boundless

broken phone

"So, Chris is taking a class on cinematography?" Kate asked.

I shrugged. "He signed up for it when he was drunk, but he seems to really like it."

She laughed. "That sounds like something he would do."

"I know," I said. "It's so typical of him."

I shook my head as I started to cross the street.

"Wait," She said as she grabbed my arm, pulling me back onto the sidewalk. I thought of the first time I spoke to her, when she had said the exact same thing to me, in the same exact tone.

I heard a taxi honk on my left, and the man who was walking in front of me was nearly run over by the vehicle. He had dropped his phone in the street. Breathing heavily and looking as if his life had just flashed before his eyes (it probably had), the stranger picked up his shattered phone and continued walking with seemingly a new sense of caution. When the taxi came to a halt, the rest of the pedestrians crossed the street.

"Taxi drivers are crazy assholes," Kate commented. "What the hell was that guy thinking? That he was gonna run a red light?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

I was close to getting run over by a taxi, and the man in front of me was even closer. That's when I realized that I was originally standing in front of that man. He must've passed me at some point. That tiny decision almost got him injured, possibly even killed. To me, that was insane.

"What were you going to say to me?" I asked suddenly, as I turned to her. "That night in the hallway."

She looked at me, confused, but suddenly a look of understanding passed over her face as she thought back to the night. She shrugged. "Nothing. It was stupid," She said as she walked into the apartment complex while I held the door open for her.

"No, really," I insisted as I stood on the step in front of her, stopping her from going any further. "I want to know."

She rolled her eyes, obviously annoyed. "Carter, I was just gonna ask you if you wanted to go out with me that night."

"Then why didn't you?" I inquired.

"Because I remembered that I had a date with someone else a few nights later. That's kind of date suicide," She replied as she walked past me.

I followed her. "Wait, who did you go on a date with?" I asked.

"You probably don't know him," She said. "Besides, it doesn't matter."

"Wait, a few nights later was Chris' party, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"If you went with someone to Chris' party, then I might know him," I replied.

She groaned as she halted and turned to me in the middle of the hallway, only feet away from her door. "Carter, I don't want you to know him. It'd be weird. Let it go."

"I was just wondering," I defended.

"Well if you need to know so badly, his name was Seth, and I strayed away from him when I saw you there, alright?" She said.

I thought for a moment. "Was it Seth Bradshaw?" I asked.

She was quiet as she walked to her door and pulled out her keys.

"Oh God," I said. "He's so annoying, though!"

"He's nice, Carter," She defended.

"Whoa, wait," I said. "Do you still hang out with him?"

Again, she was quiet. She unlocked the door to her apartment and opened it. She turned to me. Her dark eyes were fixed on mine.

"That's weirder than me asking about him," I said.

"Carter, he's a nice guy. He's my friend. I don't complain about you having friends," She said as she stood in the doorway.

"Well, I don't date my friends."

"Yeah, well at least I don't insist on knowing everything about your relationship with someone that you went on a date with once," She said as she slammed the door shut. The impact was so great that the walls seemed to shudder.