The Girl in Manhattan

•Cheap Cigarettes•

Gazing, Kayla posed as if she was listening to dead old James, and without realising... he'd already left. Her hand separated from her face, drifting back down like the thoughts in her mind. Marco came by, and for the first time he asked Kay was she okay, which, as usual, she replied 'I'm fine.' He nodded, and walked into the back, lighting a single cigarette. The smoke flowed through the air, in and out of the entire shop, lingering, sticking on objects and clothes like rain to a puddle on the side of a street. Filling the oxygen you breathe in, swirling round and around your head. It was everywhere. The last customer Kay had to serve left the shop, sounding the bell on top of the door frame. It was like an alarm telling Kayla to go and rest, and that is what she did. As soon as she got into her apartment, she slumped down, staring at her phone waiting for a phone call from her mother.

Light snoring was all that was heard, it was like a sigh of relief that Kayla had put her mind to rest. Kay had set her phone's ringtone to the loudest, so if she got a call, it would wake her.

The sound of a ringtone filled the room, overpowering the snoring as she picked up 'hello?' she said sleepily. Louise cried 'K-kayla... she's gone.' Taking a deep breath and ending the call. She buried her head in her knees and cried like never before. All that went through her mind was that her best friend, her sister, the person she told everything. Was gone. In the blink of an eye. Sammy was ripped away like autumn leaves from a tree. Broken. Not just heartbroken, but completely, utterly broken. She felt her weeps covered the entire city. Why Sammy? Did she do something wrong? Did she do something to deserve this? She asked herself repeatedly. Just, why Sammy?

Manhattan was louder than ever, like Kayla's cries from the night before. Unable to move, she sunk into the bed like her world had been taken from her, she felt abandoned, she felt she had no one.

Numb.

Kay was lucky it was her day off, otherwise Marco would have been in that apartment dragging her out of bed himself. Marco never understood emotions, he was a very closed off person, Kayla tried getting a heartfelt conversation out of him once, by the word once, you can tell it never really worked. He shut off Kayla, so she never tried again.