Life In Frames

Chapter 1 - New Things

The best stories out there are the ones which came straight from the heart. It doesn't matter whether they came from the darkest place or the highest point in life. Even when they came from the wildest imaginations, it's still real as long as the heart believes in it. A writer shared a part of their mind, their pieces of life, when they turned their sum of experiences into words. The feelings that were poured into words make the story comes into life. They tore the readers away from physical world into its own made-up universe. To live differently than the reality allows. To relate with the palpable feelings of the characters. To being free without boundaries.

*

Alexandra Bara had poured her soul into her debut novel. Coming from the darkest parts of her life, her book was her last resort of staying alive. A wonderful excuse to prolonging her life, acting double as her own form of therapy. Writing always had been the joy in her life. Her escape. The only thing that would listen unconditionally to her problems and events in life. The very thing that soon would turn her world upside down. She had never thought that her book would turned into a best selling novel, especially after her had went through some rough patches in life. Finally, good things happened into someone who waited in life. At least one of her aspects in life was looking up now. Her busy schedule took her away from her demons, though it was still lurking beneath the surface. In the loneliest nights, they came back to haunt her. Her demons had kept her chained away, from any kind of meaningful interactions with another soul. Once was a romantic, Alexa had turned cold and apathetic. A social butterfly turned into a loner, her agent and her best friend were the only people whom she let into her life. They pulled her back into the surface when she was about to drown. They provided comfort when the night was too hard to bear alone.

When her book hit the market hard, it was only fitting when everyone expected her to write another one. But the awful truth was she had nothing to write after she poured all she had into the last one. How could her? Her current life was stuck in the flat line. No new experiences whatsoever to tell. Yet she still wanted to write. She had no intentions to stop when she finally got to do the only thing in life which she was so passionate about as a living. When it was clear that she couldn't get herself to be excited about the stories that she tried to develop, she knew that she only got one option left. To finally hit the play button and get her life going once more. She had to go out there and find herself an inspiration. Her muse.

*

Alexa was sitting on her kitchen counter, facing her laptop with her head propped on her hands. She had been staring at the screen for a long time now. Typing a sentence and deleted it right away, she hadn't made any progress for the last two hours. She heard her apartment door being opened and turned her head just in time to find her agent, Meghan, walking into the room. She was drenched. It had been raining outside, the perfect weather to stay inside and write. If only the words would come around and struck her. Meghan shrugged off her wet coat and hung it on the rack.

"Whatcha doing, girl?" She nodded her greeting as she went into the kitchen to make herself a hot cup of tea. Meghan had long treated Alexa's apartment like it's her own.

"Well, what do you think?" She scoffed and turned her attention back to her laptop screen. "Working, of course."

"Yeah?" Meghan carried her cup and looked past Alexa's shoulder to see her progress. "Well, it doesn't look much, does it?"

"Oh, shut up," Alexa said, midly annoyed as Meghan hit a nerve with her comment. "It's either I'm suck at writing or Hannah and Payton just aren't meant to be together."

Hannah and Payton were the main character of her newest draft of novel. Before them, there were Faye and Cassie, Rachel and Tori and three other imaginary couples. As desperate as she was, Alexa even tried to write about a heterosexual love story. You know, in case she had probably changed her mind of her idea of love. It turned out to be worse than her girls. At least she could be sure that she's still gay. That was one less problem in her life to attend to.