บท 5: Is the universe against me?
A beam of sunlight shone through a gap in the curtains and onto Abigael's face, causing her to squirm and bury her head in the pillow. She managed to hold the position for about a minute before moving her head to the side and taking a gasp of air. Squinting, she decided it was too much effort avoiding the light and she may as well get up.
She checked her phone as she rolled out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. There were a bunch of messages from Selena sent sometime yesterday evening.
'Hey girl, where are you?'
'You coming?'
''You okay?'
There was also a missed call.
Abigael started brushing her teeth with one hand while deftly typing a reply with the other.
'Hi, wasn't feeling too great last night. Had a night in. You free today?'
She put the phone by the sink as she hopped in the shower. The warm water washed away the last vestiges of last night's anxiety and made her feel refreshed and more ready to face the challenges of the day. She washed her hair slowly, enjoying the sensation of the frothy bubbles rubbing through her fingers.
Once done, she dried off and chose some cute clothes with bright colours to wear, her mouth curling into a smile as she twirled a few times in front of the mirror. Finishing off with a touch of make up she checked her phone again but was not surprised when she didn't see a reply. Selena was probably still asleep, it was only 9:30 after all.
She grabbed her purse, bright purple to match her outfit, and locked the front door, deciding to grab a bite to eat on the way to the appliance store. The watch had been happily silent since she had turned off the notifications last night, now she could pretend like it didn't exist. She hummed a small tune under her breath, her skirt swishing side to side as she walked and her heels clicking smartly on the stone floor as she made her way to the elevator. Neither her chatty neighbour or that nasty cat seemed to be around and it was a Saturday, the weekend. It looked to be a good day today.
The appliance store was on the basement level of a mall not too far from where she lived. Walking through the glass sliding doors at the entrance of the mall she turned her head as she picked up the scent of toasted sandwiches and coffee coming from a cafe nearby and remembered that she still hadn't had breakfast yet. It wasn't like the appliance store was going anywhere. A relaxed yet sweet looking smile graced her mouth subconsciously as she started deciding whether she should get the cheese toastie or the one with the avocado.
Ring~
Her phone buzzed as she was waiting to order. It was Selena.
''morning early riser, hope you're feeling better. Sure I'm free today, when and where?'
'Catch up for lunch? I know you can't resist the sweet potato waffle fries at the place by the park.'
' (°π°) Let's go right now! Quick, those fries need me~'
'Haha, you'll have to wait for lunch, I've got to go to the appliance store at the moment.'
'What for? Did you drop your phone?'
'Nah, long story. Tell you over lunch'
'Okey-dokey, see ya soon ❤️'
'See you ❤️'
She shoved her phone in her purse and decided to order the avocado and sundried tomato toastie, she didn't want anything too heavy now as she needed to save room for lunch.
Twenty minutes later and she was wiping the last few crumbs from her mouth with a disposable paper napkin as she rode down the escalator towards the basement level. The appliance store should be just behind the elevator and to the right...
Reaching the ground, she turned the corner only to find a big boarded up section of wall there with the words [Caution: Renovations in progress] and a sign that said 'Come visit our new and improved store front, coming soon!'
Abigael's relaxed and happy mood was immediately soured. She frowned at the wall, her eyebrows turning down violently. Their website didn't say anything about renovations! She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes in frustration. [Just great, now what am I supposed to do?] Grabbing her phone from her purse she did a quick internet search on her phone for similar stores nearby, home entertainment, electronics, even a key maker, but none of them seemed to be open on a Saturday. The closest shop she could find that was open was on the other side of town.
'HB Ji-Fi, looks like it closes in an hour, I might make it.' She muttered to herself, quickly looking up the price of bus tickets and rushing back up the escalator to the bus stop outside.
Her purse swung wildly as she rushed to get on on the next available bus going in her direction. She cursed her decision to wear her favourite but least practical pair of heels as she clambered on board, swiping her card and standing as close to the bus door as she could. She clutched at her phone nervously, bouncing up and down on her heels as she willed the bus to hurry up, the driver could go a little faster right? He didn't have to stop at every single stop right? There wasn't even any passengers getting off at the last stop, he was driving slow on purpose!
Finally, after two transfers and exactly 47 minutes of anxious waiting the bus arrived at her stop. Abigael dashed off the bus in a mad flurry as soon as the doors were open, earning herself a few startled and amused glances. Heels clopping, she ran wildly down the footpath towards the plaza with the HB Ji-Fi shop she needed, she knew exactly were it was and how long it would take to get from the bus stop to the shop, she had studied the map on her phone intently many times while on the bus ride and knew she could make it, just as long as she didn't get stopped.
The moment the thought went through her mind she crushed it down ruthlessly, a wild fury flaring in the back of her eyes at her own stupidity. Her luck was so terrible that just thinking something like that was sure to cause something to happen.
She ran full pelt around the corner. There is is!The shop was in sight, just 200 metres away. But before that there was a huge crowd between her and her goal.
Some guy in a suit [What is it with guys in suits, it really gives me a bad feeling] was standing on a removable podium. He was wearing a black T-shirt with the words 'RIGHTS FOR THE POWERLESS' in big red lettering. He was holding a microphone in one hand and a sign in the other, displaying a red 'no' circle with a slash over the top of a black humanoid silhouette with a cape.
'...what right do they have to rule over our lives? The lives of common people, everyday normal people like us?' he was yelling passionately, 'Are they even considered to be human any more? These "People" so vastly different from us in what they can do. They are treated like heroes but we know, WE KNOW they are the worst villains too!'
'YEAH!' responded the crowd.
'Every choice they make has an impact on the world far greater than themselves but are they bound by the common law like we are? NO!'
'NO!' the crowd shouted.
A sign board was shook a little too vigorously and whacked Abigael on the side of her head, knocking her ponytail askew and snapping her out of whatever had transfixed her to watch the man on the stage.
'Sh!t' She breathed, realising she had just lost two minutes of precious time, she only had five minutes left before the store closed! She quickly tried pushing through the thick mass of people, but there were so many people and they kept yelling so loudly and blocking her vision with signs and flags that she soon became disorientated and realised she wasn't sure which way she was heading in any more.
Her unheard 'Excuse me's slowly turned into shoving and stepping on feet in order to get people to move out of her way as she pushed roughly through to what seemed like the edge of the crowd. Finally, amidst the grumbles if those around her, she reached some store fronts. She decided to try a new approach and carefully made her way around the edge of the crowd. Squeezing around the plaza slowly before she reached HB Ji-Fi just as a retail worker was locking the glass sliding doors.
'Wait!' She called out at the same time as the crowd behind her shouted out another 'NO!' completely drowning out her tiny voice. She ran as fast as she could, rushing right up to the glass door of the shop and knocking frantically as she pressed her nose up onto the glass.
The retail assistant was right there, and stared at her for a few seconds through the glass, his face as blank as paper. Then he turned a key on the wall beside the door and the steel roller shutters started closing.
Abigael was furious, as she stared back intimidatingly into the eyes of the blank looking retail assistant as the roller door slowly closed, fury coating her face.
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