Goodbye

He watched as Heather (....or was it Helen?) get dressed and fix herself up in front of the full-length mirror on his door. She matted her freshly coated lips on a tissue and glanced at him over her shoulder. "This was fun, but I gotta go now. I'll leave my number."

Gavin shifted in bed and thought, Did she wear that much make-up last night?

He looked on in disgust as she scribbled her digits on his mirror with the tube of lipstick she had just finished using.

Why do chicks always do that? It's fucking annoying to have to clean up that shit. I think I'm out of Windex too. Fuck.

She bent over and kissed him on the lips and walked out of the apartment. Finally. Another weekend gone by. Another pile of credit card receipts. Another headache. Another crushed cigarette pack, its contents eating away at his lungs. Another forgotten name and another number to clean off of his mirror.

If he had a notch on his bedpost for every girl he had had in that room, he would have a pile of sawdust by now.

He looked at his tired face in the mirror and decided he was tired of this. Let's get some breakfast.

His phone rang and he let the machine pick it up. It was his friend Madeliene. "Hey, stupid, its me, Maddie. Pick up. I'm bored. Ok ok, no doubt you're with another one of your skanks. Man, you should be ashamed of yourself or at least ashamed of all the diseases you've probably racked up by now. Yucks! Anyhow, I'm gonna put a sign on your door for all those poor souls that say, "Beware of wolves in sheep-skin condoms. Call me later."

(to be continued)

By Train

On a particularly insignificant day, the 8:17 A.M. train out of Sydney pulled out of platform 7 on time and with a full cabin. The whistle blew once, twice and the newly oiled wheels went from a slow turn to a speedy buzz. The train headed north.

An old man sat in row 67 alone. No one knew that he had also purchased the seat next to him so he wouldn' t have to bother with a stranger sitting next to him. There was a time when that seat was taken by his wife, Matilda, who had died two weeks ago. He had many memories of he and Matilda taking summer trips by train and he knew he would miss the thrill of the ride. This would be the last train ride he would ever take.

This thought weighed heavily on his mind.

(to be continued)