Evelyn

Listening to some guy hopped up on God knows what sing Don't Stop Believin' is not how I had intended on spending my ride home tonight, but then I really don't what else I would expect from a day like this. He might as well as been killing a cat as singing the drunk college kid's anthem.

No escape is visible. No gadgetry to bury myself in. Reading a book would be next to impossible. Five stops to go. I could get up and move to another car at the next stop, but why should I have to be the one to move? I worked hard to be able to sit right here on this train and relax at the end of the day. He's the one that's disturbing the peace. He's the one making an ass of himself.

I'll just have to hope he gets off at the next stop, or the one after that. Annoying people never seem to be decent enough to just go away though. They stick to me like glue and nag and chew away at me, and I'm sure this guy is just the same. with my luck he'll get off at my stop on the way to a party in my building or something. My building is full of stereotypes just like him. College kids away from mommy and daddy for the first time, but still attached at the purse strings, their book allowances being spent the second they step in the liquor store. They've never worked a day in their lives and are sure that the second they graduate they'll be handed jobs with full benefits packages, in corner offices, with an 8ok a year salary. Oh and of course they get summers off and that nasty little alcholism they picked up in college will just disappear into midair. He'll go to that party and see a room for rent...and decide he likes the area and the price. Next thing he'll be my obnoxious next door neighbor, blasting Journey's Greatest Hit's all hours of the night and smelling up the hallways with his ciggarrettes or marijuana or whatever his vice might be. All vices come with their odors, and from here, I can tell he either has a lot of them all melting together on his skin and clothes and stuck to his greasy hair, or he just excels at one so well it's enveloped him.

I feel bad for the poor girl he's singing to. He seems to think he's a regular Cassanova, but from the way she's clutching her bookbag, I'd say she's figuring he's something closer to someone out of a horror film. I can't say I blame her. I'm not much older than either of them. Probably a little less than a decade...but I'm lucky enough that I don't have to worry about guys like this latching onto me most of the time. I guess it helps that I don't dress like a total hooker like most younger girls do either. This one isn't. She's wearing a cute red sweater and some nice jeans that aren't mangled and dirtied like the fashion has inexplicable become these days. She looks like she's a really classy girl and my heart goes out to here that she's got to sit there terrified as this dirtbag drools all over her as he sings. he's undressing her with his eyes. I can tell it's something he's practiced. I highly doubt anything but his eyes gets to undress girls often.

He seems to be at the end of his solo. He's standing to get off the train. YES!
But here is where he asks the girl for her "digits"...I didn't know anyone even said that anymore. She gives him the rejection hotline. Good girl...but I'm sure he's heard it before. he's by no means a looker, a singer, and any girl within ten feet of his stench might either die from the fumes or be sent running for the hills. Recognition does seem to dawn on his face but he just sulks off the train rather than fight to be rejected again.

So now there's peace at last, for me and the scared little girl. Her arms relax around her army green messanger bag she'd been gripping so tightly before and she takes a book out to study, seemingly happy to be able to drown out the rest of the riders now.

I want to close my eyes and let the day I've had wash over me and be forgotten but I know I'd fall to sleep within seconds. All I can do instead is stare out the window and watch the empty darkness go by. It's not bad really. It's better than having to think, or listen to some kid going the wrong way in trying to impress a girl.

The ride is way too long. I need to move closer to work. I usually have my car so it doesn't normally take this long, but every time my old piece of junk breaks down I realize that I work too far from home. Aside from the rent and the area it's in, my apartment isn't worth it either. My landlord loves to inhabit the place with rich college kids. Every time they break anything, he just exhorts their parents for the money, so for him it's no harm no foul...but I'm the one stuck with all these dumb kids clogging up the works all the time. I pay less than they do like the other adult renters because thats the only thing keeping us there. We're cheap and want to live close to the shopping centers and parks and all those niceties. Maybe I should consider moving jobs instead of moving areas then. I bet I could find a decent place in my neighborhood that isn't too overpriced. Changing jobs would mean adapting to a whole new computer system and set of office politics and I really just don't want to bother with that kind of thing right now.

I guess my best bet is to hope _________ finally decides to pop the question and to figure out the life changes from there. I swear those silly college kids singing to girls on trains are less commitaphobic than him. One year, and nothing. Does he think I'm going to wait around forever? I mean sure I love him, but I'm really not a spring chicken... I never really got that phrase.. I guess chicken's are born in the spring or something. It's still weird. We've known each other for two years though and dated for one year.. even if he was in Indonesia for 4 of the months we've been together, I think we've been able to build something really strong in that time. And we kinda talked while he was away too. Even the 7 months that we've really gotten to be together has just been so good. I'll never understand men. They can go into a shopping mall and be out with whatever they needed in ten minutes but entering into matrimony has to be some kind of big production that takes forever to decide on. At least if they gave equal time to their shopping I'd understand it. They'd just be indecisive creatures by nature but clearly the indecision applies to one area alone.