EIGHTY-SIX.

I step off the train and onto the platform, walking down three flights of stairs with my earbuds in my ears and my favourite Jam 🎵 Vida Loca by Black Eyed Peas🎵 blasting in my ears.

It's the only song that I can lose myself in. I think it's the line 'It's my life, bitch' that gets my blood pumping and my feet moving.

A distraction from the real world and my dilemmas

It takes me less than twenty minutes to make it to my neighbourhood.

I turn the volume down on my phone because the elderly women who sit on the side streets, playing cards, always shake their heads in displeasure with my taste in music.

I get to Jax's house, I look up into the top window where his room is, out of habit.

It takes me back to our high school years when he would sneak out of his window, climb down their rose garden vines and come sneak through mine.

He was another neighbourhood friend who had a huge crush on Rose as we grew older.

For the majority of the time, I felt as though I was living in her shad