**Updates on MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and FRIDAYS**

“W-w-w-why are you buying such things anyway? Y-you clearly don’t have anyone to use it on!” Aria shoved the pack of Trojan Ultra Ribbed in the stunned man’s face, along with the small paper bag that read, “SUSTAINABLE - Protect Our Planet!” which had recently replaced all the plastic bags Grab ’n Go Mart stocked behind the counter. “T-take your change and go!”

In her head she chanted to herself, go away go away go away go away, not daring to look up, and as soon as she realized what had just come out of her mouth she regretted it, so she amended weakly,

“Go… have a great day at home, dear customer,” forcing her face into her best attempt at a charming smile, but without looking up it turned into more of a crooked, wicked-looking grin. 

Thankfully, Leo stepped in and exclaimed, “Next customer, please!” and Aria took the opportunity to scurry away from the counter. She kept her head low and let her bangs fall over her eyes, braids swinging as she pored over the milk in the back corner. Move the milk in the back to the front, and the next row… milk from the back to the front… ah, there, that was better. No one making eyes at her. No one asking her strange questions. No one talking to her except Clover milk, wishing her the Dairy Best. A blissful moment of peace.

It didn’t last long.

Not fifteen minutes later, she sat across from the store manager in the cramped employee area in the back of Grab n’ Go Mart, Aria fidgeting. He was sitting on a worn chair, but she sat on a stool because they didn’t have enough chairs in the back, which only made fidgeting all that much harder.

“Aria,” he sighed. “I heard what happened from Leo.”

“I’m- I’m very sorry!” Aria blurt out. “Please don’t fire me!”

“Aria—” 

“I know I messed up, but I, I—”

“Aria, listen—”

“I REALLY NEED MONEY!”

The two stared at one another for a while, and Aria felt the heat creeping up her neck. Should I explain? she thought. But I don’t really want to.

“Aria,” said the manager.

“Yessir!” said Aria, jumping to attention.

“I was going to say—I know it’s not your fault. I heard from Leo that the man was harassing you during his purchase. But, next time...”

“Yes,” said Aria.

“Can you try not to be so extreme?”

“Yessir!” said Aria, so emphatically that she nearly fell off her stool. “And, um, by the way, sir, thank you so, so, so much for letting me keep my job.”

“…”

***

On the way home she took a detour after getting off the subway, slipping into the old path behind the red-brick cafe towards the abandoned bridge covered in vines. She called it the Bridge of Dead Dreams because the bridge used to run atop a river, but the water had all dried up and now you could walk underneath on dried grass and weeds without so much as getting a single toe wet. Aria liked to slip under the bridge where no one could see her, and, after looking around to make sure no one was above, pretend that the yawning cavern of wilderness that stretched out beyond the bridge was the domain of the Evil Woodland Emperor, out to get her. Aria took a deep breath, and yelled into the abscess,

“Not today! You can’t take me today, because I still hate life more than you!!”

After yelling she let out a deep sigh of relief, and turned to look for her favorite stray cat, whom she named Mr. Pumpkin because he was fat and orange. But the very ground shifted under her and she let out a little yelp, upon which the ground growled.

Growled?

And wait, what she had taken to be weeds and old vines underfoot felt… firm, yet with a little give, almost like… it was alive.

Slowly, very slowly, Aria looked down, and saw a pair of dark eyes glaring at her from beneath the dry leaves.

“EEEEEEYAUGH!!”

