Something Short

   Marshall waited for the countdown to finish. Surrounded by champagne drinking pals, he clutched his own glass of bubbly with a fierce enough grip to shatter it into sand-sized pieces. The television was too loud, the lights in the room too bright, and he was certain somebody had puked underneath the table behind him. Herbal smoke kept finding his nostrils, like an acquaintance that won't take a hint to leave. There were people in this room he despised and likewise who thought of him as no more than gravel on a dirty sidewalk. These were not people he would choose to begin a brand new year with. A new opportunity, a new chance was at hand and the environment around him was unbearably shallow and superficial. But she was here, in his arms, her soft hair and sweet face cradled against his chest like he was the most important man in the world. Marshall was exactly where he wanted to be tonight: wherever she was.