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mijngevoelens · 5 years

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II He meets HIM

L is sitting on a train.

The train is going fast. He wants to look outside but the train’s speed prevents him from locking down a point in the landscape and looking at it. Besides that, it is also hard because it is 23h in the evening and it is the start of September meaning that it is dark outside. Because of this, he is forced to spend the train ride looking at the things and people inside of the train: a man in a suit staring emptily into space. A woman in her thirties with two loud children. The children do not annoy or bother him, but he prefers to ignore them. The train’s light orange walls, strong lighting and blue coloured seats create an iconic environment, the memory of which is generated whenever someone mentions the word “train” to him. Some things he sees around him are his own luggage consisting of a big bag from some uninteresting famous sports brand, a remainder of the time he still practised sports, a three days old newspaper, the puzzles and articles of which have been of interest to about 12 people since it has been left behind by that one person who took it from that blue stand next to the station’s entrance as a pastime during his one hour train ride home. Leonard, however, is not going home but rather to his apartment in the city. He took a late train to avoid the full trains during rush hour and in order to have somewhere to sit. In fact, He had four seats to himself. He liked the comfort. He tried to close his eyes and sleep but when trying he realised, he did not really want to. His mind kept wandering to his memories of Saturday night’s party with his childhood friends. I will not go through the trouble to name who was there and describe them because there is no need. U probably get the idea. There were the main friends who he had missed, some other people he knew from his childhood but never became friends with, the girls who had gone through most of the guys there and I am sad to say even went through him. And then there was the one girl who he had a real fling with. I may be saying fling out of my disdain for the unfortunate girl, but I do not care. They had a relationship, yes, but apart from the sex it was a one-sided thing as Leonard did not give her a lot of attention. Which only left her wanting more and which is also the main reason they never really broke up and the whole thing just faded after a couple of months. It devastated the girl, pushed her into a short depression and is generally the main reason, she now has a negative attitude toward most guys that try to hit on her. Seeing her at the party did not affect him in the slightest. He does not even remember her being there. What he remembers is the fun times with his friends, how they got drunk together and talked the night through around a campfire in a farmer’s field near one of his friends’ home. It was the only possibility they had living in the countryside. But the party did not occupy his mind for long as he suddenly remembered that he still had to clean his room in the apartment.

He gets off the train and takes the tram to his apartment.

His apartment is a small room that was decorated by his mother back when he moved in last year. The walls are white and empty as no pictures or paintings are hanging anywhere. His bed and most of his furniture are Ikea. His bed is white, his night table black. Although the apartment is one room the sleeping part is zoned into a separate room and can be sealed off by closing a curtain. But he never does that. He falls into his bad and looks at the ceiling. He sees the decorative frame of a chandelier that used to hang there but is now gone. It is a beautiful round shape in renaissance style. It is the point that he stares at when he daydreams on his bed. Although he never thinks about the shape itself. A loud bang is heard coming from one of the rooms next to him. Some of the apartments that were empty last year due to renovations would this year be open to hiring and have now been taken by new people. So, he figures it is just his new neighbour. He is curious who his new neighbour is, so he goes down the hall, walks past the room slowly, looking in. he sees the back of a thin but tall guy crouched. There is music playing in his room, but L does not pay attention to it. Going back into his room again he sees it is midnight, so he decides to go to sleep.

The next day he goes to university, now in his second year of an engineering bachelor. He likes what he studies, and it comes easy to him. At university he has classes. They are made up of noticeably big groups of people. As some of his childhood friends also study engineering, he also has a group of friends in the city. One he expanded throughout the year by meeting new people when going out or while he was on campus.

One of his classes last year was taught by a woman who gave him a lot of trouble. She failed him on his exam by unnecessarily correcting very strictly. After that, she invited him for a conversation about his exam. She showed him his exam, he checked it looked at the mistakes he had made.

Although he noticed that, he did in fact make a lot of mistakes he still found that she corrected disproportionally. Anyone could have looked at the exam and objectively concluded that she corrected too strictly. It annoyed him and he was trying hard not to show it. But she noticed, and it was the reaction she expected. She liked doing this: provoking people. It was some kind of psychopathic trait she had. When she failed people and invited them for a talk, she would afterwards still tell them they passed. So, she told him too that despite everything he could still pass.

He is looking at a list telling him which classes and teachers he will be having this year. Upon seeing one of this year’s classes is taught by the same woman, he clenches his fists. But decides not to keep thinking about it and just ban the thought from his mind for now.

