Paper Hearts

Chapter 1

Do one thing every day that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt's famous quote was the mantra that Lilia Bunsen lived by. At first, it was little things like catch the spider in the corner of the room and slowly escalated to stuff like 300 ft bungee jump or skydiving. It had become her life motto when she was 14 and had gone into remission, after fighting Leukaemia for 5 years. This quote wasn't just a motto to her, It was a way to claim control over her life again. She'd spent years preparing to die that she didn't realise she was no longer scared of death but in reality, it was the thought of living that left her feeling lost, terrified and out of control. She would like to tell you without a shadow of a doubt that this motto was the reason she made the poor life decisions that she occasionally did as this was easier than admitting to herself she was just broken.

The fog and morning dew was heavy for a July British morning. Lilia jogged up the steps McMuffin in one hand, white chocolate mocha in the other. She got to the top of the steps, where she noticed three large boxes and a couple of full rubbish bags outside her front door. She squatted down to the floor and opened one side of the lid exposing that the box was full of her possessions. She quickly began rummaging through the other boxes and bags to find they were all filled with her stuff, her clothes, her everything. She got up, located her key in her handbag and tried to unlock the door but she was surprised when it didn't fit. She then resorted to desperately banging on the front door in an attempt to get one of her flatmates to let her in. She noticed the living room curtain open.

"Tess? Tessa my keys not working can you let me in?" Lilia begged to wave her key at the window. The girl behind the glass shook her head. "What? why? Tess this isn't funny. I've been at work all night I just want to go to bed."The window opened just enough for Tess to reply.

"You need to find a new place to live Lili."

"What, why?"

"You haven't paid rent in 5 months instead your off sleeping with half the city and getting drunk every night. if you can find the next 3 months rent and the 3750 pounds you already owe before we find a new roommate you can come back home."

"That's 6 grand. where am I meant to get that kind of money?"

"Rob a bank I don't know and I don't care." Mercedes, Lilia's other housemate snapped pulling Tessa from the window and shutting it closed. Lilia slid to the floor head resting against the door as tears began to fall down her face what was she meant to do where was she meant to stay? She didn't know the answer but she did know it wasn't here. She grabbed the boxes and bags and carried them down the stairs to the car park where she located Tessa car. She unlocked the boot and put them inside. Before locking the car again. At least her stuff had a safe place to stay.

Lilia spent the day in the car googling flats and house shares in the area. But nothing she could afford and soon she would be night time and she'd be out of options. There was a tap at the window. she turned to see Mercedes at the window, who was gesturing for her to do down the window.

"You need to get out of the car otherwise we'll call the police your stuff can stay but you can't" Merdeces commented.

"Where am I meant to go?" Mercedes shrugged her shoulders.

"You have 10 minutes and I want you gone."

Lilia walked down the street trying to find somewhere to stay the night but with a bank account of £15, she had pretty much exhausted her options until payday that was a few days away. Her breathing became heavy her pulse began to race and her vision blur. She almost stumbled into the road, she had to get off the street and get her breathing under control. She saw a petrol station across the street she quickly entered and looked around stumbling into the chocolate bars.