LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT (English)

Prolog

Max was torn from sleep by the shrieking sound of a car horn. She hadn't slept in 3 days and the effects were slowly staring to show. Her eyes were burning from sleep deprivation and she felt the caffeine of countless cups of coffee rushing through her veins. She looked up and saw the bus driver ranting about traffic. It seemed like they were approaching the urban traffic of San Francisco.

With a sigh, Max tilted her head against the glass and looked outside through the dusty panels of the bus window. She wasn't sure how happy she was exactly to see her goal slowly appearing at the horizon. Another city, another fresh start. She had almost lost hope of ever being able to stay anywhere for longer than a few weeks, but this time she was determined to try and make it. Maybe enough time had passed for her to finally settle down and leave it all behind. After all, it had always been her dream to live in San Francisco for a while. She should try to enjoy that she finally got the chance to do so. At the same time, she wondered whether it was a good idea to stay anywhere for a longer period of time. On the other hand, nobody knew she was here. Neither did she have a CtOS profile, nor did she even stay in the country officially – if she still did anywhere on this world at all.

She didn't know whether it was the right thing to run from all the problems or not, but at this point she didn't even think about it anymore. But still, even if her future was uncertain, with every doubt she became more and more aware that somewhere, she had to try. She just couldn't live on the way she did the last few years. At least she had to try to leave everything behind and welcome more positive times. In a weird way, she already was a bit proud, she had managed to survive the last few years. This time she even saved enough money to move here and if she was lucky, she would finally have the chance to start over. Hopefully for real this time. If she was lucky, everything should get better soon - or maybe it already was? Maybe it already began when she found a room to stay, which was already difficult enough itself in a city like San Francisco. She was even lucky enough to get it without having to prove a job or her real name. At least, she didn't need to worry about being tracked that way. Seemed like all her travels were good for something after all. Among all the people she met the past years and she happened to stumble upon someone who could easily help her acquire a room over here while staying completely unnoticed by the authorities. But although she had met lots of different people, she didn't know a single person in this city. Maybe it was for the best, so nothing could get in her way of completely starting over. Anyway, as soon as she arrived at her new place, she would probably sleep for a whole week.

Her bus stopped at a traffic light, they should arrive any time now. Max could not wait to finally be able to sleep. She pulled out her new phone to glance at her mails. The last days she had sent tons of applications to any part-time job she could find and was waiting impatiently for an answer. Although her savings were enough to make it the first weeks, she needed a job as soon as possible, even if the search for one was terrible. Most employers didn't even bother to send a rejection, but this time she actually had a new message with kind of good news. It seemed like she had some luck after all. The mail came from a coffee shop in the same area as her apartment. They wanted her to come over to introduce herself next week. Being a waitress wasn't really the best job she could imagine and probably the last thing people would expect from her at first sight, but it was not like she had much of a choice. Although she wasn't really good with people, somehow she had to make it work if she wanted something to eat and a place to stay. However she had spent enough time worrying and tried to think of all the positive things her new life probably had to offer and she was hoping for. Maybe she had the chance to meet some cool, new people – maybe even friends she was really able to stay long enough. Most people she had met the past years certainly forgot about her by the end of the week. She could not even blame them, after all she was no different. Max really couldn't complain, there were a lot of worse places she could have moved to and except for herself, there was nobody in her way. She had done everything she could to hide all her steps and stop people from following her. She probably still worried too much. Even if someone figured out, what really happened to her, no one would likely be able to trace where and who she was now – if anyone would ever come up with the idea of checking it. Eventually, with a bit of hacking experience she had gained the last few years, she had managed to consult her file and her official status. She had been able to change it, if necessary, but everything already had been filed away and her case was closed. That was her chance to start over. The sun shone through the dust on the window and beams of sunlight stroked her face. In front of her, glittering water and the Golden Gate Bridge stretched across her path. Max closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Everything would get better now.

About two hours later, Max finally opened the door to her new apartment. She wanted nothing more than finally being able to sleep and rest. In the last few days, she had slept so little as she had never done before in her life. On the one hand, this was caused by her nervousness and on the other hand because of all the preparations and her long journey with every kind of transportation, that had somehow been available to her. She dropped her backpack in the corner next to the door and looked around. Her apartment consisted of one small and dirty room with a kitchenette, one dusty window and a small bathroom. There was no furniture so far, but as she knew herself, she probably also wouldn't change that soon. It was neither big nor special, but for Max it was perfect. It was definitely enough and far more than she had the recent years. Actually she felt a little bit safe here for the first time in a while. She pulled an inflatable mattress out of her backpack and threw it into the room. But before she went to sleep, she decided to take a short shower. She hoped to flush away all the stress and worries of the past days and just leave everything behind. After all, she had been traveling for several days without a break and felt accordingly dirty. Usually she didn't mind, but today she just wanted to wash away everything that happened before that exact day and probably the warm water had never felt so good and liberating on her skin. She felt how all the dirt and the now past period of life were finally washed away. Now it was time to move on and look forward. She turned off the water and laid down on her mattress with a thin blanked, before she fell asleep within seconds.

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Hey, thanks for reading! 🖤 I hope y'all have fun and stay with me... 😅

(Also the story is definitely getting better the next chapters, I promise! I know the beginning is a bit weak...)

I just wanted to say hi and tell you, this is the very first story I ever published and also I am no native English speaker, so please feel free to correct me with spelling or grammar, or anything else you can find (Idk, like super weird phrasing and stuff like that)!

But of course I'm also dying for feedback on the story and I'm always happy to receive comments and messages!

Also I'm originally writing this story in German (my native language) and work on this English translation from time to time, so unfortunately the updates here will take a bit longer than the German version, but I'll try my best to keep up with updates!