Monsters

As always, I was sitting on the swing, slowly moving back and forth with a gentle rhythm. Just waiting for the voices to come back. I was always waiting. Waiting for the voices, the crude comments…waiting for an escape. The latter never came.

“Well, of course and escape will never come. No one wants to help you”

“Great, it’s you again,” I mumbled to myself/

“Um…excuse me?”

I turned to the source of the unfamiliar voice that was actually outside of my head. Standing a few feet away was a boy that appeared to be a few years older than me. I had never seen him here before.

“Sorry…I was just…um…who are you?” I asked, changing the subject as fast as I could.

“I’m Darnell…and you are?” he asked, sitting in the swing next to me.

“I’m Natasha. What brings you here so early in the morning?”

He chuckled. “I could ask you the same thing, couldn’t I? At any rate…I come here to think sometimes. I don’t know…things just get hectic at home…at least they have been sine my sister moved in with me. I can’t stand her boyfriend. He’s an asshole.”

I just looked at him curiously for a while.

“Sorry…didn’t mean to get all weird like that,” he said with a charming smile.

I smiled back. An action that felt foreign on my face. “It’s OK. I know how that can be.”

“So…why do you come here at this ungodly hour?”

I shrugged. “Just an escape, I guess. I have random insomnia…so I’m actually here quite a bit. So I guess it’s weird that I’ve never seen you here before,” I answered.

“Yeah. Well…I’ve seen you here before. Not to sound creepy or anything. It’s just that normally I sit over at the picnic tables and after seeing you here quite a few times I figured maybe I’d introduce myself for once. It makes me feel like less of a stalker.”

I nodded. “That makes sense.”

“I suppose it does.”

“Well…I’ve gotta get going. I have to work tomorrow, unfortunately.”

“OK. Well, Natasha, it was nice meeting you. I’ll be here tomorrow if you can’t sleep,” he said with a joking smile.

I smiled back. “Maybe I’ll swing by.”