Idle mail-men bring us to our knees. {crysta}

The weather was cold, even for the middle of February. And Lena had been huddled up in her thickest jumper in front of a broken electric heater, listening to the hale as it hit her kitchen window. She heard the rushed rustle of the mailman putting her post through the letterbox. Poor guy, she though, extracting herself from bbeneath blankets and rubbing her chilled hands together as she waddled over to the door like a penguin. As great as grey suit had been at setting things up for her, the gas company hadn't been quite as smooth about turning things on. She flicked through her mail absently, barely noticing what was bills and what was junk until something caught her eye: the wrong address.

Lena groaned stomping over to the door and slipping her shoes on. No point in bothering with her coat when it wouldn't get over her jumper, she stepped outside into the blistering cold and pulled the door closed until it clicked. Clutching the misdelivered letters to her chest she walked afew steps beforee she realised. Her door key was in her coat pocket. Lena ran back to the door, but it was already locked behind her.

She quietly berated herself as she walked over to her neighbours door, turning her body to shield herself from the harsh wind as much as she could. She had been intending to post them through the letterbox but given her current situation, it seemed more sensible to knock.
Rat-a-tat-tat her bare knuckles sounded on the woods door, echoed by hale stones all around her.

Crysta was lying on her sofa, eyes closed and willing herself to go to sleep again. But, it just didn't seem to be working and a headache was clearly on its way. She spent most of her evenings this way, due to the lack of a bed that wasn't just a mattress on the floor with springs poking out, the sofa was more comfortable anyway. And now it was morning, and she just didn't want to wake up.

Crysta ran a hand through her mess of hair, before deciding that she should just catch a shower and freshen herself up. So when she made her way to the small bathroom and stripped herself down after starting said shower, she wasn't expecting the water to be freezing. "What the fuck!?" She shrieked, stumbling out of it and going to grab for a towel. The gas company must be screwing us over again. She thought as she bitterly wrapped the towel around herself. But she got stopped short when there was a faint knocking sound coming from her front door. It was unusual for anyone to actually knock on her door, even salesman decided to stop bothering years ago unless they wanted a door to be slammed into their face. So she waddled over to the door, wrapped in a towel and slowly undone a few of the locks on it, leaving the chain just so nobody could barge in if it was an asshole. Crysta opened the door, hiding her body behind it as cold air came flooding in. "C-can I help you?" She shivered, looking at a young girl that was mere inches shorter than herself.

"Hi" Lena bellowed over the sound of halestones with an apologetic smile. "Listen, the mailman gave me a bunch of your stuff, and I was gonna just post it through the letterbox but like an absolute NUMPTY I left my key at home, and its fucking freezing out here so , and im really sorry to intrude and all that, but could I come in and ring a locksmith?" She rambled on, trying to keep her voice above the decibels of the weather around her. Her teeth chattered and she stomped her feet to try and keep warm as she awaited the raven haired girls answer, giving her her most pleading puppy dog eyes.

Crysta let out an exasperated sigh, this girl was her neighbor and she seemed really sweet, so Crysta's eye almost twitched at seeing her teeth chatter and getting the 'puppy dog look'. "I-uh... Okay, but bare in mind I've literally just gotten out of the shower -which was so fucking cold because the gas company is screwing everyone over again- so I'm kinda standing here in a towel." She mumbled, before closing the door and undoing the chain. Crysta hoped this girl would not touch her, besides at the moment it would be kind of weird considering she was standing in a towel. She opened the door again, pointing her thumb behind her and saying "The land-line is over there, and you can leave the letters here." Referring to the quite large amount of letters already on the small table by the door. She let the girl in, stepping as far to the side from her as possible to avoid physical contact. She rubbed her neck, closing the door after the girl and wandering off towards a dresser to grab some clothes, and walking to the bathroom, mumbling "I'm gonna get dressed."

