* Youth Worker ⚡️ taking a break to leave the Writer ✍️ read a little text she wrote *

* Youth Worker taking a break to leave the Writer read a little text she wrote, Baia Mare Youth Centre, Write It Out!, 2022 *

This is what I was reading:

Shane gets out of bed and goes straight to the kitchen to get some breakfast hoping that he'll escape from a meeting with his flatmate. He goes out on the long hallway and successfully passes by the flatmate's room and the bathroom, goes into the empty living-room, and then in the kitchen.

The kitchen was upside down (of course). Shane hasn't been there for at least two days, but... you know... now that his takeaway pizza was finished and he had no other choice...

So, the plan was kitchen, fridge, milk + cereal, and... shopping... or at least an attempt... whatever... Bonus points if he didn't have to speak a single word in this whole process.

When Shane opens the fridge door he is welcomed by a stale smell, closely followed by a rancid stench. Not something you would expect from an empty fridge... Unless...

Yep, shopping had to happen earlier than planned. Shane returns via kitchen, living, hallway with the flatmate's room and the bathroom, and he's back to his room. Clothes... red t-shirt. Too flashy. Green. No. Blue. Too cold. Green? Maybe. Shane checks the weather one more time, takes his jeans and sneakers, a tote bag and... he's done. Ish.

Shane enters the supermarket. He barely stepped in and he already feels how his mouth is getting dry and his stomach feels heavy. The neon lights seem stronger than ever, and the people... People are talking louder and louder. And the humming of the lights is stronger and stronger. However, Shane keeps moving forward among fruit and veg. The smell of ripe nectarines seems to make it all a bit more bearable. He stops for a few seconds next to them, but he leaves without buying any because those people were staring, they probably needed them more than he did.

With the smell of nectarines still lingering in his mind, Shane starts with confidence towards the fridges. The light is even worse than the neon by the entrance. Shane feels warmer and warmer and at the same time he starts shaking. He's one metre away from the milk and then all he would have to do is cross the whole store, go by the checkouts, get to the self-checkouts...

Shane feels his knees getting weaker. He could go home and order something on Deliveroo. He could. But still, he came all the way here. And still it's too worm and cold at the same time, the lights are too strong, the humming doesn't stop. Everything amplifies until Shane can only hear and see the monster whispering in his ear that he'd better go home.

Pic by my awesome cousin from America, who's not yet on social media.