Insecure

Nika woke in a cold sweats. Alina again. Plagued her mind, she could never forget.

Her face. An afterimage on the ceiling. Beautiful horror. She didn't want to talk about it.

Avoided Nadia at work. Awkward exchanges. Brief. Cringeworthy. Nadia probably thought she was emotionally unstable. Unreliable. Lost her cool.

Their manager Oliver put her back in the kitchen. But she really didn't mind scrubbing more toilets.

“Hey are you okay?” Nadia asked, “You don't have to tell me everything, but you can if you want to…”

“I'm ok. Let's just work,” Nika said bluntly.

Twinge. Felt like a sharp edge. At the back of Nadia's mind for the rest of the shift. Washed dishes a little bit too hard. Stains not coming off.

“Hey do you wanna maybe grab a drink after work?” Nadia tried again.

“Er… I have this family thing. It's super complicated…” Nike said before nodding and walking off.

Nadia didn't know she had family in town

Nadia. Alone in the bus, head down. Wondering what went wrong. But maybe she just had to let it go.