Z.

B.

I was finishing off my Stuyvesant before I heard my cellphone ring. "Don't forget about our meeting in Utrecht at 5pm," said the voice on the other end, before hanging up. I shoved the phone back into my coat and went on my way. By 11pm, I had an extra 300 Euros and a decent meal. Maybe the universe was finally beginning to smile on me because by the end of the week, I had made enough to buy the Quakers house.

I spent my weekend in a ditch, too high to find my way back home and too broke to even try. I always did this. I was a sucker for reckless spending. I could never amount up to anything because my conscious was non-existent. Nothing ever told me when to stop and my intuition was on holiday. I did whatever I felt like it, whenever I felt like it. The universe tricked you again mate. 

I was kicking a can on the side of the road when I heard a mellifluous sound that seemed like an acoustic guitar, coming from the open window of the apartment in front of me. And then, a voice singing Tevin Campbell's Dandelion. I thought my life had been saved. Never had I ever heard something so sweet. And the man himself, he looked like...Wait, isn't that the guy from f*******:? 

Id been speaking to a man on social media that just sponges out all of my darkness and makes me feel like I'm worthy of oxygen. I almost wet myself as I stood on the pavement, eyes glued to the window. We had been planning on meeting each other soon but here he was, right in front of my blood-shot eyes. My first instinct was to call out his name. Alvaro. It weighed on my mind like a country at war. I couldn't let him see me in my mini leather skirt, Metallica t-shirt and those damn, same old stolen platforms. f**k. Why me? I was just about to turn around and make a run for it when I heard him call out my name. Please don't let that voice lead me to doing any more disgusting s**t with a man I knew nothing about. Well, technically I knew him but you do get what I'm afraid of right? Yeah I know I've been f*****g heck loads of strangers and s**t-heads I met on dating sites but this ding dong is quite special and I don't want to f**k it up. "Hey!" I replied, half breathless. I wasn't sure if that was you so I just preferred to mind my own business and move along. I mean, in all of our conversations, you never mentioned that you can mimic my favourite R&B artist." He laughed. Pure margarine. "That's a first. I'm usually just told that I can sing." 

Alvaro invited me into the apartment that I had then figured was his, judging from the photographs on the walls and the taste in furniture. Yep, I knew him that well. Not so bad for a puta huh? After a couple of Pueblas and martinis, I was ready to blab out my unfortunate life story. Just as I was about to confess my supposed s*x addiction, the doorbell rang and he excused himself. 

2 minutes later, he walked in with Beyoncé. Of course it wasn't her but this b***h looked moneyed, and as gorgeous as the backdrop of the sunset in the Bahamas. "Uh Zara, meet my fiancée, Jasmine." What the hell did you think? That he'd never have someone like Aladdin's girlfriend as a life partner? "Oh,I'm..I'm, Álvaro's f...fr...friend." s**t. "Is that right? You must be the poor struggling girl that he's been telling me about," her voice was cool, with an undertone of cruelty. "And I'm sure you came to get some food stock, maybe blankets and a few clothes that we don't need any more when you accidently bumped into my alcohol." She looked down at the glass I was holding and looked back at me. For a minute, I felt so small. I wished that the couch I was sitting in could suffocate me in its Italian leather. Tears stung my eyes but I fought them back with a great deal of hardship. Alvaro cleared his throat and apologised to me.

Before he could finish off his sentence, I was already greeted by the coldness of the streets and the blue-black of the sky. I ran, so fast that I did not care for my bare feet and uncovered shoulders. It was none of my business what Jasmine would decide to make of my platforms and coat. Tears flooded my face and streamed down to my collarbone. 

I laid down on the ground where I had fallen and let the dewy grass comfort me. The moon looked closer to me than ever before. Maybe it was because I related to it. Her grey face, her stony features and cold plateau. She was so bright but her shine was stolen by the jealous tangerine streaks of light that began to colour the heavens. Just as she was about to disappear, I drifted off in slumber. Defeated by the reins of darkness and too weak to appreciate the glow of dawn and its beauty.