COMFORT BEFORE STORM

I came out onto the road, and it felt like the weight of the earth had settled on my shoulders.

Why was everyone treating me like this? Was I not human too? Didn't I have emotions too? Didn't I get tired? Didn't I deserve to be understood?

I couldn't figure out what I had done to deserve so much pain in one day.

I quickly wiped my eyes as I stopped a taxi and hopped in, giving the driver Lisa's address.

As the taxi pulled away, I rolled down the window and looked outside. The cool air brushed against my face, and for the first time since leaving home, I felt like I could breathe.

A few moments ago, I had felt like I was suffocating.

Now, I felt a little better.

“Hello, ma. You've reached your destination,” the driver said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, I'm so sorry, sir.”

I opened the taxi door, stepped out, and paid him.

“Thank you, ma,” he said before zooming away.

I stood there for a while, staring at the building in front of me.

Across the road, there was a large mirror outside a shop. I walked toward it and looked at my reflection.

I looked terrible.

My eyes were swollen from crying, my hair was messy, and I was still wearing the very short shorts I had rushed out of the house in.

Yet somehow, my body still looked perfectly curved.

Sometimes, I wondered if God had specially molded me bit by bit, taking His time with every part of me instead of finishing me in one day.

I stared at myself for a few more seconds.

Then I noticed my face.

I looked exactly like my mother.

The same eyes.

The same lips.

The same shape of face.

“If Mom hadn't given me this body type, maybe life would have been easier for me,” I thought bitterly.

But even as I thought it, I knew my body wasn't really the problem.

People were.

People looked at me and decided who I was before I even opened my mouth.

“Hey, you fool! Why are you standing there?”

A loud voice suddenly cut through my thoughts.

I looked up.

Lisa was leaning out of her third-floor window, staring directly at me.

I hadn't even noticed she had been watching me.

“Are you nuts already?” she shouted.

I couldn't help but smile.

Lisa had always had a way of making me forget my problems, even if it was only for a few minutes.

She was a year older than me, but sometimes people thought we were twins.

And honestly, I understood why.

We had almost the same complexion, similar facial features, the same curvy body shape, and even the same mischievous smile.

Whenever we walked together, people would stare at us and ask, “Are you sisters?”

Sometimes, I wondered if we looked more alike than actual twins.

If I were into women, I probably would have married her.

She was that beautiful.

I started running toward the building, smiling like a child who had finally found her mother after crying for an entire day.

“Lisa! Open the door!” I shouted when I reached her apartment.

“What are you doing here?” she replied from inside.

“Lisa, please, not today.”

I knocked again.

“The other day, I had to go up and down these stairs three good times before you opened the door. Can you spare me today?”

The door finally opened.

“Come on! Ooh, my love! Have you been crying all day?”

She spread her arms wide, ready to hug me.

I didn't even hesitate.

I quickly fell into her arms.

I really needed that hug.

“Lisa, I missed you so much,” I whispered.

“Where is the chicken I asked you to get?”

She immediately cut me off.

I pulled away and stared at her.

“Oh, sorry. I forgot.”

She pushed me aside playfully.

“Go and get it. Or have you gone broke already?”

“Not yet. Nobody has asked me for money today. I only left my house this morning.”

“Your mom again?” she asked, sounding like she was already used to hearing that.

I sat on her bed.

“I guess you all know now.”

“Jane, just disown her,” Lisa said with a smile.

“Easy for you to say, right? I should disown her just the way you did yours?”

Lisa turned toward me.

“Exactly. Mothers these days are becoming problems for us. So why not just cut them off?”

She said it like it was as easy as ABC.

I looked toward the table and noticed a framed photograph.

“That's your mom, right?”

“Yes, that's her,” she replied, turning her back to me.

“But you claim you disowned her?”

I laughed.

“Jane, you are silly, you know that?”

We both burst out laughing.

For a moment, the heaviness in my chest disappeared.

