Standing Alone

Emma has graduated university and is now living life working multiple jobs and has a cozy apartment in Manhattan, "is she really happy", is the question? Find out in the new story "Standing Alone".

You’re born alone, you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts --- Mad Men

You know my name, not my story, you’ve heard what I’ve done, not what I’ve been through"

 

It was quite a rainy day, the grey clouds churned in the sky and soon spread throughout Manhattan. After ten minutes a light drizzle of rain started. Emma was wearing the perfect outfit for a cold and damp day like today: black ankle-boots, tight black trousers, a dark-grey cashmere sweater over a white and black striped shirt, a glossy black cross pattern leather jacket and a black fedora hat. Holding a white umbrella above her head she walked down the 30 Broad St., amidst the dozens of skyscrapers belonging to corporations like “Spear Physical”"a Manhattan fitness center.

 

She kept walking along the street until she came upon a large glass window on the side of the street; to the left there was a glass door. On the window there were several words affiliated with coffee, printed in the form of a collage, the printed words were of frosted glass; it was a cafe From the window, Emma saw that the cafe was brightly lit up. As the door was closed and opened by customers who were either entering and exiting the café the warm aroma of roasted coffee and cocoa beans wafted out the door every time.

 

Emma took a deep breath and with a bare smile she walked out of the cold rainy streets into a warm and welcoming “heaven” of sorts. See, Emma loved coffee and it was the only joy she had in her unpleasant life.

 

Now its wrong to say that her life was miserable because that would just be taking it to extremes she had an urban and cozy, one- bedroom apartment in the heart of Carmel Place, Manhattan. She got together enough money to buy the apartment from her landlord (it cost nearly $100,000).

She had been living independently ever since she graduated from Liberty University, Boston.

 

During these years of her life at Liberty, she was on a 40% scholarship for two years because of her outstanding college results Her father always told her: “Success doesn’t come to someone, they have to go to it”. These words sparked an ever-growing ambition within her. She was eighteen when she got admitted into Liberty University.

 

 

 

(Since the second term) the money she got to pay for her university didn’t fall out of the sky. Her parents had paid for her first year of tuition and ever since the end-of-term vacations of her first year at university she worked three jobs for the summer. This continued, every summer till she graduated four years later.

 

She worked at a small outlet of Starbucks in the nearby plaza, as a waitress. She also helped behind the counter at times for extra pay, and she got to keep her tips that were given to her by customers and saved them in a small wallet she had with her; generous customers would sometimes giver her as much as a $20 tip. This is where she developed a love for coffee and hot cocoa. This job she worked, was only Fridays and Saturdays

 

The second job Emma worked (during the summers) was as a receptionist at a well -known four-star hotel in the Boston city-center, known as the Eliot Hotel, it was quite upscale and elegant. She was quite relived working this job because this was where she actually got the largest pay amongst the pays of any of her three jobs: $8 dollars an hour so she would work twenty four hours at the hotel, three days a week; Monday to Wednesday. 

She’d take a twenty- minute break in between to get some rest and who wouldn’t; she was human, not a robot, that much her manager understood.

 

Now just because she got the biggest pay, as a hotel receptionist doesn’t mean she had to work there at the Eliot the whole week; Emma was a girl who loved risk, and diversity in her jobs; in fact in life.

 

 

 

 

The third job she worked was as an employee at a women’s clothing store called LIT Boutique, showing customers dresses and she had her head spinning because the store was well known and frequently visited by loads of customers. She got paid a decent salary of $100 at the end of every two weeks

 

 

Whenever she’d be in a tight spot, her best friends (Janis, Henry and Eva) pooled in $20 dollars each of their allowance to help her out. Now this was true, genuine friendship. How many people these days give their friends parts of their allowances. She’d never ask for it though, she was too dignified for asking for money. But they read her face well enough to know what situation she was in.

 

She had then used this money from her friends and internships to pay for her fees at Liberty, her university life was tough but she was able to deal with it while being supported by her friends and (family for the first year at least).

 

With her tuition fees being paid by her own money, her financial life was headed down a rocky road for these four years but the end result was definitely worth it.  

 

She worked hard every day even in the summer, reading cascades of her own study-notes, books (from the library). Her professors on the campus were worried about her health but she couldn’t let this stop her from being the best she could, she was a very determined girl when it came to academics.

 

Everyday she’d go to the library with Henry, Ava and Janis- her best friends, to study for every test and upcoming term exam.

 

 

 

Henry was a seventeen -year old boy; he had straight brown hair and hazel eyes, soft warm cheeks, a pasty to colored complexion and a slightly long nose. He was of normal weight for his height (5ft 5”). He wore long denim jeans, a shirt that was checkered with squares of dark blue and deep aqua green. Over the shirt he wore a thin, dusty-looking navy-blue, cotton trench-coat type jacket and a dark grey scarf with stripes of red each at a reasonably wide distance from the other. Over one of his shoulders he wore a medium "sized, army-green backpack. He was precocious but at the same time, very vulnerable as well. He enjoyed writing literature because he had a very good imagination and enjoyed making things up. He was in his first year at university like Emma. He had a crush at university who was much like him; her name was Violet.

