Anguish

Heyyy

Welcome to the annual A-Z Challenge!

Today April 1st marks the first day of the month long challenge and I am nervously excited for all of you to see my posts!

As mentioned in my theme reveal, this continuous series involves two girls and their overthinking minds. Come watch them find their footing in this chaos, that is life

You can easily access all of my posts in one place- here

Make sure you read in order 🙂

Don’t forget to fill the Master List google form. It’s open only till April 10th

If you’re participating in A-Z, all the best and don’t forget to leave your post links in the comments (both for me and other visitors!)

Kicking off my 2022 challenge, here is my first post

A is for Anguish

---

It was early August and the extremely dry summer had turned into wonderful, giving rain. But now that it had been raining consistently, it was most unforgiving. My clothes were never fully dry and my hair was always damp. Add the “back to school” rush and it was just madness.

To top all of this, I feel myself catching a cold. Not a big surprise considering my hair is always the slightest bit damp. 

On one such lovely rainy evening, I was rushing to meet my best friend. I was already late. I had gotten sucked into work emails and prepping my calendar for school, which was to start in three weeks. I was woefully behind schedule.  And apparently so was the bus. Did I mention it was raining? I couldn’t afford to take the taxi, not that any would be available with all the… rain! 

Xavia wouldn’t mind that I was late. But I didn’t like to keep her waiting. I didn’t like to keep anybody waiting. Halfway through penning down things on my to-do list, my bus finally appeared. 

Finding a window seat at the back, I settled in time to feel the bus speeding away.

Our meet up spot was at the cute book-café that both Xavia and I loved immensely.  It was tiny and was pushed between two of those obscenely high skyscrapers. No one would think it was a café if you didn’t already know. The front displayed second hand books and gave the entire café its charm. Ceiling to floor stacked books, on all corners and against all walls except a wide opening in the centre and one large street-facing window, the source of light at day. 

Xavia loves places that completely capture your attention and can transport you into a land of its own. She found this place in our senior year and immediately fell heads over heels for it. The smell of books and the hot chocolate ensured that this would become her spot. And she knew instantly that the only person she would ever tell about this place would be me. If it weren’t for my passionate love for literature, books and all things wordy, I have no doubt she would have completely kept this place for herself.  

The bus stop was only a couple of blocks away from the cafe. Speed walking in the rain, under my umbrella with the soft beats of Lauv’s “The Story Never Ends”, playing in my ear, a momentary sense of calm amidst this chaos filled me. 

Walking into the café, I caught Xavia completely lost in thought. Typical.

Only when she looked at me, her usually gleaming eyes were filled with anguish. She looked so tired.

“Heyyy, are you okay Xav?”

A smile crept into her face but didn’t quite reach her eyes,

“Straight to the question huh? Always the direct Val” 

“You know, I’m just concerned!”

“I do Val, I appreciate it.”

“SO spill already”.

“Nothing. I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

That was very evident and I was waiting for her to answer why she wasn’t sleeping well! She saw the dissatisfaction in my face, impatiently waiting for her to give me the real reason. 

Looking me in the eye, with absolutely no indication of humour, she said,

“I did something really bad”

---

So what do you think?

How bad did Xavia screw up?

I murdered someone and need help hiding the body, bad? Or, I accidentally spilled coffee on your seat and you’re sitting on it, bad?

Anywayy

You will know tomorrow!

Don’t forget to drop your links below

Dream ❤