Chapter 32

Mel 

Stupid shit. I stared down the street. Nina did like my landscapes. The first person who wasn’t an idiot. All my mates at the bar didn’t care what I had done before, they only knew me as someone painting abstract shit for the bastards. Nina was different…

I threw the cigarette on the ground. Stupid shit. It didn’t matter. Why should I give up something that was working? It wasn’t as if I wasn’t happy. I was. A flat, money, and a stable life. Just because Nina liked my old paintings didn’t mean I had to take them up again. We could still be friends.

I took the tobacco pouch from my pocket and rolled myself another cigarette. I could hear music from down the street. It was one of the few bars still open this late. A shitty one, somewhere where my absentee father would have done business and my mother been his customer. Stupid shit. I hadn’t turned into them, nor had I followed family traditions as my brother had.

I took a drag of my cigarette. But Nina did like my landscapes… I picked up the phone. She still hadn’t replied to my message. She must be sleeping. I stared at the screen. Stupid shit… I put the phone back, then hesitated and took it up again and wrote,

Hey, you’re awake?