Vivian and Emilia

"I Love You" Woodkid

author's note: this chapter is primarily setting the scene; almost like the italics before a play - also just sort of familiarizing the audience with the protagonist's state of mind and way of life

A young-looking white-haired girl sat on a curb outside of a dark restauraunt, with an unlit cigarette hanging limply off her lips. She stared blankly at the starless, moonless sky, without really processing anything she was seeing. A bag was open next to her with half of the contents spilling out onto the sidewalk next to her and on the street, including an empty cigarette carton, an array of random keychainless keys, a pair of headphones, a cracked, and heavily scratched glass dolphin figurine and a few fortune cookies. The tiny parking lot that stretched in front of her was empty, and the street in front of that was graced with a few cars zooming past here and there, but no pedestrians. The girl checked her phone screen to see her notifications and turned the brightness all the way down. 2 missed calls. 2:40 AM. A few notifications concerning apps in need of updates. A reminder that her cloud storage was nearly full. She sighed and pulled a mini box of matches from her bag and tries to light her cigarette, with shaky hands. Pushing herself off the curb and stuffing all of her belongings into her bag, she gripped her mace and headed down the street, turning left at the light. She walked for a good twenty minutes, until she stops at an apartment building, punching a passcode into the gate and scurrying inside. Four sets of stairs, and a walk to the end of a hallway later, the girl is standing in front of apartment 4E, digging in her bag for the loose keys. After trying about 4 different keys, one sticks in the lock and turns ever so slightly. She pushes at the door and it falls open. She shuts it behind her and walks down the short entry corridor.

The dark apartment had one main room with a king sized mattress facing a curtain-clad glass wall leading to a small balcony with a very limited view of an industrial looking concrete courtyard below. There was a small table in the corner, next to the glass wall, with two chairs pulled up to it, and a vase of sunflowers set in the center. Propped next to this table was a bookshelf lined with cooking, mythology, murder mystery, historical fiction and poetry books. A tv set was placed on a very antique, very used looking wooden cabinet on the wall to the left of the bed and a bathroom and closet were on the wall to the right. Next to the bed was an opening that led to an ancient, yet very clean kitchen. The walls of every room were lined with pictures of two girls and posters of exotic places, Impressionist paintings, French films, movies with Heath Ledger, black and white ads with male models with high cheekbones, and many many band posters from No Doubt to The Vaccines. Concert ticket stubs and party fliers scattered every flat surface, with the occasional boot or bra. A stack of National Geographic and bridal magazines sat next to the bed. The bed was covered in pristine white sheets, a fluffy white comforter, about six down pillows and patterned quilts. Nestled onto the right side of the bed was a girl with golden blonde hair, looking peaceful.

The lighter haired girl slipped out of her clothes and pulled on an XXL CalState Long Beach sweatshirt. She slipped into the other side of the bed, careful not to wake the girl slepeing next to her and gathered as many blankets around her as she could. Plugging in her phone, she tucked it under her pillow, ignoring the notifications and clicking on the soundtrack to some Canadian film she'd never seen. She fell into a slumber halfway through the first song.