3 Chapter#2 Bad luck?

ÑThere is nothing better than sleeping without worrying that the next day you will be hit and yelled at. Likewise, there is nothing like waking up to the smell of a good breakfast being made in the morning.

Ingrid lazily stretches out on the bed, flexing her bones as if it were a cat. He gets up by dragging his feet and rubbing his eyes repeatedly. She sits on the corner of the bed and opens her eyes to begin to process where she is as the decor looks unfamiliar. Suddenly, memories of the day before begin to come. His escape, the trip, the robbery and finally, the wound in his thigh. After remembering everything, he feels the characteristic prick of pain in his leg.

She gets up leaning against the walls and walks out into the kitchen with her hair tangled. He stops behind the wall with only his head visible and looks closely at the woman there handling the pans and the mixer.

"Come in dear, I'm not going to bite you." -said the lady laughing at her own comment- come on, come have breakfast. Then you can take a bath and leave, I know you don't want to cause more discomfort than you think you do.

<< I leave you here a couple of bandages and creams. The cut in your leg is not deep so it will not take long to heal, but that does not mean that you should not take care of yourself.-he said pointing to a bag with the aforementioned and then caressing the young woman's cheek- before leaving, leave a note, I'll be at the neighbor's house, today we have a homemade badger along with the other grandmothers on the floor. >>

It didn't take long for Mrs. Cliver to leave the house and Ingrid had her breakfast and a bath to leave the note that the woman had asked for. He left the thank you written on the small piece of paper and took his effects to leave the apartment heading to the elevator. I was completely relieved since being a fifth floor should not go down the stairs and that would save the pain. Still, to completely ignore the annoyance, he put on his headphones and searched his cell phone for the web page he had recently saved for the departments he had dialed in.

After locating the closest ones by activating the route by GPS, he called a taxi to start his tour, unfortunately, he had no luck. All those who had been designated had been occupied by other students, those were the ones that fit his budget, he walked a little more completely oblivious to the pain thinking of more viable options.

- Maybe if I ask for a loan, I can pay a little more expensive and keep it working; Sure, counting on me to get one. she thought a little worried.

In the meantime, he decided to do a little sightseeing going through a couple of streets and taking a photo or two. A rather rustic but attractive cafe quickly caught her eye, and she entered the establishment and was greeted by a teenager about her age.

–Welcome to Sweet Dreams Cafe, my name is Diana and I will be your waitress for today. Come with me to what will be your table please. -he said taking Ingrid to one of the tables farthest from the morning tumult- here I leave the menu for you to choose whatever you like.

He saw the young woman go away and stopped his gaze on the decoration of the place. It was decorated with a cozy touch, there was a lot of wood covering the walls and some of them had red brick or stone. The windows were glass with iron frames. There was a bar where the cash register was and there you could see all the staff that took care of customers gathered. After going over the place a bit, he laid his eyes on the letter in front of him. He wanted to eat something familiar, so he decided on a coconut and chocolate pie with a black tea with milk to accompany it.

A few minutes later, with his stomach already full, he went out again to find a place to stay. Before, I had to pay first for the university in order to enroll since they started on Monday. She took the bus, remaining in front of the doors of the university, where the imposing construction that was in front of her caught her attention. With a bit of fear I walk to the main campus walking randomly through the corridors.

Finally he found the door with the little white sign which said "Director" to lightly knock on the door. A somewhat grumpy forward was heard as Ingrid went to open the door cautiously. There they are the secretary, apparently the poor woman was having a fight with the filing cabinet that was to her left. Ingrid walked and gave a strong kick to the metal pot causing it to finally unlock the compartments.

-Thank you. -said the woman passing her forearm over her forehead, taking the beads of sweat on the sleeve of her light blue shirt- as you must have already realized, I am the secretary. How can I help you? -He said again this time sitting at his post arranging papers.

-Estem, I have come to register. -said the brunette movie taking out of her torn backpack the college admission letter and also putting the copy of the cell phone in front of her.

-I see. -he said adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose- graphic design, right? Ingrid agrees nervously. "Ingrid Woods?" -said the older woman again after having looked for the name in the base.

