After working the late shift and closing the cafe, I dashed over to my apartment before the weird drunks tried talking to me again. Shutting the door behind me, I could already hear the yelling from the upstairs apartment. 

“Not again..” I mumbled before doing my nightly routine, heading to bed after finishing some of my homework that will keep my grades up above a F but less than a C. It was until the screaming got even worse at one point. Looking up at the ceiling, I could make out the words ‘I hate you’ and ‘disappointment’ therefore which made me feel bad to whoever that was to immediately. 

After about a few hours it finally stopped, all I could hear were the same sobs I’d sadly fallen asleep to at night, but this time it was different. I soon got up to the nearest vent, hoping whoever it was could hear me.

“Pssst.. Hey, are you okay?” I whispered through the vent, not actually expecting a response from whoever it was up there.

“No, obviously not.” A female voice responded immediately between her sobs.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No. Just leave me alone.” The voice responded sternly before suddenly going silent. As worried as I was, I did get tired and went back to my bed. Pushing this wasn’t the plan, nor was her responding either but I couldn’t let that distract me from getting some sort of sleep for tomorrow.

Passing out, I couldn’t hear her trying to communicate with me again that night. That morning, I did my routine but I stopped midway when I heard a voice through the vent once more. It was hard to hear over the music I was playing in the background so therefore I paused it and walked straight over to my vent.

“Hey.. you’re awake finally.” I heard her voice once again. She didn’t sound as worried as she did last night when I first spoke to her. I think her mother was asleep now and she had the freedom to speak however for a little while.

“Yeah of course I’m awake. I have school to get to this morning.”

“Oh yeah I forgot school was a thing people went to. Sorry, I was just so used to being homeschooled.”

“Wait, you’re homeschooled?”

“Yeah, and I also work two jobs every day too. It’s easy I guess..”

“Two jobs?? How do you manage to do that?”

“I dunno..” She mumbled in response, starting to get dry like she was the night before. Maybe I had asked too many questions for her liking. Obviously, she didn’t want to talk about herself so therefore I would respect that.

“Okay then. I’ll be heading to school now, talk to you later?”

“Uh, yeah. Talk to you later.” 

I believe I heard the vent close up after that, but I was going to be late now if I didn’t start running to school now, only halfway ready for school. All I could hear was my loud pounding heartbeat and hard quick steps on the concrete as I made my way into the school. This time I was only three minutes late as I walked into my first class, getting a nice scolding from the teacher.

As I made my way through the day, I noticed the girl from the cafe walking on the sidewalk as I was staring off into the distance through the window I sat next to. It looked like she was rushing to get somewhere before she stopped abruptly, her head moving towards my direction to look at me. Our eyes met once more, everything around me disappeared and I couldn’t stop staring into those mesmerizing eyes. I9t was like hours before the teacher slapped a ruler on my desk causing me to flinch and revert my gaze towards Mr. Ross, the strictest teacher in the whole school. 

“Distracted Miss?” His cold voice ran chills down my spine.

“No sir. Sorry sir..” 

“Sure. Well, you’ll definitely pay attention in detention today after school.”

“NO!” Immediately covering my mouth, seeing how red his face became in the matter of seconds.

“A week of detention.” He replied sternly before walking back to the front of the classroom, the whole class giggling as a response to my mistakes. The only thing I could do was to look over to see if the girl was still there and as I thought she was gone just like yesterday at the cafe. 

After serving my hour of detention after school I started sprinting to work, glad I texted my boss the news before detention and of course got another scolding from them when I arrived through the doors. I knew they wanted to fire me but due to them feeling guilty of not always having my father around they took pity and let me stay despite firing anyone else who would do the same. That caused me to get the most hate at work from the assumption that I was spoiled and rich. 

I hate when people assume such things without any proper evidence to back them up on their statements that they make behind my back. Gossiping to each other thinking that I wasn’t hearing any of it even though I was. I heard every little detail that they spoke about me, good or bad. I knew it all. Retaliation wasn’t an answer to fixing that, if anything it would make everything worse than what it should be so laying low and pretending that I don’t care works the best.

Finally once work was done, I rushed straight over to my apartment and locked the door behind me. Taking a few steps inside I came to a sudden stop, slowly retracing my steps and looking down below me. A small box of chocolates were on the ground that seemed to have been placed sometime earlier today by the door. How did they get inside? Did they break in? Who let them in, or what let them in? Are they still here?

