Boy Outside (short story)

    Calvin set his backpack down on the end of the bed and opened it. He hovered for a minute, quietly staring at its contents, then zipped it shut. He looked around the hotel room. It was basic. A bed with horribly colored quilt and sheets. A small desk fastened to a wall with a swivel chair too high to slide beneath it. A knee high fridge, small bathroom and shower and that was pretty much it. He walked over to the window and looked out at the view of the wall-side of the next building over. He checked his watch and noticed the time. He turned and looked at the hotel phone; it began ringing. He waited until the seventh ring to answer it.

     "Hey you!" he said. "Yep, I just arrived," he added. "Okay, I'll meet you in the hotel restaurant."

     Downstairs, Calvin navigated the ground level of the hotel until he found the restaurant and bar. He approached the entry and was immediately greeted by an employee.

     "Mask, please. And I'll need to check your VP before entry." Calvin pulled out a mask and attached it to his face then retrieved a small laminated card from his wallet and presented it to the doorman who quickly waved it away. "We stopped accepting those. Too many fakes. I’ll need to see your phone app."

     Still holding the card in his hand, Calvin sighed loudly, annoyed by the tit-tight rule boy impeding his entry. "Dude, it ain't fake. Just look at it and let me in. PLEASE."

     It was the employee's turn to huff. He took the card and held it up to the light, flipping it around and looking at both sides. It appeared legit. He handed it back.

     "We don't have our scanner machine installed yet anyhow, so I'm gonna let you in, but you really need to upgrade to the digital version, bro. Nobody is taking these anymore. I heard some people were paying up to a grand for fakes. It's unbelievable, I just don't get it," he remarked while showing Calvin to his seat. "That's a lot of money," he continued. "Oh, the things I could do with a thousand dollars..." he mumbled while walking back to his door post.

     Calvin slid over and placed his back against the wall so that he could sit with a visual on everything. The restaurant was at half capacity and people were mostly socially distanced. He sat and waited for his date to arrive. He looked at his watch. She was seven minutes late. Over at the bar, a large black woman wearing a tight purple shirt and black stretch pants stood behind a bar stool, hugging the top of it with her enormous tits and rocking it back & forth on two legs. Next to her, a skinny white boy, nerdy looking, who also refused to sit. They accompanied one another playfully, drinking and making off color jokes about everyone and everything. They were wonderfully and perfectly placed. Beyond them, down the rest of the length of the bar, sat a bunch of nobodies. They talked very little, made no splash, but merely sipped their drinks in quiet desperation. 

     Calvin checked his watch; she was now ten minutes late. A waitress appeared.

     "Hey sweetie, whatcha having?" she asked as she slid into the booth with him while making popping sounds with her gum. She placed her order pad onto the table and used both hands to readjust her mask to separate the gum that had partially stuck to it. 

     "I'm waiting for someone," Calvin said. The waitress cracked her gum and slid in closer.

     "We're all waiting for someone, hun," she replied while shifting her blouse. "But that doesn't mean we have to die from lack of thirst while we wait," she added. "Whatcha having?"

     Calvin ordered a gin and tonic and watched as the waitress bounced happily away. Just then, Lauren arrived. She looked peeved.

     "The gestapo at the door wouldn't let me in! Fucker said my vax-pass was fake!" she exclaimed angrily.

     Calvin laughed. "He did the same to me. Joke's on him though, right? He just let two non-jabbers in."

     "Sure, but the joke's on us in the end. I don't know about you, but I spent almost a grand for mine and pretty soon it will be worthless."

     "I paid almost three for mine," Calvin replied shamefully.

     "For fuck sake, Cal... three grand?!" Lauren gasped. "I didn't even pay that much for my car," she added. "And to think, all this bullshit and jumping of hoops just to avoid becoming one of them," she said while nodding her head toward the rest of the restaurant.

     "So.. Lauren," Calvin said while leaning across the table.

     "So.. Calvin," Lauren replied while settling into her seat. They stared at one another for a moment, smiling, until eventually Lauren giggled and looked away. She was beautiful. Her straight, brown hair hung down past her shoulders and her facial features were in perfect symmetry. Calvin smiled again and watched as her gorgeous eyes darted shly up and away and her tiny mouth returned a smile as cute as the day. She was devastatingly pretty.