-Yes.

–Well, here is your schedule and a small map of where your classes are. -the woman extended some papers with the aforementioned and one more with a pen to sign her name- perfect -he said again after Ingrid signed- as you should know, we started on Monday so be prepared. The entrance is at 8:00, the other hours, whether for lunch or something else, are on the paper that I gave you

The woman sanitized the conversation by rearranging her glasses and combing her hair to save the papers that Ingrid had signed. Before the aforementioned turned around, she asked again a little unsure.

-Can I ask you a question? she said twisting her fingers.

–Go ahead, what do you need?

- Are there still no positions for scholarship holders?

-Hey? -said the woman confused- I did not understand your question.

- I mean if there are any empty scholarship places ... my house is very far from the university and I have not been able to find an empty student apartment.

"Well, there aren't any now." Although we suspect that one of the students who would be awarded scholarships this year renounced the privilege. If there is any change I will let you know. Can you leave me your contact number? he asked, taking a post tip to score.

–Of course, it's 166 646 *** ***.

"Well, anything else dear?"

- No thanks, have a good day. -Ingrid said goodbye, bowing her head to leave the office and at the same time the institution.

When he got out of there he decided to walk a bit to think about what he would do for now. Due to the busy day, he hadn't felt the pain in his leg until now. He felt the sting on the back of it and began to walk a little unevenly.

It was already around 6:30 in the afternoon. Due to the time change darkened earlier. So it was already the farewell of the sun with the beautiful red and pink colors in the sky. Announcing in turn the union of day and night. Minutes later, as if by magic, all the phosphorescent lights on the city's billboards came on immediately. It was like entering another dimension. You can already see how the street began to fill with luxurious cars and women and men dressed to have a good time at night.

Ingrid couldn't stop looking at all this from the bridge where she was leaning. It was something unreal. He fixed his gaze forward letting the air caress his face and sucked in a great breath of air filling his lungs. She rearranged the coat she brought with her and pulled the hood over her hair. He put on his mask and turned his headphones to maximum volume. If you got close enough you could hear Billie Eilish in them. I walk the streets with my hands in my pockets with a carefree pace.He decided to do something productive and took a newspaper from one of the gazettes that were on every corner of every block. He deposited the 20 cents and took the big roll. He sat down at one of the nearby benches and began looking for job openings. He marked a few part-time flea market deals and a few 24-hour store stalls. He took his cell phone and checked the schedule that the secretary had given him and with that he began to cross off his list those who do not comply with that regime.

After finishing, he folded the large paper and put it in one of the inside pockets of the coat next to his cell phone. He walked again and this time he stopped in front of a vending machine. He decided to buy something to keep in his backpack, he did not know how long he would be outside, so he put in a twenty bill and selected some bottles of water and some trinkets. He put everything in his backpack and left it hanging by one arm while he took the change and the candy that he had left outside to start eating.

From the shadows behind a wall, someone was carefully watching Ingrid's movements. He took advantage of the moment of his distraction and ran at full speed taking the other strap of the backpack pulling it with a force that left Ingrid dislodged.

At first, she was confused, she came out of the little trance when she saw a guy running with his things. He dropped what he had in his hand and began to run as far as his legs could. By that time he had forgotten about the injury to his leg but that would take its toll later. Increasing the speed he was able to grab one of the lapels of the opponent's sweatshirt thus pulling them. That action caused the two to fall to the ground where they began a fight between legs and fists directly to their faces and other parts of their body. The funny thing about all this is that there were a lot of people watching the show and no one deigned to stop it. They were just taking pictures and making some gasps or shocked noises.

Finally Ingrid managed to take power in the fight and straddled the attacker hitting his face as many times as she could. She stopped when she managed to knock out the one below her.

He got up with stabbing pain not just in his leg, but throughout his body. He took his backpack and tied it tightly to his abdomen after putting it on his back. He walked with his head held high, breathing heavily from the previous effort. It was like that for a while at a delicate and slow pace. She told herself that there could be nothing more to ruin the night than it already was. Thinking that suddenly a car passed at full speed causing water to splash right next to him. To her bad luck she was soaked, but to her enjoyment she was not the only one who received a night bath at that time.

