Reality

"Anna! Come quick! You’re on the news again!” The small brunette that once had her hair long and loose with the tips curled became a grown up adult. Her hair was shorter, she had bangs and her green eyes looked even bigger because of the eye liner  She wasn't any more some girl who was searching for a reason to live. She had found it.

“Huh. Who would have thought some shitty book will get so much attention…” She placed her head on one hand while the other held the remote. Her flat mate, Rosie, seemed offended by her friend’s words.

“Shitty? It’s brilliant! The best you came up with! The story is so romantic! Who would have thought that one day with some stranger would turn up to become a love story! It’s beautiful.” Anna watched her friend quietly. She never told anyone from where she got the idea. She simply wrote it down and in no time, it became a box office success in Europe and Asia.

“You know, I've written other books too…Why don’t you praise them like this?” She mumbled loud enough for her friend to hear. Rosie scoffed and jumped on the couch, next to Anna.

“Because it doesn't have the same feeling to it. You wrote before about death and about depression. This is about pure love! From where did you even get this idea? Lovers in Tokyo…” Anna chuckled and placed her feet close to her chest. No one could stop the small smile forming on her lips. Not even the last four years of loneliness.

“I lived it.” Rosie widened her eyes and opened her mouth. “I met him four years ago, right before entering my last year of college. It was just one day and one man that changed my world. So, I choose to change others’ worlds too by writing about it.” Rosie nodded.

“What about the ending?” Anna started to laugh loudly, giving Rosie the bitter feelings she felt through the years.

“There’s no ending. I created one. The man I met wasn't one that could've been kept into one place. He was someone who simply went after the wind.” After the last sentence, she walked into her room, leaving a melancholic Rosie behind.

Behind the closed doors of her room, Anna walked to her desk and opened the second drawer. She grabbed a picture which seemed to have been torn from a newspaper and stared at it. It sent bitter sweet feelings through her heart which were shown through a frown.  

A few hours later, when it was seemingly getting dark, Anna found herself stuck with her fellow friends who were also artists, into a noisy pub. Rosie was the one who gathered everyone at the table so she could tell the big news to everyone. The brunette wasn't too happy with the location but she did enjoy the time with her mates.

“So,” She started but the noise was covering her tiny, female voice. She rolled her eyes and grunted. “I said ,SO!’”  She yelled. The whole room got silent and every pair of eyes turned to her. The scowl she previously had transformed magically into a sweet smile. “I have some big news regarding our brilliant friend, Anna!”

“Are you getting married?” One of the boys asked the culprit, frowning.

Anna gulped down her drink, already fed up with the surreal attention she was getting. That didn't stop the stares, making her drink even faster.

“Idiots. It’s about the book. It reached the American box office too! Aren't you happy?” Everyone groaned. “That means we get paid more.” The whole table started to cheer. While Rosie went back to her seat, Anna glared at her.

“Who’s more caught up into this story? The writer or the reader?” The blonde smiled sweetly and patter her friend’s thigh. 

“If you ever meet him again, thank me.” She whispered before entering a fiery conversation between the people on the table. Anna rolled her eyes but couldn't agree with her. It wasn't meant to be so that, logically, meant they will never meet again.

On the path back home, the blonde was so drunk that she couldn't walk at least one meter without tripping over her own feet. The older woman couldn't say she was fed up with her friend’s behaviour because she already got accustomed with her personality, which hadn't been easy. London was famous for the rainy weather and that night didn't make an exception. The fortunate fact was that the two girls were really close to the apartment.

Inside the elevator, Rosie started to talk nonsense while Anna was furiously pushing the 6^th floor’s button. She was calm but inside, she was sure she would have killed the younger woman and makes it look like a suicide. She was a good sadistic writer, she could even use one of her many stories to cover the crime. Even she was surprised when, after 3 years since the incident, she wrote it down like it happened yesterday. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. The consummation of alcohol started to take a tool on her head too.

“Lover in Tokyo, huh?” Even worse was when Rosie decided to make her feel miserable. After a funny hiccup and a few slurred words that she couldn't understand, she grabbed the blonde’s hand and walked out of the elevator and inside their apartment, having a few problems with getting the keys. On one hand she had Rosie and on the other she had her purse and a few more groceries.

After Rosie had been tucked in her bed safely, Anna walked into the kitchen, not sleepy yet. She changed into a loose shirt and long pyjama pants and, on her way to making tea, she also turned on the TV. While waiting for the water to heat up, she heard another show where her book was praised.

“It’s not like I've wrote it now. It’s been out for a year now…” She mumbled while changing the channel. It was indeed a mystery how no one had ever heard about her in a year and, one day, out of nowhere, thousands of reporters appeared in front of her door.

She grabbed her favourite cup, which was bought from Japan, and poured the sweet tea inside. The steam rising from the hotness of the water seemed to get Anna into a melancholic state. She sighed hard, like she just left her soul out, and walked towards the TV. She sat on the couch and cuddled into the softness of it, the cup held tightly in her hands.  The program was boring, nothing seemed to get old but nothing new appeared. It was like a vicious cycle. Everything on the television was bullshit and she knew that. It was all too faked and covered: old stories, arranged so that they would look new. It was overwhelming.

In that moment I realized what he meant. I was getting miserable, bored of everything. I did go with the flow and ended up back in England, with a University finished in management and business but I became a writer. I really didn’t know what reason I could find to live happily. What was happiness? I started to ask myself. I wanted to get the easy way out but that path was definitely not in Europe.