On Friday night it was warm out

On Friday night it was warm out after a long cold spell. I went home after a really lame attempt at happy hour, but then decided the weather was too nice to stay in. I texted around and was waiting to get something back. I had my bike gear on and took the bike outside to the front porch where I reclined myself on the wide, stone rails of the front stairs. I spent some time like this, thinking, looking at the sky, and wondering if I would go out alone. Wanting to be brave despite how I was feeling. Nothing really matters anyway. My landlord was then at the door, I could tell he was on the phone w/ a potential renter. I heard a string of gunshots in the distance. Kyle came out onto the porch as he was hanging up his I-phone. I was stoned and he had shocked me by being at the house, though I knew why he was there. He had come in from New York to look for a new renter for Paul's room. Coming out of my room and discovering he was in the house was part of why I was outside waiting for texts... trying to avoid stoned conversation w/ the landlord. We talked anyway, he started w/ a, oh hey Bob. We moved quickly to the weather. I asked him if he had had any luck finding a new roommate. He said he was holding out for someone he got a really good feeling from. He was right; our house was an acquired taste. About that time a police car was coming up the road using his spotlight on the houses. I commented to Kyle, they were looking for the sources of the shots. He was like, oh really? And he motioned to the cop car. They pulled up and asked if we had heard any shots. We pointed in the direction where the shots had come from. I told Kyle about the time some guy had shot cars in front of our house and I had come home w/ Dianne and found police tape around our house. He said the same thing had happened at the house back in the day, but it was a double homicide instead. This must have been in the eighties when Kyle had first established the group house. The neighborhood was indeed a bit better now than back in the crack days. He told me the story of the girl who was shot, except he called her a woman. She had been a crack dealer and he pointed to the front stoop, one house down, where she would sit and look to sell. He said that she had been put in prison, and shortly after coming out had been walking w/ a girlfriend and in front of our house guys in a car shot them both dead. Kyle said that the police had later come to our house and entered w/out permission. He said the only roommate who was home at the time of the shooting, was in the back of the house "stoned out of his mind." I specifically recall Kyle's choice of words here. The police didn't find out anything from that guy, but Kyle said he later heard a complete description of the murder from the neighbor across the street. The man had watched it all from an upstairs window, and not told the police for fear of his life. It was a bad neighborhood then. Soon another police car came from the other direction, and Kyle was all excited to get their attention. Okay. Well… I walked to the street w/ him to talk to the cop, who was getting out of his space cruiser. Kyle pointed out the shots in a totally wrong direction, then I was like, well, actually they were over that way. Kyle checked his I-phone to see when he had gotten that last call. He was able to give the officer the approximate time. Great job, dork citizen watch.