"We are sorry miss, but you are underage."
"I am sorry little one, but you are way too petite for doing this!"
"My love, it's a work for men. Men!"
"Little girl, you lack experience. You don't have any prior work experience or necessary educational qualifications. We cannot risk any losses out of pity, young one."
"Too young to function."
"I see that you've only graduated middle school, no further studies… I don't think we can take you…you are way too inexperienced…but we do have a job where you can make money off that pretty face of yours…"
If waking up to disgusting water droplets hitting your face, like a drunken man playing darts, and then slipping in the water puddle only to end up with a paining butt for the rest of the day, on an empty stomach, wasn't bad enough; then this certainly was.
Olivia had set off to find a respectable job for herself, before the ever-so-diligently-punctual sun came out for its own.
Awake and running, with a bruised butt, since the crack of dawn, she went through almost every nook and crook of Albuquerque's darkest lanes to find a job that could help her earn $15,000 within three days, without betting her life or losing her dignity. Or being a prey to the ever hungry loan sharks.
From the stretch of dawn till dusk, she had been rejected on the recorded number of 49 jobs. Was it possible? Yes of course, if you are a poor young girl with no connections, no talents, no qualifications, no degrees to back you up and no beauty with a flattering worth.
By dusk she was contemplating the reason of why money overpowers all and why men were created in the first place. An ever winding puzzle, she came to the vague conclusion. Just a world with girls would have been fine.
Biting the inside of her cheeks, she kicked a pebble. Her day one was already coming to a close; all she got from Destiny's plate was a huge cup of disappointments.
"If only I wasn't born a girl, I have passed at least 20 of those interviews," she muttered with a sigh, walking aimlessly on the dark roads. She hated being the pathetic person that she was now, but she would never regret being born a girl. Clearly there must be something out there for her.
"Patience brings out marvelous gifts, darling," Her mother used to say whenever Olivia was in a pinch.
Yeah, but you cannot eat patience or heal sick people with it.
She nodded to herself and heaved another sigh. Life plays out as it is, but she will make sure it only brings good days now.
Yeah, as if.
Slumping down on a bench nearby, she took out a brown dirty diary and scratched the 49th number out of the '50 Jobs I can do' list. She stared at the 50th number for a split second—Bank Heist—then rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of the scenario and scratched it as well.
Her dark chocolate hair, tied neatly in a curly pony tail, swept gently along the moving breeze. The pages flipped along with the wind, rustling in their own mirth.
Olivia might be a smooth liar, courtesy circumstances, but the absence of even a hint of courage put her in no place to being able to successfully rob a bank.
The sun went down just like her vain expectations, slowly but steadily. She stretched her hands outwards and lay down on the bench, the cold stone felt a bitter contrast under her hot body. She closed her eyes and sighed yet again, she was doing a lot of that action since the past three years.
The diary slipped off her stomach and fell down.
"I fell in the morning, my butt hurts, I've been running on water for the past two days, my stomach is on the verge of starting to digest itself, I didn't have a job and I just cannot go back home empty handed…Hanna will be disappointed and dad...I'm homeless, jobless and starved. Dear God, can you be any crueler?" she groaned out, stomping her old puma clad feet on the cold stone bench.
She refused to cry.
As if on cue, maybe God's mercy, a crow flew above her head shitting on her chest, more like the front of her old black hoodie.
After a 'splat' sound, a huge white gooey mixture spread itself on her chest. Instantly her face morphed into the trademark scowl and she jerked up. She let out a disgusted whine.
"What in the name of heavens is wrong with you dear Lord?!" she shouted out loud, a sickened look on her face. Scrunching her nose, slowly, she unzipped the hoodie and pulled it off. "Eww! Eww! Eww!" she kept on chanting as the white substance slid further down in long drops.
She rolled the jacket into a ball and shoved it inside the sad excuse of a bag that she had, disgust and annoyance being the prominent features of her face throughout.
"Anything more in store for me?" she looked heavenwards and asked with a sickly sweet smile.
And again, as if on asking, God's mercy level shot up, and someone shouted from behind her, "Hey you!"
With another trademark scowl, Olivia looked back to see the silhouette of a man dressed in black. She frowned at his mysterious yet creepy demeanor.
Olivia looked left, right, ahead, behind and then under the bench. Who the fuck is he talking to?
She looked back to face the man clad in black. "Me?" she whispered out in bewilderment. The darkness was an acting curtain between the two. She was thankful that he could not make out her face, but annoyed because she could not make out his either.
Since the day, 3 years ago, when her family was shoved down the lane of poverty, Olivia was used to be ignored, alone and isolated. Nobody paid heed to her as she had successfully lashed the world out. But now that someone was specifically pointing her out and calling her, it was kind of refreshing but borderline scary as hell.
"Oh no miss, I was talking to the crow behind you!" the man exclaimed in a tone dripping with so much sarcasm that you could fill buckets and buckets. His childish retort earned him an involuntary eye roll from Olivia.
Olivia pressed her lips in a thin line, knowing well enough not to interact with random men, clad in black, aura shouting 'Stranger Danger', on a lonely street with the moon at guard. Na-uh!
For girls, life was 10 times harsher at night than it was during the day. With no one and nothing to guard her, she was not taking this risk just so that she could chat to someone who was not Hanna.
"Enjoy your bird break then," Olivia muttered with disinterest lacing her tone. She got up and slung the bag on her shoulders.
Without the hoodie, she felt more exposed as the cold wind played with her cheap Hawaiian printed dress.
"Common girl, I was talking to you!" his boyish voice came out breathy and Olivia cringed internally, Holy Heavens she does not wants to know the reason. Passionately ignoring the man-in-black, her puma clad feet crumpled the gravel under them as she took big strides to walk away.
