Sunday, April 27, 2008

Stairwell, Flight 57

Peter is taking the stairs one at a time, carefully resting every other flight. Calvin continues to keep pace with him.

At the 57th floor, he stops and looks up and down the crack between the flights of stairs. He grimaces, and then sits down next to the door.

"I think I know why it's hard being around you", Peter says.

Calvin looks at him.

"I want to tell you that I like Amy," Peter says, without looking at Calvin, "but you won't ask. With anyone else, when I asked them if they had a thing for Amy, they would have said 'Why?', and I could've said 'Because I kind of like her'. With you, it's not that easy".

Calvin stares.

"I really like Amy. It's not a big deal, ya' know? It's just..." He peters off.

"I think she only hangs out with me because I hang out with you and she likes you," he says.

Calvin slides down the wall, sitting across from Peter.

Peter looks up at him. "Do you think that's true?"

Calvin shakes his head.

Peter gets up. He isn't convinced.

"Go ahead."

Calvin waits for Peter to go first.

"Go ahead," Peter repeats.

Calvin stares helplessly.

Peter walks up the stairs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

what's with the shift from past tense to present tense in the middle?

Anonymous said...

not the middle, per se. just for a couple sentences in the sort of beginning.

Sam Austin said...

I fixed it. Sorry bout that.