Delivered

Evicted

STELLA FRANK was busy taking things from shelves to boxes while cleaning as well. A yellow upright vacuum cleaner sat in the middle of her room while feather dusters, rags, old towels and trash bags were scattered everywhere. She had just been officially kicked out of her apartment in the Gold Coast, Chicago area and it was time to go. Stella had been unemployed for the past few months and was incapable of paying rent.

Arthur Frank, her father, would have been able to help but Stella is too proud to accept anything from him since he and Stella's mother, Rae, called it quits four years ago. Her bitterness over the divorce had drove her away from her father. She had not seen him since.

After receiving the notice, she immediately called her mother and told her she'd be moving in with her. At the time, Rae agreed and was even ecstatic at the news which Stella found ironic since being evicted, unemployed and homeless weren't good things. Thinking she had found a place to crash, she didn't think of looking for a back-up plan. She thought she was covered. Rae's her mother; there was so little chance of her abandoning her own daughter.

She began packing a week ago where she bought boxes to put her stuff in. Three cardboard boxes, with "Forex" in bold, blue letters written across each of them, were lined at the center of her living room which she marked "kitchen, "bedroom", "book/documents". She also lined two big silver wheeled bags, as well as two green trash bags for things to donate and to recycle. All those things on top of several smaller boxes laying around her apartment unit.

She dumped things that belonged to each box or plastic bag. As things began to start piling up, she'd stop to arrange them, make them all fit in a neat arrangement. She cleared her book shelf from top to bottom and then moved on to her desk inside her bedroom where three books were planted to the far right corner of a table along with a pile of paper.

She looked around the room with her hands perched on her waist. Her bed had no more sheets and only a box of random things found in her room laid there. No curtains hung to cover the revealing windows. Her white walls were completely bare with a few borders of stain in shades of yellow and orange from the frames and posters that used to fill them.

Looking at everything felt like watching a 3D movie in panoramic view, every corner of her room came like snowballs being thrown at her, it made her feel light headed. The thought of leaving her apartment had been bugging her for months and now that it came, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. Her heart heavy and her nose being stuffy; Stella was now halfway through the process of leaving. She let herself fall onto her bed and sat on the edge. Everything seemed surreal still.

But she couldn't stop packing, she couldn't stay.

Stella took a moment to snap out of her thoughts. It was as if she was consumed by her unpleasant emotions towards leaving, she couldn't think of anything else. She let out a heavy breath and told herself,

"Let's be adults and get over it! Ok, self?" She huffed in defeat. "And no one will ever think I'm crazy because I just talked to myself while I'm alone, yes?"

Stella tucked a loose strand of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear before deciding on standing up. The crater she created with her sitting made a box with books tilt towards her and when she stood up, it fell to the floor, creating a loud thud. She was startled; there was an explosion in her chest that left her limbs cold and washed the color of her face away. Her immediate reaction was jumping from the cause of the noise as she clutched her chest. It was so loud that she was pretty sure the tenant below her unit would hear it if they were home.

GABRIEL ST. JOHN was going through a dilemma just like Stella. However, it wasn't like his parents aren't in good terms, in fact, they're doing perfectly well at 35 years of marriage, it wasn't like he was losing his apartment, or like he had no job for a while. It was something concerning his future, not his present. It was a bit too early for a mid-life crisis, but at 28, he had never attempted to stay in a relationship and he felt it was time to find someone to lock himself to for the rest of his life - wholeheartedly, that is. At 28, most adults aren't that concerned about having a steady and healthy relationship. However, something happened to Gabe that might have just changed his life.