"I wanted to bathe, but not like that." -he said wringing his clothes checking that his phone and papers weren't ruined.

Taking again the blessed GPS as an aid, I look for a nearby laundry where they will work late. Fortunately, there was one, but unfortunately, he had to walk a lot since it was the only one with 24-hour service around the perimeter. Snorting at the shitty day he'd had, he set off to his destination with the idea of finally getting some rest. The little trip on foot lasted approximately 45 minutes of agony and exhaustion. He was finally able to breathe when they are in front of the big bright blue and white sign with "Laundry" written inside. He went to the counter paying what the washing would cost and taking advantage of the moment he put on one of the robes that the place offered and washed the two changes of clothes that he brought with him in his backpack plus the one that was ruined. While the washing machine did its thing, he took a couple of bandages and the alcohol he had in his bag and began to clean the wound that had opened. It was annoying but at least it was almost healed. He wrapped the bandage with the gauze and the alcohol on his leg in a perfect tourniquet, passing a cotton ball with the transparent liquid on the scratches on his face and on his split lip.

He endured the screams that wanted to escape from his mouth but all to maintain his dignity before his own existence. After hearing the beep that announced her clothes, she took them and carefully folded them into her belongings and put on the loosest for the comfort she wanted to feel even for a few moments. The clothes weren't touching her affected areas and that was a relief to her already aching head from the experiences of a whole day.

He managed to start a conversation with the night manager who turned out to be the brother of the owner of the place, he was very nice, perhaps one day he would allow himself to enjoy a friendship. But it wasn't the time yet, so they talked all night until about 2:00 in the morning when the young man's shift ended. The two went out together and took different paths.

He carefully played with his controls while humming a song. She promised herself that never again in her life would she put her headphones at full volume when night fell, so she could hear everything. He came to a pretty nice park even though everything was dark. He sat under one of the trees leaning his backpack on the trunk supporting his back on it. He sighed throwing his head back imagining one of his many fantasies of living comfortably one day. He decided to take a break and let the ground wash away his consciousness, thus relaxing on the spot. Before falling asleep she finally felt a bit of calm in her tired body and prayed for some peace to be able to endure the next day.

*******

The first rays of the sun illuminated Ingrid's bruised face, you could see the calm on her face and incidentally the marks between her eyebrows and forehead, evidence of her frown almost every day. So much was her fatigue that nothing could disturb the sleep to which she clung jealously. But that wouldn't last long, no, not at all, without warning he felt on his face a slightly scratchy and slimy tongue passing through his eyes and nose. He growled in response to the slug invasion on his face and slowly opened his eyes to find a rather majestic hound.

The animal that was playfully standing in front of her was nothing more and nothing less than an albino wolf pup, in other words, a cute Husky. He smiled when he saw the cute puppy and began to play with him by throwing a twig that he had at his side for the puppy to bring it back. They spent a few minutes playing games and pampering the furry animal's tummy when he heard a voice that seemed a little familiar.

–Kuro. - A voice was heard suffocated from running so much called to the little one - come boy.

The puppy came out of Ingrid's arms to meet its owner with a jovial barking that reached the ears of everyone who passed by. It did not take long for the puppy to return to the arms of the brunette, jumping with happiness.

-Apology for that. -said the owner of the dog- it is difficult for me to control it yet, I hope and it has not been a problem for you -said again resting his hands on his knees taking a breath.

<My name is Tomas, and that's Kuro. -he pointed to the playful puppy taking his hand to Ingrid in the form of greeting- a pleasure>

"Ingrid, it's a pleasure." -they respond politely- no problem, in fact he is an adorable puppy.

Finishing saying that, he looked up to shake the hand they offered him but he stopped abruptly, opening his eyes more than normal. In front of her was the boy from the truck. Likewise, his reaction went from being his to that of his opposite, both were amazed and dumbfounded.

"The boy in the truck"; "The crazy woman on the road" -they both said in unison, pointing to each other.

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