A Thousand Nights

Chapter 1: "A Thousand Nights"

Another starry night. I'm walking through the neighborhood. It's nights like these when a couple would take photos of their hands making heart signs while the stars twinkle in the background. I get it, you're "happy" and "in love", but please leave my instagram feed out of it when you break up and start posting self-motivational quotes and not-so-cryptic stories. She messaged me. You know, I've never been in a real relationship before, so maybe I'm just envious. I have been in love before though. The text reads "im sorry". Lowercase like some kind of nutjob.

I get thirsty, so I stop at this convenience store, Shell-Mart. The words are neon and the "S" isn't on, so it looks like "Hell-Mart". Figures, their prices are dastardly evil. 25 bucks for an energy drink? Haven't I paid enough? I see an old couple in the store and I'm reminded once again how lonely I am. Old people are crazy, shopping at this ungodly hour. I'm walking back and forth between two aisles, pondering what drink to get and whether or not that couple could be purchasing viagra when I see this girl. Indian-looking, dressed like she shops at Hot Topic, gothy makeup, red dye in her hair- I hate how popular the goth aesthetic has gotten. She's wearing headphones and I bet she's listening to Beach House or The Neighborhood. I swear no one listens to real music like Lana Del Rey or Childish Gambino or Virgil. She's having trouble selecting a bag of chips. I don't have the courage to talk to her and the store's being robbed.

Some dude with a Joker face mask is robbing the store with a gun. He tells the old couple, the girl and I to get on the floor with our hands on our heads and I'm too young to die. I wonder how Isabella would feel if I died tonight. If I'd stayed at that party or simply went home, this probably wouldn't have happened to me. Pretty inconvenient for a convenience store. The girl looks calm, in a whisper, I ask if she's okay.
"Pretty inconvenient for a convenience store, huh?" she says with a smirk on her face. I snicker and wtf, that's what I just said. She looks like she's used to this, she's way too relaxed with everything going on. The old lady starts lecturing the robber and I can see her husband fearing for his life.
"I bet they were buying viagra." The girl whispers to me and now I'm sure she's a witch.
"What else could they be doing here at 2am?" She continues.
"You think they were trying, but he just couldn't get it up?" I add.
"Either that or she wasn't happy with what he had to offer." She says
"You mean other than 15 secs and a can-do attitude?" I reply and we go back and forth until the robber hears us. He takes her headphones and puts them in his duffle bag. Her phone disconnects from the bluetooth and now Virgil is serving as background music for this man's payday.
"You listen to Virgil?!!!" I shout and now the robber's really annoyed, so he gives us all the items on the floor and tells us to get out. All of us except for the cashier rush out of the store with assortments of items mismatched. The girl and I run into a park. We check the items and I find Viagra where my drink should've been.
"No way!" She remarks
We sit at a bench and share the bags of chips.
"Should we call the police?" I ask, concerned.
"Hmmmm... nah" she nods her head, stuffing her face with Doritos.
"Oh and yes, I do listen to Virgil." She adds
We obsess over Virgil for a good 20 min and this is just what I needed after the eventful night I've had. I start choking on a dorito and she heimlichs me.
"By the way, how is it that you were so calm during all that? I thought I was gonna die." I ask, picking up my glasses.
"Oh, I was gonna off myself anyway, so it didn't really matter." She smiles while saying this and she's crazy. There's a numbingly loud silence.
"I had this friend." I begin
"He wanted to be an actor... he died a couple of weeks ago on the 4th of June. The same day-"
"The same day Brent Ryder died!" She interrupts
"... Yep, so you can imagine. The world mourns a celebrity and my friend's grave didn't have a headstone. Somehow, it feels undermining. It breaks my heart everytime I think about it and I can't imagine how his mom feels." I finish.
"I'm so sorry to hear that. Now I feel like a jerk." She comments
We embrace in a warm hug. I've never hugged a stranger so tightly, hell I've never even hugged a stranger.
"Guess I'll stick around for a bit. For now, heh." She chuckles and I notice how glossy her eyes look. She leaves, but I sit in the park a little longer. She forgot a card looking thing. It says "School of Arts", "Aaravi Chowdhury". It's a student card and I just realized I didn't tell her my name.