Like most days, Beryl woke up at around 11 am. She could feel the sun shine harshly on her face through the window on the ceiling of her tiny rooftop studio. Her bed was a bare mattress on the floor. The clothes she had worn the day before lay haphazardly around the room where she had thrown them. Her other clothes were crammed onto four shelves by the door, and as usual, the laundry basket was overflowing with dirty clothes.
Beryl checked the time on her phone. There were no messages. Why would there be since she had no friends, and the only person who ever called her was her mother, at exactly 7pm every evening for five minutes. She knew this, but couldn't help the wave of loneliness which hit her. Since her class that day was at 1 pm, she decided to sleep for a few more minutes.
She woke up an hour later, sweaty from a strange and frustrating dream. Sighing, she pushed herself up from the bed and walked to the bathroom. The sight which greeted her in the mirror was disgusting. Her long, dark brown hair hang in greasy clumps down her shoulders. Her skin looked pale and anemic with angry red pimples in the spots that she had popped the day before. Her blue-gray eyes looked back at her lifelessly.
Though she hadn't showered in a week, there was no choice but to shower now, before her only class of the week. Which meant she would be late... as always. When she stepped out of the shower, she looked like a drowned rat. But after moisturizing her skin and concealing her pimples, a new Beryl began to appear.
Her eyes were bright, with irises the color of a stormy sky. Long black lashes and delicately curved eyebrows created a mysterious and beautiful combination. Her skin looked smooth and plump, with an elegant nose and a small pink mouth. As her hair dried, it began to look straight and thick, with slight golden highlights. Looking at her reflection, she smiled. At least she hadn't lost her beauty.
Looking at the time, she gasped and rushed to put on the clothes from the day before. She rushed down two flights of stairs and into the courtyard. This was an old town near Paris, where the main street was full of bakeries, butcher's shops, fruit and vegetable shops, and other businesses. Arched entrances gave way to paved courtyards surrounded by old two-story houses. Beryl lived in a studio under the rooftop of one of these houses.
She ran up the street and barely made it onto the deserted bus. Ten minutes later, she stepped foot on the deserted university campus. This campus, made up of ugly buildings next to farms and horse paddocks, always looked deserted, no matter the time of day. She often wondered where the thousand of students studying in the buildings disappeared after class was over. She would probably have known if she had any friends.
As she entered the building, she suddenly became panicked as she realized that she had arrived during the break. Students were milling about in the hallways, joking and talking loudly. She began to hyperventilate. She didn't want to meet anyone, or worse, be recognized by one of her former classmates. Everywhere she turned, she was afraid of running into a familiar face. Every voice she heard, she thought was calling out to her. Not taking any chances, she rushed into a nearby bathroom and locked the door.
As she waited for the break to be over, she looked at her reflection and laughed. How pathetic she was! At already twenty four years old, she had still not graduated from her engineering college. She was retaking a year not for the first, but the second time! She had no friends and slept all day. She lied to her parents about everything in her life.
But it had not always been this way. No, she had been joyful and bright. She had thought that she could conquer the world. Why did she have to become such a pathetic failure, she thought. Until when was she going to live like a ghost?