Jeanne’s foot twitched a little again, the only sign of life outside of her laboured and unsteady breathing as she laid down on the cold and dusty floor with her face pressed partly against a full plastic bag.
It wasn’t a restful or entirely voluntary sleep, but it was certainly a deep one, and while everyone else went about with their day to day lives, Jeanne simply laid nearly motionless against the floor, too drained to even toss and turn around in her sleep, while her dreaming mind attempted to sort through the mess that was her night and… all of this.
Her mind cycled through a few of them, her dreams growing more coherent as the hours passed, and her body prepared to drag her kicking and screaming back into alertness. Just before she woke up with a slight groan and an intense pain on her neck and aches all over her body, Jeanne could vaguely recall the outlines of her latest dream.
She was some sort of secret agent then, touring the capital city of a recently discovered and presumably highly advanced and magical underground civilization. It wasn’t clear who sent her, names, faces, anything more clear than some vague appearances and an outline always eludes her in the morning, but she was here to end their world, there was a certain trick to it, a fountain somewhere she needed to desecrate. Also her family was with her somehow, it was a little embarrassing.
She made it work somehow though, kept her family and the country’s suspicion at bay as she cracked safes and stole whatever lives stood in the way between her and the fountain’s location. And she was just about ready to shut the whole thing down too before she suddenly became very aware of how hungry she’ was, and decided to try out an all you can eat buffet she found nearby.
At first she simply stood in line with many others whose faces and names she could not recall, but she grew increasingly desperate as one delectable plate grew into four or five, and the gnawing hunger in her stomach only grew. She cut in line, she pushed others out of the way for another slice of steak, or a plateful of fries or fried chicken or salad or just about anything until by the end of it she collapsed in an empty room, and tried to lick the floor clean of an errant ketchup strain.
Coincidentally she was very hungry when she finally awoke with a groan, wincing slightly as she slid one hand up to cradle her neck, a plastic bag full of oddly squishy trash it seemed made for a poor pillow, and the floor was about as cold and hard as you’d expect it to be.
She let out a sigh, as she opened her eyes to stare at the dark ceiling above, she had slept yes, but she hadn’t had a moment of rest, her body was still cold, heavy, and most of all hungry, and it took everything she had just to sit up and stare blankly ahead for a moment, trying desperately to remember if she still had something edible in the house.
Until her eyes glanced at the discarded invitation once more, and with a slight frown, she unceremoniously crumpled it and tosses it towards a nearby dustpan, before she made the mistake of stretching her limbs, and propped herself up against a nearby wall as she limped along to a small single door fridge besides a stained and plate covered kitchen counter.
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Only to swing it open and find its shelves barren save for some old sauce stains, and a handful of freeze dried shallots resting against a distant and forgotten corner. She briefly considered eating them raw, but thought better of it, and she pressed her full force against the fridge’s door to slam it closed.
She shambled over to her bed, kicking away the tissues and empty cans strewn about the floor before she unceremoniously tossed herself back beside her laptop, and whipped her phone out in search of anything that could catch her eye on the food delivery app.
She knew she needed to keep costs down, her job was…. Still satisfying in its own right, but with the way things were going it seemed like she was already on her way out anyway, so she filtered out the more expensive options first, nothing from a named brand, and certainly nowhere further than 5 kilometres. It needed to be warm and filling too, none of that western poseur crap, which cut out one of the only two restaurants in the apartment complex, the only one she liked at that. And well, it’d have to be something she could eat without a plate or spoon and fork of her own because she wasn’t even sure where she’d even begin cleaning those up by now.
So in summary, she wanted a warm and filling meal that could completely satisfy her hunger in one go, from a indonesian restaurant that’s cheap enough that she wouldn’t feel guilty for splurging, but expensive enough to provide its own spoon and fork as a default, and it needed to be within 4 kilometers of her apartment with an at least 4.5 star review, and it all had to be here right now or she would starve to death. In short, she spent an hour scrolling and frowning at delivery prices whenever it breached the single dollar range.
It took a little while for Jeanne to realize something, it was 6 PM already, and that meant something, although she had trouble remembering what it was exactly outside of a vague sense of dinner time. It wasn’t until she popped open her messenger app, and sent the latest in a long stream of unread messages to Widya (a simple, “Can’t decide what to order lol” that made her smile for a brief moment) that her eyes glanced over her silent best friend’s profile picture for long enough to cause something to click into place in her mind. The party, Helena’s party started at 6 PM.
The thought made her blink a little, parties meant people, more importantly it meant talking with or more accurately being talked at by people, which sounded exhausting to say the least, also she certainly didn’t look, smell, or dress like anyone you’d want to see in a party in the first place, and she didn’t want to hear whatever god awful music people think is popular now either.
But parties also meant free food and drinks, just waiting for her an elevator trip away (which was also free), and hell, the whole thing sounded like it’d be a bust anyway, only extra social weirdos or old folk like Vera (no offense) would ever want to attend something as weird as a stranger’s week late housewarming party. So chances are high that she could just show up, stick to Vera like white on rice to ward off the four or five (max) other people that bothered to attend, and slip away as soon as she’s picked her second plate clean with none the wiser.
It was a foolproof plan! One that made her take her first shower in days, and pick out something resembling an outfit out of the unorganised mass of black and gray clothes that was her closet, before she put on something resembling a smile and stepped out into the brightly lit hall, and hurriedly locked up behind her just to keep herself from changing her mind at the last moment. She still cut it a little close at the end, but thankfully it didn’t take too long for the elevator to arrive after she repeatedly mashed the button, and the best part? There was no one else inside to ask if she was doing okay.