 

 

Eva was eighteen, she had long curly, dirty-blonde hair, she had fair skin and eyes as grey as peat coal and peach lips. She was very slim and healthy. She wore a red shirt over which she wore a grayish white, woolen blouse and black trousers. She wore a thin gold chain with a tiny, cloudy -blue jewel chained to it. She was very fun loving but at the same time very mature, she was that “silver-lining on a grey cloud” type of a person. She was as tall as Henry. She leaned more toward history and social sciences in contrast to Henry who was into the arts. She had neither a crush nor love-interest

 

Janis was almost eighteen; she had cloudy blue eyes with a hint of purple in them. She had curly chocolate brown hair, raspberry colored lips (because of her lipstick). She looked like she was a US size 2 in shirts. This was the reason why she looked slim. But her cheeks were fairly soft and springy. She had grayish-green eyes and   was a 5 ft. 3”. She wore a black shirt with hearts all over it and a pair of baggy grey trousers. She applied thick mascara on both of her lower eyes. She dated a guy named Matthew in college but they separated since they went to different universities: she landed in Liberty and he went to John Jay University to study criminal law. Janis was into psychology and child development studies because when she was young she thought it would be cool to read people’s minds.

 

The four had been inseparable after the first year of university, the foursome first met while at the University Asian Festival. Most of the people were Asian there; with chinked black or brown eyes girls had straight hair that was ginger, beer or black colored. The whole festival drowned in tradition: red lanterns, green Pakistani flags, cheap Indian food that mainly gave gas to whoever ate it. The Pakistanis and Indians had prepared dances to modern Bollywood music. A burst of multicolored power for a mini-Holi celebration although it was not the actual time for it.

 

The four began eating samosas, chow mien and drinking coconut water and enjoyed a light conversation of introducing themselves over eating the ladus, a student screamed and realized they had been infected with fungus, the four students spat it out and rushed to the nearest loos to prepare for the nausea that was going to strike them at any time. They all kept asking about each other and the four headed off from the bathrooms for a long walk around the university premises.

 

Since that day forward they began sitting together at the café in the university or the ones outside which were much better since they were open air or at the school grounds, lying down on the grass. All had their books with them studying as hard as they could while they asked each other practice questions, they listened to music on their gadgets as well, interest in music was something they all had in common.  They talked about how they chose to come to the university, how their lives had been at home and what they had planned to do in the future.

 

In their second year they all had two common enemies; who according to them was a s**t-face. Her name was Brooke who was the uni-“queen-bee” after the first year prom. Brooke had a boyfriend named Jason, he was quite weak-willed and was Brooke’s puppet, because he used to do everything she asked, she was the enemy of many but as well as the idol of many who, by fear, had worshipped her.

 

They planned to ruin her image by making up rumors that spread out through the university and a bit beyond like a rapid wildfire. For example, after Halloween they spread a rumor that she began to sell drugs from her dorm to students in return for $100 dollars per packet.

 

The most -spiciest rumor was that she dated another boy named Harry, behind Jason’s back and the rumor had gone to the extent of suggesting that they had been engaged. This rumor was like the stuffing to the gossip-turkey

Emma and her group were like a four piece puzzle, each had their own personality, strengths and weaknesses but it was the diversity of each one of them was what made their group so special to them.

 

Henry met Violet in the first six months on University; it was a cold rainy day in October, he met Violet while at his literature lecture, she sat alone with no friends, their professor Ms. Amy; a chillaxed teacher who used to let the uni students use their phones in class from time to time and always made literature seem like a party.

 

Since then their relationship was making quite smooth progress, they tried helping Henry. One night Violet and Henry walked about the gardens. Emma, Janis and Eva helped. Now this would seem kiddy to a university student but I guess everyone has their inner-teen in them someplace and hey one would do anything for their friends, Emma, Eva and Janis went up to their dorms, they entered Janis’ room before Henry and Violet were in the gardens, Janis was a chocoholic, chocolate was like her primary drug like opium or something it would make her sick both ways; one, If she didn’t have any chocolate once a day she’d get low-blood sugar and two if she’d have too much she’d get fat. This is how she put on weight the first place bur she had no choice but to have chocolate. One would think that dark chocolate would be a healthier option but it was too expensive in the cafes.

 

She had brought at an estimate of fifty mini jars of Nutella to last her a while, she brought them at the drugstore nearby.

 

She took out a mini jar of Nutella and she along with Eva and Emma began eating from it till it was quite literally wiped clean while their lips and chins were smothered with the chocolate spread. They rushed down and started to look for fireflies in the grounds; they caught a few which gave off a bright light.

 

Eva was an expert at climbing trees so she hid atop a nearby tree and released the fireflies as soon as Henry and Violet came into the scene. This was enough for a date of sorts, nothing too flashy, just simple… and yet romantic too.

