Heavenly Nobodies

Monday Morning

What is the first thing you do in the morning, when you've woken up and some guy you met last night is still snoring on the other side of your bed? You go straight to the nearest grocery store to buy cigarettes and booze, of course. You might add a little note saying bye-bye and stick it to fridge door, too. And sure enough, grocery store was where Dina was headed as soon as she put her clothes back on. 

It was a chilly spring morning in Sheffield and by the time she got there, she'd already froze her ass off. She'd never been to this one before but it looked decent enough for her, what mattered most was to get that booze anyway. Passing by the aisles, all she could really think about was the party last night. Without a doubt, for the majority of people the idea of going to a club was the best way to celebrate anything anyone could possibly think of. Dina was never much of a party-goer though and the only reason she actually went there was to prove something to herself. To prove that she can be spontaneous. 

Looking back at the last night's events, she realized she overdosed on said spontaneity and wished she stayed at home reading that new book on ancient sculpture she'd bought just last Friday. If her mother ever found out about her daughter drunken shagging with a complete stranger, she'd cut off the budget for the next six months. Or maybe forever. Was this worth weeks and months of trying to persuade her to let her daughter attend university in Sheffield just to land back home? Maybe, if the shag was good. But it wasn't, it was boring as ever. She quickly shrugged off those thoughts and established that in fact it wasn't worth anything at all. Living on your own comes with certain responsibilities, including facing up to guilt and stupid behaviour. Having given it a second thought, she realized that after all it was much better than sitting at home with her mother, pretending horse-riding lessons and private tutors is all she ever dreamt of. 

She spent the entire walk back home coming up with a smooth plan to get rid of the guy she left in bed. Once she stood by the door she took a deep breath before walking in only to find out the guy had already gone out.

''God loves me. This is my day.'' She mumbled to herself, relieved. 

The only thing left from last night's experience was a poorly handwritten addition to her little note with the guy's phone number and his name below. 

''As if there's any chance I'm ever gonna call you, Mark...'' She thought and threw it right into the bin. 

''No blokes for a year, Dina.'' She sat down with some uni papers and a glass of wine to get through with it painlessly. Thank God for free Mondays. Even with the weekends and a Monday off every week, it still seemed hardly enough time to keep up with all the stuff. It wasn't like the old days at home when mom would do everything for her - shopping, laundry, cleaning. That was all in Dina's hands now. At times she would think about how pathetic she was compared to all the other young adults, not knowing anything about cooking or ironing clothes just because she'd always been too lazy to learn the basics. Keeping busy studying was her favourite way to forget about all she couldn't do and concentrate on what she was good at which was sculpting and writing. Sculpting had been her biggest hobby ever since she could rememeber so eventually she decided to pursue it academically, too.  Studying English was more of a career oriented choice but soon after enrolling she found herself immersed in it as well. Together it made a perfect mix of something all her mother's girlfriends would gush over. 

In the middle of doing research for her paper, she went outside for a quick smoke. Nothing could ever come close to just sitting on the stairs, smoking a cigarette and staring off into the distance. Or taking a good look at the neighbours for that matter. 

There was one she enjoyed looking at most. It wasn't attraction or anything like that in the slightest. Something about him was just always making her curious as to what he was up to next. She knew practically nothing about him and for the whole several months she lived there, all she was able to gather was that he lived opposite and often had people over. Usually pretty interesting ones, as well. Sometimes it seemed he was bringing some stage gear over but as far as she was concerned there was nothing rock n' roll about him so she dropped the possibility of him being in a band. She wouldn't have known either way, no one who studied sculpture, let alone English, had any real interest in music, and it had been years since she properly caught up on the music scene in England. 

That Monday morning, the mysterious neighbour went out for a smoke just minutes after Dina did.