Rushing around my apartment in fear of someone to jump out and attack me, I soon realized I’ve looked through every nook and crack for something that wasn’t there to be there. Once safe, I soon made my way back to the box of chocolates and tried looking for a note somewhere around it. Not seeing one, I slowly opened the box and there the note slipped out onto the floor before I could catch it. Reaching down for it, a sudden gust of wind from one of the open windows blew it away. Of Course I did chase after it; but eventually it flew out the window before I could ever even see a single word written on it. That’s probably how they got inside to give me the chocolates.

The only proper evidence I have of who could’ve brought this box of chocolates to me was by asking my neighbors if they saw someone today while I was at work or even at school. Nobody ever comes by my apartment, nor have I given my address out to anyone besides my best friend, so therefore this could be some kind of stalker who knows where I live and how to get inside. 

Locking all my doors and closing the windows I could now relax to my favorite T.V show since I completed my homework during detention. As soon as I was reaching for the remote the yelling started upstairs after hearing one of the doors slam close. The girl's voice was a little more clear now to me since we’ve spoken a few times. It was hard to make out the exact words she was saying, it all being muffled and being drowned out by items that hit the floor. I assume they were being thrown or knowned down. I was only a teenager and I didn’t know what to do so all I proceeded to do was ignore everything like usual and wait for one of the neighboring adults to consult the mother upstairs, or call the police.

After hours of not sleeping with the yelling it stops once more, a whisper from the vents making me sit up and rush over to mine. 

“Hey.” The girl whispered through the vent.

“Hello?.. Are you uh, okay?” I asked, unable to push away the curious thoughts in my head of making sure that this girl was alright.

“Of course I am. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have the energy to talk to you.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

“Yeah..” Her voice trailed off as the conversation became awkward for the both of us.

“Are you sure? I am kinda worried about what goes on up there. If you really need to talk to someone, you could talk to me. Though, I wouldn’t blame you for not trusting me suddenly since this IS the third time we’ve spoken together.”

“Yeah. I don’t think I will. But, how was your day at least?”

“My day?”

“Yes. Your day. Who else would I be talking to?” I could almost hear her rolling her eyes at me at my stupid question.

“Oh, well my day was okay even though I got detention for a straight week.”

“Pft. How’d you do that? Did you insult the principal or something?”

“Nah, I accidentally yelled at my teacher when he tried just giving me a day of detention. It was an honest mistake. I never really meant to raise my voice. I was just so surprised he would suddenly give me detention without a warning.”

“Well that’s too bad. I wish you the best of luck entertaining yourself during that week's worth of detention. Seems pretty miserable to stay after school for even longer as a punishment.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t help that I have a job that makes me work right after school ends. My shift starts at 3:15 but I get there usually late due to having to run two whole blocks.” SIghing, I stared up at the ceiling, “I do wish the teachers at school could be a little more lenient and understanding of my situation with work. Of course, they don’t care about that.”

“I’m sorry,” She replied before speaking once more, “ I wish I could help but like I said before, I work two jobs myself. I don’t know how you do school and that job right after it though. Seems har getting there and back, and then somehow balancing school while you’re at it.”

“I don’t know how I’m managing to do that either.”

“Maybe you’re just special.”

“Special? What do you mean by that?”

“I dunno..” She quickly replied, “I’m gonna go to bed now. Night.”

Just like that, she closed her vent and her quiet footsteps were the last thing I heard before I layed down to sleep. I don’t know what happened but I managed to sleep through my 10 alarms that I set on my phone every morning and check every night to make sure they’re on and loud enough. I guess I forgot last night before passing out because I was now two whole hours late to school.

“Crap. I’m in so much trouble.” I mumbled to myself as I got ready for another day of chaos and trouble. It couldn’t be much worse than yesterday, can it? I’d sure hope it wasn’t.

Walking into school late made me realize how wrong I was to think that it couldn’t be worse. It most definitely could get worse, and I was right. I had another week of detention from being late AND missing a test that affected my grades that I totally forgot to study. At least I turned in all my homework and didn’t get in trouble for that.

