The Young Woman Named Thirteen

At the corner of 400 st. and Orchard rd. in West Prylyn, a rundown, fifteen-story apartment-building stands. In that building is a practically one-room apartment with a perfect view of Winter Lake and the surrounding town with the same name. The apartment has running water and electric heating and was for a steal of $275 a month. Walking in, there’s a double-bed with a dented mattress and a small kitchen to the side of it about three feet away. On that bed, my car-keys and cell phone, as well as various receipts for my last shopping visit that were likely dumped out of my purse lay scattered across. My laptop is resting on my pillow amongst the mess.

I sit on my red recliner that sits next to my bed and think, watching the latest episode of whatever mind-numbing cartoon it was, I don’t quite remember all the details. The digital clock that lies on the nightstand reads five fifty-three and the fall sun is setting in the most beautiful way I’ve seen in awhile.

Three knocks on the door catch my attention and I get up to look outside the door. I run my hand through my greasy, blond hair and yawn, grabbing the knob and turning it slowly.

“Yes?” I ask. Outside my door is my neighbor and best friend, “Felix, why didn’t you call me first?”

“No time for that, my darling!” she shouted in a walked into my apartment without a second thought, “Now greet your best friend, Aries.”

“You know, you could call me “Thirteen” like everyone else does?” I told her, I didn’t mind my nickname after all, it fit me well. I live in apartment 1313 on the thirteenth floor and I’m known for my horrifically horrible luck.

“That’s not your name, though! Your name is Aries Elaine Mathis!” Felix shouted in excitement.

“Do you want me to call you Feliciana from now on then?” I smirked evilly.

“Nooo! That’s completely different!” she shouted, her long brown hair shaking with her head motions.

“How is it different?” I asked.

“Because I like being called Felix, but I know for a fact you hate the thirteen nickname!” She said, attempting to attack me with a hug, but instead slipping to the ground, “Ow!!!!”

I bent down next to her and asked in a gentle voice, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay!,” she told me, trying to move, she whimpered and it reminded me of a sweet, angelic puppy. Essentially, that is what Felix is, a friendly little woman with boundless amounts of energy and an innocence that you don’t see often in humans.

“Here Felix, let me help you up,” I said, extending my hand and grabbing hers gently. She smiles up at me, taking it and helping herself up.

“There it is, your beautiful smile, Aries!”

I blush a bit and look away, “Shut up, I’m not cute.”

She smirks, “I didn’t say you were, I said you were beautiful.”

This is my life This is how my evenings went, each and every one spent with my best friend, Feliciana. When I first moved here six years ago as a young girl, she was the first to welcome me here. She was fourteen and I was seventeen, both of us running away from our past lives. And there, that solemn afternoon we found each other.

She helped me take care of my son at our own small, two room apartment. This one was far more costly, uptown in the east where most of the richer households of Prylyn lived. It was far nicer than my current place, but I couldn’t keep it for long. As I was indebted to the Marshella family after they lent me the money to run away from the devil I called my ex-boyfriend with the son he and I had. He was an abusive man, to me and to Blazie. The Belrose family, specifically Eli, lent me the money to get away, but not without me paying back with time. Since then, it has been five years, and I have yet to pay them back. I don’t really have the money to pay them back all together right now, but I am a woman who is true to her word, so I’ll get to it as soon as I can!