New York

city... where the girls are pretty.

Joey said this to himself for the dozenth time. He took another swig. The coffee was lukewarm now. Barely lukewarm. Could even be classified as cold. What was lukewarm even? Who was Luke?

Maybe Luke wasn't a name. Had a meaning perhaps. He might know if he read. Read like that guy Tony. The two of them were dead broke. But drank better 

coffee

than his sister. He never did ask Jackie how much she made. And she never said. Safe to say it was around 300 grand or so. What did it say about the coffee purists in Westcity. Who prided themselves over trivial details like how they prepared their coffee. What did such matter when they were stressing about making next month's rent.

Jackie was now the cool sibling. This had snuck up on Joey. He had always been the cool one. She the nerd. Now that she was rolling in the dough while he was 'stuck', he felt stupid for all those years he had thought he was 'cool'.

'Stuck' was the word he heard Jackie use. A year ago. She had been talking on the phone. She didn't know he was there. He had stopped walking to listen in on the conversation.

"Oh you know. Joey... He's been a little stuck."

Stuck. That stuck with him afterwards. He couldn't stop feeling it. Imagining his mom and sister thinking about him as being stuck. There was no ill intent on the other side. Merely knowing that they were worried about him was enough to sink his stomach. It was pity. he hated being pitied.

New York City. Where the girls are pretty. That's what he thought of. As he tried to take a sip of coffee where there was none. And then he thought about Mari.