It was a lazy Monday evening, and the sun setting over the mountains north of Shoreville cast a long, brilliant orange glow over the town. Dark was creeping up ever so quickly, as it always did, and soon it would be night time. This short-lived orange mirage of wavering heat and glowing rays was the sight that met Dave Morgan most days as he left his place of work at DevCo, Shoreville's leading workshop for tool makers. Today, he sighed deeply.
With his dirty overalls stuffed into his tote bag, Dave strolled purposefully and by all accounts, happily across DevCo's almost empty lot to where his beaten grey Fiesta was parked. After fumbling for his car keys in the pockets of his jeans, Dave unlocked the driver's door and flung his stuffed bag across onto the passenger seat, before climbing into the vehicle. He now sat eye level with the piercing glare of the sun, and he yanked down his sun visor to block the imposing light.
He caught a glance of his own brown eyes in the rear-view mirror, and considered himself for a moment. Dave was a 26 year old skilled labourer from Oakland in Richmond, the next town over from Shoreville. His hair was black and fairly neat, yet his stubble had started to grow as he had neglected to shave over the weekend. He ran a calloused hand through his hair, messing it up a little.
Dave started the engine of the Fiesta to begin reversing out of his parking space. As the car shuddered into life, music began to play. The FM radio was tuned to Wyrld Ov Rock, which was his favourite channel because they always played a lot of hard rock and heavy metal. Some fairly laid back rock ballad eased out of the car speakers as Dave steered out of Shoreville's industrial estate and onto the main ring-road around town. A few minutes down the road, he signalled right and pulled into the inner lane, before turning off at the intersection sign-posted for the suburb of Venetia.
Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up on the curb outside No. 7 Cherry Grove, and cut out the engine. The house that lay beside the car was that of the typical red-bricked suburban stock; a house that was detached and apparently worth a fair amount of money, yet once you looked carefully you could see how small it really was. At the most there was two bedrooms upstairs. A small patch of grass and a paved driveway made up the garden, and a small stereotypical picket fence running the perimeter topped off the suburban clichΓ©.
Dave got out of the car and walked up the paved drive just like had done so many times before on every Monday evening for as long as he could remember. At the door he paused momentarily, before pressing a finger on the buzzer. He could hear the muffled sound of an electronic bell sounding from within the property, and within a matter of seconds, the door opened on the latch and a pair of bespectacled eyes met him.
"Oh great, it's you again!" spat the face.
"Get over it, Matt!" Dave replied, smiling. "You gonna let me in or what?"
And with that, the bespectacled face chuckled and shut the door. There was a scraping sound of metal on wood, and the door re-opened, this time fully, revealing Matthew in all his glory. Matt always dressed casually in sweats, sandals and vests. He studied Dave with his dark, beady eyes hidden beneath his light-framed glasses. He was a fitness freak, and his visible muscles rippled with every small movement of his body. He worked out every day and often let everyone else know about it. In his day job, he was a personal trainer at the Hamlet Complex gym in the centre of town. He was also a pot dealer.
"So what'll it be? The usual?" asked Matt as he shut the door behind Dave.
"Yeah, another 3 grams should do it," he confirmed.
"Great, great," Matt mumbled, "come on through to the kitchen and I'll hook you up. I got some wicked Hawiian Snow in this morning, it'll blow the socks off ya! I've also got some Diesel left over from last week's batch, if that's more you're thing? And are ya gonna watch the game later, dude?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." smiled Dave. "The Shoreville Devils against the Richmond Hell Cats? This match is gonna be insane! As soon as I'm finished here I'm heading home to tune in."
Matt laughed heartily as they both walked across the sparsely decorated but warm living room. A huge painted canvas hung on one wall, an a tremendously over-sized TV hung on the other.
"Dude, is there any more to your life that rock music, hockey games and weed?" Matt asked with a sly laugh. Dave couldn't tell if he was being affectionate or sarcastic.
"Tattoos, I guess." he replied, simply.
"Oh shit, yeah," said Matthew, pushing open the door to the kitchen, "I always forget you got those things on you. How is the ink coming along, dude? Have you run out of room yet? Rather you than me!"
"I gotta keep my arms clean for work, they don't like them to be visible. According to my line manager they don't give off a very professional..."
At this point, both of them had entered the kitchen, which caused Dave to stop talking immediately. Straight across from him, the other side of a wooden breakfast table, stood a girl with bright blonde hair that fell down as far as the small of her back. She was facing away from him; busying herself with something on the kitchen counter, but Dave couldn't tell what exactly she was doing. In his brief moment of surprise, he had managed to drink in the whole of her body. She was glorious. She wore pyjama shorts that barely covered her small bottom, and her slim legs were bare right down to her slippers.
"You going to finish that sentence, then?" asked Matt, breaking Dave out of his reverie.
"Err...professional image, that's it, couldn't find the word I was looking for." he said finally, all in a fluster, causing the girl to turn around.
"Oh, hi." she said quietly with a passive smile.
Dave was still stood still in the doorway to the kitchen. He smiled at her weakly, before mumbling something that was meant to sound like "hello", but ended up more as a small grumble that made no real sense. He was temporarily lost in her wide blue eyes.
"Yo, Dave, quit staring at my bird!" barked Matt, bringing the room and the rest of the world back into focus. "You're freakin' her the fuck out, man!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"I'm just fuckin' with ya, dude!" he shouted, punching Dave on the shoulder a little too hard. "This is Marie, we hooked up about a year or so ago. I've told you about Marie before, right? We've finally taken things one step further y'know, and she's moved into my place."
"This place definitely beats my shitty apartment over on Fairfax," Marie said with another smile. "Looks like I'm finally living the American dream over here in Suburbanville, USA, huh? What more could a girl want?"
Everybody laughed and then quickly stopped.