Sunrise of every other day had always brought a new hope in her eyes, but it was not the case that morning. She feared another unpredictable day that stood before her.
She rose from her bed, like every other morning, she fixed her bed and came outside in the living room. As soon as she opened the door, she saw Bella completely passed out, and several liquor bottles on the floor around her. It was not something that she had seen for the first time. It had been a scene that she saw almost everyday, and it irked her each time the same.
She walked on her toes, trying to pass through the mess that was scattered all over the floor: glass bottles, tissues, and peanut shells were lying across the whole room.
"If I am ever allowed to kill one person in this entire world. You bet it is going to be you, Bella."
She came in her balcony and breathed in fresh air. The morning sunshine was pleasant and the narrow street down her balcony had started to liven up with the chatters of her neighbors.
"Looks like I don't even have a job anymore," she mouthed as she saw busy people in her street, on the way to their respective workplace.
Just as she was casually looking at the view, she found that her neighbors were fascinated by something in the very end of that street. People went rushing towards it and surrounded it from all four sides. She couldn't see what the matter of attraction was as a swarm of people blocked it from her sight.
"What are they doing?" she asked in the air.
She leaned forward against the fence in an effort to get a glance at it. But the crowd around it was only increasing to make it hard for her to see it standing there. She heard her phone ringing from inside. After failing to see it all this time, she gave up and came inside to answer her phone that was ringing incessantly. The ten digit number on it was unknown to her.
"Hello," she said after swiping up to answer the call.
Her expressions showed a drastic change after hearing from the other side of the call. She made haste and slipped her feet into a pair of slipper and headed outside.
She stepped foot in the street and ran toward the crowd and the mysterious object they surrounded. Making her way through the people, she came close to it. "Please give me some room." Her petite body managed to slip through the cramped space and she saw the same extravagant vehicle along with Mr. Bruce inside.
"Is he a celebrity?" one of the indistinct voice coming from the crowd.
"There's no way he is a celebrity. I am not someone who will forget a face like this."
Oriel brought the phone with ongoing call with Mr. Bruce on her ear. "What are you doing here?" she asked over the phone, while gazing at him.
"Umm... I" Mr. Bruce stuttered. He was uncomfortable with all those people staring at him like an extinct being. "I think you should help me getting out of here first. These people just won't budge."
People stroked the surface of the glossy car with their hands. Some were getting their photos clicked with it. It was apparent that it was the first time that such a car had ever turned its wheels in that street. "I don't think there's anything I can do. You'll have to step out yourself." Oriel talked to him over the phone.
"You'll have to get me out. It's all because of you that I'm stuck here like this," said Mr. Bruce.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Oriel. "Why did you come here at this time of the day?"
"To tell you the truth, I am here since last night," he told her. "I had come to return this jacket of yours. I didn't want to disturb you from your sleep, so I just waited till the morning arrived. Unfortunately, I fell weak to sleepiness and dozed off inside. Then I woke up from a sweet dream to a nightmare when I saw all these people circling me like bees." He picked up the jacket and showed it to her through the car's window.
"You didn't have to do so much to return that jacket," she said, still talking over the phone.
Mr. Bruce looked at her and said, "But I couldn't find another excuse to come find you."
Oriel's lips spread into a shy smile. She avoided looking directly at him. "I told you that you are bad at flirting."
"And that's the reason that I do it more, so one day I can get better at it," replied Mr. Bruce. "Now it's uncomfortable to have this conversation like this. Please do something and help me getting out."
"Alright!" she said and hung up the call. She turned to the crowd, cleared her throat and said, "what are you all doing? do you not have anything better to do?"
Those people looked at her crankily. "Who are you to tell us that? The owner doesn't seem to have any problem. Then why are you trying to stop us from checking it out?" one of those spoke up.
"You really think that he doesn't have any problem with you blocking his way and surrounding him like ants on a piece of cake?" she said.
"You can leave if you want to. But we are not going to move just because you say. You ain't no one to tell us that," a boy argued.
Oriel scoffed the boy's reply. "Looks like I will have to do this another way." She reached to open the door of the car and sat took the driver's seat like a boss. People were appalled to see her. They could never imagine her to be having the authority to get inside that car. "Who are you?"
Mr. Bruce, sitting beside, looked at her and asked, "are you going to drive?" he asked. "But what about all these people who won't budge from their spot?"
"Don't worry! they love their lives and will most probably move if they hate getting hit by me." She revved the engine.
People who stood firm till now, were starting to get worried about their bodies. "Are you seriously going to run over us?" asked the boy.
"I tried to war ya."
She switched the gear to reverse and stepped on the accelerator to drive the car in reverse. One by one, everyone moved from the way, till it was all clear. Mr. Bruce looked at her reversing the car with one of her hand on the steering wheel and other resting upon his seat. She appeared to be confident and headstrong at that moment. He was mesmerized by her effortless charms.
She switched the gear and pressed the accelerator to move forward. As the car came scampering toward them, feet of those people trembled and they moved away as fast as they could. "Why does she get to drive a car like that?" they thought.
Oriel drove the car far off from her impoverished neighborhood. "That's all you had to do," she said.
Mr. Bruce smiled and replied, "Well, I will keep a note for the next time I fall asleep in your street."