This party was boring. Katy Markovich was never a fan of being in a room with more than three drunk people at a time. Guys would come up to her talking about their jobs in finance, or business, or god forbid some kind of “self employed film student.” All she could do was politely nod and wait for them to get distracted by an old fraternity brother, or a nasty tasting IPA with a naked woman on the can.

Unfortunately, Katy couldn’t just go home. The party was being hosted by her roommate. In her apartment. She needed some fresh air.

She fought through the mass of people in her living room to get to her bedroom and grab her coat, desperately hoping she wouldn’t get trapped into another conversation. When she finally got to the door down the hall there was a group of people standing in a circle outside it, blocking the way. Of course.

“Um, only close friends of the host are allowed to be in this hall.” One of the girls in the group said, giving Katy a mean glance up and down. “Who do you know here?” She asked. Katy had never seen her at the apartment before.

“I live here,” she responded, tired of getting asked this all night. “can I please get to my room?”

“Oh sorry. I didn’t know Hailey had a roommate.” She scoffed, like this was somehow amusing. The group shifted slightly out of the way. Just enough that Katy could squeeze through to the door.

Her room was the only place in the apartment Katy really stayed in. The walls were green and covered in posters she had accumulated throughout high school and paintings she had done in college. Katy had always wanted to be a painter as a little girl, but that passion had faded in the last couple years. There were plants everywhere. The lease didn’t allow pets so it was Katy’s alternative to bring more life to the place. On the back wall were two big bookshelves she got from her dad, sorted alphabetically by the authors’ last names. She had all kinds of books from Lord of the Rings to Plato’s Republic to Calculus: Early Transcendentals by James Stewart.

Katy grabbed her coat and keys from the bed and climbed through the window onto the fire escape. No way was she going back out through that party to get to the front door.

Once she got to the ground she turned out of the alley down the street towards the corner store two blocks away. Katy had lived in Philadelphia for four months now. It was her first time living in a big city and it had taken some getting used to. The one thing she really loved however was how close everything was. She was able to walk from her apartment to the store, the library, and her office, instead of driving everywhere.

When she walked into the corner store she was greeted by the owner, Luigi. He was a fat old Italian man, with a bushy grey mustache that covered his mouth. “Katy! Just the girl I was hoping to see tonight.” Luigi said through a big grin. He was always nice to her whenever she came in.

“You know my son Antonio will be in town next week. Why don’t you come out to dinner with us? And who knows, maybe you two will hit it off, eh?”

Luigi had been hellbent on trying to get Katy to marry his son Antonio since the first time she stepped into his store. She had only met him once, as he lived in Chicago and only came home during the holidays. However, he was also one of the most visibly gay men she had ever seen. It was shocking to Katy after months of hearing Luigi talk about what a suitable bachelor he was.

“I’m sorry Luigi but I’m just not interested. I’m sure Antonio will find someone great on his own.”

“Ahh, it was worth a shot. So what can I do for you tonight?”

“Reds. Those ones right there.” Katy pointed to a specific pack behind the counter. “And some of those honey roasted peanuts too.”

Luigi rang up the items and Katy stepped back outside. She still wasn’t ready to go back to the party yet so she headed toward the park to sit and think. She sat on a stone wall and lit one of the cigarettes taking a long draw from it.

From the dark, behind a big oak tree she spotted something glowing. Two small eyes poking out. A big orange tom cat slowly crept out from the shadows and stared at Katy for a minute. She stared back. After he deemed she was worthy enough, he jumped up onto the wall with her.

“What’s a beautiful girl like you doing out here after dark?” the cat asked. Katy glared at him from the side of her eyes.

“Is that how you always greet people you’ve just met?” she retorted.

“You’re right, I apologize. But I am a cat. It’s in my nature.” The cat started to paw at her leg. She tried to ignore it but it became obnoxious.

“Can I help you?” she asked glaringly.

“Can I have a cigarette? I’ll make sure to get you back at some point.” He stared up at her with his big yellow eyes, almost pouting.

“I need these.” Katy replied, exasperated now.

“Come on babe, it’s me. You wouldn’t spare one just for me?”

“I don’t know you. I don’t even know your name.”

"Really? I thought everyone in this neighborhood knew me.” The cat sounded a little bit offended. “I’m Jack Coltrane.”

“Jack Coltrane? Like John Coltrane? Who named you that?”

“A very mean spirited old man with an extensive jazz record collection.” The cat said discontentedly. “But most people around here call me Jay. Which I guess is supposed to be better somehow.”

The two sat for a moment in silence.

