Pretty Vacant

The smell of smoke and alcohol

"Fuck!" , Kaya rushed down the stairs from her apartment.
The hallway smelled like soup and diapers as always.
Sometimes she asked herself if anyone ever opened the window in there.
Reaching the door she finally tied her shoelaces.
Satisfied she looked down on her red and black tied docs.
She was late. The third time this week. She would really have to do something about her broken alarm clock.
Running over to her rusty, old bike she quickly pulled her hazel hair up to a bun.
Of course the pedals wouldn't work again. Angrily she kicked against her bike until the pedals loosened up.
She knew she really needed a new bike but she also knew her money was barely enough for food, sometimes not even for that.
Her job wasn't really well paid but what can you expect from an old, barely visited, small pub?
Since the pub only opened in the evening Kaya could've easily looked for a second job in the afternoon.
Well- easily if her appearance wouldn't keep people away from her.
You didn't see punks often in her quarter of London.
Kaya thought it was strange.
When she moved here from greece, she was told she was moving to the world capital of punk.
But the only thing "punk" you could find in this quarter were the studded dog collars -worn by noone but dogs.
In fact, she was surrounded by well-dressed squares.
She of all the people, with her ripped tights, her spiky belts, her destroyed band shirts and the differently tied docs had to end up here.
Here off all the places in the world.
When she opened the door to the pub, the familiar smell of alcohol, smoke and sweat hit her.
Brian was sitting behind the bar, tapping his hands on the shelf nervously.
When he spotted her, he jumped up and walked to her with energetic steps.
"KAYA. Where have you been again?"
"I'm sorry Brian, my alarm clock again", she yawned.
"Do whatever it takes to be punctual tomorrow or I'll have to think about ur position in this pub m'lady" he grunted.
"Yea yea calm down", Kaya didn't really feel like arguing now and quickly pulled on her pinny.