Her Hope

Chapter 16

The rather violent pounding that seemed to echo painfully within my skull managed to wake me from my otherwise peaceful sleep. Opening my eyes I realized three things, one: I have a tremendously bad headache, two: I had a runny nose, and three: the pill I took yesterday was useless, and all these factors combined together immediately turned my mood around making me feel miserable. Now that my biological clock no longer works, I didn't know what time it is, but I would say it's around nine in the morning. I started really contemplating staying in bed all day, but I simply can't waste a day that I could use productively to find a new job.

Forcing myself to get up, I changed out of my pajamas and into my only sweater. I then looked at the pajamas regretfully wishing I could just stay in bed all day wearing them and maybe drinking hot chocolate, but now, I have remind myself of my old saying that I somehow seemed to have forgotten sometime during those past two weeks: we don't always get what we want, right?

I quietly opened my room's door and walked out trying not to make any sounds in case Maya or Iris were still asleep, for I have no plans of waking either of them up. So, for the first time since I moved here, I entered the kitchen and decided to prepare breakfast for all of us with the intention of forgetting my never ending worries and trying to cheer myself up a little bit. I probably should only cook for myself for many reasons which included the fact that I'm not even sure whether my roommates are here or not, and the second and most important reason would be that I've never ever cooked in my whole life. After living in an orphanage for eighteen years, you would think I learned how to cook, right? Well, my foster parents never allowed any of us to enter the kitchen because they were afraid we'd burn the whole house down, and they didn't even have enough money to buy us food that would completely fill our stomachs, let alone have money to rebuild the house if we somehow managed to burn it down.

Searching around the kitchen, I managed to stumble upon a cooking book that seemed to be ancient due to its tattered pages that were slowly turning yellow as a result of what must have been excessive use. This cooking book truly contained many scrumptious recipes that made my stomach grumble from hunger. However, since it was morning, I decided to cook scrambled eggs, which seemed like the simplest recipe I could find, to eat with toast and orange juice, both of which we already had in the fridge, so I started collecting all the ingredients I needed then I heated a pan and cracked the eggs onto it just like the cooking book said, for I was religiously following it, and added salt and pepper along with some cheese. Five minutes later, I had a plate of scrambled eggs that I would say looked good enough to eat without worrying about getting sick.

So, I sat down on the counter and leisurely ate my share of breakfast while thinking about what I would do now for the first time since I entered the kitchen. I guess I would have to go back to my journey of going around the town and searching for a new job because it's only a matter of one month before I would be penniless if I didn't find an immediate source of money. I thought bitterly about how I have just enough money to pay the rent for the next month and buy minimum amounts of food, or in other words, go back to the meals I used to eat before working at the restaurant. However, my thoughts were thankfully forgotten as soon as Iris entered the kitchen looking awfully cheerful for a person who just woke up which reminded me so much of Lana when she would sleep during her break and then wake up two minutes before her shift starts looking happy and cheerful as if she wasn't just asleep.

"Oh, something smells amazing. I didn't even know you can cook." Iris exclaimed before frowning as soon as she turned to look at me.

"Did you sleep well? You look extremely pale, and you even have bags under your eyes. Is this about what happened yesterday? because Maya filled me in, and that Mr Smith is really rude. I assure you he's the one who's going to regret firing you based on false information."

"I'm just tired, and honestly, I'm the one who's suffering the consequences of his actions. You know how I was saving to go to school, but now, I won't be able to." I said tiredly while sighing.

"No, you will go to college, I'm sure of it. I remember you telling me that you wanted to become a doctor, right? Well, I have some medical books that my brother left me after graduating, but I am not studying medicine, so I don't use them. I'll give them to you, and you could go through them, so when you go to college, you'll know what you're getting yourself into."

"Really? you would do that?" I asked her hopefully.

"Of course I would. That's what roommates are for. Wait here while I go get them."

Iris literally skipped out of the room, and two moments later, she came in again, but this time, she was carrying five huge books.

"When you finish studying them, tell me, and I'll get my brother to drop of the rest of the books."

I stood up quickly to take the books from here, and then I surprised myself and her by hugging her to show her how grateful I really am. Then, she sat down to eat while telling me about her experience with college making me instantly forget about every negative thought that I have. And, when she finished eating, she complemented my nonexistent cooking skills and told me that she has to leave to go to college, so I decided to leave with her as well, but instead of going job hunting like I planned, I thought about taking the books Iris gave me and going to the beach to read them and enjoy looking at the calming blue sea.

So, with that plan on mind, I started making my way to the beach which seemed miles away making me impatiently quicken my pace, for I was really excited to sit down and read the books that I have waited my whole life to get my hands on. After finally reaching the beach fifteen minutes later, I chose a shady spot to sit in, and then, I opened the first page of the a book that was supposed to be an introduction to physiology quickly feeling myself getting lost in the words of the book with the sound of crashing waves acting as my background music. This moment was the kind of moment i wanted to live forever. However, my moment of peacefulness was deplorably interrupted against my will in a flash.

"Why did I know that I would find you here?"