Aviva wandered around the town, headed nowhere in particular. She had nowhere to go to… Earlier that day, she’d been in a fight with her mother. The woman kept her as a maid, always telling her to do everything and telling her off when she didn’t get it done. It really wasn’t her fault. The woman had told her to do like a million things, then she comes back and finds Aviva was still not done. She shouted and screamed like a child throwing a tantrum. She called her stupid, she called her useless, worst of all, she called her lazy. She wasn’t lazy! She’d done nothing but do chores all day, both her own and her mother’s. She couldn’t be at two places at once.
Aviva decided to leave then. Despite what her mother said, complaining about too much work and having no time and “having to do everything” in the house… Aviva knew she really couldn’t. She’d go off for three days and come back to find most of the dirtier dishes from the other day still in the sink, the laundry full, and ants all over the kitchen. But she did work, but it seemed she only did—a little—when her daughter was around, as if that fooled her.
The young teenage girl had taken out her school notebooks from her messenger bag, put in her art stuff and journal, headed off to school, as usual—and didn’t come home afterwards. She walked out the back and headed towards her friend’s home. This wouldn’t last long, only until she managed to get to the grandparents’. They’d offered her a home in the lower apartment before, but her brain dead mother fought and said ,“You have a house here!” Though both college and school were closer to her grandparents’ house—more or less right next to it actually. And they really had no money to waste on gas, which is what they were doing!
These were the thoughts which went through Aviva’s head as she stepped on a crack. Not five paces later she tripped on thin air and fell. She landed on her side. That’s leave have a nasty bruise. “Jeez—Chris,” she managed to swallow all the nasty words she wanted to blurt out. Her eyes were clearing of tears, but she wiped them just in case. The first thing she saw clearly was a feather. It was white and bright, but the tip was stained red. She realized the red was her blood. She’d scraped her knee and ankle. Stupid skirt! Served her right though, she should’ve put on her favorite jeans. She’d put them in her bag for fear of getting them dirty. She couldn’t put them on now, it’d just hurt more.
Aviva stood and brushed off her clothes, cleaned off the wounds with a clean antibacterial wipe, and was about to leave when she heard tinkling. Looking back she saw the charm from her bookmark had fallen. She checked her bag and saw the book wasn’t there either. She picked up the charm and scouted around for the book, but it was too dark to see. It’s my favorite too…, she lamented. She spotted a dark figure watching her from across the now deserted city street. She stood promptly and walked away as quick as she could without seeming startled.
She reached a nice Chinese restaurant and entered. She glanced outside furtively, checking to see if anyone had followed her. She didn’t see anyone suspicious looking, so she decided she could relax. She went and sat in a booth, the kind which continue along the wall. The waitress was busy chatting, but Aviva didn’t mind. She was in no hurry. She waited patiently, making a game of imagining what they could possibly be saying. The girl was a perky little blond with a smile which wasn’t fake, but dangerous. The man was dressed in a grey business suit ad looked harassed. The girl was probably trying to lure him into the trap, voluptuous girl parts as bait. The man, however, was not taking it. Rich and moral, who knew those still existed?
“That girl is going to get fired,” Aviva heard. She looked over and saw a guy, her age or so; dark hair, bright green but tired eyes, light skin—at least compared to her own olive toned skin, which tended to tan into a lovely latte color… If she wore sun block, if not, it got red, which turned to tan but was incredibly painful. These thoughts passed, she saw the guy was alone. So, either he was talking to himself or to her. She made an inquiring sound, as to not embarrass herself. The guy turned to her and blinked. “Well, yeah, I guess. Not that I’m complaining, I’m in no hurry. Besides, her boss probably isn’t watching.” The guy put on a face like he smelled something nasty. He suddenly stood, startling Aviva with the force of his more or less silent statement. She watched him march towards the door that said “Employees Only” and disappear beyond.
Less than a minute later an angry Asian woman burst into the scene, followed by a laid-back guy, followed by the random guy, who seemed a bit startled by the woman. Aviva wanted to catch it all, but the restaurant owner was speaking in Chinese, which the blonde surprisingly seemed to know. Not just that, but the blonde also started to argue back—in Chinese.
Somewhere in the mess everyone got kicked out of the restaurant, even the Chinese guy, who landed with an “Umph!” He’d gotten kicked out, literally. “Great Senri, you got me kicked out too.” The random guy called Senri shrugged, “Sorry man.” The yet nameless Chinese guy made to get up. Senri stood back automatically, while Aviva automatically made to help. The Chinese looked up at her as if he was trying to figure out modern art. But he took her hand anyway.
Aviva helped him up, but he didn’t let go immediately. The moment he looked at her felt like too long. She hated prolonged touch of any kind, even from friends. In reality it’d only been about three seconds. “Yue,” the guy finally said. Well, she didn’t really know much about Asian names, so she beat down the thought that it sounded like a girl’s name. “Aviva,” she murmured. Why was she talking to strangers anyway?
The guy let go slowly, and as soon as he did, Aviva heard tinkling. Again, she’d dropped her charm. It seemed that she’d picked up the feather when she’d picked up the charm because again, there it was.
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