Getting through the day was quite miserable and dreadful before I had to go to work just to get yelled at again for my mistakes. I swear my boss was going to fire me instantly when I told her about this morning and my punishments for my mistakes. But instead of getting fired she made me clean all the bathrooms over and over and the kitchen once everyone was out. 

As I returned to my apartment, I scanned my surroundings. My skin couldn’t stop crawling as I felt some pair of eyes staring at me, but because of how dark it was I couldn’t see from where. Speed walking home was my last resort to feeling some sort of safety as I closed and locked the door behind me as I was entering. It took a while for me to adjust to the lighting from how bright the lights were. Wait. I never leave the lights on when leaving and I know for sure I didn’t leave these on when rushing out this morning. Someones been in here again and could still potentially be here to hurt me or even kidnap me.

Walking around the room, I had a broom in my hands for self defense if someone or something came out to attack me. It took a while before I finally came to the conclusion that no one was there anymore. The only evidence they had that they were there was just how they kept the lights on so I couldn’t report any of this to the police if I wanted to. Not like I was going to anyways, I didn’t want them in any of my business nor did I want them around here. 

Before I could take a shower I heard the girl's voice echo through the vent.

“Hey. Are you there??”

“Yeah I’m here, what's the matter?”

“Nothing, I'm just bored. I finally got the place all to myself but there’s nothing to do,” the girl replied, causing me to scoff a bit.

“Well I’m busy getting ready for bed so..”

“Oh that’s too bad.. I was honestly wanting to get to know you better.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. But I guess that doesn’t matter anymore since you’re busy.”

“NO WAIT!” I finally yelled out, immediately covering my mouth before whispering, “Sorry.. I do want to get to know you better too. I can risk a few more hours before going to bed.”

“Good choice.” She responded, her voice not as cold as before.

“So uh, may I ask about your day?”

“Tiring.” 

“Same..”

“If you could be any animal in the world, what would it be?.” 

“An animal?” She sounded pretty confused by my random question.

“Yes, any animal in the world that you know of.”

“I would want to be a lioness.”

“Whys that?”

“Because it’s something I’m already used to doing now but instead I’d be on top of the food chain and I’d have more freedom than I do now. I wouldn’t have to deal with my stupid mom in this stupid house at this stupid appartment complex in this stupid little city. Duh.”

“Really?” This took me a little bit by surprise how she suddenly opened up just the smallest bit, but it was enough for me to smile knowing that she was starting to trust me more.

“Yes really. Are you stupid or something? Kinda ruining the moment..”

“Sorry sorry I was just taken back by what you’ve said. I’m sorry you feel that way.. Mayhe we could hang out then?”

Laughing, the girl couldn’t help but to hit the floor like she heard the funniest joke in the world come out of my lips.

“If I could even hang out, when could you? You’re always coming home late and you have school during business days. You work full time on weekends too it’s kind of hard to even talk at night like this with you because of how exhausted you usually are.”

Blinking I responded with a small “Oh yeah,” before sighing and looking out the window near the vent. She wasn’t wrong, I indeed was a busy person and could rarely even talk to my own best friend during school so offering a hangout session would end up being canceled anyways. I hate how busy I am all the time and wish I could have some sort of break from everything. I wanted to talk with this girl, get to know her and everything she likes. I want to know why there’s always yelling at night and how to protect her. These feelings were weird to me I’ve never felt this way towards anyone before. What has she done to me? Finally my thoughts were broken as she finally spoke up once more.

“I would enjoy talking to you like this more often, I enjoy listening to your voice it’s quite comforting.”

“Oh uh thanks.. I’d enjoy talknign to you more like this also.”

“Good. For now I need to head to bed and so should you. Till we speak again?”

“Till we speak again.”

From there on out we spoke with each other every night whenever her mother was gone or fast asleep. We’d talk about things that happened throughout my day or just small conversations to get to know each other even more. Soon I started feeling fluttering in my stomach if I heard her voice. Sometimes my cheeks would get red just thinking about her throughout my day. That’s all I could ever think about during the day was her. Just her.

Before I knew it a new chapter in my life was starting and I didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t answering me one night, it was too quiet up there. Minutes became hours. Hours became days. Days became weeks. Eventually I had figured out she and her mother had moved out due to financial problems and too many complains from the neighbors. Who knew that would’ve been the last time I saw her.