Chapter One. Real world

Esme was the type of girl that never believed in love. To her, it was a thing for the weak. Her parents had been a typical example to her stand that love doesn't exist anymore, it was just a folktale or rather a fairytale. Her dad had gotten married to her mum out of sheer responsibility. Growing up, she had watched them verbally fight almost every day because they refused to listen to what the other had said they would always disagree on many occasions thus making them be at loger head. They always made it clear to each other that the never loved the other that was really a headache that Esme had to live with. Even if her dad would always make peace at the end, it doesn't stop the same thing from reoccurring. She was able to decipher from her small family that love was just a word for the weak hearted. Her stand had also been solidified as she had watched most of the people she knew, especially her friends go through the same notion of pains of heartbreak over and over again. The pain was such that even after a month or two, they weren't over it, most times, they do drink their heart out to forget about their love gone wrong. The scars never left them even if they eventually get over it, they had to live with the scars. That wasn't something she wanted to experience, and she was not ready for anything that would come as a barrier to what she wanted to achieve. The male folk was a typical example, and that she doesn't want. She was only focused on her education and career. She was still a college student and came from a poor family. She knew how hard feeding was for her, so had to balance three part time jobs and then her education. She was the one supporting her family of four excluding her. Her mother was so sick that she couldn't work again. Her dad died in the factory he worked for three years ago due to an unforseen accident, and there was her three younger siblings that she was supporting their education and daily necessities. She was the one that paid rent and other bills in their small apartment. These alone made her not to have time for anything called romance not to mention love.

Esme stepped out of the school building and frowned. The weather had been extremely hot a while ago to the point of making her uncomfortable, even dressed in a sleeveless shirt didn't help a bit, but now it was getting cloudy showing signs of heavy downpour and not only that, the temperature has dropped down. Her fingers where near freezing point. The weather forecast had not seen this earlier, she had listened to the forecast and it was said that there would be a very hot weather that might actually cause heatstroke, but now the weather have changed entirely that was why she never believed any of the stupid forecast. It's just isn't her thing. She grimaced and hurried her step. She needed to get to the bus stop before the downpour. She half ran and half walked to get to the bus stop that would take her to her second part time job which was just few miles away.

Esme was really lucky. She have just gotten into the bus when the first downpour began. Hopefully she wouldn't have to get soaked while going to her work place. Sitting in a bus dripping wet would make her really uncomfortable, and besides there was no spare clothes to change into if that should occur.

Once she was cormfortably seated, She leaned into her seat. She rummaged through her backpack and picked out her headset and phone. She popped it in her ear and started playing a song by NF prideful and then closed her eyes.

When the bus stopped at the bus stop where she would get down, she quickly picked up her backpack and got down. The rain was only drizzling now, she was quite lucky. She walked as fast as she could and got to the place she always did her afternoon shift a restaurant.

Esme got in through the side door meant for the workers' exit and entrance. She worked in the restaurant as a waiter for her afternoon shift. She quickly wore her work clothes and got into the kitchen to help serve the orders that where from by the people waiting for their lunch or rather mid lunch since it was almost past lunch time now.

" Hi thank goodness that you are here", Hailey said as soon as she saw Esme when she walked into the kitchen.

" I almost got in late I had late classes", Esme said as she picked up an already serves dish that where arranged in a tray

" That's for table twenty six", Martha one of the food chefs said.

" Alright", Esme said.

" We will catch up later", Hailey said and waved at Esme who was about to walk out through the door.

" Alright", Esme answered and hastened her footsteps as she walked out through the door. If she wanted to make much, she needed to get many tables served. Since she did afternoon shifts and works only for some hours, she was paid according to how many tables she waited. Each table she waited on was a few dollar bill, approximately fifty five dollars. So if she was lucky to wait of ten tables, she would be paid five hundred and fifty dollars. Most times, she doesn't even have the favor of waiting on six tables, so her pay wasn't that much. Since today was rest day for the main workers of the restaurant, she might get lucky.

Esme worked for three hours without rest. Even though she was hungry, she wasn't bothered. She had skipped lunch to get to the restaurant on time since her classes had ended quiet late. After her shift finally ended, she quickly grabbed lunch from the kitchen. The restaurant most times gave the workers free lunch, and today was such a day. Even though it was past lunch time Esme didn't care. She sat down in a table in the kitchen with Hailey as she ate her lunch of banana frittatas and orange milkshake with honey. Hailey was also a part time waiter like Esme. She went to another college different from Esmes'. She was two years older than Esme who was only eighteen years old. After Esme had finished her lunch, she got her pay. It was one of her lucky days. She had actually had the liberty to wait on twenty tables in the space of three hours so her pay had been much. Their house rent was due next week, so she was rest assured to save enough before the week runs out. Also there was her mother's hospital bills. Her check up was in few weeks time, and money is needed for her medication.

Esme bid the workers goodbye as she left the restaurant. She was on her way home with Hailing. They always board the same bus, Esme's bus stop was just few miles ahead of Hailey's. The two girls where quiet close ever since they met each other at the restaurant. As they walked to the bus stop, they talked about what and what didn't happen in school. Before long, they got to the bus stop and boarded a bus.