“Lisa, please give me food. I haven't eaten.”

“I don't accommodate beggars,” she announced as she headed toward the kitchen.

“Come on! Me, Jane, a beggar?”

I followed her behind.

“The last time I checked, you haven't returned the shoes you borrowed from me since high school. Should I call you a thief?”

She stopped and turned around.

“Here she comes again. Jane, it's been a decade. Can't you just let it go?”

“No. You have to pay me back. I bought those shoes!”

We both laughed as she brought out the food she had prepared for the two of us.

We ate together, talking about everything and nothing.

For a while, I forgot about my problems.

“What do you plan on doing today, Jane?” Lisa asked.

“Me? Nothing. I'm jobless already, so basically, I'll be sleeping.”

I smirked.

Lisa smiled.

“I want to go clubbing tonight.”

“Okay. I'll stay at home,” I replied unconcerned.

“What will you be doing at home? Come on, let's go party.”

“Lisa, you know I don't trust you, right?”

She laughed.

“The last time I followed you to a party, you and your boyfriend abandoned me there. I'm not going to let that happen again. Let me stay, please.”

“So you still haven't forgotten?” she asked, laughing hard.

“How would I forget that? Do you know how I felt? And how I managed to get home?”

“I'm sorry, baby. I won't do it again. I promise.”

“Sure?”

I pointed my spoon at her.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She bowed dramatically.

We both laughed.

“And before I forget, break up with your boyfriend,” she added.

“He also wants you out of my life,” I said, smiling while eating.

“Ooh, my God! That fool. What does he think he is?”

“Our Majesty,” I replied.

We both burst out laughing again.

By nightfall, we took our baths and got dressed.

Lisa, the makeup queen, had already worked her magic on my face. Since I couldn't go home yet, she gave me one of her cute dresses to wear.

I stood in front of the mirror, styling my hair.

“Hey, baby girl, you need to get yourself a real man today,” Lisa said out of nowhere.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Is that your reason for taking me with you?”

“Of course not. But you need to, and this is your last chance, Jane.”

“Why does that sound like you're planning something?”

She smiled innocently.

“Me? Never.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“That is exactly what someone who is planning something would say.”

She laughed.

Our taxi arrived, and we went downstairs.

We hopped in, and Lisa brought out her phone to call her boyfriend so he could meet us there.

I leaned against the window and breathed heavily.

Maybe I really needed to clear my head.

The stress of the day came rushing back.

My mother's harsh words.

Stanley's accusations.

Losing another job.

The school I never finished.

The memories I had spent years trying to bury.

Then, suddenly, the image of the beast from my past flashed through my mind.

My hands tightened around the fabric of the dress.

I had promised myself that if I ever came across him again, I would destroy him.

But why was I thinking about him now?

I shook my head.

No.

Tonight wasn't about the past.

Tonight was supposed to be about forgetting everything.

“Jane?”

I looked at Lisa.

She was staring at me strangely.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

She looked away too quickly.

Something about her expression bothered me.

“Lisa?”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

She smiled.

“I'm not.”

I studied her face.

For a second, I had the strangest feeling that she knew something I didn't.

Before I could ask again, the taxi suddenly slowed down.

Lisa looked outside.

“We're here already.”

I looked through the window.

The bright lights of the club flashed against the dark night, and loud music could already be heard from the entrance.

I took a deep breath.

Lisa grabbed my hand.

“Come on.”

We stepped out of the taxi.

I looked at her, then at the club.

Something about the place made my stomach twist.

I couldn't explain it.

Maybe it was just anxiety.

Maybe it was because I was tired.

Or maybe my instincts were trying to warn me.

I took another breath and followed Lisa toward the entrance.

I didn't know it yet, but walking through those doors was going to change my life forever.

And somewhere inside that club was someone I had never expected to see again.

The same person I had spent years calling a beast.

The same person I had sworn to destroy.

Tonight, I was walking straight toward him.