Lives Between Walls

It felt great to be done with my final exam. It was as though I had paid off a massive debt to a relentless creditor that had been hounding me for years. All those sleepless nights of stress, and all that fuss about assignments and tests was finally over! It seemed so surreal. “Whoooop! We’re done bitches!” shrieked my best friend Ophelia, as she floored her Honda Jazz down that busy street. “Whoa, easy there Speedy Gonzales. You don’t want to kill us before we get to enjoy our new freedom,” I laughed at her. I don’t even think she heard me over the Lil Wayne blaring on her car stereo. “Say what bitch?!” She yelled at me. I turned the volume knob down from 60 to 32, “I said you’re driving a bit too fast.” Ophelia howled at me, revealing her pearl whites, “For once Bella, just live! We’ve just completed a fucking bachelors. 3 years of boring ass psychology, 3 years of ass kissing! I mean with all the stress we endured, lets live a little! Let’s drink, lets party, let’s take a guy home and have a three way or something!” I couldn’t restrain a roguish grin.

If ‘life of the party’ was a person, it was definitely my friend Ophelia. People didn’t understand how we got along so well, since I was such an introvert. How we became friends at all, is an even funnier story because she had actually been my highschool bully at one point. I’m not even kidding. She had made the first few years of my highschool life hell. That was until her own life became hell, when she got into that car accident with her dad, leaving the side of her face burnt. It’s amazing what wonders a little facial adjustment can do for a shitty personality. Afterwards she had apologized for the way she had treated me. I guess that near death experience made her realise that there was more to life than being an asshole. Or perhaps she just got a taste of what it was like to be ostracized for being different and it humbled her. Not sure which dart hit the bullseye, but I’m grateful for it because I gained a sister in her.

Soon we pulled up into the parking lot, next to where my car had been parked. The exam venue had been a few blocks away so I had decided to park my car at the neighbourhood mall and we drove in Ophelia’s. “Alright babe, hook up later?” I nodded as I gave a her a warm hug and kissed her rosy pink cheek. I walked over to my car as she pulled off in her bright red Honda Jazz – the “fire truck,” as she used to call it, because she was “bringing the heat.” I would always say to her, “You mean you’re putting out the heat darling,” I would deride her, to which she would give me her infamous shove on my shoulder. There were a few other cars in the parking lot, not too many though as it was still as early as 11am. My Opel Corsa Lite beeped as I disengaged the alarm and the doors unlocked with a loud ‘clunck.’ I smirked as I thought about Edgar my boyfriend who was always teasing me about that. “That’s not a car, that’s a contraption!” I missed him. Ever since he went to go and study in England, things have never been the same between us. Like the last time we had really spoken was 5 months ago. Other than that it’s just been, “hello,” “what are you up to,” “okay all the best” and “goodbye.” We had grown apart, and I’m not sure if we were still in a relationship anymore. Maybe it was time for me to move on. Ophelia had been all the more happy to try and hook me up with every guy she knew – Little Miss Trigger Happy Cupid with the bow and arrow, I smiled and shook my head at the thought. I got into my car, and closed the door. And just as I was about to start the engine, I was startled by a frantic knock on my window. I quickly turned to look and saw a middle aged man looking fixedly at me.

He was an african man with short black kempt hair and a beard that went around his thin lips. “Excuse me mam, can you please help me?” Though I was uncomfortable, I slowly cranked down my window, “Yes, how can I help?” He essentially asked me if I could give him a lift home. I honestly didn’t want to, I didn’t really like entertaining strangers at all, as crime had been a reality in Orchidville. I tried making excuses that my parents were waiting for me and that I had to head straight there. He leaned toward the car, “Oh I see, whereabout do you stay, dear?” I thought for a moment, and blurted out the most random place that I knew no one usually stayed at. If he thought we were going in different directions, I could at least get out of not taking him with me and not feel bad about it. But to my shock, he replied, “Plediaes Avenue, that is on the way to my house as well!”

Oh for fucks sake! What had I done?! Now I would have to go that way and drop him off even though it was totally opposite my way home. And I couldn’t now say, “Oh by the way I was just kidding, I actually live elsewhere.” Oh Bella, why was it so hard for you to just say no! Why do you always have to be the good girl? I know Ophelia would have definitely not got herself into this mess. He pled with me until I couldn’t say no, so I let him in. Okay calm down Bella, I reassured myself that he seemed like a respectable older man. He probably had good intentions and a family he was going home to. “Oh thank you thank you!” He replied with a warm smile as he hopped into the passenger seat. Once he was in, I got to realise what a big man this was. Even through that formal shirt, I could make out the broad shoulders, and his arms where the sleeves where rolled up, where gigantic and hairy, and his callous big hands on his lap, like weapons that could literally crush my slender frame if he wanted to. All of a sudden a dread came over me, I felt like I was now a hostage, trapped and at his mercy. I couldn’t kick him out of my car now, and I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to fight him should I need to and I couldn’t run anywhere. I just prayed to God that he had good intentions. That’s why you should never help anyone whose ass you can’t kick, because as is the case when helping people, you might need to. He turned and grinned at me winking wryly, as though he realised it too – that this young tiny damsel, would not even be able to put up a fight against him if he wanted anything from her. Once he closed the door, I took in a deep breath and slowly pulled out of the parking.