An Insomniac's Summer

Finally, after a whole day of unpacking, I’m completely moved into my new place. It’s nothing spectacular, just a basic little condo. To me, it’s home. I’ve never actually liked our huge house back in shitty suburbia. It was filled with spoils, new gadgets, and the like. I think it seemed even bigger because my parents were never around. I like the basics. My old house was just that: an ordinary house. This condo, this is my new home.

It looks like this: open the front door and there’s the living room. On the left wall a couch rests and a television is on the right wall. There is also an archway, farther on the right wall that leads to a small kitchen. The kitchen is connected to the bathroom and my bedroom. In the back of the living room is a sliding glass door. If you go straight back through the sliding door, there’s a decent sized porch with a few chairs, a table, and a swinging bench. My backyard… well, my backyard is the beach.

I arrived here yesterday. I unpacked a bit the first day, but all night, I went out and drove around the city to see what there is to see. I found a nice twenty-four hour diner around a fifteen minute walk from my house, maybe five minutes by car. It’s the second night I’m in the city, second time at the diner. I had been sitting for only a few minutes when I hear his voice.

“Can I sit here?” My head whips around as I turn at the familiar voice.

“Jude?” I was astonished. “How did you- I mean, why… I…” how did he recognize me after eight months?

“I have a good memory for faces.” he states. “You’re name is Mei, right?”

“Well, yes… but what are you doing here?” I ask, still amazed.

“Eh, can’t sleep. Why are you here?” He sits. It wouldn’t have been that odd if it was earlier in the day, maybe. But not two thirty in the morning.

“Same here.” I can never sleep. I’m a bit of an insomniac.

“I was walking by last night and I thought I saw you through the window. I wasn’t sure it was you because I walked by so quickly, but I thought I recognized you.” Whoa… this whole thing is just too bizarre.

“Okay...” I laugh. “So are you always up and about at this time?”

“Uh, yeah… I don’t really sleep at night…” he looks kind of sheepish, like he’s embarrassed to say this.

“Ah, I see. Me too. I usually go to bed anywhere from four to six A.M. During school, sometimes I don’t sleep at all. All nighters have become a natural thing for me. I always thought I was the only one that wasn’t able to sleep at night…” He laughs at my explanation.

“Well, you most definitely aren’t the only one.” He responds, a smile revealing his shiny white teeth.

When we talk, I take a good look at him. I couldn’t forget those piercing blue eyes, and shoulder length black hair, but I now notice that he has slight bags under his eyes and a faint scar on his right cheek. His teeth aren’t perfect; he has a crooked bicuspid. His small imperfections like the scar and the crooked tooth make him all the more attractive.

We catch up on what’s been going on, like we are old friends and not just two people who had met only once before… eight months ago!

The waitress comes after a few minutes of chatting. She is one of those adorable middle-aged women, with a gravelly smoker’s voice hinted with a bit of a southern drawl. I hear her call everyone “honey”, “darlin’”, or “sweetie”. Jude and I ordered two coffees, both black. She came back a few minutes later with the mugs and receipt saying,

“Here they are darlin’s. Enjoy ‘em.” Her name tag read “Trixie”.

“Thank you, Trixie.” I say.

“Anytime, cutie. What’s your name, Hun?” she asks.

“Meili.” I say, extending a hand for a shake.

“Ah, ‘May Lee.” She exaggerated the ‘ay’ in Mei and ‘ee’ in Li. She shakes my hand lightly. “What a per-ty name. Now, who’s this handsome young feller?” she says, referring to Jude.

“I’m Jude.” He says with a smile, and also shakes her hand.

“Oh, you young men these days and your piercin’s n tattoos,” she says, referring to his nose ring and sleeve, “and your long hair!” she ruffles his shiny hair making it a little unruly. A bit of jealousy floods through me. I’ve wanted to do that since the minute I laid eyes on him. “Y’all are such a charmin’ couple.”