“Ok I’ll give you one. Consider it my condolences for your unfortunate name situation.” Katy said. She took a cigarette out of the pack and handed it to the cat, and lit it with the end of her own. More silence. Katy started to actually like the company. It was nice to just sit with someone, even if there was no conversation, and even though she didn’t know the cat very well.

“Does this mean we’re friends now?” asked Jay the cat. “All the times I’ve shared a smoke with someone we’ve become friends.”

“Sure,” Katy replied solemnly. “I don’t have many so I guess I can’t be picky.”

“Really? That surprises me. You don’t seem like some kind of freak or anything, I’d think in a big city like this you’d be able to find people.” He looked up at her again and took another draw.

“Well you know.” She trailed off and thought for a moment. “I had some friends in college back in North Carolina, but I kind of lost touch with a lot of people in the past few years. I was pretty closed off and insecure as a teenager, and I haven’t been able to really connect with anyone here. It’s like everyone in this city is either some pretentious hipster, a coked up club rat, or a real life Patrick Bateman. Like can I please find someone who is actually real?”

“Anyway, I guess it’s easier when you’re a cat right? You just become friends with everyone on the block who leaves Friskies for you in the window.”

Jay glowered at her. “I find that extremely offensive actually. I’m a deeper person than just canned fish and chicken, and I’m in fact very particular in who I choose to spend my time with.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Katy said blankly. “I haven’t spent much time around cats to be honest. All I had was a goldfish growing up.”

“Too bony and scaly. No meat on a goldfish.” said Jay.

“I have a roommate.” Katy went on, choosing to ignore his non-sequitur. “I moved into her apartment about two months ago now after seeing an ad on Craigslist.”

“You still use Craigslist?”

“I think you’re focusing on the wrong things.”

“Yeah you’re right, my bad. Continue.”

“Anyway, her name is Hayley. We get along well enough, but we’re very different people. We never really hang out. I guess it’s more that we just tolerate each other. Except for tonight. She’s hosting a huge party in our apartment and she only gave me a two hour notice. She didn’t even really ask me.”

Jay the cat took a last puff and flicked the cigarette butt onto the pavement below them. “Hayley sounds like an asshole.” he said disgruntled. “You should say something to her.”

“I would, but she owns the apartment. There’s nothing I can really do about it. She also doesn’t tend to listen to me. The only thing I even really know about her is that her dad has a ton of money and that she went to Princeton.”

Katy sighed and handed another cigarette to Jay and lit one for herself.

“Rich dad, Princeton…. yeah I guess the self-entitlement checks out.” Jay said. “What about you?” Katy asked, trying to change the subject. “Do you have an owner or something? Is that also offensive?”

“Well you’re on thin ice there but I’ll cut you some slack since you’re just ignorant.” Jay scowled. “I did have a caretaker for a while though. That old guy I mentioned. The jazz fanatic. George Harvey. He found me as a kitten when I was out on the town, looking for bugs to eat, you know how it is.”

“Of course, yeah, I understand.” Katy said blankly.

“Anyway, I was just doing my thing when I came across this bowl of food in an alley, right by the back door to some apartment building. Since I was just a dumb kid I thought I had found some kind of jackpot. But instead it was a nefarious trap. I went up and started eating. Then all of a sudden, I was surrounded by this net thing. The old guy had scooped me up and took me into the building against my will.”

Katy thought for a moment before speaking again. “I’m sorry that happened to you. Sounds pretty traumatic.”

“Nah, it’s alright. I was tough, even back then.” Jay said, puffing out his chest as best as a cat can.

“So what happened?” Katy asked. “How did you become a stray again?”

The fur on Jay’s back stood up slightly, and he paused for a moment. “Well I had hated being a house cat you know? This guy made me wear a bunch of collars with these ugly bow ties on ‘em. We even had ‘family pictures’ taken a couple times. And don’t get me started on those damn records he would play during every waking hour, I mean it was insufferable. The guy just never knew when to quit. It felt suffocating.” He stopped and took a breath.

“Alright, calm down. Don’t get yourself all worked up, you might vomit up a hairball or whatever.” Katy teased. Jay hissed at her.

“Anyway, I was always trying to escape, right? Any time he left the window open, whenever he would open the apartment door, every chance I got. But he always caught me. Till one day he was going out, and at this point I had just accepted my fate and stopped trying to escape. But right as he opened the door, he collapsed right there in the hall. Old man kicked the bucket. Left the door wide open.”

“Wow…” Katy said, surprised. “I’m sorry that happened.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Jay responded in a cheerful tone. “It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I tried for a whole year to get outta that dump, and then the opportunity was served to me right on a silver platter.”