     Calvin continued. “It’s really good to finally meet you. I mean, I can hardly believe you are actually sitting right here across from me. It’s as though my real life brain can’t quite grasp what my online brain has been doing ever since we started chatting.” Calvin shook his head. “Ugh, that sounded so dumb, I’m ridiculous. And I’m not very good at this.”

     Lauren laughed, reached over and placed her hand onto his. “You’re nervous and it’s adorable. And you are quite handsome in real life, so that certainly helps,” she said playfully.

     Calvin relaxed a bit and enjoyed the feeling of her warm hand on his. He was about to start talking again when suddenly the waitress appeared with his drink.

     “Here ya go, one gin & tonic in a disposable cup. If you’re hungry, just scan that QR code and pull up the menu on your phone. We stopped using our handhelds for obvious reasons.” She turned and faced Lauren. “How can I wet your whistle, darling?”  

     Lauren let out an audible ‘hmm’ and ordered an apple martini. The waitress asked if a plastic cup would be okay and then scooted on to the next table. Lauren leaned in toward Calvin.

     “The last place I snuck into was still using actual glassware and you’d think I hit the dang lottery as excited as I was.” 

     Calvin smiled. “Wow, you lucky. My neighborhood is still wrecked. Only half the businesses are open and of those that are, none of them are messing around. Still take-out only and you gotta stand outside and wait for them to slide it through a make-shift window. The place I used to eat at all the time, they were cutting corners and being very relaxed with the rules until they were hit with a ten thousand dollar fine. Couldn’t afford it; heard they closed their doors for good.”

     Lauren shook her head with disgust. “Yeah, well, things are getting much tighter. They’re requiring the VaxPass almost everywhere where I live. Even the local grocery store and my credit union. Granted, I never actually go into my bank, but still.” Lauren gripped his hand and continued. “I’m scared, Calvin. I don’t know what I’m going to do once these paper VP’s are no longer accepted. And get this! Where I work, we just received a company wide memo stating that all employees must have VaxPass for entry onto the premises. Those that do not, will have to work from home for half the hours and pay. I’ve worked there for sixteen years!”

     Her hand was trembling and Calvin watched as she did her best to hold back tears. He reached over with his free hand and took both of hers in his.

     “Lauren, look at me,” Calvin said. “We’re gonna get through this. I know it seems impossible right now and it feels like all the walls are closing in on us, but damn it, we will not be reduced to dumpster parasites! There will be ways, I promise. My underground agorist friends, for example, they are resourceful as fuck. And lots of small businesses won’t comply. Farmers and homesteads too. There will be things we can do to continue working and eating and living. There has to be!” Calvin exclaimed as though he were trying to convince himself as much as her. His concentration was broken as he noticed the waitress headed back toward their table, followed by three male employees.

     “Oh fuck. Lauren, we might have a..”

     But it was too late. The damage was done. The suspicious doorman had apparently been eavesdropping on their conversation and upon hearing enough of it, had alerted the rest of the staff. The group stood firmly together and formed a blockade at the table as the doorman stepped from around the corner to face them.

     "Security to the bar area.. STAT," he blurted through his two-way radio. "We have two in custody, one male, one female. Requesting quarantine assistance, over."

     "What the hell is this about?" Calvin demanded, although he already knew.

     "Shut up and remain seated and make no moves to escape. You and your dirty bitch. If you move, this will get ugly. Ya got it?”

     “What the hell did you just call her?!” Calvin shouted while half standing up..

     “I’m pretty sure you heard me.. and I said SIT!” the man reached over the table and shoved Calvin hard enough to send him sprawling back against the wall. Defeated, Calvin remained seated and pulled out his vape. He looked over at Lauren and gave her a wink before hitting his vape. He inhaled as deeply he could and released a huge cloud of white smoke directly at the workers blocking their table. In a frantic panic, the workers broke rank and scattered in an attempt to avoid contact with the smoke, giving Calvin and Lauren just enough time to make a run for it.