“Uh…” I say, unsure of whether or not to correct the false statement.

“…We aren’t dating.” he finishes awkwardly. Right.

“Oops!” she chuckles. “Well you should, Sweetie.” She says. “You two would look mighty cute together.”

Insert awkward silence here.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to your business, then. Toodles.” She struts off to the kitchen, completely unaware of the awkwardness that she created.

After a bit of silence, we finish our coffee. Awkward moment over, Jude asks to pay for my coffee, but I refuse.

He says it’s only two dollars and it doesn’t matter. I give in, but insist on paying for our coffee next time. I hope there is a next time. He chuckles, and agrees. Jude puts down a five dollar bill. He smiles, and walks out the door. I follow him out to the parking lot. It’s now around three A.M. He asks where my car is.

“I walked.” I reply.

“What?!” he asks, incredulous.

“Well… yes?” I say slowly, confused by his reaction.

“It’s dangerous for a girl to be walking around in the middle of the night like that!” he sounds worried. “Esecially alone.”

“Oh, well I didn’t feel like driving tonight, so I just walked.” My parents send me a check in the mail each month. Fifty dollars. It’s not a lot, so I still work. I guess they feel guilty for working all the time, and just throwing me away, so they give me a measly amount of money to live on. At least they bought me this condo to live in, getting me out of their hair.

“I’m giving you a ride.” He states, pointing to his shiny black death trap. Er, I mean motorcycle.

“Hey, um…” I start.

“No buts, c’mon.” he hands me a helmet, and then puts his on his head.

“Isn’t this dangerous?” I ask.

“Well… I’m not going to lie to you and say it’s not. But it can’t be less dangerous than a car. Someone hit me last year when I was in my car, and I haven’t liked driving cars ever since then. I know it’s kind of ironic, since these motorcycles generally are more dangerous than cars are…” he shudders. “I just don’t feel comfortable driving cars anymore.”

“No… I mean, I get it. Car accidents are terrible.” I, of all people, would know. Corey was in one. “I understand. I don’t like cars either… at all.” He looks at me for a moment, trying to figure out the deeper meaning in my words.

“Well, that’s where this is from.” He points to the scar on his cheek, giving up on my vague statement. “This scar is from the car accident." I can see it, barely. The fluorescent lighting radiating from inside the diner helps. “My chest is pretty cut up as well. My windshield shattered and most of the shards flew into my chest and arms. I was lucky I didn’t lose any eyes, or have any glass puncture my heart.”

“Wow…” I say. Corey had died in his car accident. Jude was lucky he survived his…

“So anyways, let’s go.” He ends the conversation about the dangers of transportation vehicles and nudges my arm. I sigh and reluctantly put the helmet on as Jude straddles the motorcycle. He pats the space behind him for me.

Actually, I’ve secretly always wanted to ride on a motorcycle. I slip onto the back, as far away from him as possible. I don’t know what to do with my hands, so I just sit there for a moment. Luckily, he says,

“You’ll have to hold onto me.” with a chuckle. I carefully place my hands on his shoulders, trying not to get to close. I feel so nervous being so close to Jude. He laughs again. “You’ll have to hold on tighter once we get moving. Just hug me.” I can hear the smile in his voice. He just takes my hands and moves them from his shoulders to his stomach. Grateful that he can’t see me, I hug his middle, blushing furiously.

Not too close, though. There’s still a bit of a distance between us, though it isn’t much. I don’t hold on too tight, still rather nervous from not only being this close to Jude, but from the anticipation of actually being on a motorcycle. I can feel his stomach muscles under his t shirt. Swoon.

“Want to drive around for a little while?” he asks.

“Sure, if you want to.” I reply.

“Yes, I do. Make sure to hold on.” He reminds me. I squeeze him thismuch tighter. He starts up the engine, kicks up the kickstand, and speeds away.

“Yeee!” I scream just a little once we’re out of the parking lot and we start to gain speed.