She heard some curse words and an exasperated whine that only increased with the jogging and soon enough the boy caught up to her. Dread, Olivia felt dread wash over her when a hand landed on her shoulder.
"Excuse me! See my face, I'm not some weird person!" he protested and as much scared and infuriated Olivia felt, there was something genuine, pleading and broken in his.
She turned around and narrowed her eyes to catch a glimpse of his face in the dark.
The street light of the area was broken because someone hit a home run while playing baseball. She was facing the moon.
This could have been an awful decision because if he was a kidnapper then he could easily drug her, take her away, operate her organs out and sell them.
But nevertheless she turned, not because she felt like turning, not because it felt like the right thing to do, not because forces of the universe were pulling at her to turn. No.
But because her brain was almost shutdown due to exhaustion and she had barely any active imagination to think what could happen next. Also, because she was dumb.
"See, is this dashing face of a serial killer? Do these beautiful eyes look anything like that of a kidnapper's?" there was a cheeky hint to that statement.
Olivia had a huge urge to say, 'if not you then me.'
Though the moon was illuminating his face, his hair looked darker at night, Olivia could bet on the fact that it was lighter in the day. A shade somewhat like the shiny gold of honey, the sandy Californian beaches and the bark of a Christmas tree. The strands of his hair were a lush mess over his head, curled on the ends, combed to a side giving a clear view of his wide forehead.
Underneath the thick arch-brows of his was a pair of coral blue eyes, as dazzling as the azure ocean and summer skies. They were an absolute blue, portraying freedom and flights of his spirit. His head was slightly bent and his eyebrows rose in a subtle manner. He stared into Olivia's dark orbs just like the protagonist of a cheesy film who was about to confess his undying love for the girl in a totally not overused cliché scene. Even his plump lips were in an all-knowing smirk. This man was dashing and he knew it to all aspects.
As Olivia frowned, at his not-so-gangster look, the boy's face broke into a grin. He ran his thumb against the lower lip and raised an eyebrow.
Creep.
"What are you trying to do?" Olivia asked in her clear and bland, emotionless voice. Her faced defined the word 'disinterested' to new heights. All she wanted was to get this over with and run away.
The boy scoffed, ran a hand through his hairs and looked her in the eye, flabbergasted by the nerve of the petite little girl standing before of her. He blinked once, twice and then winked.
Olivia looked part pitiful, part amazed but she settled for a full blown disgusted look on her face.
"How…How can you not be affected by my Greek God looks? I'm Adonis reincarnated!" dumbfounded, he shoved his face closer to hers— what is personal space, to hell with it—so that she could get a good look from every direction and angle.
"See, see, and say something!"
Olivia gave him a pitiful smile for his desperate antics and pushed him back, walking away. The boy frowned and followed her like a magnet's North Pole rushing to the South Pole.
The road ahead was darker and there was no way she would be treading there with a creepy narcissist stranger beside her.
"What do you want?" Olivia groaned out, stopping midway. His footsteps came to an abrupt halt as well. She turned again to see him standing like a guilty child being punished was stealing candy.
"Water," the boy blurted out, kicking his ego aside for his dire needs. If it were a normal day for him, he would never let her go without a giving her a good dose of his handsomeness. But the today was different and he was desperate, if not anything. "Do you have water?" he asked again.
So as to avoid rolling her eyes at his face, Olivia rolled her head instead. Her right foot tapping on the ground, a sign of growing impatience by every ticking second.
"How come you need the only thing I have!" she wondered out, scowling, well she tried hard not to snap.
He closed his eyes, breathed in and out, tried to control his temper and then, "Just give me your water bottle!" he demanded in a bossy way as if she were his servant.
Olivia's eyes widened at the audacity of the boy in front. "How are you so sure that I even have one?" she retorted, crossing her arms against her chest.
"Well you just said that it was the only thing that you have!" The boy borderline whined, eyes frantic.
Olivia scoffed, "How do I know that you are not luring me into something? For all I know you could be some woman trafficker trying to kidnap me?" she questioned harshly. The boy looked a two or three years older than her, but his less to none social skills were getting on her nerves.
The boys eyed her from head to toe then scowled rudely, "Believe me you look like a Hawaiian runaway drug addict who was being forced to leave drugs and had one too many nicotine shots. If there was a public bathroom nearby, I'd willingly dunk my head down the hole, to drink water, rather than ask you—"
"Just shut up!" Olivia cut him in, biting on her lower lip. "Why the fuck should I give it you?!" she retorted back, in all but a shout, taking a step in front, pulling off an intimidating expression by raising her chin to meet his eye and frowning widely.
"Because I asked you to!" he retorted back in one of his shouts, taking a step further to intimidate her.
"People like you increase my disappointment, by tenfold, in humanity!" Olivia spat out, turning on her heels (slapping his face by her bushy, un-brushed and dirty pony tail in the process) and walking away.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps following her and before she could even turn behind, her bag was snatched away from her.
The boy ran past her leaving a misbalanced Olivia to fall on the ground. He stopped just a few yards away from her, panting, he hastily opened the bag shoved the dirty jacket out of it and took out the water bottle.
Olivia got up from the ground flung at him with a powerful kick.
Before the boy could know what hit him, he was passed out. Out cold on the floor.
She didn't even kick him, she had only raised her leg, very close to his face…and he just fell on the ground. Dropped dead?!
Olivia stood there with heavy breaths. What just happened?
And even before her mind could comprehend, or she could pick up her bag and make a run for it, a voice shouted, "You! You are under arrest!"