle

"No I-uh-I work there." I say awkwardly tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I know, I wouldn't forget a pretty face like yours." He says with a laugh as he turns his body completely from what he was doing to chat with me. We go on about our jobs, He's a junior manager for the mets, but is quit to do medicine. He's in intern at Mercy West. He tells me more about how interesting it is to work in a hospital and how he'd never pictured himself as a surgeon but there he was. I tell him about how I work at the café but just finished college in the hopes of becoming a publisher, majored in English. But unfortunately the work is very competitive.

The time goes by in flash and suddenly we fid our selves in a party filled with severely drunk people and stoners making out, playing a game of spin the bottle. Some of my roommates included.

"You wanna get out of here?" he asks "This isn't really my scene. I just came with a friend." I can't help but smile wide

"I'd love that."