Dolores Park

"In this French town all these rats began to die in the streets," I told him. He picked at the grass, picking out blades and then tossing them in the light breeze. The wind was blowing softly in Dolores park. The ground was, thankfully, dry after a few days of rain. The morning mist had been burnt off by the afternoon sun and we were sitting on the hillside of the park. "The people collected all the rats and burned them and then a disease starting to break out. It was like the bubonic plague..." I trailed off noticing that William wasn't even bothering to listen. He'd been listless and depressed since he'd broken off with his girlfriend. I was trying to cheer him up by telling him a morality tale by Camus. He wasn't brightened.

He looked around us and got up. "I need a beer." He grabbed his bike and walked it down the hillside.

"Get one for me," I cried after him watching him bicycle down 20th street off the park to the local bodega.

"I don't get what's with him," Julie said. "He broke up with her, but is moping about."

"Yeah, total weirdfuck," Mac said.

"What the hell is a weirdfuck," I asked.

"Its like, you know, how there's a clusterfuck but its weird. Like when you're getting a blowjob and then there's a candle in your ass. That's a weirdfuck."

"There's nothing weird about putting things in your anus," Julie said. "You're being homophobic."

"Whatever, Joooolllllliiiieee," Mac said. "Besides what if it was a potpourri candle. How many people shove those in their asses?"

"You're so immature. Which reminds me of how I'm never going out with you in public again. Today," she said to me. Julie looked towards me and squinted. The sunlight was coming right into her eyes. "We were at Rainbow Grocery getting some beer, you know the one in SOMA, and there was some girl canvassing for Greenpeace. She said to Mac 'You look like you like polar bears.' He said 'No.' She said 'Well don't you care about the environment?' He said 'I care about the condition of your mother's corpse. If the ground around her is too soft it makes her a piss poor fuck.' We rode off. I was SO embarrassed. Mac you can be such a fucktard."

"Fucktard? Isn't that a derogatory term for someone who is mentally handicapped? Ableist," Mac retorted with a snicker.

I rolled my eyes. The two of them were always bickering. It made the time pass here on the hilltop. We got together at the park most sunny afternoons to drink beer after our jobs. We would pregame on the lawn before heading out for the evening. It was a convenient meeting spot for us. Mac worked nearby, Julie lived nearby, William went to school nearby and I, well I, didn't mind riding my bike to the park.

"Hey, did I tell you about how I got asked out by a midget,"Julie asked me. I shook my head. "When I was younger, like in eighth grade there was a midget that worked at the grocery store by my house. He thought I was older because I was tall. I told him I was only in eighth grade. He got pretty embarrassed."

I nodded. Julie liked to talk. Her stories were usually pretty lackluster. I liked that she talked, it made it so I didn't have to.

"What do you guys want to do tonight," Mac asked.

"I don't know. I'm pretty committed to hanging out with William. He's really down in the dumps about the whole break up."

"I don't really understand that," Julie said again. "He broke up with her."

"Yeah, why exactly did they break up," Mac said. He started rummaging through his Chrome messenger bag. He took out a tall boy of pbr and cracked it open. I reached out for it and took a draught.

"I don't really know. William keeps his emotions to himself. Maybe she said something or did something." I replied.

"Boys are so stupid. Its awful. You never know when you're going to fall in love with them, who you're going to fall in love with, and when you're not going to be in love anymore. They just don't fit into any plans," Julie said.

"Yeah, I guess personalities can't be scheduled," I said.