Way Back Into Love

In a distance, a girl could be seen walking with her footsteps almost quiet that even a being couldn't notice that she was there. The girl was facing his phone, scrolling through social media with a smile plastered on her face. She was happy, yes. Why? It's because today she will meet the love of her life that she hadn't seen in almost a week. "Calyx will arrive today, I must prepare a delicious dinner," the girl said while reading the message that her lover had sent her. "Oh yeah, I forgot that I don't have enough ingredients back at home," the girl exclaimed and stopped in her tracks as she turned back and started walking her way back to where she came from. Estelle Mariano, a girl that is hardworking as she had worked her years just to have enough money for her to live her life. If one sees her, they might say that she is happy, living a good life and is hardworking just to help her family from poverty but the truth is so much far from that saying. In her childhood, Estelle had suffered abuse from both of her parents who both had their addictions, her father an alcoholic and her mother, a gambler. Because of this family background that the girl had, she never had friends throughout her childhood and would even be a victim of bullying. That was not even the half of it when her parents come home, they would always vent their anger towards the helpless child, giving her scars on the body and scars on the heart and mind as they had always abused her and would remind her of the fact that she was useless and would rather have a son than a daughter. This cycle had continued in Estelle's life until she reached her senior year in High School. Back when she was a child, she had made a promise that she would detach herself from her toxic family and would live independently. And here she is, living her life to the fullest even though she's working all her youth off. But this could not compare to the hardships she had experienced as a child and besides she had met the love of her life, Calyx. If Estelle would describe him in one word, she would say 'saviour'. Because this man had shown her the ways of life, how to survive and enjoy it at the same time and because of this, she had promised herself that she would do all that she can so that she'll not be separated from her Calyx. When she arrived at the supermarket, she promptly picked up a basket and made her way around to gather the ingredients that she'll need in cooking their dinner. After roaming around the supermarket for almost an hour she had finally made her way to the counter to check out the items that she had picked. "That'll be 1 023 Php, ma'am," the cashier said while facing Estelle and smiling. Estelle looked at the cashier and immediately knew that she was irritated at something, though she was curious she chose not to say anything because she might even piss her off. And so, without delay, Estelle grabbed the exact amount from her wallet and handed it gently to the cashier whose smile has now disappeared. "Thank you," the cashier said but to Estelle, she could notice how fake it was. As a fellow cashier herself, that was not the proper way to thank your customer, one must show them a genuine smile and do their work properly and not slam the items into the counter table as if they were forced to do their job. This action made Estelle mad but she tried to hide it. *slam *slam *slam Now, Estelle had finally had it. She let out an angry huff and faced the cashier. "Hey, listen here..." she started, "...are you forced to do this kind of work?" Estelle asked making the cashier wide-eyed. "Can't you hear that I'm talking to you? Are you deaf?!" Estelle asked with her voice slowly getting high and attracting a crowd that is slowly surrounding them, watching as the drama unfolds. "M-Ma'am?" the cashier stuttered making Estelle smirk with anger. "Oh, are you now scared?" Estelle asked mockingly, scaring the cashier even more and seeing this encouraged Estelle even more to continue her actions. "Look here..." she pointed a finger towards the cashier who was now looking at her with horrified eyes, "...if you don't serve your customers whole-heartedly then you might as well quit your job because you are discouraging customers from buying here!" Estelle let all her anger out. "If you want to question me then let me tell you that I'm also a cashier myself even I know how to treat my customers right," Estelle combed her hair using her hands and did the packing herself. "Damn, I shouldn't have shopped here. It destroyed my happy mood," she grumbled as she packed her own groceries and made her way out of the supermarket shocking those who had seen the scene that she just caused and leaving the cashier embarrassed for her own reputation. Estelle stomped on the sidewalk as she let out her pent up frustration that she had gathered earlier and later on when she calmed herself down, she took a deep breath and let it out and smiled as if nothing had happened. She then started humming a happy tune as she made her way back to her apartment when her phone suddenly rang. Before grabbing her phone from her pocket, she felt that something was not going right but still, she picked up the phone and all she could hear was silence when the other line suddenly spoke. "Is this Miss Estelle Mariano?" a foreign voice made its way to Estelle's ears. "Yes," something was making its way up from Estelle's stomach. It was the uneasy feeling that she had felt earlier, she wanted to throw up but decided to swallow it back and continued listening to the other line. "What's your relationship with Calyx Garcia?" "Girlfriend," she spoke, forcing not to throw up. "Since, you're the last person that the patient contacted..." as the person continued speaking, Estelle's hearing was lost making her hear a high pitch beep when she heard the word 'patient', "...is in critical stage," when Estelle's hearing came back. She lost her strength that made her release the grocery bag that she was holding making the items from the bag roll out. "...we need someone to sign these papers for us and for the patient," Estelle immediately dropped the call and threw up all the contents that were threatening to come out since earlier. After throwing up, she then received a text message and it was about the whereabouts of his boyfriend. Without any other thoughts, she ran, leaving her groceries on the ground. She did not care about anything except Calyx's well-being.