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just pretend the metal arm is supposed to be on his left arm okay
~~~~~
Steve had been shining shoes ever since he had returned from serving in the military.
In the military, they required that you maintained your appearance, which meant making sure your boots for your dress uniform were so shiny you could see your reflection in them.
After being honorably discharged from the army for completing his terms of service, Steve returned to his home city of Brooklyn, New York. He didn't really know where else to go, and so he returned to the only place he could call home.
However, Steve couldn't hold down any of the jobs he worked for more than a few weeks. This was due to him getting sudden flashbacks from his time abroad in Afghanistan, and having a mental breakdown in the middle of his shift.
After not being able to hold down a job for more than about a month and a half at a time, Steve turned to shining people's shoes. It was something he felt that he was pretty good at.
And that's how it had been for the past six months since he started shining people's shoes. Every day he would wake up at exactly 5:15 in the morning. He would take a quick shower, get dressed for the day, and grab a quick bite to eat. He would then walk several blocks to the nearest subway station, set up his shoe shine station, and wait for the morning rush as people headed off to work.
After the morning rush, there wouldn't be much business for a few hours. Steve would spend that time sketching in his notebook, drawing random people that would pass by and stand on the platform to wait for their train. He would wait around for the small rush that came at lunch time. There was usually never as many people that got their shoes shined during lunch, but Steve stuck around anyway, due to needing the few dollars from those couple of shoe shines. After the lunch rush was over, he would pack up his supplies for the afternoon and go grab some lunch. During the afternoon, he would usually spend more time walking around the city, or sitting on a bench and sketching more people.
At about 4:00 in the afternoon, he would head back to the subway station, setting up shop again. The evening rush was both the busiest time of day and slowest time of day. Typically, it was slow for him, since people didn't really care about their shoes at that point in the day. They just wanted to get home and have some dinner. However, the station was always busiest at this time, due to the large number of people getting off work at the same time and trying to quickly make their way back home. Steve didn't mind the crowded station. He liked to people watch (and not in a creepy way). He always found it intriguing that all of these people waiting for the train led their own separate lives, and had various different things going on.
After the evening rush, Steve would pack up his shoe shining equipment again and head back home. He would reheat whatever leftovers he had in the fridge for dinner. After eating dinner, he would sit out on the small balcony of his apartment. He would sometimes just watch the sunset, or watch all the cars and people below pass by, or even sketch in his notebook some more. He did this until he was tired or it was too dark out, before heading inside and going to bed for the night.
He would wake up the next morning, repeating his daily routine.
***
However, the following day was different. For some reason, his alarm hadn't gone off, and he woke up half an hour later than he usually did. Steve quickly rushed to get ready, skipping his breakfast altogether before heading out to the train station.
When he finally arrived and was done setting up shop, he waited for the first customer of the day. A lot of people had already headed off to work, so he was sure he had missed out on a few customers there, but there wasn't much he could really do at this point about it.
It wasn't long before a customer sat down to have his shoes shined. Steve kneeled down on the ground, polishing and shining the man's shoes. After that, the next few customers went by in a blur, each one sitting down in the seat once the previous customer had vacated it.
None of them tried to talk to him. They were all too busy reading the daily newspaper or doing something on their phones. So it came as a shock when the person whose shoes he was currently shining spoke to him.
"What's someone like you working at a shoe shine stand for?"
"I guess you could say I'm an old fashioned kind of guy," Steve replied as he continued to shine the man's shoes. After a moment, he glanced up at the man. His soft blue eyes were met by another pair of blue eyes, so pale they were almost gray.
