Better Than Running at Night by Hillary Frank

Author:Hillary Frank
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Chill Space

Sunday afternoon I went to the Garage to work on sketches for my 3-D assignment. Sam was there, too, hat pulled over his headphones and a bag of Dunkin' Donuts on his desk. I bet Sam would reach his freshman fifteen by the end of Wintersession.

I started sketching from Human Anatomy for Artists, since I couldn't come up with any ideas for the project.

Plus, maybe the book would say something about the Bowling Ball Phenomenon.

I had left Nate's on Friday feeling bad. Neither of us felt like talking, for some reason. We didn't talk or see each other all of Saturday, either. I decided I wasn't going to call him first. I didn't want to talk to him until he was less distracted. Until his project was under control.

But that's not to say I wasn't checking my answering machine for messages. Every half hour or so that night I'd go outside the Garage to the pay phone. Just in case. And each time, the electronic lady greeted me with the ever dreaded, "Hello, you have no new messages."

Around seven o'clock I guessed he had given up on me. Well, good. He'd been taking up too much of my time anyway.

I went back to the Garage.

Sam was sitting backwards on his stool, arms folded and hanging over the chair back, feet planted on the rungs. His headphones hung around his neck and he was looking at the floor.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm in my chill space," he said, still staring ahead.

"Your chill space?"

"Yeah."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about chilling."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Ed wants us to create a space, right?" He turned to look at me. "And my favorite space is my chill space, but, you know, people don't think of it as a space."

"Why not?"

"Because nobody else can go there but me. It's in my head, man."

"I don't buy it," I said. "There must be a way for other people to go there. You're not so different from anyone else. You're just spaced out."

"No way," he said. "When I'm in my chill space it's just me and the thinking machine." He tapped his skull.

"Maybe if you talked more, other people could enter into your thoughts," I said. "If you don't tell people what you're thinking, of course they'll never know what's going on in your head."

He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but no sound came out.

There was a sudden draft from the door. And arms around my waist.

"Guess what the NECAD film series is playing tonight!" Nate said.

"What."

"The Shining!"

"Great flick," said Sam.

"Thanks, I know that," Nate said. "That's why I came to get Ellie. We've got to go! It starts at eight, so we have to hurry!"

He rubbed his cold cheek on mine. I smelled the frigid air on his jacket.

"How did you know I was here?"

"Well, I just tried calling your place and there was no answer, so I figured this was a safe bet."

Sam was watching us. For the first time I was aware of what it was like to be on the participating side of PDA.

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