Glitter in the air

I climbed up the gates again and ran home. After sweating and waiting an hour for the hot water to come, I checked my voice mail. I had one message.

“Hey, Olive. It’s Lena. Listen, I have to talk to you tomorrow. Bill told me where you live and I cannot believe you didn’t wait for me. I hope you found a job for yourself. Oh, and – No, Leo, put that out of your mouth!- and, I want to see you tomorrow over coffee. I’ll be at the coffee shop near my workplace. Meet me there at 2 PM. Bye, Olive. Say goodbye to aunt Olive, Penn.“ I heard Penn shout something about missing his cartoon and then Lena sigh and close the phone.

I rubbed my eyes and flopped on the bed, with two extra jumpers. I thought about how much I’d done in three small days: new home, new job, new friends.. An adventure surely.

I should make up some excuse to not go. If Lena sees me like this, my house and hears about my job she’ll have a fit. A public one. Ugh, sometimes I wish Lena would’ve been an only child.

Anyway, I’d better go. After all, I won’t see her as often.



It was the day. The day I’d meet up with Lena and her perfect family. It was quite a fair sacrifice considering I’d only have to do this once every couple of weeks. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing about her perfect job and how she’s the gem of the company and coincidentally everyone liked her.

I grudgingly did my morning routine. I tried keeping myself from looking into the mirror as much as I could, because I didn’t want to see how messed up my face was. I was still feeling like crap and I sneezed every 1.2 seconds. My entire army of napkins was defeated, and outside was a warm day.

“Urghh. Why me?” I whined while picking out a baggy shirt, mainly blue with brown and blue stripes all over it. It was a little masculine, yes, but comfortable as it could be. I also took out a pair of skinny faded jeans and black lace sandals. I put a pair of my mom’s former earrings in my ears, they were small lavender flowers; quite small and pretty. I took out a white school bag, that serves it’s purpose through life heroically. It looked like a school bag would and should. Old and dirty. But I put my mind to being comfortable today. I was already feeling bad.

Sighing, I closed the door and thought about Ryder and the Iris Residence. The sheer beauty of the place made it the most beautiful corner on Earth where a person could hide. It was such a pity that Ryder could do nothing but work and sleep in it. It needed proper care, and attention. As well as him.

I wonder how Edith’s doing..

I walked to the bus station, sneezing five times. I took out the napkins I’d just bought and used one of them to wipe my nose clean. So far the sun and the heat didn’t do anything to improve my mood. It’s like we were in the freaking desert. Hot as shell during daytime and freezing cold at nights. Ridiculous.

“Bus come to me. C’mon. Come on, bus. Great. Lena’s gonna be pissed.” I said looking at the watch on my left hand. I was already ten minutes late. And with Lena, time was money. Literally.

“Finally!” I threw my hands in the air impatiently and the bus opened its doors. I ran up the small flight of stairs and took my seat in the middle of the bus. The bus driver looked curiously at me but shook it off and continued his work.

It was a fairly short ride. Three bus stops and luckily, each of them was empty. Traffic wasn’t that big which was a miracle. Seriously, someone Up there really cared about me. Thing which I needed right now. I slowly got out of the bus and looked uncomfortably at the place Lena chose for us to meet. It was a big fancy coffee shop that was indeed near her workplace.

The upside was that it was in the middle of the town, which meant that after I’d get out of the interrogation room I could catch up on some shopping or at least walk around for a bit. But I’d have to get through this first.. To survive.

People in suits were walking hurriedly everywhere, scrambling to or from work. Each of them was talking on some cell phone or to their equally dressed up colleague, politics and economy being the only thing they talked about. Needless to say, I was feeling out of place. The odd one out. It was like every passer stared at me in shock that a mere citizen would come all over here; especially looking like I did.

Their snobby thoughts could be read all over their faces. No one thought I was good enough, with my big hair that wouldn’t stay in place and with my tired eyes. Shame on me for not wearing a bucket-full of make-up just for hiding myself.