Those Who Stare Into the Sun

Chapter Four: August air

I got out of the cab, and looked around. And I couldn't believe that I actually was to live here. The buildings in this area were beautiful, and the apartment was located just by this park with a fountain and multicolored trees. It was the middle of august and all the lovely colors started appearing and the air was crispy and clear.

I grabbed my bags and went up the stairs towards the apartment. The building had this classical London facade. I pushed the botton one the door-phone and diled the apartmentnumber. Thirty seconds later a girl picked up the phone and told me to come up.

"Hey, girl!" I was a bit shocked when a young woman threw herself at me and gave me a hug. She was probably a few years younger than me.

"Hey, nice to finally meet you" I said with a big smile on my face. "Excited to finally be here."

"Yes, cool cool" she said with a big grin. "I'm Bonnie."

Bonnie was a beautiful girl, probably african american according to her looks and chocolate brown skin. Her hair was big, black and curly. But her accent was definitaly english, if not even very London-isch.

"Come meet Skye", she said and pulled me further inside. My impression of the appartment was that it was quite big, with an open construction plan. I really liked it.

Skye smiled when we met, but also looked kind of tired. "Sorry, I'm a bit hungover - I'm Skye."

We shook hands, and my mouth went open when I realized that she had an scottish accent. "I'm Anya - nice to meet you. Hey, you must be scottish, right?"

"Correct, lassie", she said and winked at me. She had long, strawberry blonde hair and a pearl skintone. And her arms were all covered with tattoos. She looked... cool.

"Oh my god, I love Scotland", I said and waved my hands in some kind of excited manor.

This got her in a better mood (typical proud scot), and she started asking if I had ever been in Scotland.

"Yes, three times actually. I've seen Edinburgh, Glasgow, the highlands, Inverness, Isle of Skye... the lot!" I said proudly.

And so they made me sit down, before I even had the chance to take the luggage to my room.

 The livingroom was quite large and had the kitchen area as part of it. It was tastefully decorated, with a large couch and a huge TV.

They stuck a cup of coffee in my hand and we talked about all sorts of things for the following twenty minutes. Bonnie was a law-collegestudent, who worked as a bartender on the side, and Skye worked at a womans magazine. They both seemed really charismatic.

After a while they showed me around, and I was happy to see that we had three seperate bedrooms. Mine was a bit smaller than theirs, but more than enough. The walls were all in white, and right above my bed there was this amazing skyview-window.

I put my bags on the bed, and immediately started to unpack some stuff. I laid my clothes all over the floor so I could sort them in later. And then I started to combine an outfit, since my plan was to take a stroll around the area later. I picked out a black turtleneck sweather and grey checked skirt. That would go well with my black kneebooths and my grey coat.

"Oh, you look nice", Bonnie told me. She and Skye turned around on the couch. They were both wathing tv now. "You're going out, then?"

"Yes, I thought I'd take a walk. I've really longed to see the city again."

"Cool", they said and told me where I could find my own keys.

~*~

I decided to get my priorities straight and started out by getting my nervous ass to the subway-station to buy an Oyster card. Then I went to Westminster. Yes, I would be a real tourist for today and see Big Ben, Tower Bridge and all of that.

The experience were similar to the one I've had at my first visit to London. When I walked up the stairs from Westminster station, the first thing I saw was the house of parliment with the beautiful clockwork, the red busses and the red telephone booths. I discreetly clapped my hands together and went to buy myself a coffee.

I took a bunch of photos, selfies and walked around smiling at people. They must have thought that they had just received a crazy person in their lovely city. 

Though I did start a lovely conversation with a skinny man with a huge beard, who turned out to be a potential flasher. He did ask before flashing me though, so I got the chance to run away before I saw anything. 

After that I decided maybe not to smile at everyone. After a while I just sat down and looked at Tower Bridge. There, for a moment, I got this scary feeling. Like a cold shower of doubt.

What the hell was I thinking? What was I doing here, all alone? I had nowhere to turn if things went to shit.

I quickly pushed those thoughts away and reminded myself that I had to get along with these thoughts coming over me from time to time, but that I couldn't afford to listen. I was doing this. End of story.

I had been out for several hours when I felt so tired that I couldn't really enjoy myself any longer. And my feet hurt. Damn it. I had to learn to wear heels until I couldn't even feel my feet anymore.

I had to admit that I struggled a bit with finding my way back to the flat, but in the end I did.

"Pancakes?" Skye asked when I got in. She was in the kitchen, and the pancake-smell was all over the place.

"Oh, thanks. But I'm actually eating ketogenic."

She looked at me with an empty gaze. "But... why? I mean, I'm also cautious about my figure, but does that stuff actually work?"

I nodded. "I've lost 15 kilos."

"Really?"

"Yes, I started it years ago, and I actually enjoy it. So I just kept going even after I lost that extra weight."

She snorted her lips and gave me an approving expression. "You do look great."

I smiled and went to at least smell the pancakes at a closer distance.

After I got back to my room and closed the door. I got stuck in the mirror, thinking about my body. 

Yes, I was pleased with it nowdays. I had been sort of overweight all my life, and when I was about twenty-five and had worked my ass off to get the hair I always wanted, and the make-up skills that did me favors, I came to realization that the weight was the only thing I had to work on to look as beautiful as i possibly could - at least according to society. 

When I found out about keto and started to dedicate myself to it, I actually felt for the first time that I could succeed. I got to eat, and didn't have to feel hungry. And my metabolism went through the roof. So I reached my goal weight fairly easy. So now I had sort of a slender figure, but still with sort of nice curves.

I went to bed with a smile on my face. I gave mum and dad a quick tought before I fell into deep dreams about what I was to do here in London.