The Beginning
It starts on the first day of November in a small little coffee shop with a caramel latte with only one shot of espresso, because he doesn't actually like the taste of coffee.
It starts with a small notepad he stole from work and a pen he got for free at a job fair three months ago.
It starts there, in that moment, when he takes the first sip, immediately burns his mouth, and clicks his pen to begin.
But really, he supposes, it started years ago, when he was ten and obsessed with The Hardy Boys, or maybe at fourteen when he found a website where he could share his thoughts, or maybe…maybe it began a year and a half ago on a rooftop in New York.
In the middle of July, on an unusually hot day, as the sun had started to set, he had been overtaken by a sudden urge for movement. Maybe it was the heat, or the boring day at work, or the fact that he was alone in the tiny apartment. Whatever it was, it had fueled him.
So, when the sky was all pink and blue he had walked out the door with a vague half-formed idea about exploring. He had found an unmarked door that led up some steps and opened up onto cracked concrete, rumbling vent fans and a rooftop that was about to change his life.
That, he thinks, taking another sip of his still scalding latte, is probably where it all began.