Chapter Text
New York- 2000
Rich took a long drag of his cigarette as he stared out over the subway tracks, behind him he heard someone tut. A large, well off looking woman was glaring at him and pulling her daughter away, he raised an eyebrow at her, and she didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed at being caught. Her daughter was also watching him with a non judgemental curiosity, Rich pulled a face at her, making her giggle. Furious, the woman pulled her daughter closer to her and transferred her glare to her daughter instead. The girl immediately went comically quiet and still in an attempt to please her. Rich felt a rush of inexplicable familiarity.
“Oh give me one,” Sandy appeared from nowhere, completely forcing the familiarity from his mind, laughing when Rich jumped.
“I thought you quit,” he said. Sandy shrugged and helped herself to one.
“Past Sandy was an idiot if she thought she could get through this party without a smoke,” she said.
Despite them coming to New York at the same time, hell, Sandy was half the reason Rich moved to NYC in the first place, they couldn’t have looked more different. Sandy had found a well paid office job with health insurance and potential career progression. Although her dress was simple, it had a level of class which Rich sorely lacked, and clearly stated ‘I am an adult.’ Rich looked like a kid who had come to New York to ‘make it’ about a month ago. This was not strictly true, he was in fact a kid who had come to New York to ‘make it’ three years ago. Even for an office party he was wearing jeans and ratty converse, though be it with a shirt.
“Remind me why you’re forcing me to suffer through it as well then?” He asked.
“Because I need a fake boyfriend to keep Creepy Steve away from me,” Sandy explained, “that’s the only reason I’m friends with you.”
Rich gasped dramatically.
“Are you using me Miss Sandra Jones?” He asked in his southern belle voice, “I thought you loved me!”
Sandy played along, taking a dramatic drag of his cigarette, then putting an impression of a southern gentleman.
“Love? Oh grow up Richard, love is for poor people.”
They laughed and then stood in a comfortable quiet for a moment as they both smoked.
“Besides,” Sandy went on, “I need to introduce you to Eddie. My friend who also grew up in Maine?”
Rich rolled his eyes.
“You know Maine is an entire state right? Not one town,” he reminded her.
“He’s your type,” Sandy continued, as she often did, as if Rich hadn’t spoken, “kind of mean, big brown eyes. Maybe he’s your mystery boy,” she teased. Rich gave her a playful shove.
“Fuck off! I am never getting high with you again!”
“Liar,” Sandy smirked, completely unconcerned. She put out her cigarette just as the train pulled up and offered her arm to Rich, “shall we?”
Rich linked arms with her.
“We shall.”
:*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*:
Eddie mindlessly swallowed a cocktail of pills. He’d promised himself when his mother had died three months before that he would stop, but that still hadn’t happened. He’d lived in the apartment on and off since he and his mother had moved to New York, yet it was almost completely void of him. From the lacey tablecloth to the cute kitten figurines on the windowsill, the apartment he’d been paying the rent for since he’d left college belonged completely to his mother. And despite her no longer being there Eddie couldn’t help but feel watched. He checked his watch.
Shit.
He was going to be late.
“Eddie!” A voice greeted him as soon as he got out of the apartment, and Eddie had to resist the urge to bolt. Instead he put on a fake smile.
“Hello Myra,” he said. Myra had taken it upon herself to keep his mother company during the last year of her life when she was housebound at best, bed bound at worst, and while Eddie appreciated that massively, it had allowed his mother to put the idea that Myra needed to look after him in her head.
That Myra girl is nice,” his Ma said. She’d been saying it alot since Myra’s visits had become more frequent.
“Hmm,” Eddie said non commitently, pretending to watch the crappy soap his mother had on the TV.
“I worry about you Eddie,” His Ma sighed, “why have you never brought a girl home?”
Eddie shrugged, wishing desperately he was anywhere else.
“You need someone to look after you Eddie,” his Ma pushed, “I’m not going to be around forever.”
"I’m just waiting until I’m sure,” he said, “you can never be too careful with these things.”
“Well, that Myra girl is exactly the right sort,” his Ma said.
"She’s not my type,” Eddie tried, taking a different direction but his Ma was intent on having the conversation.
“Who is your type then Eddie?” She asked suspiciously.
Eddie shrugged, intently watching the TV in the hope that she would drop the subject.
“You look nice,” Myra said, “going somewhere?”
“Business party.”
“Oh that sounds like fun!” Myra enthused. Eddie was almost certain it would not be, “do you want to come over after? I’m making lasagne.”
“No thanks, there’s going to be food there,” Eddie said, having no idea if that was the case.
“Oh, some other time maybe?” She sounded hopeful, and was still smiling sweetly at him.
“Maybe,” Eddie said, not wanting to completely shut her down. He liked Myra, she seemed kind and sweet and she had done a good job not just looking after his mother but keeping her company, but she also reminded him so much of his mother that he was slightly uncomfortable talking to her, never mind taking her up on her offers for what he assumed would be dates. That was a whole lot of baggage he did not want to unpack.
"See you then," he said, locking his door.
“Oh. Bye Eddie.”
He gave Myra a friendly, if slightly awkward wave and began to jog down the same stairs he'd been jogging down for years.
It was only once he was outside the apartment building that Eddie finally felt as if he could breathe.