Lurking In The Moonlight

Chapter Seven: Up All Night

Arthur unlocked the apartment door and I stood there, a bit nervous. I'd never been in his apartment before and he's seen the way I lived. As I took a step inside, I really saw a sight. It looked lived in, which wasn't a bad thing. There was so much stuff everywhere, but not in a hoarding way. Pictures on the wall, small tables, accessories that normal people had in their homes, like a bowl of food just ... sitting there. It looked cozy.

I thought back to when I lived with my mom, her house was never like this. We lived in the a very big house, bigger than the two of us needed, that was always clean ... because she was never home enough to get anything dirty. A housekeeper would come in and clean everyday, but was just collecting a paycheck for doing nothing. It was always the most up-to-date house, with the latest technology we never used, and rarely saw more people other than me, her and her man of the evening. It never felt like a place where anyone lived, but Arthur's place felt warm to me.

"Excuse the mess." He said and put the bag down near the table off to one side of the room. He quickly cleaned the table off of whatever they had on it, making room for my bags. I took this time to get a better look of the place. I noticed on the couch there was a pillow and blanket, a few clothes of his off in the corner, a TV with a VHS player and a collection of VHS off to the side of it. Random objects about the place; mail, pens and pencils, figurines of cats, children and several ash trays filled with the ends of cigarettes. Everything looked out of place, but in a place all at the same time. "There." Arthur said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Now to put on that coffee I promised."

"Thank you Arthur." I said starting on getting out my list of attendees, and grabbing the first stack of envelopes, starting by writing out the addresses on them. I was a fourth of the way into them before a cup of coffee was placed beside me, causing me to jump. I looked up at Arthur, who awkwardly smiled. "Thanks." I smiled at him, taking a sip of the sweet brown liquid, that he sweetened perfectly to my taste. "It's perfect. Just what I needed."

"I'll be over ... watching the TV." He said pointing to the couch. "If you need anything." I watched as he took a seat, lighting up a smoke as he turned the television on, keeping the volume low. I forced myself back into my work, writing out more addresses until I made out the very last one. Arthur, being sweet as he was, refilled my cup twice as I drank and carefully made out each one.

As the last one was addressed, I slammed the pen on the table and stood up, stretching out my poor muscles from being hunched over the table for so long. I looked over at Arthur, who face snapped back to the TV, as if I hadn't caught him watching me stretch a few seconds ago. I made my way over to the couch and sat down next to him. He kept his face straight ahead, and I tried to relax for a few moments before heading back to my work.

Arthur reached for another cigarette and lit it, blowing the smoke into the air in front of me. Before I could stop myself, I took a deep breath of the secondhand smoke. He watched me as I did this, before reaching out, grabbing another cigarette off of the coffee table and held it out to me. I hesitantly took it, never having smoked in front of someone before. It was almost like a secret, I would smoke alone in my room growing up, or in the back of buildings when I was in college, or alone in my apartment because there was just no one around to watch me then.

He gave me the lighter and I lit it up, taking a deep breath of the toxic smoke into my lungs, holding it there and letting it out slowly. I was so stressed out and I felt my body instantly relax into the couch, which caused Arthur to giggle. I smiled at him, taking another drag of my cigarette. I heard a jingle come on, and Arthur attention turned back to the TV. "This is my favorite show. Have you seen it?"

"No, what is it?"

"The Murray Franklin Show. He's so funny." He said, in a dreamlike state as he seemed to lose himself in the show.

"And now, without any further ado-- Murray Franklin!" The announcer said and a older gentleman came out from behind a curtain, onto the stage floor. The crowd cheered for him and he did some funny bit with the band. "Tonight we have a real treat for you all to enjoy. So today, my wife comes up to me..." He went into a monologue about the funny bit in his life, Arthur forcefully laughed at every joke he told throughout the whole show. I didn't think it was too funny, but Arthur was enjoying it and that's all the mattered.

I took a break, watching the whole show with him, getting in another cigarette before it ended with the song 'That's life'. I checked my watch to see it was just after a eleven at night. I wasted an hour just watching some man do shtick for an hour.

"Wasn't that great?! He's so funny." Arthur asked, turning his face back to me after being completely focused on that show the whole hour.

I gave him a warm smile. "It was okay. I think your way funnier." I got up, and stretched before turning my attention to the task at hand.

"But he's way funnier than I am." He whispered, still sitting on the couch, watching me walk away.

"Just because others find him funny, doesn't mean I did. Beside, weren't you the one who told me." I turning back to him with a grin. "Comedy is subjective."

He looked shocked I remembered something he said when we first meet a few days ago. "You remembered something I said ... You listened."

"Of course I listened Arthur. What are friends for." I said taking seat and started working on the invitations. I didn't turn back to Arthur for awhile after that, but I felt his eyes on me for what was seemed like forever.

The hours passed as I worked hard on these stupid invitations. I messed up every once in a while, crumbling it up and throwing it across the table. I heard Arthur chuckle at my childlike behavior over the mistakes. He always keep my coffee filled, warmed and sweeten just right.

By the time I had completely finished writing them out, it was 4 am. I was shocked to see Arthur still awake with me, smoking and drinking a cup of coffee on the couch. I got up, too tired to stretch and made my way over to Arthur, who held out another cigarette for me. I was almost too tired to light the thing and took a half-hearted drag, relaxing into the couch, that felt way more comfier than the wooden chair I had been in.

"Why are you doing this?" He finally asked me, after watching me do this for hours on end. "You're killing yourself for a company that couldn't care less about you. Why put yourself through it."

I took a long drag of my cigarette before deciding to answer him with honesty. "As far as I could remember, I wanted to care for others. I've spent my whole life wanting to make sure others are happy, too feel as if someone gave a shit if they ate that day, went outside, hell even just something as simple as getting out of bed." I took another drag of my cigarette, letting out the smoke as I continued. "I know what it's like for someone not to give a shit if you lived or died, and if I have the power to help it, I never want the people I come in contact with to ever feel like they weren't important."

"And how does someone like you know what it's like to feel like this?" He asked, like he was teasing me on something I knew nothing about. I looked at him before finishing the cigarette in my hand, smashing the end in the ashtray.

"I was a drunken late night mistake, Arthur, and she never let me forget it." I answered before leaning back onto the couch. "She never wanted children and it was too risky to her reputation to just give me up, so she just pretended I wasn't there. She never took the time of day to be in my life, other than when it came time to drag me to parties and her 'pride and joy'. 'The perfect life', no kid was 'ever happier' than I was. She never supported me or gave two shits about me." I closed my eyes, leaning farther into the couch. "She couldn't even bother writing a recommendation to help me get into college. 'You're not riding my coat tails to the top.' she told me. 'I worked hard to get where I am and I'm not putting myself out there when you fail.'" I felt a tear fall from me eyes, as darkness soft enclosed me in it's warm abyss.