Momentum

Silent white flakes of snow layered the concrete ground. February always brought an influx of weather. This year was no different. Nina creaked open the door, slowly, peaking outside to see the fresh batch of snow. She had always enjoyed this time of year. Partially because her birthday was the fifth but mostly because the city, Detroit, somehow always ended up quiet, even though there were always large amounts of people carelessly walking about succumbing to their problems.


Nina closed the door slowly as a wisp of cold air swept inside. Twisting her head around, she glares at the clock that has its long hand on the eleven and the short on the six. She returned forward and crept towards her lukewarm grey couch, which had seen better days. She mindlessly lay herself down careful not to wake Deena, her roommate. She sighed, looking around as if searching for a missing object. A howl of wind swirled around outside as Detroit lay quiet, ready for one of the thickest storms the cities ever encountered. Suddenly, Nina heard a door slam open, assuming it was Deena, she tilted her head sideways, assuming correctly.


"So can you shovel the porch tomorrow? Deena asked; I have to be...somewhere."


"Sure."


In reality, she hated shoveling, memories flashed into her head of years past when she was forced to do the same dreaded work in Montreal. Nina lived a very complicated life, her mother left when she was the innocent age of eight. Her father was no better, constantly on business trips. He never cared for Nina, he kept to himself the idea that she would never live up to her older brother, Vincent’s standards. Her father thought right; Nina was not an ambitious girl, and she also wasn't the most stunning of girls. Her hair was wavy; she never combed her locks yet they always managed to stay decent. Her tall lanky body was anything but balanced. The only striking part of her body was her eyes, green, the same as her mother, which wasn't good. Nina's mother thought it was time to find a "better" life, explaining on a torn post-it note that her love for her father was no longer, and that she was moving to Denver, Colorado. She said she'd write. Fourteen long, endless years have passed, and not one letter. As Nina returned to reality, she saw that Deena was staring intently at her face.

"Is that all?" Nina said.

"That is all." Deena declared.

With one long spin, she hustled into her room, slammed her door shut, and Nina was alone again. Staring into nothingness, Nina rose to her feet and entered the kitchen, which was an extension of the living room. She grabbed the top counter and perched herself onto a stool, put randomly in the center of the kitchen. As she looked around the room, Nina flashed back again into another time; when she first encountered her mysterious roommate.

Nina had been employed, she worked as a clerk for Davidson and Carl's car repair shop for a while, but when she continued to be late for work, she was unsurprisingly let go. On her last day there, she ran into Deena, ultimately later wishing she never had. Nina's life, already a complicated mess, continued to get worse as Deena squeezed her way into Nina's reality. What she didn't know though, was that Deena was no random woman who fell into her lap. Deena, hired by an unknown man, was told to strategically intervene.