Chapter 2

She painfully bit her lip in a stupid attempt to hold back a sob, the lukewarm water spraying from above her head mixing with the tears falling down her cheeks as she stood in her bathroom shower, her mind replaying over and over again those last words that cruel woman had said to her, effectively getting herself rid of her like of a rotten tooth.

And that over the goddamned phone.

How could this life be so cruel to her? What had she done to deserve such a fate?

What was she supposed to do now? How will she earn those money to keep her house and feed herself and her mom as well?

It had been hard enough to get this second job and keep it, how was she supposed to find another one with a similar working schedule?

Where are you dad? Why did you leave us like this?

Her puffy and reddened eyes rose to the ceiling as she slowly slumped to the shower floor, small sobs and whimpers escaping her wobbling lips as the water kept falling, washing her tears away.

Few hours flew by, finding herself constantly crushed down by those same anguishing thoughts and hot tears falling, even though she had long since crashed into her bed, the much awaited sleep refusing to take her into its calming arms as she wept and wept for every single bad thing in her life.

She was tired. It was only the beginning of her life, yet she felt like she had already lived a lifetime of sorrow and hardships...

Hearing her wake-up alarm loudly blaring into her ears she rose with a startle, feeling a pounding headache quickly settling in.

She let out a pained moan, struggling to keep her eyes open for a few times as the last night’s crying activity robbed her of all the rest her body definitely needed, leaving her into a half vegetative state.

Wobbly rising to her feet, she almost lost balance for a few times as she stumbled all the way to the bathroom, letting out a calming exhale once she’d reached the toilet.

Numbly going through her daily morning routine, she then dressed herself up with a pair of clean jeans, choosing a random grey blouse since she couldn’t even care less about her appearance. Not anymore anyway.

And with another small yawn, she then made her way to her mom’s room, gently knocking against the wooden door before turning the knob and pushing it away to reveal the slender figure huddled in the middle of a large bed, the side of her ribs slowly moving up and down beneath the thick blanket, clearly indicating that she was still sleeping.

She lightly smiled, tip-toeing all the way to the side of her mom’s bed and gave her a feather-like kiss over the forehead, taking a few moments to gaze at her peaceful expression before she quietly exited the room and went to the kitchen.

Brewing herself a cup of coffee, she then grabbed her much-too-old and barely functioning laptop and sat in her usual spot at the dining table, set on searching for another job.

“Thank you,”

“You’re welcome, sir,” She lightly smiled at the customer as she placed the piece of strawberry cake onto his table then moved to another table to gather the dirty dishes.

Holding the full tray, she balanced it on her hip and made her way behind the counter, carefully placing each cup and plate into the sink.

“Honey, I don’t know what to say,” Dan said as he had also entered behind the counter, busying himself with the arrangement of a new batch of cakes as they picked up again with their conversation from where they had left off before she’d rushed to serve a customer.

“Wish I could help you somehow,” He truthfully said as she had earlier told him all about what happened yesterday with her second job and how she couldn’t find anything to fit her schedule at the coffee shop this morning.

“It’s ok,” She simply said, turning to give him a weak smile as she knew he would definitely help her if he could. Sadly, he was just as broke and alone as she was. And that’s what brought them together in the first place.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” He suddenly said as soon as he noticed that sad look in her eyes, quickly moving to give her a big warm hug.

“You know it’s going to be okay. You will get through this. You always do,” He lightly kissed the side of her head, for the hundredth time that day her lower lip quivering as she fought not to cry, her defences momentarily torn down by that simple hug.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” He soothingly whispered, her lips escaping a small sigh as she took that single moment to relish into the warmth of her friend’s hug and his comforting familiar scent, quickly building up that strong façade again.

“Thank you,” She wholeheartedly told him as she rose her sight to peer into his baby blue eyes.

“Come on now sweetie,” He kindly smiled,

“Let’s get back to work before Mr. Andrew sees us lazing around and sends us on the streets to work with our asses,” He lightly patted her bottom before turning back to his job, the girl letting out small gasp and an amused giggle at his antics.

Lightly shaking her head, she then went to dispose another recently freed table, her gaze casually falling onto the newspaper lying beneath a dirty cup.

Her naturally arched brows furrowed with pure curiosity, noticing it had today’s date written on it as she collected the dirty dishes around it.

Placing it under her arm, she took the full tray as well and went to discard it but not before leaving the newspaper on the counter, safely away from the sink and the wetness around it.

“It’s from today,” She told Dan as soon as she turned around and noticed him already snooping around into the horoscope section.

“Huh...Nothing interesting for today. Nothing waiting under the sheets for me today,” He commented with a comical pout, making her escape another small giggle.

“Let me see,” She told him as she moved closer to snoop in as well, quickly snatching the newspaper from his hands.

New job offers at the horizon for this sign. However, the stars say-

“Quick! Go to the job offers section,” He snatched the paper back from her hands before she could even finish reading, earning a frown from her.

“Hey!”

Noticing he didn’t even pay attention to her unsatisfied pout, she then lowered her gaze to look into the job offers section as well.

“Look! This one!” He pointed at the very bottom of the page, drawing her attention to the last announcement -which by the way was also the vaguest one as it held such little information- her brows furrowing in utter confusion.

“Cleaning maid wanted. Flexible working hours. What the hell is that even supposed to mean?” She comically scrunched her face, the male finding it so cute and funny as he let out a small chuckle at the sight of that.

“Who the hell cares? Don’t you see how much money it pays?”

“Yeah I do. But don’t you think it sounds kinda weird? Cleaning maid wanted for what? A freaking attic? For a p**n filming production? Or maybe even better; for a freaking weirdo who likes to watch women cleaning his house naked?” Her friend let out a hearty laugh at the sound of that, the thought of his shy and all-too-innocent for this world friend prancing around butt-naked and with one of those rainbow-colored dust sticks making him double over with laughter.

“Yeah well, say what you want but you’d be definitely killing it with that,” He commented, waving a finger to the length of her body.

Her cheeks quickly tinted with a deep shade of red as the thought of a male actually staring at her naked body made her feel so ashamed and uncomfortable since she’d never even experienced that before -even though there had been a few guys to attempt such thing- almost failing to even notice when her friend had fished his phone out of his pocket and was already dialling the number listed under the announcement.

“What are you doing? Oh my god, Dan, no!”

The young male only grinned with mischief and quickly punched in those last three digits before she could even try and snatch his phone away, even putting it on speaker as he then pressed the call button.

"Oh my god are you crazy?" She mouthed out, staring at him in disbelief as it immediately started to ring.

They both waited in complete silence as it rang for a few times more before the screen suddenly showed that someone on the other end had actually answered.

Oh my god.

Thickly swallowing, she conjured up some courage before meekly speaking into it,

“H-hello?”

Strangely enough, the person on the other side remained silent as she could hear the very faint sound of steady breathing, her face once again scrunching up in confusion before she tried yet again.

“Hello?”

Few more moments of complete silence followed, the girl already starting to feel a little bit freaked out by the whole ordeal.

"Hello?” The voice of what sounded like an old lady finally answered back, the girl feeling herself letting out a small breath of relief before she eventually started conversing with the nice lady.

"You are so dead,” She mouthed to a stupidly grinning Dan whilst conversing with the old woman.