Don't Start • •

[Deleted]

Sunrise, to JJ, was the best time of day. It was why he loved working the nights at Hal's. They might have been slow hours filled with drunken idiots in need of a greasy fix to stop themselves from passing out in the gutter, but they always ended with a beautiful sunrise. He always walked home just so he could see it appear on the horizon. He often walked the longest way from the diner to his apartment, too, just to make the most of it. It was the hour when New York was at its quietest, when the traffic wasn't backed up several blocks and impatient drivers weren't sounding their horns at every little thing that got on their nerves. In fact, once or twice, JJ had stood in the middle of the street just because he could. It was almost silent, and he had been able to hear his own footsteps on the sidewalk as he strolled down Broadway. He didn't even live remotely close to Broadway, but wandering down there with a menthol between his lips and the early morning sun just reaching him was something that simply couldn't be beaten. It didn't matter if he smelt like a fryer or had burns on his hands from a mishap in the kitchen when one of the waitresses distracted him with some order or one of their midnight games. Nothing could beat the way he felt at sunrise.

It was a cold morning, but that didn't bother JJ. He had survived worse than a January morning, and the worst the chill could bring him was the flu. JJ had been through worse than the flu. He tugged his jacket closer around himself and took a moment to breathe in the fresh air, which might have seemed odd since he had only just stubbed out the cigarette, but JJ had tried to quit the habit three times before. Making the switch from nicotine to menthols was about as close as he had gotten, and the damn patches had given him a rash when he had tried those. Maybe one day he could give up the vice and find something else to grow addicted to, but JJ had very few things in the world, and even less brought him happiness. He hadn't really understood the true meaning of friendship before his time at Hal's, and even now he sometimes expected for them to vanish from his life, just like everyone else had. It was difficult not to be pessimistic when abandonment had been a recurring them in JJ's twenty-odd years of memories.

He paused, looking around at the nearly empty street. A few drunks staggered in the wrong direction, one shouting at the other about where they were going, and JJ could only shake his head at them. His own drunken adventures were much more dramatic, or so he liked to think. At least he hoped there was some exciting tale as to why his apartment housed a stop light from two years ago, and a construction sign from last month's adventures with Nora. He couldn't fully see through the whiskey haze of those memories to figure it out, but he had to hope it was something incredible, though both pieces acted as intriguing pieces of art in his tiny apartment in a complex far from the nicest side of town. It was a place he ought to be getting too soon, but JJ couldn't find it in him to rush along when the sunrise seemed to be exceptionally captivating that morning. Instead, he lit up again, scolding himself for the bad behaviour and leaned against the wall of the silent theatre, soaking up the whispers of early morning New York, and wondering if anyone else savoured this hour like he did.

• • •

TAGGED! @open
WORDS! 632!
OUTFIT! Cold Cook!
LYRICS! I’m Not That Girl - - - Wicked
NOTES! <3 <3 <3