Lena shuffled in rubbing her arms "Thanks, I'm sorry to intrude" she muttered, wondering if it was the entire building that was getting the cold shoulder from the gas company, or just them.  Lena averted her eyes to give the girl some privacy, focusing instead on the dimly lit room in front of her. The layout was the same open plan as her own apartment, elbeit inverted. She delicately placed the mail on top of a large pile that seemed untouched except to add more, and mumbled an "okay" as the girl retreated to the bathroom to get dressed. Her eyes fell upon the general dissaray of the room, the piled up newspapers, the ratty curtains and dim lighting from terrible energy saver bulbs. "Does this happen often?" Lena called out, referring to the gas being off, and wondering if her neighbor had a kettle.

She made her way over to the phone and started searching the surrounding area for a local phone book. She eventually found it, after rifling through a pile of magazines that had been abandoned. "Im Lena, by the way." She offered, flipping through the pages until she reached 'L'. "I only moved in a few days ago, and your the first person in the building I've met." she chuckled to herself "Shame about the circumstances really."

Crysta got dressed into some jeans that were quite a bit too small for her now, and a vest top with the back cut further down, to not agitate her wings. I really need to go clothes shopping soon. She thought, remembering the last time that she went shopping was at least a couple years ago and she'd caused a rather unfortunate series of deaths that day. She sighed, hating the memory.
"Sometimes!  The gas company choose the worst and coldest of days though!" Crysta yelled through the door, running her hands through her hair.

Crysta opened the door again to see the girl flipping through pages of the phone book, and watched her for a minute as she mentioned her moving and the circumstances. "Well, Lena, I'm Crysta." she breathed, leaning against the wall, and taking notice of how Lena seemed to be bundled up completely. "Lemme guess, your heating not working too,  then?" Crysta chuckled, putting her hands on her hips.

"Nice to meet you." Lena said, giving Crysta a sideways smile as she ran down the listing with her finger. "If it was, I probably wouldn't need this massive thing on" she said, gesturing to the jumper with her elbow, never taking her finger off the page. Finding a locksmith just a few blocks away, she held the spot with her finger and rested the massive tome on the table beside the phone.

"Thanks for this." She said, picking the phone up and leaning over the book to make sure she could she the number as she dialed it in. The phone clicked after the third ring as the person on the other end picked up. "Oh! Hi, my name is Lena Thumbe and I've locked myself out of my apartment, do you think you could come and get me in?" She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she listened to the reply "Uh, yeah I get your busy but I'm just around the corner I literally left my keys inside...uhhuhh.... Yeah the Block. 5th floor, number 17." She bit her lip, hand spare hand twiddling with the hem of her oversized jumper. "Are you sure you couldnt do it before then? I'm kind of imposing on my neghbour... Yeah.. Yeah ok, thank you, see you then." 

Lena pouted as she hung up the phone. "Guy says he's gonna be at least 5 hours." She said, giving Crysta an apologetic look.

"No problem." Crysta mumbled, finding her hands very interesting as Lena talked on the phone. However, she chuckled when Lena had said she was imposing, sure she was but it was simply amusing how easily Crysta had let this girl into her house. 
Looking up at the girl when she had finished the call, Crysta noticed the pout on the girls face. This has to be good. Crysta's face visibly dropped when the girl said how long it would take. "F-five hours? What the hell!? The guy is literally round the corner!" Crysta yelled, getting rather annoyed. Maybe she was overreacting? But this girl, Lena, was so sweet and although she couldn't assume anything would happen, being in the same proximity could be dangerous enough.

Calming herself down, Crysta let out a deep breath. "Okay, that's fine. Do you want a drink? Maybe a hot chocolate seeing as you are that cold." she gestured to the jumper that Lena was wearing.

Lena fiddled with her fingers, her shoulders lifting slightly in a slightly nervous way. "I'm really sorry, Crysta!" She said, hoping she wasn't being too much trouble "I know most neighbors would just introduce themselves with Jell-o or cookies, and I introduced myself with a problem..." she trailed off, looking down at the floor and wondering if she would make a good first impression on anyone in this town. 

"A hot-coacoa would be lovely." Lena offered brightly, grateful for the hospitality, as she slid into one of the stools at the kitchen counter.