 

 

 

 

*

The wind was really quite chilly today; winter was definitely round the corner. Rains were quite frequent, time for hot cocoas, coffees, novels and heaters. The four friends settled in Eva’s dorm, it quite nicely done up, she didn’t exactly have an OCD but she kept her room in order at least to some extent; the only thing that was messy about her room was the scattered books and notebooks of economics and anthropology.  But apart from that, at least a dozen books were sorted out neatly in the white shelf, the floor although wooden… looked damp. The walls were all of cream color with no stain whatsoever and the room was brightly illuminated with lights. Eva’s notebook laptop lay on her small study desk. Beside the laptop it had: a black reading lamp, a mug holding all her usual stationery: - scissors, pencils, pens, erasers a ten inch steel scale and what not. The wall that the desk was up against had a poster of the series “Friends”.

 

They all were wearing their hoodies and were in their pajamas because it was a Sunday, this means, time off, at least for today. Each dorm had an electric heater hidden in the cupboards. Eva took out hers; it was lying on the top shelf’s far left corner.

 

With the flick of a switch the room started to warm up in an instant. Janis was doing what she did best: making herself at home, and just randomly scrambled through Eva’s fridge to find something to nibble on, she looked in all three shelves and found a small pop tart; half-eaten (probably by Eva).

 

Eva just rolled her eyes. “Always eating...” Eva remarked casually. “Hey don’t judge, remember I’ve got low blood sugar”, Janis whined. Eva got up, “Right, anyone for a hot cocoa?” Eva asked as Janis went to rummage in her small rope bag she had on her, it was nothing, just red colored with a small collage of words written on it, she took out a fairly thick book from it.  It was titled: -Looking for Alaska by John Green, she wasn’t a bookworm like Henry but she did enjoy this book.

 

They moaned and nodded in confirmation for the cocoa. Henry was tapping on his phone and there were constant bleeps coming from his phone after every two minutes, Emma noticed he was very fixated in it.

 

“So how’d you like it… the fireflies?” Emma asked, wanting to make conversation. Henry looked up and her and his smile widened with realization. “You did that, the fireflies were your idea”. Emma smirked with guilt.

 

“Thanks! I owe you one”, Henry said. “Hey don’t forget we helped!” Janis said as she bit into the tangy, sugary pop tart.

 

“All right, cof--wait a minute.”  He heard a bleep. He read the text and lay his head on the edge of the couch cushion, exhaling in satisfaction with his eyes closed.

 

“Its Violet… she and I are going out for another walk this Saturday night”, Henry sighed. Eva smiled a bit. “Well, good for you”.

 

They drank their hot cocoa much to their hearts content; it warmed them right up on the inside. 

 

They could hear the light sound of the rain shower as well as the pitter -patter of water droplets on the icy-cold and moist window. There was a low rumble of thunder as the grey storm clouds wildly churned up in the sky.

 

*

 

Tuesday, Emma was in her Economics lecture, her professor, Mr. Sanders, was quite strict, a no-nonsense teacher, students could tell from the look that he gave them, that he wasn’t someone to cross.

 

Emma took a liking to Economics since college; this was mainly due to the extra tuitions and friendly support which she got from her Economics college teacher: Sir Jackson, people used to call him “dude looks like Aragorn” because he had a striking resemblance to the Lord of the Rings character due to his long wavy hair and Spanish-looking facial features. During the summer, right after Emma left college, he told her and the rest of his students that he was going on a few trips abroad.  Emma looked at Sir Jackson more like a friend and mentor rather than a teacher, and that was how loving, caring and open he was as a person.

 

 

Sir Jackson ran a small café in New Jersey called “Mocha”, Emma visited the café when on a trip with her family there, in the winter vacations of her second year in college and because Emma was Sir Jackson’s favorite student he gave her free double-chocolate-chip cookies and coffee whenever she’d come visit the cafe.

 

“Pay attention class! These are the following rules of the Keynesian theory….” Mr. Sanders voice sounded grim (like a zombie’s voice combined with a robot’s voice). He hit the long wooden stick in his hand against the detailed blackboard that was full of figures, complicated equations and terms.

 

Pretty much no one but Emma and maybe one or two serious “overachievers” in the class paid attention to Mr. Sanders’ lectures because his voice made the lectures sound dead boring.

*

 

After Sanders’ lecture or rather “bed-time story” was over, Emma and those two overachievers walked out happily but the rest of Emma’s classmates begged to differ; they were all worn out and droopy eyed, The girls in Emma’s economics class swore they needed serum for their dark circles. They staggered as if they were drugged and were just ready to fall down on the floor and doze off because Sanders had given them a double dose of his usual crap.

 

Emma went out to see Janis, Henry and Eva in the university gardens, she found Henry with two earphones in his ears, white probably Apple; given their oval shape. Henry smiled as he looked up at Emma and patted his hand on the grass telling her to sit down.

 

Henry was holding a book in his hand, quite old and a tad dusty. “Cesar by Colleen McCullough” Henry commented. As he put a thick broad leaf as a bookmark in between the pages he was reading.

 

Henry noticed Emma looked kind of pale. “Wait let me guess… was it Sanders?” Henry asked with utter surety. Emma nodded and groaned, although she loved economics, she looked pretty groggy. She laid her aching back to rest on the soft soil; her bones relaxed as she placed her head on Henry’s right thigh that was in a cross leg position.