After his morning class, he goes to the store. He buys a pan, toilet paper, some ravioli, butter, and other things he needs to get through the week. He does not like going to sandwich shops fast-food restaurants or any kind of place where you pay other people to cook for you. He prefers cooking things himself. Not out of a love for cooking but because he does not like spending money on that sort of thing. He returns home walking along one of the canals and rivers that run through the city. He enjoys walking there it offers a nice sight and the tall trees offer shade from the September sun. he walks up to the door, opens it, goes up the loud old wooden stairs of the house to get to his room. But as he tries to go up, he sees the guy from last night is going down. They meet each other halfway the staircase, make eye contact and realise they cannot just pass each other since both of them have stuff with them. The guy politely goes back up the staircase to give way for him to pass. Leonard goes up the stairs and puts his bag down.

“Hi I’m Leonard”

“I’m Artyom” the guy says with a sweet smile.

They shake each other’s hand.”

“So which floor are u on?” Leonard asks.

“I am on the second floor and you?”

“oh, me too! I am just moving in.”

“Oh, okay so you are new then?”

“Yes, I am. You aren’t?”

“No, I have already been living here for a year.”

“Oh, okay cool, and which room are you in?”

“behind me haha” Leonard answers pointing at the door to his room. “and where is yours?” he continues asking.

“mine is just two doors down”

Leonard nods and the two turn silent.

“well it is nice meeting you, but I have to go now.”

“Oh, yeah sure”

Artyom goes down the stairs and exits, leaving Leonard to watch him leave. He resumes his thoughts and continues walking into his room. The rest of that day he spends doing homework and other tasks not worth mentioning.

In the evening, the flatmates often gather in the kitchen to eat, listen to music and talk.

Though Leonard has been living in the building since last year and though some remained most of the people he has gotten to know have moved out. Most of them because they finished their university. He feels sort of sad that they are gone but he is also happy that his news flatmates are more his age.

Leonard hears loud music coming from one of the upper floors and suspects it is coming from the sixth floor. A floor where he knows some people. He goes up to the 6th floor’s kitchen to see what is happening. Loud music is playing and about seven girls and three guys are standing spread across the kitchen talking in groups moving to the music. Two girls Giulia and Ariana are cooking pasta with pesto, the scent of which floated through the room. Leonard comes in and starts greeting some of the guys he knows and sees Artyom sitting in the back of the room with two other girls. I just realised I have not described him yet. He has blond-brown hair, as previously mentioned before is tall and thin - just about three centimetres smaller than Leonard. And he is wearing a black hoodie and grey pants. Leonard decides to go up to him. Artyom, sitting on the windowsill leaning against the window, starts grinning when making eye contact with him and seeing that he is coming towards him. Leonard comes to stand across from him, facing the window. He looks outside and sees the cityscape. Though his floor’s kitchen window and this one face the same side this one offers a much more interesting view since it is on the sixth floor. It looks out on streets, other apartment buildings, some school building some factories in the distance and a forested park about the size of a soccer terrain with a strange looking tower standing in its centre.

“Do you know what that tower is?” Leonard asks.

“yeah, I thought it was a water tower from one of the universities here.” Artyom answers turning his head to look at it.

“it looks so strange and weird haha, very ugly.”

“I know right! I hate its colours.”

One of the girls is playing the music and suddenly a song comes on Artyom knows. He starts singing along and dances a bit while staying seated. Leonard despite normally being annoyed by someone shamelessly dancing and singing along is actually amused by it and some of the girls even join in on Artyom. After that one of the guys puts on a song Leonard knows and really likes. It’s a rap song to which he knows the lyrics. So, against his own nature, he starts rapping along and since he is still standing across from Artyom it’s as though he is given a private concert. and al this without breaking eye contact. It’s like they are really becoming friends.

Moments later after the vibe calms down a bit Leonard asks Artyom “have u eaten yet?”

“no, but I am about to go out to eat in the city centre with some classmates, so I will get going in a bit. And you?”

“well I was just about to cook some ravioli downstairs, so I’ll go with you if you’re going down the elevator.”

“oh, sure.”

They say goodbye, leave the kitchen and take the elevator down to the second floor where they both get out. Artyom goes to his room to grab his stuff and a jacket etc while Leonard goes to his room to get his cooking equipment.

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