"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the baddest bitch of them all."
—Nirvana
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Every day was a challenge for me in this ghastly world. The world itself was full of mysteries and secrets beyond the human mind that was hard to comprehend but at the same time the world can be a beautiful place. They say that we all have our soulmates in the world whether they are near or far but I don't believe in soul mates, fate or destiny. They often say, you can't change your fate or destiny; it may be right or it may be wrong. The chances may be low but it is never a zero. I will make my own decisions and decide what I want to do with my life as long as I breathe air. Speaking of which, I had a long day ahead of me. As a college student with no parents, I had to work my ass off for my own education. My mother ran away when I was little so I had no memory of her, as for my good-for-nothing father he as well left. So I was pretty much all on my own.
The apartment that I was living in was crappy as hell, the walls as thin as a plastic bag and crammy but it was affordable so why not make something out of nothing. I don't eat breakfast at home as I had no stove so my stomach lives off fast food. Getting ready, I rammaged through some books on the ground for my key. Locking the door behind me, I double check to make sure I had all the necessities.
The owner of this shitty apartment was a man in his 50s, everytime he saw me, he'd stare at me with no shame in his eyes. Disgusting! Speak of the fucking devil.
"Good morning dear, have a wonderful day." The bastard said. Despite not having anything in my stomach I wanted to puke up the non-existent food. "Thank you." I gave a quick smile before rolling my eyes.
Today I only had one class, from 5-8. I work in a small diner and café restaurant and the income wasn't as good but it's better than nothing. It wasn't far away and in walking distance, so I'll arrive in 5-10 minutes.
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"Good morning, vana." Betty said. Betty was a lady in her early 40s and one of my co-workers. She gave me the nickname saying she preferred to call me that. "Morning, how are the sales comin' along?" Putting on my apron and my hair net, I got to work in the kitchen. "We had a good amount of customers come into since morning, Rachel isn't here as yet though." I placed the dishes in the dishwasher, then sprayed the table from the existing crumbs from biscuits. "-well I guess that's more work for you today." She finished. "Yea, it is. By the way a customer is at table 09." I informed Betty. "Can you go take the order, I'll finish up the things here." I washed my hands before patting it on my apron, such a bad habit that I need to get rid of soon.
Walking over to the table, a man was in suit. He must be a business man in one of those call center areas. He was on the phone talking so I went and stood by the table to signal that I was there. I waved my hand to get his attention. He stared at me with cold eyes and clenched jaws. "Can you please give me your order, there are other customers waiting." I sighed. "Can't you see that I'm busy." He snapped. This is why I don't take orders from customers. "The time you took to say you were busy, you could've told me what you want." I replied.
"Just give me the best breakfast items." As he shushed me off. "Betty, table 09 request surprise breakfast." It was once in a while customers requested to give them the best meal, we pretty much whip up what we thought was best and gave them, it was Betty's specialty. It doesn't make much sense if you asked me. Not that my opinion mattered. After taking a few more orders and washing the dishes as we go, it became tiring. It was now 2pm, when I took my lunch break in the back room. I pulled out my laptop to finish some course work that was due at midnight then studied for a bit, then back to work. Usually, I'll just walk back home and take a shower before heading on campus but the time wind down quicker than I expected.
After freshening up and changed into different clothes it was now 4pm which meant I had an hour left to reach campus "Betty, I gotta go now. We'll talk tomorrow." As I head out.
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I had no friends on campus or rather I don't socialise with anyone, it was too tiring. I have to work too hard to be distracted by anyone or anything. Dad use to say that with a resting bitch face like mine, no one would want to talk to me. Imagine telling your 12 year old daughter those words. It would sting right but nope, it didn't for me. I told him, I got it from his sour patch face and he didn't continue the conversation. I was 5 minutes late for the lecture so I practically ran up the stairs breathing like a hyena before doing my usual breathing techniques to calm my racing heart.
Another thing that I hated was whenever I was late, all eyes would stare at me as if I was some stranger invited at a kids birthday party. Taking a quick deep breath, nonchalantly walked in and climbed the mini stairs to the back of the room. The lecturer paid me no attention as he was busy writing gibberish on the board. All eyes were on me as if I was the villian in a horror movie. I forgot to bring my ipad so taking notes in a book will do the trick.
At the back of the class my eyesight was poor or perhaps the teacher was writing too small on the board. After a few minutes of taking notes I decided to give up, I could no longer understand anything he was saying and decided to just write the topics or whatever important things he was saying.
Class blew out pretty quick or perhaps the time was moving by quickly. "Pair in groups of two or three please." The moment the lecturer said those words, my heart sank. I knew it was coming eventually but not like this. "I beg to differ, can we do the assignment by ourselves?" I asked. The lecturer shook his head and I gave up immediately. "Hi, can I sit beside you?" It was a female, the gothic girl in the class that had no friends like me. "Um-yeah sure, I guess." I stuttered like a fucking fool. "My name's Dacy, what's yours?" She questioned. "Nirvana." She looked at me, "You mean like, Nirvana, which means transcendental state and great bliss?"
If I'm being honest, it never occurred to me to research the meaning behind my name so I just nod as if I knew. I wrote down a mental reminder to research it when I got home. The entire class moved to sit with there friends as I was stuck with this girl, then a guy joined our group. After discussing the sections of the assignment that we were doing. It was now quarter to 10.
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Dacy and the guy went their own way while I walked to the bus stop. It wasn't all that quiet outside. Despite it being night the place was lovely. As a bars, taboo, pubs were open at these times for the old, young drunk bastards. I hussled to the bus stop and sat on the bench waiting for the next bus since I missed the 9:30 bus. I wrapped the sweater around my body as the time was chilly.
For some reason, I didn't feel safe tonight; an uncomfortable feeling rose in my stomach as I could feel eyes on me. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to wait, maybe I'll just call a cab and pay the extra money. Getting up from the bench, the scent of cigarettes hit my nostrils as I could feel the sensation behind me. Speeding up and looking for the Uber number, a car slowed down, not thinking much about it. I cotinued walking until I notice some guys came out and was walking in my direction as I turned to go in the opposite direction.
Someone grabbed me by the arm and yanked my hair causing me to let out a loud shriek from the immense pain that I was feeling. "Let me go you fucking bastards." As I kicked my hands and feet hitting whatever I could. "Hurry and give her the damn drug idiot." One of the men said. Before I could process what happened, a cloth was placed over my nose causing me to suffocate as I felt my body went limp.