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Saturday, September 11, 2010

Making up stories about the people at starbucks

"So what did you think of today?" Silence. "Was it better than you thought it would be?"
"Yeah." More silence. "This tastes really good."
"Yeah." The song Powerman by The Kinks comes on over the speakers and it makes you want to get up and do something exciting but of course you don't. You stare off into the middle ground and listen to the song. She's staring too, unfocused, just over your shoulder but you don't know if she's listening to the song too, you know that she's noticed it too, she introduced you to The Kinks after all, or merely listening to her own thoughts or nothing at all. You start to ask her what she's thinking about but change your mind. Frankly, you don't care and she knows it. All those insincere questions you've asked those uninspired answers and half-truths. You're just so sick of it all. Where did the honesty go from your relationship? The sincerity? More importantly, the interest? You used to call her up every night to hear everything new that had happened to her in the two hours since you'd last seen each other. What had she been thinking about? What had she been doing? How was her mom? Her sister? Her dog? Anything exciting happen? Anything boring? It didn't matter, it was the world to you. You could listen to her talk for hours and hours. And often times, you did just that. Those were good times. And now? Who was this stranger sitting across from you? The indifference between you two is palpable. In the corner of the cafe, the happy couple that walked in just a minute ago is now sitting awkwardly, made uncomfortable by the tension that emanates from you.
"Hey what are you doing tomorrow night?"
"What?"
"I said, what are you doing tomorrow night?"
"Oh." Silence. By horrible coincidence, Powerman finishes and for one long, painful moment, the entire cafe is filled with your awkward silence. "Um, nothing. Yeah, I don't think I'm doing anything."
"Oh. Well, did you want to do something."
"I don't know."
I give you two another week of horrible, painful, uncomfortable silences before one of you puts a stop to it. Being alone sucks but is this so much better? Eventually one of you will take the risk. And for the sake of all the innocents in this coffee shop, thank God for that.

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