Love

Part 1

It was a late Tuesday night in Athens, Greece. Naila is home

alone waiting on the couch for her boyfriend for the third night in a row. The door opens and

Laiden enters, drunk. "It's 4am," says Naila. Laiden mumbles and falls on the couch. Nalia

thinks to herself, "What kind of life am I living?".

Three months have passed, and Naila receives a letter in the mail.

"We have received your application and are pleased with your past work. We ask that

you present a sample of three housing blueprints at your workplace on March 14 to 16. If we are

pleased by the designs we will send you a plane ticket and housing accommodations to come

work with us in Denver, Colorado."

Naila reads the letter with a smile. However, her smile fades as she hears the sound of rough

footsteps screeching against the floor. Quickly shoving the letter in her pocket, she turns to face

Laiden, his face twisted in suspicion.

"Whatcha hiding?" he demands. Naila gulps. "Nothing," she stammered, quickly exiting the

room. As she shut the door, she let out a sigh of relief.

Soon after, Laiden comes storming out of the room, fuming. Naila's heart thumps as

Laiden barks: "I know you're hiding something." He sits angrily on the table. Naila tries to act

calm as she walks into the kitchen. To distract him, Naila asks: "Do you want dinner?"

"Yes." Laiden snapped.

She takes the pizza out of the fridge and into the oven and says, "The food should be ready in 5

minutes. Do you want anything to drink?"

"A beer," he demanded while slamming his hand on the table. Quickly grabbing it out of the

fridge, she hands it to him.

DING! The food is ready, so Naila puts it on a plate and serves it to Laiden.

Laiden leans back, letting out another burp. "Give me another beer." Complying with his

wishes, Naila hands him the beer. Being unbothered, he grabs another beer and goes to the couch

to watch TV. Naila waited for Laiden to say something. Anything. Even a mumble of "thank

you". But Laiden's eyes just stayed glued to the TV.

While Laiden is distracted, Naila sneaks back into her bedroom, glancing over her blueprints. As

she checks for any edits, she thinks to herself: "I do not know if I should keep him in the dark.

Doesn't he deserve to know about my plans? But he will overreact. I do not know how mad he

will be if he knows the full truth."

Suddenly, Naila hears footsteps approaching the bedroom. "Hey, get me another beer, will you-"

He finds Naila looking over blueprints. "WHAT IS THIS?" he screams with his veins popping

out of his head. "Um, um." Unable to say a word together she quickly apologizes. "I'm so sorry.

I-I did not even reach out when they sent me the letter first. I don't even want to go."

Filled with doubt he screams, "THEN WHAT IS THAT BEHIND YOU?" Naila is trying to hide

the blueprints she has been working on for the last three weeks. "Nothing," she responds, trying

to calm him down. She tries guiding him out of the room to distract him, telling him. "It's OK,

babe. I would never leave you. Look, come have another beer."

She walks to the couch as Laiden stumbles after her. Getting him a beer, Naila coaxes Laiden

"Just sit and relax. It's OK..." She sits down with him and allows him to lie on her lap while

playing with his hair. As her hand goes through his hair, he slowly falls asleep. She then slowly

places his head on a pillow and walks away. While she walks away, she thinks to herself "What

am I going to do?".

While she is lost in her thoughts, she gets a phone call from Hailey. As they chat a little and

Hailey compliments the cute purple outfit Naila wore the previous week, Naila tells Hailey of her

plan to sneak out using Hailey's car as a getaway. Hailey stops her and tells her that she should

just leave Laiden and make herself happy. Nalia tells Hailey how that would never work and

how she does not know Laiden as she does. Hailey is hesitant but after Naila pleads with Hailey,

Hailey decides to help Naila.