Three...Two...One...Happy New Year!!!
Cheers from the crowd erupted as the clocks ticked over from 2006 into 2007. Flurries began to float across Times Square, the endless flashing lights turning the flakes into suspended flickering crystals. The whole square reeked of drunkenness and partying as the thousands...hundreds of thousands packed Times Square as they had every year since 1907. The freezing cold and crowded celebration turned everyone tipsy or drunk, and turned everyone into old friends as well.
It wasn't a bad activity for a first trip ever to New York City. David, Second Class at the Naval Academy, was from Omaha, and the last person anyone would think would be a future sailor, let alone a future officer in the Navy. Moving to Annapolis was the first time he'd ever been to the East Coast. This year, a bunch of the guys packed into an old, borrowed car, and drove up to New York City for New Year's.
David and the crew had arrived at 2pm that afternoon in uniform. Immediately the cadets drew attention to themselves. Sharpened by regimental confidence and twenty-one academic hours every semester, and sculpted by mandatory intramurals, fitness, and summer cruises, the Academy tended to develop strong physical traits, stamina, and precision in movement. David combined ice blue eyes and a blond Navy cut with a masculine, angular jawline. His face was hairless, as per regulation. His athletic passion was lacrosse, and had the calves and shoulders to prove it. At 5'11" he was the second tallest of the four, whose tailored winter-dress earned nods of approval by men, and long looks from women of all ages.
After the ball drop and amorphic mass celebration, the crew decided to split for a few hours, and meet back up at Eugene's on 41st Street for the all-night/all-day soiree party. David, the most meticulous of the crew, wanted the time to shower, change, and catch an hour of sleep before heading back out again. For this view, he was harangued and roasted by the crew. He laughed it off and hailed a cab among the sea of yellow checkers and illuminated brake lights.
"St. Mark's Hotel, please," David slipped into the cab, sliding across the back seat to directly behind the driver. Traffic, as he should have suspected but for his New York virginity, was at a complete standstill.
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Julia was freezing cold, and attempting stomping around in her boots to stay warm. She and her friends had been drinking very heavily, and were swaying, laughing, and clinging to each other as they almost danced through the crowds in Times Square.
Julia was a senior at Hunter College, majoring in elementary education, and in the Latino Honor's Society. She had lived in the Bronx her entire life. Amazingly, in twenty-three years she had never been to Times Square on New Year's Eve: a conscious decision whose practice was not so amazing among native New Yorkers.
Julia wished she had worn more sensible shoes for the night out. The three inch heeled ankle-high boots were doing little to keep her feet warm despite thick socks, and were murder on her feet. They looked great with her jeans, but that was about all they had going for them at the moment. In response to the mild pain and freezing cold, alcohol was providing a workable solution. The girls' laughing and inebriated sway was proof of this.
Julia had large, deep brown eyes, and lustrous long, straight black hair. Tonight she had just kept it loose and straight, letting the long, shiny strands cascade down her back and shoulders. Her face was small and soft, with full, glossed lips and an unclefted chin. She never wore much facial makeup, as her skin was smooth and supple, the color of creamed coffee. She was just under 5'5", and hated herself for it. Her waist and hips were narrow, her legs toned. She hated being so average, and wasn't aware how attractive men actually found her. She always took their complements as cheap invitations to Ikea beds and carryout laundered sheets.
In the haze of the night, the women found themselves on the corner of Sixth Avenue, watching the near gridlock of traffic push through the intersection at 41st Street. The streets were packed with people: New Year's Eve keeping Midtown packed well past midnight. Auld Lang Syne had broken out amongst the crowd. The girls took up the tune and laughed their way through it joyously.
Julia blinked a few times through the sea of traffic lights and reflected profiles. Someone caught her eye, and she was concentrating on focusing for a better look.
"Oh my God, look at that guy," Maria poked fun at her friend.
"Damn," Larissa was impressed, "that guy is hot."
The three of them stared the cab down. Julia had always been the malleable one, so they all knew whom to dare.
"You should totally go over there and get in that guy's cab, Julia."
"I know you're too chicken to talk to a guy like that, Julia," The two of them laughed at her, knowing how shy she normally was, and kidding her for it. It's not like she could go over there and talk to him. He was inside a cab.
"Chicken...Chicken," the girls mused behind her, laughing.
Julia crooked her lips in a half-smile. She would show them. She confidently walked out into Sixth Avenue, and hailed a cab. Finding the one, she strode over to it, and opened the unlocked door, and slipped in.
As the unlocked door opened abruptly from the exterior, flooding the interior cab with bitterly cold air and a slender backlit body, David was momentarily at a loss. Was this usual? Was he being robbed? This being his first New York experience, he didn't know how to react, if he could react. She – as became clearer as the yellowed interior lights traced her feminine form – quickly slammed shut the back door.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize is cab was taken," Julia attempted to sound aloof.
"It's...ok," David confusedly answered.
"Well...wanna share?" Julia asked, her lips parting to hint at her white teeth.
"O...k...," David answered, not having any clue what that meant.
She told the driver where she wanted to go, and it happened to be reasonably close to the St. Mark's Hotel, though neither of them knew that.
