Studio Girl

And that was it, I stood there in the middle of my driveway of my apartment and watched her drive away. That was the last time I saw her and after seven long years, it was finally over.

I spent my days over a mug of dark coffee. I would stare into the emptyiness without a thought. Every day it was the same, from the days on end stuck at the paper filled desk to the endless nights of one night stands. I felt cold. I felt lost.

Months past. The reminsce of my twenty-forth birthday had haunted my apartment. I stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by the workings of last night's party animals. Bottles here, bottles there. I walked over the broken glass from what was a coffee table and peered across the hall. I could still see the naked brunette sleeping soundly on my bed. I walked over to the kitchen bench and pushed aside the empty bottles. I sighed at my current state, though instead of pouring myself the same dark coffee I had always poured myself every single day for the last half year... I grabbed my trenchcoat and walked out of the apartment.

It was a cold winter's morning. I was haunted by a ringing headache and wasn't in the mood. I decided not to get in my car but to walk instead. The air was a great way to describe how felt about the world; cold, miserable, and irritating. I pushed on. It was actually a nice walk, I had to admit. But I had to leave myself at that, giving an end to this peaceful walk. As the cold winds forcefully brushed upon my face grew stronger, I gave in to the cold and took upon myself that I should go inside, somewhere, anywhere warm. As it happened, I stopped by what seemed to be a men's t-shirt store. I had never noticed it before. It was only a block away from my apartment, situated around a regular coffee house of mine and my local gym. I asked myself, how could I honestly not noticed this before? It was cold and I was curious. So I walked into the orange building labelled "The Studio".

"Seventy-six" was the clothing brand that had caught my attention straight away. The clothing brand was known for it stylized shirts with half naked women, sexual wordings and abstract patterns. I was always into this brand but I never saw the justification to spend the amount of money to buy a shirt. After the breakup, money didn't seem to be an issue anymore. I pick up one that seemed to be something I would be happily to wear and bought it. 

It was after a couple of weeks and the fact that I wore that shirt over and over, that it occurred to me that the one shirt wasn't enough. So a travel back to the store was inevitable.

I decided to go for a walk again since it wasn't that far. The air seem to fair better than it did the last time. It was a much gentler breeze and it made the walk much more satisfying. Because the distance, the presence of the small orange building came upon me way too quickly. 

It had only been three weeks and with a quick scan of the store I could tell that the next season's line had already swept throughout the store. I didn't recognize most of the shirts from my first visit. I made myself a start, going through the new designs. It wasn't much of a browse until my search was disrupted by a skinny blonde by the counter. She was amazingly pretty, she had a cute smile, she wore a tight tee with shorts and a snapback cap.

"You look different, there's something about you that I can't put my finger on." 

Though I didn't display it, I was shocked. I gave it a thought to process what she had meant, I suggested maybe it was because I just recently had a haircut. Immediately, her face lit up, "Yes! That's it. Wow, you look like a rockstar!" I had to smile in response. I asked myself, who would say such a thing. It was three weeks ago, had this girl actually remember me from that long ago? My curiosity took into place but we talked about everything else. Seemed like we talked about everything as the conversation lasted a good solid twenty minutes. As we talked, I kept looking at her lips, they looked soft. They shone from the pink lip gloss. But it wasn't that which got me captivated by her mouth, it was her smile. She didn't have a big mouth, but she managed to pull off a big smile. She'd giggle as I kept trying to keep that smile going. Eventually, we gave an end to the chat. I picked up a few shirts and headed off back to my apartment.