Destination Rome - Damiano David

1 - The day the Universe was bored

***Warning!! Bad language and mature content***

I can't believe I've actually done what I've done, but there is no turning back now...

If someone told me this morning that my day would end at Stansted airport, waiting to board on the first plane available to "wherever", I would've thought they were nuts. But here I am, heading to the unknown...

***12 hours earlier, Somewhere in London***

07:00 AM - The alarm on my phone goes off, and I get up to another grey and stressful day.

George is still snoring his head off next to me, and will probably remain like it until lunch time.

We have been together for nearly two years now, but for the past six months our relationship has gone downhill and at this point I really don't know what I'm doing with him. I haven't known him to do a whole day's work. According to him, they still haven't offered him the right job, and he prefers to keep receiving unemployment money rather than "wasting his time working for a pittance".

At first, he used to go out and jog or go to the gym and keep in shape, but since we moved in and lived together (just three months after we first dated) his habits slowly started changing... He stopped exercising and he stopped searching for work. The fridge gradually filled up with beer, and all he did was lie all day on the sofa smoking and drinking, while he watched crappy TV shows.

All the responsibility and the important issues like keeping a roof over our heads or paying the bills were down to me to sort out.

At present we didn't even talk much, unless he had something to complain about. Actually, if I think about it, he's never really been nice to me. He constantly tries to make me feel little, he ignores me when I talk to him, and if anything goes wrong it's of course my fault.

Anyway... I get up, I shower and get ready for work. I prepare myself a quick breakfast and I go out the door to catch the bus. Once I'm on it I look out the window remembering when I was 18 and started my first day at work as a trainee. It was an office job in a travel company.

I was full of dreams and swore to myself no one would ever take my freedom away. The first weeks I must have filed hundreds of documents, and was given very basic tasks, but they soon noticed I was efficient in what I did and started assigning me more work. Until today, five years later, that I can practically run the department on my own with all the responsibility they've loaded on me. Unfortunately my wage hasn't rised in the same way, and there is always an excuse when I claim for a raise.

So here I am, not fulfilling any of my dreams and feeling like a slave at home and at work.

I arrive at the office and sit down at my desk. I open my work agenda to organize my day and I start to answer the dozens of new emails I have in my inbox.

A couple of hours later, after dealing with the urgent issues, I get called into my boss's office.

-Good morning y/n, please sit down - says Mr. Bolt. This man is my boss and he's a total prat. He's selfish, arrogant and the most superficial person I've ever met, although he's not a pretty sight himself. He's half bald and he tries to disguise it badly with a toupee two or three tones darker than his real hair, so you can clearly see it's a false piece. He's also very overweight and sweats like a pig, but I try my best to hide my disgust under a false smile and I reply while I sit down:

-Good morning Mr. Bolt. - He stares at me as if I stink.

-I've called you 'cause I'm going to give you a special task for this week, so you will probably need to do extra hours to keep up with your ordinary work -he starts saying.