An Al Pacino fic: The Velvet Sky Over Manhattan

Once Upon A Time In New York

I walked through the streets of New York with him, holding his soft warm hand tightly. The heat from the summer sun burned brightly but it was nothing compared to the heat inside my loins.
I couldn't believe it. A few weeks ago, I didn't think I could ever get passed just staring at Al from afar and now I was casually holding his hand and making out with him all in one day. I could only dream of what would happen next.
"Hey." I said, breaking the comfortable silence.
"What?" He asks.
"Where've you been these past couple weeks? I haven't seen you at the diner. I was beginning to think I scared you off."
"Oh I'm sorry about that." Al said. "I didn't mean to disappear on you. I've been having rehearsals every single day these past few weeks. The plays next week and so we're all just rushing to get things done. And don't worry. You can't scare me off that easily." He turns and smirks at me.
"Believe me, I'll try." I tease him and we both start to laugh.
"So you coming to my play next week?" He asked. I pretend to think it over for a minute.
"Nah I don't think I will." I finally say.
"Why?" He asks with a playful grin.
"Oh it's just that I have better things to do. You know like pay taxes, wash clothes, and stare at my wall for five hours- Are you kidding Al?! I wouldn't miss it for the world!"
"Good!" He says. "Cause I already got your ticket. And if you said no I would just tied you up and drag you there myself."
"Oh really?"
"Mhm!"
"You kidnap all your girlfriends and force em to watch your plays?"
"Oh of course! That's the only way they ever show up. Only it's different with you cause when I kidnap you I'll get you front row seats."
"Wow I feel so honored!"
"You should. Most of my girlfriends have to sit in the back so the audience can't see them trying to escape!"
We both started laughing even harder. I couldn't remember the last time I had joked like that with anybody. It felt so good to genuinely laugh with somebody.
But all of a sudden, I was aware of certain tension. I began to notice that a lot of people had been staring at us. As much as things were beginning to progress, it was still the nineteen-sixties, and a lot of people still acted like all hell would break loose if a black person and a white person so much as held hands. Both white and black people would flash judgmental looks at us and it made me very uncomfortable. The only time I liked to be stared at was when I was on stage. I look away and shyly let go of his hand.
"What?" Al asked in confusion. I open my mouth to say something but am unable to speak.
"What?" He stops in his tracks and then I stop too and look at him embarrassingly. "People are starting to stare." I say quietly.
"So what?" He asks. "Let em stare."
I sighed and bit my lip and looked away.
"Hey." He says, softly lifting my chin with his fingers so that I'd look at him. "I'm not ashamed to be with you, ok. Are you ashamed to be with me?"
"No of course not!" I exclaimed.
"Well then fuck em!" He says. "Who gives a shit what they think. They can't do anything to us."
He takes both my hands in his and kisses me deeply. I knew everybody had their eyes on us but for the first time, I didn't give a shit. For that moment it was just me and Al. Nothing else mattered. Nobody else mattered. We finally pull apart and I squeeze his hand as we continued walking.
We walked and talked about our lives, movies, plays and basically just any subject we could think up. We stopped at a small restaurant to eat. It wasn't much of course considering that we had the combined bank account of eleven dollars but Al made the place light up like a five star restaurant. We sat and ate our below average burgers and watched all the people on the street outside.
"They look like ants out there." I said. "Just scattered around and rushing from every direction. But ants are more organized than they are."
Al nods, not taking his eyes off the window. "You know sometimes I'll just try and focus on one person in the crowd and just wonder where they're going and where they've been and who they are." He says with his cheek resting in his hand.
"Yeah, me too." I said. "Sometimes I'll just look at people and try to study them. I think with some people it's easy to tell who they are as a person right off the bat, but other people are harder to read and they don't reveal who they really are until you know them well enough."
"You think that's a good thing or a bad thing?" He asks, turning to me.
"I don't know. Sometimes the person people reveal to you is good and sometimes it's not. I guess that's why it's so hard to trust people."
"Yeah well trust is a leap of faith I guess." He said.
"Yeah I guess you're right."
"So do you trust me?" He asks.
I looked up at him for a moment and stared into his eyes. They seemed to get warmer yet more intense the more I looked at them.
"Yes." I said finally. "It's hard not to."
He looks at me for a moment with a faint but vibrant smile and then turns to look at the clock.
"It's getting late." He said quietly. "The sun's gonna set soon."
"Yeah." I agreed. "So?"
"So..." He repeats. "You like music?"
"What?" I asked, taken by surprise to the random question.
"Music." He repeated. "Do you like it?"
"Yeah of course I do? Why"
"Well I've got this terrific record collection at my apartment. I don't know if you like the same kind of music I like but I just think you'd be pretty impressed by it. Seeing that you like music so much and all." He said with a childish shrug.
"Impressed?" I ask.
"Yeah, impressed."
"By your record collection?"
"Mhm."
I laugh in disbelief and turn my head to look out of the window again. I think it over for moment, though there was really nothing to think over. How could I pass up a chance to go home with a man like him? His eyes wouldn't let me and I found the entire situation as a whole irresistible. I turn my head back to him. "How's far's your apartment?" I ask.