One Bicycle

When we moved into our place, neighbors who share our hall space came over and kindly introduced themselves. They were a couple, and super nice and friendly. They had a ton of shit in the hall, which everyone seemed to think was some kind of bad neighbor etiquette, but which neither of us really cared about. I would see the guy once in awhile when we both came home at the same time and we'd say hi, but we never spoke or bonded beyond that.

Then recently, I noticed our hall was a lot emptier. There was only one bicycle now, instead of two. And then the other night, I bumped into him again coming into our apartment, while Andy stopped at the store to get cigarettes.

We talked a little more than usual, comparing apartments and rent and gossiping about our mafia landlord, and he mentioned that his girlfriend and he had broken up. Which I should have realized when the bicycle disappeared, but for some reason never did. There's that weird thing that happens when you meet a person as part of a couple, and you always think of them as a single, indestructible entity.

I feel like everyone I know lately is either getting married or breaking up. Which could possibly be because of the impending apocalypse, but I'm more inclined to feel like it's because we are just getting to that age. Ultimatums, the what-am-I-doing-with-my-life phase where you finally have some money or achievements but feel the same as ever. I like to pretend I'm impervious to influence about things like that, but obviously I'm not. I know we're different from everyone else and shouldn't compare ourselves. But are we really that different? Is there something really strange about feeling happy with someone but not wanting to get married, and not wanting to break up? Sometimes it starts to feel like there is.