Anna Explains

When you return to the living room with a cup of cocoa, Anna was sitting down on the couch. She was still shivering slightly, despite how warm it was inside. You hand her the mug and she takes it gratefully. "Thank you." She said, savoring the heat of the beverage.

"Do you want a blanket or something?" You ask her.

"No, I'll be fine. This drink should warm me up." She takes a small sip of the hot chocolate and lets out a sigh as the warmth fills her body. "So...I guess you probably have a few questions for me right now."

"At least." You nod.

"Well, I suppose I do owe you an explination." She sets the cup down and looks into your eyes. "Two months ago, I had the worst day of my life." She sighed and ran her left hand through her hair. "It all started at midnight, when the guy I had been seeing dumped me after we got into a huge fight. So I didn't get very good sleep at all and I had a huge marketing presentation in the morning. The kind of presentation my job hinged on, you know? I had been having some trouble keeping up with work and this was important for me. It had to go perfect." She took another drink before continuing.

"Well, I woke up that morning and went out to my car, only to find it had been ransacked. All four tires were missing, the windows were broken and the radio had been ripped out. I tried to call work, but my hand slipped and dropped my cellphone into a puddle of water. Needless to say, it wouldn't work afterward. So I just got to work as fast as I could, running around until I could hail a taxi. The taxi driver was a dick and he purposely took the long way around. By the time I got to work, I missed the meeting. I tried to explain what happened, but I was already on bad terms with my boss. He fired me on the spot."

"Ouch." You respond, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah. I tried to get another job over the next two weeks, but no one would hire me. Especially since I had no means to get to work and no way to pay for a new car. I could barely pay my bills and without a job to pay for rent, my landlord threatened to evict me from my apartment. And this was already the cheapest place in San Fransisco! There I was: no money, no job, no car, no phone, and in a few days, no home. Needless to say, I was pretty badly fucked."

"Couldn't you have gone back to your parents?" You ask in confusion.

"No, they disowned me when they found out I was bisexual." She shook her head. "Said I was doing the Devil's work and wouldn't let me back home."

"Shit." You shake your head sadly. "Friends?"

"All my friends in the area where also friends with the boy I broke up with. They all took his side...no one would speak to me at all."

"Dammit. That sucks." You sigh.

"I know. So I had no idea what I was going to do. I started thinking about how my life could have gone so wrong after such a promising time at college. That's when I remembered what you said to me when we graduated. That if I was ever in the New York area, I should look you up. On a whim, I packed up all my belongings, sold what was left of my car, and gathered together whatever spare money I had and used it to buy a bus ticket to New York. I know it was absolutley crazy, but I didn't know what else to do or where else to go. Once I got here, I looked you up in the phone book and found your address. And here I am." She blushed a bit and averted her gaze shyly. "I know this is really out of the blue and everything, but I had no one else to turn to and for some reason, you kept popping back into my head." She looked over to her suitcases, then back to your eyes. "John, I was hoping I could stay with you for a while. Just until I get back on my feet. I could find a job in this area and I'll get my own place, honest." She bit her lip worriedly. "Please, John. I have nowhere else to go."