Friends With a Greaser

Chapter 2

He trudged up to the doorway, looking over his shoulder a couple of times. He felt as if there was someone watching him, someone who would come and rob him at any moment. Nicholas blinked, his eyes irritated by the old flickering light provided by the building as he searched for the last name Matthews on the apartment wall.

"Bingo." Nicholas muttered quietly to himself as he found Matthews beside the number 23. He quickly pressed the button that created a loud buzzing sound.

"Hello, whose there?" An women's voice rung out from the speaker beside the button.

"Hi, ummm... This is Nicholas Morrison, I came here, well... To see Caleb Matthews, is he home?" Nicholas fumbled over every word. His nerves bit at him and all those polite speech classes were forgotten.

"You know," she sounded bitter through the mic. "I've been wonder for 6 years why he hasn't been home, care to explain why your here to see him?"

"Oh," Nicholas felt as if his mouth was as dry as the Sahara. His father hadn't been here in 6 years? How would he find him now? Nicholas sighed, the only way was to talk to his women and ask more about him.  "I'm... I'm h-his s-son."

The voice on the other end quiet, almost deadly quiet when all of a sudden there was a buzz causing the gate to the apartment to open. "Come on in." The women's voice in the speaker buzzed.

Nicholas gulped as he cautiously went through the gate and began to count up the numbers until he got to 23. He gulped again causing his Adam's apple to bob, he was nervous, he really hated being nervous. Still shaky handed he reached out and knocked on the door.

The door immediately opened right after, but only by a crack. Through the crack Nicholas could see a women who looked older then his mother was before she... Nicholas's eyes pooled water, but he quickly blinked them away.

The women was tall with dirty blonde hair that was pulled up into a greasy bun with smile lines surrounding her face and dark stormy grey eyes that stared at Nicholas like a hawk. "You do look like him." She said pulling the door open revealing the women fully wearing a worn out pink night gown.

"Thanks, I think." Nicholas murmured looking down at his shoes not wanting to meet her eyes. Was this his father's wife? How many times had his father cheated on the poor women?

"Why don't you come in? You look like you've had a rough night." She commented holding open the door wider and stepping back to reveal a hall with a 3 doors and a living room kitchen at the end.

"Okay." Nicholas pulled the back pack higher on his slouched shoulder. It felt weird to slouch, but after his mother's death he couldn't find it in him to have posture again. Cautiously Nicholas entered the house and watched with slight fear as the women shut the door and locked it.

She quickly motioned for me to follow and I complied. She took me to the living room kitchen split and compared to Nicholas's old house it couldn't even compare. It was small and had an old stained couch that Nicholas had seated himself on. There was an run down wooden  coffee table and a old fuzzy antenna TV.

The women slowly sat across from Nicholas using the table as a seat. She was still inspecting him as if to make sure she didn't bring a complete stranger in her house. "Smile." She demanded as Nicholas jumped in surprise.

"What?" He asked looking at her as if she just asked him to stab someone. He hadn't smiled a good happy smile in a long time and he was pretty sure that's what this women wanted.

"I just want to see something, so smile please."

Nicholas tried to smile, showing teeth and all, but his lips didn't curl up at all and it just looked like he was showing the dentist his teeth. The women immediately burst out laughing as she slapped her knee.