Once upon a night

part one

***Hello,
English is not my first language so I want to apologize beforehand for any writing errors and other things.
I hope you'll like this story and you should read it at your own risk, cuz it does contain adult themes. Just a little bit, but still.

All of this is a work of fiction, none of these characters really exist and if you happen to find mentioned subjects triggering, I apologize. Thank you for reading!!***

*****

Frankie’s hair was not naturally ginger.
She herself did not know why she’d had it dyed the day prior, but it had been done. 

One could say that Frankie was in dire need of change; anything, something, oh please, something happen, she’d beg the universe, desperate in her helplessness, but since the universe stayed dead silent, vast and merciless, she took the matter into her own small hands, hands that couldn’t do much. 
She had finally dyed her hair. 
But as an unwanted addition to that, she wasn’t sure that she liked it, or that she’d ever come to like it, but change must have been good, or so she’d heard. And that is just one more of a reason why she found herself sitting by the bar, in a restaurant that she’d never dreamed of stepping into, sipping on that strong and overly bitter, transparently brown  beverage, while the tingling feeling of alcohol burned through her mouth and stomach and sense altogether. Frankie thought that evenings like those could have been more frequent, had she not been at the brink of poverty, always making such an effort to have food on the table and just as much to stay alive. She might’ve even done it before, but all of those sleepless nights with head buried in the pages of endlessly long textbooks and mind filled with painfully boring information wouldn’t let her have it – after all, she needed to keep the scholarship. A student’s life was a series of torture and humiliation, and what for – a future that was equally bleak and grey.

The determination she once had now seemed profoundly pointless, and there was no trace of it left; the scholarship had been lost, so why not drink it all down, drown it in alcohol and forget about the absence of meaning in her life. Yes, there was no meaning in anything whatsoever.

Frankie then noticed a mild shift a few chairs down, a silhouette of a man who had just sat at the bar, asking for a drink. 
She stole a good look at him, taking in the full image of his appearance and could see that he was tall and was wearing a suit without a tie, meaning that he must have just come back  from an important meeting. Maybe. 
His shoulders were broad and lean,  pesky blonde hair neatly combed, his jaw sharp, but what made her stare in awe were his hands, long and pale, slender fingers that seemed incredibly soft. An unknown desire suddenly bloomed inside of her. She’d never been caressed by a man, a real man, before, she only knew of a clumsy boy’s touch, so she couldn’t help but wonder what it’d feel like. Not that it’d ever happen, of course, never has she felt beautiful or brave enough to approach, well, even a boy, let alone a man. A beautiful man. 

Frankie was becoming drunk, just a little, on that desire and alcohol, but enough to start thinking of all social failures and unfulfilled girl’s wants of her teenage years and that little bit of the adolescent life that she had lived through. And what she found there was true misery, adamant and vile.
The man suddenly turned, his dark eyes looking directly at her, which made her hide away quickly, behind a loose strand of her gingerish hair whose purpose was now the same as a wall’s, a wicked heat flaring up her cheeks and forehead, making her eyeballs burn inside her sockets. 
The feeling of him watching her made Frankie overly uncomfortable, she never liked to be looked at by someone, it would always make her feel insecure and be conscious of every little thing that was not right with her, and there were many, many. 
Nevertheless, she did not flee, she stayed. And she was proud of herself, of her boldness that had yet to fully transcend into something greater, so she ordered for another one of those evil liquids that felt so good, but hurt just as bad.