Sunday in New York

That Night...

I had my iPod playing on its docking system, One Night, One Kiss by The Russian Futurists was playing quietly as I checked myself in the mirror. I was dressed pretty casual, nothing too fancy, just a plaid shirt, skinny jeans, and Converse sneakers. The buzzer for my door went off, I checked the time. 7:03pm.

I went over to the door and pressed the button to talk into the speaker. "I'll be right down." I put on my shoes and grabbed my bag, locking the door before I went downstairs. I went out and saw him sitting on the side of the stairs, when he noticed me he quickly stood up and smiled.

"Hi, wow, you look great." He grinned.

I lightly laughed, "Thanks. You look really good."

He just smiled and pushed back his hair. "Um, should we get going?"

"Yeah." I nodded. We walked down the stoop toward his car, he opened the door for me. After I got in, he soon joined me on his side. He shut his door and was about to start the car.

"Wait, where are we going?" He chuckled. I laughed and shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, did you want to get something to eat? I'm kind of starving."

"Yeah sure, what are you in the mood for?"

I thought for a moment, "Do you like Gray's Papaya? I haven't been there in ages."

"Yeah, I love Gray's. Let's go there." He smiled, starting the car.

"Well let's order it to go, I know a neat place to hang out." I smiled.

He smiled back and nodded, "Sure, where is this neat place?" He laughed lightly.

"Tonight they're showing old horror films in Central Park. I like to go when I can."

"That sounds perfect."

We drove to Gray's and ordered our meals to go, and afterwards we drove to Central Park. The 1931 version of Frankenstein was showing, so we found a spot on the grass, sort of away from the crowd but still able to see the big screen. We were laughing and talking with each other as we had our meals.

"So how long have you been in New York?" He asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

I gave a laugh, "Forever. My family is from Brooklyn, my dad grew up there, my mom is from Queens. They met, got married, moved into a small home in Brooklyn, I was born, and that was where I was raised."

He dropped his head to the right as he looked at me, "Really? So then you moved to the Village for school?" I pulled my legs close to myself and crossed my ankles, resting an elbow on my knee. I nodded, "Yeah, I came to the Village once, when I was about 13, and I just fell in love with it. I knew that I needed to move here."

"That's really great." He smiled.

After taking a drink, I shrugged my shoulders. "So, how long have you been in New York? I can't help but notice you have an accent." I smiled at him.

He started to laugh, he pushed back his hair and shook his head. "Seriously, you can hear it? I've been trying to lose it since I came to New York." I laughed with him, "Is it British?"

"Yes it is, um, we moved there when I was 10, and stayed until I was 19. My mum was from London and she missed it so much, my father decided to move us all to England. And after she passed when I was 13, my dad sent me to Eton school, and I stayed there until I graduated when I was 18. Right after that, I went to St. Andrews University for a semester and then dropped out. I didn't like it. And then when I came back to New York. I was living in the Upper East Side for a while, but then I decided on a whim to moved down to SoHo. And that's where I am now."

I couldn't help but smile, "That's amazing, you've had a pretty great upbringing."

He went quiet and sighed, "It wasn't all that it seemed to be." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't have a relationship with my father."

I nodded and looked down. I then placed my hand on his, "We don't have to talk about him." He looked up at me slowly and smiled. He stood up and picked up our garbage and went to toss it, when he came back he had a smile on his face as he sat back down. "You know, not many girls I know like horror films."

I started to laugh, "I know! I've always loved them. I guess that what I get for hanging out with my brothers growing up."

"They like horror movies too?"

I smiled and nodded, "Yeah, Jonny boy and Paulie are movie buffs. Every Saturday night our parents would let us stay up to watch scary movies, and every Sunday we'd go to church and be dead tired from either staying up all night or not being able to sleep." I laughed at the memories.

He laughed with me and leaned back on his elbows. "What's your favourite film?"

"Oh that's easy, Night of the Living Dead. And then Frankenstein." I began unbuttoning the cuff of my shirt and rolling up the sleeve. "See." I showed him a tattoo of Frankenstein on my inner forearm.

He quickly sat up and gently held my arm examining the tattoo, "This is amazing! Is this your only tattoo?"

I gave a short laugh, "Not at all, I have many." I began unbuttoning the outer shirt and slid it off my shoulders, showing him my arms and shoulders. He crawled around looking at each of them. "You are amazing, not only are you a film buff, you're into tattoos."

I laughed as he crawled around me, looking at my back until I felt his fingertips on my shoulder. "What's this?" I shrugged my shoulder and quickly pulled my shirt back on, I had felt him touch the scar embedded into the back of my shoulder. I turned to face him with a half-smile, "It's nothing, just an ugly scar."

He looked at me softly, "We all have scars."

I just smiled and cleared my throat, "So, do you have any tattoos?"

He laughed and laid down in the grass, "Me? I'm terrified of needles."

"No kidding?"

"Serious, I love the idea of tattoos and they're such a cultural form of art. I don't know, maybe some day I'll get one." He grinned.

I laid down next to him, hearing the screams from the movie in the background and the low murmur of the people watching. Looking up at the night sky, a blanket of bright and shining stars looked down at us. I smiled, being fascinated with the incandescent lights in the sky. I could then feel his eyes on me, and I waited for a moment, closing my eyes. Finally, slowly I turned to look at him until we were both eye to eye staring at each other. In that moment, I felt like everything made sense. Like he and I had a connection like no other. I softly smiled at him and he softly smiled back.