Pristine's Problem | ONC 2024

"And that's exactly how I am going to ask Andrei out!" Pristine plodded through the damped lane, clutching Arabella's sleeves to immobility.

"Okay, silly!" Arabella used her open hand to wrap it around the brunette's neck, supporting her frail body. Stumbling through sombre alley, she regretted drinking late for the nth time.

Pristine sought to count the infinite stars that lay before her sterling grey eyes. Connecting the crystal pearls sluggishly, she formed the
ravishing image of Andrei Lawson.

He is definitely more debonair than this constellation, she thought to herself.

"I am in love, Ara! In love!" Pristine clenched impatiently, kindling Arabella to squeal in pain.

"Get a hold of yourself, Pristine!" Arabella berated, releasing her arm to ventilate the burning pain,"I won't be always with you when you are drunk!"

Pristine swirled in the murky alley as if she was casted for the female lead, paying nought heed to her flaring friend. She wasn't drunk in brandy, but in a handsome Andrei.

Arabella attempted to bang her friend's skull as a method to bring back the lost senses, failing pathetically upon being halted by a phone call.

"What's up, Adrius?" she responded anxiously to her brother.

Another mission, Pristine's saturated brain told her.

"Okay! Will be there! Don't you dare touch the system!" Arabella ended the call with an apprise.

"Work, Pristine," she informed impulsively, "I am leaving to the headquarters. Will you manage?"

"I will carefully make my way home, sire!" Pristine winked in whiskey, tiptoeing to reach Arabella's remarkable height and saluted her exhausted comrade. Arabella couldn't help but chuckle at her bestie's frivolity. She was surely harder to handle than a whining Abigail.

"Reach home safely, and don't forget to ping me!" Arabella waved in blasé and vanished through the cryptic murkiness.

Pristine resumed to hop through the handsomely paved footpath in glee, as if she owned the entirety of Caperwood's happiness. Every step she took reminded her of every moment she gazed at Andrei's delectable face from afar. Sometimes in the college canteen, sometimes through the crystal panels of the cosy Bean and Bagels and sometimes, right through her window, when Andrei would drop by her neighbour's house to visit his inseparable friend, Alan.

Pristine had blurred visions of deliberately standing before the open satin blinds, attempting to tie her already done hair, just to hear his husky, handsome voice through the sturdy walls and fresh block of air, that obstructed their proximity, all with a tinge of the newly tasted gin, that added to her drunken delirium.

The dusk of tonight meant the dawn of a new beginning to Pristine. A chance to pursue the wildest dreams of her frenzy imaginations. A dance with Andrei at the Caperwood Gala would be the best opportunity to allure her man and profess her fervent love.

Pristine weaved dreamy illusions across the glum street, until her leg stumbled upon a gritty rock. As her torso bent forward, aiming at the sturdy path and reflexing to cause an excruciating pain, she was luckily saved by a piteously withered hand, that stretched across her waist to balance her weight.

Pristine gripped the wrinkled hand tighter and used the assistance to stand upright. In front of her was the woman who saved her, a grandmotherly figure dressed in a scarlet flowing gown, painted with crooked lines on her soft, pale face, carrying a gentle beamy smile.

"Thank you, Ma'am!" Pristine answered as her cheeks hued in pink, launching tiny freckles that appeared like red hills on a pale, white sea. She felt embarassed to appear in front of the lady like an inebriated drunkard. Standing straight with her hands clasped, she tried to appear apologetic, and awaited the regular question that she was supposed to receive in such a circumstance, "Are you drunk?"