     "C’mon, hurry!” Calvin shouted while sliding warp speed from the booth. The two sprinted and made their way toward the exit, but were stopped by a squad of four guards wearing police style riot gear and carrying quarantine equipment.

     “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Calvin managed to shout before getting tackled to the floor. The impact was brutal and he felt something pop in his sternum, followed by an intense flash of severe pain that shot all the way down into his leg. “Ugh, you son of a bitch, you just fucking broke something.”

     The security guard gave zero shits and immediately drove his knee and body weight down into Calvin’s back, pinning him aggressively to the floor while a second guard quickly zip-tied his wrists. 

     Lauren looked down at Calvin and tried mouthing something to him, but the third guard spun her around, secured her wrists behind her back and quickly marched her away.

     “Leave her out of this! She had nothing to do with anything; it was all me! I’m the one you want, not her!” Calvin managed to yell through extremely pained breathing. But it was no use, Lauren was gone. As two of the guards lifted him off the floor the pain in his ribcage worsened and he nearly fainted.

     “Stop being a fag and walk,” one of them barked, pushing Calvin forward. By now a crowd of masked onlookers had gathered and stood watch, whispering, pointing, and taking vertical videos with their phones. Calvin could hear some of them correctly analyzing the situation while others speculated everything from theft to plotting to blow up the hotel.

     A security guard advanced toward the crowd and ordered them to disperse.

     “Everything is under control, people, but please evacuate this area. We are relocating this man to a nearby quarantine facility and will return to perform a WellHealthSafety sterilization. We assure you, everything is fine. Now please, go back to your rooms or to whatever you were doing,” the guard bellowed.

     Calvin was forced to painfully walk the entire length of the building while trying to maintain the security guards’ pace. As they neared the end of a hall marked exit, he begged for them to let him take a five minute breather. His entire face was sweating profusely and his breathing was squeaky and tight. He looked like death, so the guards decided to grant him a pause from walking.

     “Jim, I could use a smoke anyway. Let’s take him through there and let him lean against the wall or something, fuck I don’t care,” a guard said while pointing at a door marked EXIT.

     “Yeh, fine with me,” another replied.

     They all began walking toward the exit door. On the right hand side, as they approached, was a conference room with its door adjar. Calvin could hear a female voice laughing and conversing with someone inside. As they neared closer, he could make out that it was Lauren.

     “Hah, no no, you dumb shit! I told you it was gonna be easy. You shoulda bet on me. That’ll teach ya. I had him wrapped around my finger within our first week chatting,” he heard Lauren say.

     “Okay but, I told Jake not to sweat it,” exclaimed a man’s voice followed by more laughter. 

     By now, the guards had made their way to the open door and Calvin peered in just as Lauren continued talking.

     “But seriously, calling me a dirty bitch? That was a bit much, you dick,” she chuckled. “I’m telling the captain,” she added playfully. 

     The sudden appearance of several people in the hallway caused her to glance over just in time to see Calvin being escorted along in what could only appear to be extreme pain. Their eyes connected and Lauren’s giggly smile quickly faded and was replaced by a look of astonishment. The guards stopped. Tears began welling up in Calvin’s eyes as he continued staring straight at the girl he thought he knew. 

     Angered, Lauren took a step forward.

     “What the FUCK! Why would you walk HIM down here?” she yelled.

     “We didn’t know.. we were just gonna grab a smoke outside and let..” one of them tried explaining, but was cut off mid sentence.

     “Huge fuck up, guys. Unbelievably huge. I can’t even… just get him out of here. NOW!” she screamed.

     Embarrassed, the guards made their way to the exit and Calvin could hear Lauren, or whatever her name was, still raging.

     “Those dumb shits just blew my cover!” were the final words heard before exiting outside into a world he no longer belonged. The sun shone brightly overhead and the trees seemed stupidly tall as Calvin slumped to the concrete walkway with his back to the brick wall. He began crying. He couldn’t help it, nor did he care as the gestapo goons lit their cigarettes and cracked a few jokes at his expense. 

                                                             THE END.