Getting Lost

[elpis_dot_com]

Hope didn't go straight home from the mess she'd made. She'd gone to New York, yes, but didn't even make it to the door of the apartment building before she found herself walking elsewhere around the Lower East Side. Snow lined the sidewalks and the roofs of cars, and she shoved her hands into her pockets to escape the cold that just wouldn't leave her. It was as though no distance had passed under her feet, but somehow, she ended up going all the way to Harlem and most of the way back without even knowing it. Self-disgust and regret gnawed at her, and it seemed as though there was nothing that could compel her to go back to that building. She circled the block at least six times when she finally got back to her neighborhood - their neighborhood, and at some point, enough time had passed where even St. Mark's Place seemed desolate.

Finally, finally, she couldn't avoid it any longer, she couldn't escape it any longer, and she went into the building. Her steps up to the apartment were silent, and the sound of her key turning in the lock seemed thunderous. She didn't know what she would find there, and hardly knew what to expect. So she took a deep breath, opened the door, and went inside.