“Oh… ok.” Katy was taken aback. “That seems pretty heartless though, no?”

“Ah whatever. I don’t need anyone taking care of me. The guy was ancient, it was coming soon anyway.”

They sat in more silence for a couple of minutes. Katy felt awkward from Jay’s lack of caring for life. She thought maybe that’s just how cats were, and it was just cultural differences or something.

“So what about you?” Jay broke the silence. “Do you have any kind of rich character exposition you’d like to share?”

Katy chuckled awkwardly. “Nothing that compares to that. I grew up in Connecticut with just my mom and dad. They had a son before I was born, but he died from an overdose when he was sixteen. I guess that’s pretty traumatic but I never knew him so it didn’t affect me as much. Although I think it really changed my parents. They became paranoid after what happened to my brother so they were always really overprotective of me. I was never allowed to go anywhere without some kind of adult supervision until I was eighteen. It felt suffocating. I guess we have that in common huh?”

“Hmm…” Jay sat and thought. “So you moved 600 miles away from home to go to college as some kind of rebellion, is that it?”

“Yup. I thought it would make them really mad at me and I could finally stick it to them, but now I think they're just sad and worry about me.”

“So it goes.” Jay reflected. “So why don’t you go back home? I mean how did you end up here after college?”

Katy thought about the question for a moment. “I think I just wanted a fresh start. I had regrets both back home and in North Carolina, and I wanted to run away from it all. I studied Art in college and got my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, but the only place I could really find work with that was in graphic design. So I moved here to the ‘Big City’ to get a dead end job in marketing. Look how that’s going for me. Ugh.”

“Ok what about you? What do you have going on for you here?”

“Well I think I might go get stuck in that tree later. That sounds pretty exciting.” Jay said. Katy looked at him to try to figure out if he was serious or not but couldn’t tell.

“Is that it? No big life goals or aspirations? Do you have any hobbies?” She asked.

“Don’t need it and I don’t care for it. I prefer to have nothing and no one weighing me down.”

“That sounds like it could get boring eventually. You don't even want friends or anything?” She couldn’t imagine having that kind of apathetic attitude.

“I have friends.” Jay said in a defensive tone. “You know Luigi down at the corner store? One of the best guys around.”

“He’s your best friend? I mean Luigi’s nice but he’s a little overbearing for me.” She said and rolled her eyes.

“You know what Katy?” Jay said in an even harsher voice now. “I think you’re too judgemental of people because you’re insecure about yourself. If you gave people a better chance maybe you wouldn’t be out here alone.”

Katy scrunched up her face in a scowl. “Really? You’re telling me to give people a better chance? Did you give that poor old man George a better chance before you abandoned him without a second thought?”

Jay was starting to get heated. “Did you really just say that to me? You think you’re so much better than everyone else huh? You care so much about the people around you that you never stop to think about whether or not you’re being a bitch.” Jay spat back at her.

His fur was fully on end now and he looked like a big puffer fish.

“What the hell did you just call me?” Katy began to get mad now too. “You can’t call people that Jay. I know you pretend to not care about anyone but that doesn’t mean you can be a total jerk.”

Katy got up from the wall and threw her cigarette onto the ground and stomped it out. “What am I even doing? I’m arguing with a fat orange bag of feline herpes. I’m going home, the parties gotta be over by now anyway.”

She started storming off down the street back to the apartment.

Jay stayed on the wall for a moment and cooled off. He thought maybe he was wrong to have been rude to Katy. He was starting to connect with her for a while there. Something he hadn’t really felt before. Maybe she was right. He could be heartless sometimes.

Katy made it back to her building and went upstairs. She opened the door to the apartment and slammed it behind her.

“Woah.” Hailey was sitting on the couch alone. “What happened to you?”

“It’s a long story.” She sighed. “Like ten whole pages.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

She went into her room and took a deep breath as she collapsed onto her bed. As she looked up and watched the ceiling fan spin she contemplated on what Jay had said. Maybe she was wrong to write people off so easily. Maybe he was right. She could be pretty insecure sometimes.

She got back up and went back into the living room. “Hey… How was the party?” She asked Hailey.

“Ugh, it was kind of a mess.” Hailey rolled her eyes. “A bunch of these college dudes came and they were all hitting on my friends. The only thing I could do was ignore them and wait for them to get distracted by some IPA with a naked girl on the can.”

Katy laughed and sat down on the couch. “Oh my god I know right? They’re all so gross too. I never saw the appeal.”

“The beer or the guys?” Hailey joked. Katy laughed again. “Both.”