WHOA. It’s so fast. I tighten my grip around him so that there’s no space left between us, at all. I squeeze my eyes shut and lean my head against his back. So much for the little distance between us. Now, there is no distance, our pelvises flush and my body against his.

“Having fun?!” he shouts over the roar of the engine after a moment.

“…Uh…!” I yell back.

“Just look around! It’s incredible!” he hollers back.

I crane my neck to peek out from over his shoulder and I see that we’re driving right down my street. In fact, we just drove past my condo. It only could’ve been a few minutes that we were riding. I look to the right and left of us. The trees, the other condos, everything just flies by.

“Wow…!” It’s breathtaking. I realize how close we are and I loosen my hold, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Isn’t it a great feeling?!” he asks/shouts.

“Yeah, it’s unbelievable!” I yell. “It’s…” I search for the right word. “Amazing!” Just for the hell of it I yell, “Wooo!”

I hear his laughter over the roar of the bike. I giggle, too. We drive on for what seems like forever. I feel like I’m flying, or something! There aren’t really any other cars on the road now. Why would someone be driving at this time, anyways?

If I could, I’d stay with Jude, riding around on his motorcycle for the rest of my life. Okay, exaggeration… but, I definitely want to do this again! A while later, after we’ve driven around the outskirts of the city, he yells back,

“It’s about four thirty now…!” Wow, we’d been driving for an hour? It only felt like a few minutes.

“Oh, uh, well did you want to drop me off, then?!” I ask/yell.

“Yeah, I should probably get at least some sleep!” he replies/shouts with a chuckle.

“Sure. Well, we actually went down my street earlier! 137 Sunset Boulevard!”

“Oh, okay!”

We drive the same route we came and arrive to my house/condo all too quickly. I gingerly step off the bike. My knees wobble a little bit. It was a great time. I try not to fall over and embarrass myself.

“…You live here?” he ask, disbelief filling his voice.

“Well… yeah.” I don’t know why he’s so surprised.

“Not to be rude or anything, but this must cost more than my apartment.” I see him blush in the moonlight.

“Oh, no don’t worry about it. My parents are kind of wealthy. I was pretty much living alone in my old house too. They’re always traveling the world for business and such. I only see them for Christmas and big holidays like that; they don’t even come home for my birthday.” It makes me a bit sad, thinking about it now. “So, they pay rent for me to live here while I go to school at Hobson’s.”

“So… you live here… by yourself?” he still looks taken aback.

“Uh, yeah? I am eighteen, you know.” I say, laughing at his skepticism.

“Well, I guess.” He laughs too. “Sorry to be getting in your business, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Nah, its fine, really.” I don’t want him to feel bad for asking about my life!

“Okay, well that was fun tonight.” He says. Gah, I want this to happen again. I don’t want to miss my chance; I don’t want a repeat of what happened with Corey! I’m taking this chance while I can. I need to grab life by the balls!

“Uh… do you want to meet back at Flo’s again tomorrow?” I ask him. I hope he doesn’t think I’m asking him out.

“Oh! Um…” he looks a bit surprised. Crap, I shouldn’t have done that. He’s probably a busy guy, not having time to hang out with someone like me. A child. I look down at my feet, blushing. “Well, yeah.” He says. I look up and meet his bright eyes. “Yeah,” he repeats. “Sure, that would be cool. What time?” I hide my smile the best I can, but I feel the corners of my mouth betray me with a sort of a grin.

“How about midnight?” I suggest.

“Midnight it is.” He has a hint of a smile on his face. His smile fades slightly and his tone becomes more serious. “Goodnight, Mei.” He says softly.

“Good morning, Jude.” I reply, barely a whisper.

He smiles again and laughs. He hops back on his bike, starts the engine and pulls out of the driveway. Once he reaches the turn where my street ends, he waves before disappears.

I wave back, even though he’s already gone.