Treat you better

Chapter 3- First meeting

ROSALY

Rosaly checked the clock again, and sighed to see it was time to go to work. She left her breakfast untouched on the kitchen sink, picked up the bag she had left on the living room couch the night before, and left the house.

The cold air hit her in full, making her tremble. She closed her eyes for a moment wishing she didn't have to work that day, but she knew she couldn't skip that. She hadn't slept well in days, accumulating so much tension over several days, that on that Saturday she ended up waking up grumpy and exhausted.

Since her mother had warned her about Caio, her night terrors had begun again. She had nightmares, woke up startled with her heart jumping and her face bathed in tears, she could no longer go back to sleep and spent the rest of the night sitting on the sofa in the room, embracing her own knees.

She did not want to think about Caio, but her mind betrayed her, and the image of his face appeared in her head without her wanting it. But this memory was not caused by the love she had once felt for him, but by the force of fear that now surrounded her life, and had settled in her heart for so long that she no longer knew if she would ever be able to free herself from the bonds imposed by her past.

Rosaly felt the tears cloud her vision, and shook her head to push them away as she walked to the bus stop. She had stopped taking her morning walks to work in those days, as she was afraid of what she would find on the way. Anyone would say she was exaggerating if she didn't know the horror she carried inside her. She looked at the people who were passing by her, and wondered if Caio was hiding among them, observing her secretly. Such a thought made her panic, but Rosaly tried to calm herself down by saying to herself, "Don't be paranoid, he doesn't know you're here, at least not yet.

The bus arrived and Rosaly sighed relieved, passed all the benches, going to sit on the last one, in an attempt to go unnoticed. As the bus made its usual way, passing through streets, avenues and entire neighborhoods, she thought about the events of last week.

Her language school classes had improved considerably, thanks to Mr. Mendes, as she started calling her students' favorite singer. They carried out several activities using his music, making the students, especially the girls, more interested in the classes, because they still had the look of a teenager in love with their idol. Rosaly remembered herself at that same age, and she remembered that she was also like that. How many times had she saved up to the last coin of the allowance, just to buy the ticket for the show of her favorite artist?

Despite all her concern about what was yet to come, the classes were fun, and although she wasn't as focused as she should have been, Rosaly realized with satisfaction that she had made some progress with the class. She even got from Adrianne gave a CD recorded with the best songs of Mr. Mendes, that she played every night on the stereo in her apartment, and the student also showed her a picture of him, but she had not paid much attention, because she had other things in mind at that time. Rosaly even liked the style, but the singer himself intrigued her, because the voice that sang about broken hearts, overwhelming passions and goodbyes seemed too young to know the meaning of such feelings, but she could not say anything about it, because she herself was only twenty years old and for all that had happened, seemed to have lived a lifetime.

Rosaly saw the bus make a turn to the right, and the next stop would be hers. She rang the bell of the bus, and got off it, straighten her wool hat that protected her head from the cold breeze that blew at that moment. When she was two meters from the Weekend, she noticed a boy leaning against a pole, wearing a black hooded blouse that looked directly at her. Her heart froze and Rosaly rushed her steps, fearing that he would follow her. She arrived at the entrance to her work and looked back, she saw that the boy had disappeared and she breathed a sigh of relief, trying to straighten the red scarf around her neck.