Y/N L/N
Hearing the piercing tone of my ring tone and the violent rattle of my phone vibrating on the bedside table was a rude awakening to start the day. My arm snaked it's way out of the bed covers to try and answer the call but before I reached it the call had ended.
(1) Missed Call from Chrissy (dancer)
I yawned and put the phone next to my pillow in case she called again, groaning when I noticed that the medication container had spilt its contents across the table when I grabbed my phone. I was running low on the little white pills but I knew that my psychiatrist wouldn't dare let me run out without a fulfilled prescription at my closest pharmacy.
I'll pick them up later, they're not going anywhere.
Chrissy (dancer)
Hey babe, can you take a shift
for me tonight? I matched with
a CRAZY hot guy on Tinder and
he wants to take me out tonight
on his BOAT $$$$$
Chrissy (dancer)
It's not a pole shift or anything
it's just a sushi shift for some
bachelor party event at 10pm
Chrissy (dancer)
Pays $250 an hour and the event
is only two hours xoxox
Y/N
Sure thing xoxo
I wasn't working at the bar tonight so getting $500 in only two hours was definitely something I couldn't say no to. Chrissy was one of the only girls who got given those shifts but luckily for me, she became one of my work friends pretty quickly. She was one of the most attractive women I had ever seen in my life, always looking a million dollars even at the end of a shift and sleep deprived as all hell. She had a boob job apparently but they looked so natural you'd never be able to tell. She was 27 or 28 and had a bachelors degree in physiotherapy. So during the day she was a medical professional, by night she was a stripper.
I told you that The Satin Underground had some top notch women working there. They're not your average run of the mill whores busting their ghetto ass for extra cash.
Sushi shifts were a little weird when I first heard about them but when Chrissy explained the concept to me, I figured that they'd be pretty easy to do. Although, they did make me a little uncomfortable. Basically, you acted like a plate and people would eat sushi and sashimi off of you. Seriously, all I had to do tonight was lay there and they'd take pieces of food off my body and go back to watching the actual strippers that they had hired for the private room.
I wonder if I have to face laying on my back or my stomach. Maybe if I lie on my stomach I could just fall asleep. But the music would be ridiculously loud, I doubt I'd get even the slightest wink.
Rubbing my eyes I decided to scoop up the spilt pills on my bedside table and pour them back into their container, knowing I'd probably forget to do it later if not now. I screwed the lid on, got out of bed, made it and then opened the blinds to let the sunlight in. My apartment was small and it wasn't in the greatest area but the windows were huge and there was a lot of natural sunlight that would shine through on good days.
In my little kitchenette I had a sink, a stove, a microwave and a dishwasher. It was all I needed living by myself. The rest of the apartment was beautifully renovated, the floorboards weren't scratched up, the paint was fresh and the bathrooms weren't too old either. It definitely didn't match the rest of the building which made me think that people wouldn't particularly want to break in because they'd assume the apartments would look as shitty as its exterior.
Ripping open the small metallic packet of instant coffee, I tipped the powder into my Stark Industries mug and waited for my water to heat up. Turning on the television, which was current sitting on the floor next to an unbuilt console table, I put my playlist on shuffle and 'Mystify' by INXS played through the speakers.
I always started my mornings with loud music, dorky dancing and a coffee. It got the endorphins rushing, the caffeine pumping and instantly boosted my lacklustre mood. I always listened to music from different generations, I wasn't particularly tied down to one era. Pouring the hot water into my mug, I gave it a quick stir with a teaspoon prior to holding the spoon in my mouth so I could use my hands.
Why I didn't keep the spoon in my mug was out of the question but I carried the cup carefully, trying to dance slash walk out to my fire escape balcony. I kept the sliding door open so I could continue listening to my music, staying conscious it wasn't too loud that my neighbours would complain on a chipper Thursday morning.
I admired my handiwork from a few days ago, the wooden tiles now assembled across the metal grate and plastic planters hanging from the railings with my new plants now settled into fresh soil inside. I had spent a while taking to the young man at the nursery discussing which plants would survive the winter before having to replace them with summer plants. I just hope he was right because I don't want to be wasting money on plants that will just die.
I had woven strings of lights around the railing alongside the planters but I soon realised there wasn't a power point outside and that I had to run an extension lead from the living room whenever I wished to turn them on. But they made me happy and potentially tripping over an ugly long cable was a small sacrifice to pay for twinkly lights.
"Hello little friend!" I cheerfully called out at the cat on the balcony below mine, basking in the winter sun.
I sat on my top step, reaching down towards it to try and lure the kitty up to my level so I could pat it. Although, the cat responded with a few chirps and trills whilst rolling onto its back and begging for belly rubs. Cheeky little flirt.
I shuffled my bum down a few more steps to get closer to the cat. It looked at me, moved forward a few steps then flopped back down and rolled around. Teasing me. I felt weird if I got any lower, scared that my new neighbour could look out their windows and see me sitting outside their apartment.
"Come on, come to me little guy," I said quietly, wiggling my fingers towards it and hoping it would follow me up the stairs to my level.
In my peripheral vision I saw a figure move behind the blinds in the apartment next to me, the shadow making me nearly jump out of my skin. I took a sharp breath as I heard the glass door unlock and slide open, Peter Parker from the other night sliding out behind the blinds.
"Hey! Sorry, this looks really creepy, just seeing me like, lurking on the stair case near your apartment. I was just trying to get your cat to come and sit on my balcony," I chuckled uncomfortably.
This new neighbour was hot. But not a stereotypical gym obsessed hot guy who groomed himself in the mirror for an hour each day. He was more of a low key type of hot, an effortless yet natural hot. Maybe I found him attractive because he didn't put any effort into how he looked, like how he had bed hair at 2pm and looked as disheveled as I did. Or maybe I found him attractive because there was some sort of allure to why he seemed so distracted all the time.
"My what? Oh the cat? Yeah he's um- He's pretty cool, yeah," Peter said shrugging, looking down at the cat who was now smooching up against his tracksuit pants affectionately.
"What's his name?" I smiled.
Peter Parker was an enigma to me. Of course I barely knew the guy but there was something about him that I couldn't quite understand yet. He seemed like someone who was distracted easily, an introverted guy who's thoughts jumped from one thing to another. I often saw him in his own little world when he was on his balcony or in the lobby of our building.
He wasn't rude or disengaged but he was a little up in the clouds. Maybe he had a thing with focusing like ADHD or something. Or perhaps he had just forgotten the name of his own cat and was struggling to remember what it was before answering me. Either way, Peter always seemed like he had a lot going on in his head.
"Pickles," Peter said after some hesitation, looking at me with a crooked smile and dreary eyes. I think he had also just woken up.
"Well hi Pickles, you're super cute," I smiled, putting my hand out towards the cat as it finally sauntered towards me.
As I scratched the cats head I looked up at Peter as he took a gasp of air like he was about to speak, but he closed his mouth and furrowed his brows instead. I watched him as his eyes looked to the side, down to his feet, at the cat and then back to the side again. He cleared his throat and turned to his small balcony table, picking up a deck of cigarettes and opening the top. He pulled out a smoke, held it between his fingers and stared at it for a little while. He hesitated, putting the cigarette back in the box before tossing it down onto the table where it was a mere twenty seconds ago.
Finally, he looked to me and smiled, apologising for being weird and blaming it on the fact he had just woken up. I shook my head and chuckled, telling him it was fine and that I didn't mind whether he smoked around me or not - it was his balcony after all. He smiled back at me and I rubbed his cats head again, glancing back at Peter to see he was still looking at me, yet he looked a little zoned out this time around.
Peter Parker; the man with his head in the clouds.