She screamed and the creature snarled, shifting underneath her so that Aria lost her footing and fall back on her butt into the pile of leaves with a loud THUMP! The beast was still before her, and she flinched, throwing her arms in front of her and muttering as quickly as she could under her breath, “P-please spare me Woodland Emperor, I was just kidding earlier, I didn’t mean any of it, my dreams already died after Professor Larkin’s lecture, just take them and spare me please, I’m not ready for this, I’m not cut out for reincarnation, I don’t want to go back in time, please—”

Growwwllll…

This was a different kind of growl, the kind that came from one’s stomach. Gingerly, Aria peeked out from between her fingers, and her eyes met the lean, firm contours of a chest, the remnants of what once might have been a college hoodie clinging to it. Her gaze traveled upwards, across the Adam’s apple, over sun-kissed skin smeared with dirt and grime, to a scraggly mess of hair. She realized she was looking at a boy not much older than herself. Despite his slender build, there was a hint of fitness about him, but he looked like he'd taken a dip in the sewer not once but three times, and crawled through a broken air vent after.

“A-are… you okay?” she asked, scooching slowly further away from him. 

Her stared at her blankly.

“I-I’m going to assume that you’re okay then…?” Aria stood up slowly, trying her best not to let her sneakers crunch on the leaves as she backed away. Homeless often stopped by Grab ’n Go Mart in the late midnight hours, and there was nothing more dreaded by all employees than the “bathrooms are for customers only” conversation. As a result, she tried to talk to any folks she met on the street as little as possible. Not that she wasn’t already doing that anyway, to everyone. 

But also, those were weathered middle-aged men with unfocused eyes, not a youth in tattered rags.

Growwwllll…

“You… are you hungry?” She blurted out the words before she could help herself, and she winced. Of course he was hungry. Why wouldn’t he be? Did he look like a respectable college girl with a part-time job who could afford three meals a day? “I mean, um—” How could she fix this? “I—I brought some food for Mr. Pumpkin, if you would like some!”

Her conscience, her moral compass, and her intuition all collectively shook their heads and sighed. Did you really just ask a homeless boy if he wants cat food? they asked her. Shame on you!

“Yes,” said the boy.

Aria jumped.

“Y-you can speak!” Oops.

“Yes,” said the boy.

“You—er, I—sorry,” she stammered. “I, uh, I forgot to mention, Mr. Pumpkin is a cat. So, uh, do you eat cat food? Never mind, that came out wrong. What I’m trying to say is, please forget what I just said—”

“Yes,” said the boy.

Aria stared. “You eat cat food?”

He cocked his head and looked at her, squatting nonchalantly on the bed of leaves. For a moment she was tempted to give the can to him, and then shook the thought from her head.

“Look, um, there must have been some mistake,” said Aria. “Is yes the only thing you know how to say?”

“No,” said the boy.

Aria felt the flush creeping up her cheeks, coloring her freckles. 

“Okay! Very well!” she declared. “I-I’m gong to go now, so have… have a good rest of your day!” She turned, a little too quickly, and whipped herself in the face with her braids. Cursing to herself, she clambered out of the dry area below the bridge and back around the red-brick cafe, clutching her purse and speed-walking home.

It took about three blocks before she noticed the passersby staring and pointing, and realized that the boy was trailing about six feet behind her. She sped up her pace; a minute later, she peeked back and he was still there. She slowed down; he stopped moving. She sped up; he trailed behind her.

No problem, thought Aria. Surely he couldn’t follow me to my very safe and nondescript apartment building, with metal gates outside, four cramped and narrow flights of stairs to a run-down hallway door, and then three more doors inside that all look the same as mine.

She was right. After she locked the metal gates behind her, climbed up the four flights of stairs, entered the hallway, slipped into her own room, and peeked out the window, she saw the boy sitting just in front of the metal gates, arms huddled around his knees. People walked around him on the sidewalk as they passed, a few furrowing their brows or wrinkling their noses. A woman holding a key stood further back with a troubled look on her face, as though she weren’t sure whether she could approach. Just as she began to dial something on her phone, Aria burst out of the gates, bangs stuck with sweat to her forehead.

“Come in!” she hissed, a little out of breath. 

The boy looked up at her, startled.

“Come in, I said! If it’s food you want, you can have some! D-don’t stand out here and block the neighbors!”

The boy’s eyes lit up.

“Food?” he said.