There’s a Time and a Place

There was a young couple standing against the wall. Things were not going well. It was obvious the boy, who was no more than twenty, had said the wrong thing to the girl who was of about the same age. The girl was pretty in a hood way. She was beautiful and had good style, but she talked rough and would most likely cut you. Her dude was tall and had two hoodies pulled over his Mets hat that was low over his eyes. He stood with one foot against the wall like he was posing for a camera with his head down obscuring him from the situation. She was informing him that not only was he stupid, but he was a bit of an asshole. The kid was silent. He just sat there and took it and almost looked like he had never started listening. His eyes were glazed over like they had been married for twenty years. She spoke a dissertation of his worthlessness with rolling waves of inflection. The girl let him have it all the way until the train pulled up. They walked onto the 1 and sat down next to each other.

It only took the length of one stop before she set back in on him. They had gotten on at 116th street at two in the afternoon on a Wednesday so the car boasted a half load. The girl kept letting her beau know how awful he was. After three stops of this he silently rose and transferred himself to the other end of the train away from the barrage. Without a single word and not a care to the “oh that’s how it is?”s that were being sent his way he casually walked the length of the car and sat as far away from her as he could. While this was a brilliant strategic move, it was a terrible personal move and everyone between them would pay with their silent commute. She didn’t even stand up. She just started yelling and waving her arms all the same garbage as loud as she could.

“This is why no one respects you! You won’t stand up for yaself! I’ve been sitting here dogging you for like fifteen minutes and ya jus takin it! I don’t know why I waste my time on you! Puto!” She spit on the ground for an added effect. She was not so much a Latina but more so a black girl who decided to wear a flannel, white wife beater, and beige Dickies that day so the effect was everyone somehow taking her less seriously. This yelling went on for one more stop and then at 72nd street she clammed up.

She rode silently staring out the window trying her best to look forlorn. For his age and her hotness the kid stood his ground. By this point he had produced headphones from an inner pocket of one of his two jackets and sat softly bobbing his head. His eyes were closed, his goddamn eyes were closed and he honestly did not care what was going anywhere let alone the other end of the car. It took the girl a moment to realize she was being completely ignored. The look that took occupancy of her face was one of confusion and anger. It told a story of someone who had never had this happen from a male of the species. Either this dude had game for days or he honestly just did not care. That was not important right now as he sat blind to the growing storm. Her mouth moved, but there were no noises. With each sentence her quiet articulation reached that of a radio voice actor and with a few non-audible but visually understandable “fuck this shit”s her mind looked made up. The train pulled into Times Square and slew of people got on making the car mostly full.

The train took off and she made the walk to the other end of the train to berate her man to his face. She stood over him in a pose reminiscent of Rhodes and took a deep breath. The groundhogian assault continued and now , for a limited time, came complete with mentions of the length of his unmentionables. She was fuming now, spittle formed foam in her mouth. As she started to really let him have it the backdoor of the car swung open and five Latino men in full Mariachi gear with appropriate instruments entered the scene. They set up in the open space next to the couple in conflict and with a quick “uno, dos, tres” they broke into Hotel California. The noise was too loud for her to continue her airing of grievances and she remained angry for a moment. Exhaustion took hold and she sat down and leaned her head against his shoulder.