The Day of The Escape

VI. As Humans.

As Humans

His hazel eyes infatuated me; his pink lips, they infatuated me; his tall stature, his toned muscles, his perfectly groomed hair, all infatuating. The hallway was empty, or maybe it wasn’t, I’m not sure- all I know is that he was there and I was there and we were there together. He was looking at me and I at him. Everyone, if there was anyone, was drowned out. A messy blur, a faint buzz, an insignificant nothing for the time being.

I had to learn to concentrate, “Uh- thanks.” I smiled slightly and began walking to my left.

I yearned to hear my name escape his lips, to hear him call me ‘Ash’ just one more time. I walked down that hallway full of hope, but it soon diminished as I found my way to gray seat 22 of the almost departing, yellow, moron-filled bus.

I sat alone and continuously stared out the window until the bus came to it’s seventh halt, my que to get off. I watched as the bus drove away in the distance and continued to make my way to the Devil’s Household, the roads were still damp and the sky still letting a drizzle as I climbed up my brown barked ladder to my window, getting into the house the same way I had the night before, and the night before that, and the year before that. I’m not sure if the Devils were home or not, nor did I care. I just changed from my school clothes into a pair of galaxy leggings and a light long sleeved black sweater. I grabbed my Nike running sneakers and pulled them on my feet, not taking the time to untie and retie them, before washing my face and heading back out into the cold, damp Tuesday air.

My now loose braid swayed slightly on my back as I headed down the sidewalk to the Gym. The slight drizzle didn’t bother me so I didn’t take an umbrella. I made my way down to the gym counting how many red cars passed by as I did so. 43. That number seemed to pop up everywhere now. 43 red cars passed before I got to the steps of the gym.

People were all around, some jumping rope, some lifting weights, a few were on the ellipticals, most machines taken. I noticed as one man emerged from the boy’s locker room, he wasn’t one someone wouldn’t notice. His muscles bulged from his arms and legs, blue veins popping out of both of his antecubitals. He had to take steriods, no one just gets that buff without some kind of enhancers. He had to be six six, six seven- maybe taller. The most noticeable thing though, by far, was the tattoo on his upper right arm. It shown a cobra emerging from the socket of a tumultuous skull and it’s misshapen body had wrapped its intricately detailed self around the dirt brushed cranium.

He made his way over to the weight room and I stopped examining the work of art on his arm. I walked over to Lauren, who was managing the front desk. She smiled at me while talking into her bluetooth about some new exercise bands that were supposed to be delivered two days ago. She rolled her eyes at the annoying person on the other end and pointed over to the treadmills while mouthing ‘Treadmill 2 wont start again, could you take a look?’ I laughed and nodded as I headed over to the treadmills. Two of the eight we have were being occupied by sweat covered woman and I made my way over to ‘Treadmill 2’ it’s our ‘ProbleMill’. We haven’t had the money to replace it yet and when I fix it, it lasts for a fair amount of time- so we don’t bother.

I pulled off the white piece of printing paper from the head board with the black sharpie letters spelling out “Out of Order”. I pressed the green start button and choose the speed, minutes, so on. It all went fine. After everything was set up I pressed the start button again, nothing happened. Like usual. I went through the restart process which had to take a good ten minutes before I could finally power the treadmill back up. After a few more tweaks I got it to start working again. Oh- Treadmill 2.

Lauren was now working on a few papers as I walked over to her.

“Hey Lauren.” I said and sat down in the chair next to her.