Crysta hummed slightly, making her way to the kitchen area and climbing on top of the counter to reach the top shelf where she kept the powder. "It's no problem, well it's a little bit of a problem, but I suppose I can live with it." She smiled, turning her head to see the girl. "Also, I wouldn't recommend going to your neighbors houses with cookies or other stuff, there not the most civil of people here." she scoffed, jumping down from the counter top then going into a bottom cupboard to get out 2 mugs. She was quick to put in a spoonful of Cocoa powder in each mug then filling it up with milk and microwaving each mug for about a minute then stirring. It took less than 5 minutes before the mugs of hot cocoa were done, and it was set in front of Lena with a surprise marshmallow floating in the center.

Lena took the coacoa gratefully and giggled. "Not the greatest place for community huh?" She asked, remembering how everytime her floor creaked past 6pm the downstairs neighbours would bang on their ceiling. Holding the sides of the mug to warm her frozen hands she took a deep breath, smelling the rich scent of chocolate.  Crysta seemed sweet and the marshmallow had been a nice touch too.  

"So, have you lived here long?" She asked, her tiptoes resting on one of the rungs on the stool, her heels clicking together happily. "I'd invite you over to my place sometime," She said playfully "but it would seem I am key-challenged."

Crysta brought the mug up to her lips and took a sip as Lena stated what Crysta thought was obvious, then wandered back to sit on the counter she was earlier standing on.
"Couple years, I guess, moved in when I turned 16. And was lucky enough the previous tenants had left stuff." She mumbled, referring to things like the stools at the counter and also the sofa, though Crysta seemed a bit put off by it at first wondering why it had just been left.
Crysta chuckled at the girls playful words, putting the mug of cocoa up to her mouth and sipping it yet again.

"Left stuff?" Lena asked quizzically, her eyes scanning the room, taking in the battered and scarce furniture. Turning back to her coacoa she took a sip, warm chocolatey goodness flooding over her tastebuds and into her stomach, making her tingly warm right down to her tippy toes. "So what do you do for a living? I was thinking of getting a job but I wouldn't really know where to look." Lena chuckled, still very apologetic about the whole here for five hours thing. 

She searched her brain for a subject to talk about, and realized she was incredibly boring.

Crysta chuckled slightly at herself, she had gotten so happy when there was at least some stuff that was left. "Yeah, these stools were left, and some other stuff." Crysta mumbled, rubbing her mug softly. 
Crysta raised an eyebrow at the girls question, deciding this girl was definitely inquisitive, but maybe it was the fact that she was going to be there for 5 hours so she wanted to get to know her neighbors. It seemed odd that a girl so sweet had ended up at the Block, where people were either assholes or secluded to themselves.
"Well, I worked at home, managing an old business of my... friend's, until it went downhill a couple months back." Crysta said, referring to Riley's old business that she had taken over even in grief. Crysta still had funds available to her, she never really spent much of the money earned from that business so even when it was gone she could still find a way to survive. "If you're looking for a job, just don't go into the bad part of town looking for one." Crysta laughed, feeling some sort of obligation as an older person to not let this girl get dragged into prostitution or stripping that easily. Jobs like those were generally for people on their last legs.

Lena wiggled her butt slightly on the stool, trying to find some sort of flaw with them. "Well, more fool them and more luck for you." she piped up brightly, "because they are incredibly comfy!" She gulped down the rest of her coacoa while it was still drinkably warm, leaving an unnoticed chocolate mustache on her top lip. "That's pretty cool, except the dip in business, that sucks." Lena babbled. "Think you'll be able to pull it around?"

Lena blinked in surprise at Crysta and let out a giggle. "I don't even know where the bad parts of town are!" She exclaimed her giggle almost turning into a full blown guffaw.

Crysta smiled sweetly, shaking her head at the girls giggling. It was obvious this girl hadn't been in this city long at this point, either that or she had the luxury of never facing the majority of the downtown area, until of course she'd moved to the block. How old even was this girl? She seemed a bit young to live on her own, of course Crysta wasn't one to talk seeing as she had been on her own since 14 after Riley died and moved to the block at 16, but surely a girl raised as sweet as this was raised with family as well. So, what happened?

Crysta put her mug of cocoa beside her on the side, swinging her legs back and forth slightly and leaning back against her hands. "How old are you, Lena?" she asked, tilting her head and looking at the girl curiously. "You seem a bit young to live on your own." She chuckled, seeing herself as a hypocrite.