{"id":5628,"date":"2025-05-15T21:04:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/?p=5628"},"modified":"2025-05-15T21:04:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:04:33","slug":"34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/2025\/05\/34\/","title":{"rendered":"3:4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author:<\/strong> Gaia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Content Warning: Strong language, Emotional distress, Abusive relationships, Implied death]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sends me a text.
*i fucked up pls come over*
My neighbour.
I exit my apartment and knock on her door. She opens right away.
We look at each other. Tears start flooding her eyes. I enter and close the door behind me.
\u2018Bitch you better be joking.\u2019
\u2018Can you help me?\u2019
\u2018Can\u2019t do miracles!\u2019
She starts sobbing. She grabs her cigarettes.
\u2018Why would you do that?\u2019 I point at her.
\u2018I don\u2019t know!\u2019
She puts a cigarette between her lips and lights it.
Her hands tremble in the smoke.
\u2018Sit down, get your shit together. I got you.\u2019
She does as is told.\u00a0
\u2018It\u2019s my fault.\u2019
\u2018Yes, indeed.\u2019
She hides her face in her hands. I hand her a glass of water so she stops tormenting her hair.
\u2018Look, I don\u2019t give a fuck. Right? But there\u2019s only one thing to do.\u2019
\u2018No.\u2019
She gets up and runs into the other room.
This is going to be hard.
I follow her.
She\u2019s sitting on the couch, a cigarette in one hand, the glass in the other.
\u2018I can\u2019t.\u2019
\u2018You will.\u2019
\u2018No.\u2019
\u2018Well, then I will. For you.\u2019
She doesn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I moved here, she left a note on my door.
*hi i\u2019m your new neighbor, this is my number, call me whenever, can\u2019t wait to get to know you! xoxo*.
We instantly became friends. She\u2019s alright. She\u2019s like me but younger. A bit taller. Different eye colors.
Once, we were lying on her couch, smoking cigarettes in the dark so that mosquitos couldn\u2019t come inside. She told me a secret.
\u2018My ex-boyfriend once told me to shut the fuck up in the middle of a bad argument. Girl, they had to call the police. I broke every piece of motherfucking furniture in his house.\u2019
\u2018Really?\u2019
\u2018Hm-hm.\u2019
\u2018You was that angry?\u2019
\u2018Yes, but also, I think I wanted to tell him, like, it\u2019s either talking or this. There is no way out, you know?\u2019
\u2018Yeah.\u2019
\u2018I don\u2019t know why I don\u2019t like to talk about that.\u2019
\u2018People wouldn\u2019t understand.\u2019
\u2018Yeah. But it\u2019s pretty logic, right? I mean what should have I done? Shut the fuck up?\u2019
\u2018Yeah.\u2019
\u2018Yeah.\u2019
\u2018I think you are amazing.\u2019

And now, look at her. This bitch is not okay.\u00a0
\u2018Talk to me.\u2019
She looks at me in despair. She looks helpless, small, fragile.
\u2018What are you thinking of?\u2019
She puts the glass on the ground and lets the cigarette fall into the water.
She takes my hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I am afraid that I am not good enough. But, still, I don\u2019t think I deserve this. I am afraid\u2026\u2019
She starts sobbing again.\u00a0
\u2018Look, I don\u2019t know what to do, this is too much, I can\u2019t\u2026 I can\u2019t handle it anymore. I\u2019m tired. You know what? I\u2019m tired.\u2019
Her face is wet, tears, mucus.
I grab the sleeve of my sweater and I gently clean it.
\u2018You know you can do anything, right?\u2019
She doesn\u2019t answer.
\u2018Remember who you are. Make a choice. Follow it.\u2019
She stops sobbing.
\u2018You already made a choice. Right?\u2019
She nods.
\u2018Good. Let\u2019s go.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told her a secret, too.
It was outside, in the field, at night, under the Stars.
\u2018So, one night, just before the sunrise, I was walking home alone after a party, right? I was still a bit drunk and I was so tired, oh my god, so tired. So I stopped to catch my breath. I look at the sky in front of me. And guess what?\u2019
\u2018What?\u2019
\u2018You would never guess.\u2019
\u2018What?!\u2019
I turn towards her.
\u2018A meteor shower.\u2019
\u2018No way!\u2019
\u2018Girl.\u2019
\u2018How was it?\u2019
\u2018Beautiful, amazing.\u2019
\u2018Yes, but like,\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0was it?\u2019
I stopped to think about it a bit.
\u2018It was\u2026 It was shiny and broken, and all the pieces were drifting away but still, it was its own thing, going somewhere. And then it disappeared, like a caress.\u2019
\u2018Wow.\u2019
\u2018Yeah.\u2019
\u2018Why is this a secret?\u2019
\u2018I don\u2019t know. There was nobody there. I turned around to see if there was somebody. But I was alone. It was just me.\u2019
\u2018Oh. I see.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have always understood each other, since the beginning, you know? And now too, I understand her.\u00a0
So I begin.
I start it for her. Just to help her a little.\u00a0
But then I let her finish. She has to do it anyway. There would be no point otherwise.\u00a0
So she does it, and then it\u2019s over.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And from now on,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nothing will ever be the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Gaia [Content Warning: Strong language, Emotional distress, Abusive relationships, Implied death] She sends me a text.*i fucked up pls come over*My neighbour.I exit my apartment and knock on her door. She opens right away.We look at each other. Tears start flooding her eyes. I enter and close the door behind me.\u2018Bitch you better be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[37],"class_list":{"0":"post-5628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-2025-spring","7":"tag-prose"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5628"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5630,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5628\/revisions\/5630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}