Customer Number Four

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It was too cold to be outside, but the girl didn't seem to mind. Or maybe, that's just how she wanted to be seemed to be. The wind blew one more time and a few snowflakes fell from the tree to her nose. She rubbed her nose and grimaced.

Looking around, the streets were empty in that cold January night. Only a few cars speeded down the road, but none of them seemed to notice a girl with an oversized sweater and a trench coat walking slowly on the sideroad. She looked up and huffed, letting out a puff of air from her lips.

She was sure she wouldn't survive. She was sure that she would come crawling back to the place where she ran away from, but her guts told her to hold on.

To hold onto her dreams. To hold on to the crappy flat she lived in, the crap coffee machine and to hold on to whatever kind of consciousness was left in her. No people in their right mind would actually consider staying in a place they couldn't afford, unless they have an unpursued dream.

But for her, what dream? She had given up on that long ago.

Consciousness had never been her friend. Well, not since three years ago.

But now, she listened to it. Her consciousness kept telling her over and over, you can't be here. You don't fit in here. You need to go back and face whatever nightmare is haunting you. You can't run away.

Sometimes she hated herself.

And so she walked.

It was three days later when Gaia finally walked out of her flat.

She was putting on her trench coat right when her neighbor, Ms. Jakobsen, who was an old widow in her 60s that spent the rest of her days gossiping about the other tenants, opened her door and put a box of kitchen remains outside her door.

Gaia thought of offering her a smile. But then her brain screamed, don't be too civil. It's not like you're going to stay long in this place anyway!

So her smile faded, and Ms. Jakobsen frowned.

Gaia looked down at her shoes while walking down the aisle, never once looking up to meet the eyes of her neighbor, who was now furiously typing on her phone. Gaia had a feeling that she might be telling the other tenant, Ms. Bensen, that the crazy girl that moved here a month ago finally got out of her apartment.

Gaia knew what the other tenants called her. She didn't mind. It's not like they would remember her when she finally left, anyway.

She always thought of leaving. She couldn't afford to leave again, sure, but wouldn't it be nice to leave everything that you've wrecked behind? Besides, what other city should she visit this time? She had spent so much money trying to run away from the disasters she had caused in every city she stayed in. This was the fourth city. She couldn't let herself ruin how things are here.

Stuffing her earphone buds in her ears, she wandered aimlessly down the road of her neighborhood. When Haim started playing, she wondered how she could afford an iPod when she couldn't even pay for her rent. Maybe because her love for music is much bigger than her push to survive.

After ten minutes of walking, Gaia found herself standing beside a bust stop pole. A blue bus came toward her, and without thinking, she walked on.

"Hey Miss, do you have the ticket?" The driver called out. He sounded annoyed. But who wouldn't be annoyed if they woke up every morning to do a job they didn't even enjoy?

Well, at least Gaia thought that he didn't enjoy it. She knew she wouldn't.

She pulled out a crumpled fifty dollar bill from the pocket of her trench coat and stuffed it on the driver's palm. The driver stared at it for a moment, then looked at her with a slight smirk on his face. "That's the ticket."

Gaia snorted. These people were low. Just like the others she had met.

She picked a seat in the very back of the bus, slid into it and leaned her head on the window. Gaia didn't even mind when her head hit the window over and over whenever the bus passed through a hole in the road, or went over a bump.

It was like she was half-sleeping. She woke up when she saw a sign; "WAITER/WAITRESS NEEDED".

Was it destiny? Was it coincidence?

Whatever it is, she now had found her reason to stay.