Brazilian Lounge

ten.

Chapter ten.

Pia was already gone when I woke up at 14:15. I spent about two hours doing some work on my laptop before actually getting out of bed as an attempt to make the day the slightest bit productive. I threw on a pair of ripped blue jeans and a T-shirt matching my sandals. As I walked over to the fridge, for the first time of the day, I noticed a half a packet of Marlboro cigarettes with a little note attached to it.

Apparently "every cigarette you smoke cancels out a day of life for you." Maybe it's a sign that we should die young together?
Call me. - Pia

I broke out into a wide grin. Morbid but romantic, Pia's way of telling me how much she liked me. It was different, most girls told me how they wanted to grow old with me. Although I didn't exactly know how I felt about Pia in a long term way, I was happy. I was happy in that moment and that was honestly everything that mattered.

At least I know she doesn't want a 'long term relationship', I smiled as I thought, internally giggling at my own joke.

I opened the fridge and scanned it before realising how long it had been since I went grocery shopping. The time was 16:35 which meant I probably could've made it to the corner market before it closed. I gently slid the packet of death sticks into my jean pocket and rushed out through the front door.

Speed walking in the direction of the market, I wanted to put on my Skullcandy headphones and listen to music. I groaned softly in frustration as I felt myself up and down, finding nothing. I left my phone and my headphones at home. Then I felt the packet of cigarettes and decided to have a smoke. For some reason I felt more irritated than I should have, and I also realised that I wasn't carrying a lighter.

Do I have anything useful?

I was relieved when I found a twenty dollar note in my pocket. I thought I had left my wallet as well.

How did my day start off so sweetly and then turn into this? At least I know my day can't get worse, I thought.

With an unlit cigarette in between my lips, I shoved the packet back into my pocket. The market was on the verge of closing, but it was just across the street. A small group of hipsters stood against a wall, a few with beanies and caps hiding their faces, along with two of them wearing kpop-looking bandanas covering their mouths and noses.

I walked up to them and casually asked for a lighter. Weirdly, I felt like the tallest out of them all as most of them looked up at me. A few of them checked their pockets as one of the guys asked, "Ilyana, Savannah, you two have lights?" Two girls, who seemed to have been trying to hide, looked at him. One of them had familiar brown hair. Only her eyes showed, but she avoided looking at me. I tried to figure out if I knew her while she fished out a lighter from her denim jacket's pocket.

"Could you light it for me?" I asked politely. She hesitated, but nobody else seemed to notice. The others weren't paying attention to us anymore. She came closer, keeping her head down. Within seconds, her thumb controlled the lighter and I inhaled. Nearly coughing as the smoke filled my lungs, I blew it out again, not looking away from her. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She shook her head almost immediately. "Well," I furrowed my brows, "thanks for the light," I said in a monotonous tone as she gave me a tight nod before walking back to where she was.

After the strange encounter, I finally got the basic groceries and got home to eat. I checked my cell phone after my dinner and read the text from Marcos asking me how everything's going. I replied by saying how fine things were. Fine.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
I just want to let you all know that my account hasn't been functioning properly and there are some complications I can't get through to fix it, so because I don't want to start my story over on another accout, I'm going to keep this one, although a consequence of keeping it is that I can't change my cast. So here's the new cast:
* Juan Betancourt - Aftonio.
* Daniel de Wolf - Marcos.
* Claudia Tubilla - Mariana.
* Lily Collins - (Ms America).
* Emma Stone - (Character not introduced yet).
* Cara Delevingne - Pia.
And "special guests" will be included in particular chapters.
Thank you for reading!
- Ashley