Nighthawks – Creative Writing

The wickedness is velvet black. The streetlights are switched off a would be cold dank street is illuminated by the fluorescent glow of the all-night diner, which watches the street, glancing through my window, an flat tire above the hardware store. It couldve disturbed my slumber yet I wasnt in. I hadnt been in for a long time and tonight, I sat in the diner, a safe haven for vagrants and nomads. Im alone. There are two other customers in the diner and a bartender however Im alone.My body needs sleep yet my mind wont allow it its been a long day. I must have travelled for several hours just I cant recall a second on the road. My head is a train station of thoughts, coming and going. As I peer upwardly Im forced to squint the vibrant light burns my eyeball from at a lower repoint my hat. From what I can see of the places inhabitants, its the most alive thing in here tonight, dancing along the oak veneer respond and blaze into the bottom of my cup, creating a reflection. I gaze into my own look. The man I see is not the man I am hes grotesque with repellent features and battle scar-like wrinkles. Hes definitely not the man who woke up the previous forenoon in Baltimore in a fully tenanted double bed.Ive had unnumerable Irish coffees further my mind still feels sober. The kid behind the counter looks at me tentatively for the usual impersonal small talk, attempting to catch my give up eyes. I resist, he doesnt remember me. His mother used to run this place nevertheless shes probably long dead. Besides, Im not here to remember. Im here to forget.It was a rough Manhattan neighbourhood scarce the street was as clean as any up township, to me this was largely because of the diner. It protected a once smutch noisome street and brought together the community. Back when I was just an illiterate wiseacre before it all started, before the epiphany that was meeting her.I am awoken derriere to consciousness by the hushed whispers of the couple oppos ite, who look uncomfortable and not just because this apparent hobo is eyeballing them, there was something else, something deeper. I theorise they too must have their reasons for not being at berth, insert up in bed. The man was young and handsome with wired caffeine-powered eyes Id seen him a thousand times before waltzing around up town in a suit. I cant tell whether hes paying for his company or not, Im guessing not because if I was Id demand a refund, she seems more concerned in her hands than his voice, gazing intensely as if reading her palms, deeply occupied in her thoughts.She feels my stare. Id better look away and play it cool but I cant. Even as she gazes digest, Im lost. She sends me a plaintive smile but I remain emotionless. I can tell shes still persuasion hard of other things, half-heartedly raising a cigarette to her rouge lips, barely bothering to inhale. I watch its lacklustre droop for what feels like hours. Shes appeal me. They always do this. She always does this.I bring my refilled cup back to my lips not letting anything slip to the broad. I remain motionless, my insides decomposing shes not panic-stricken of me but childishly curious. Shes attractive in obvious ways but her true beauty is esoteric, only I who have known her for so long could understand. We both maintain this level of equanimity as my eyes are starting to leak. I cant tell whether its for lack of sleep or that I havent blinked in many minutes. Its neither I realise as that pain in my stomach that urged me to drive all this way home is becoming more tolerable. The drink only shielded me temporarily but my emotions are now releasing themselves all over the counter and into my half empty cup. She either doesnt mind or notice but I terminate my tears anyway.The suit next to her grabs her coat.Dyou wanna get show upta here?He cant have seen me. Shell make a fool out of him. She humours these lowlifes but I always know shell be mine at the end of the night even if s he makes me doubt it sometimes.Yeah, sure. Ive just been waiting for you.I dont understand.Why didnt you put forward so?Because I didnt want you following me home.Of course, always one feeling ahead of me. He storms passed me muttering vulgar terms, I hear jade and would hurt him but Ive long since learnt thats not what she wants. I look back to her. She is now standing. In a matter of seconds shes brushing passed my chair ignoring me, shes changed her redolence shes changed her appearance. Shes left me again but I still love her. Ive love her from the moment I set eyes on her in this real diner. I love her when we settled down near her parents in confederation Baltimore, Maryland. I loved her when she told me why we werent physically intimate and I loved her for years until the inevitable happened today. Until it happened today. I see her face on each blonde Ive seen since and I dont doubt I will for a while.The barman looks suggestively at the clock. Ive overstayed my welc ome. My sojourn is over tomorrow I must travel by to my new home. I glance up at the old apartment and the lights inside are on. I can still make out the other two figures on opposite sides of the street but Im alone. I feel even together in the diner, we were all alone.