Sheets of rain slapped a constant rhythm on the windows, which she had just barely managed to close before its unsignalled onslought. This is perhaps life, she muses. A little overcast one moment , before the torrents descend in a blink of an eye the next. And no, you don't get a say in the matter.

With the craziness of the world shut out, she resumed her seat on the sofa, and with legs tucked in, resumed the chapter she was pursuing.

Perhaps life wasn't so bad after all.

I am sick to the bone of this semester.

I haven't been studying as hard as I ought to have to; but then this is like the recurrent theme of the entire time here in university.

Correction: I haven't been studying as hard as the previous semesters.

I'm tired and I want it to stop now.

She said, tapping half-burnt cigarette onto the cracked ashtray in between them, exhaling the smoke slowly all the while.

"I put it into that garlic soup. Thick taste that masks the smell of everything else."

The sallow, skinny man next to her in his ill-fitting shirt gave a hacking cough and then smiled slowly. One could have sworn it was a shark smile; the kind a predator would give just before he swallowed the little minnow whole and live.

He stirred in his seat, and the checked shirt made his shoulders look even narrower than they really are. He said nothing for a moment,savoring the moment, while the poor sound system played something remotely akin to jazz music. He wondered if it was always the cliche in such a situation, the music in an even seedier bar, in the bad part of town where decent people do not walk at night. The drugged, drunk fools who tried to mug the lone street man was likely to get a knife back in return, at the same time finding himself relieved of the contents of his wallet.

"I'm sure, my dear. Pardon me for questioning your professionalism. I should have known better."

"Where is my money?"

"All in good time, all in good time. Don't you want to finish your drink?"

She dumped her yet unfinished smoke into the tray, eyes ablaze. Not the first time she had to deal with a client that refused to pay, a little threat to tip off the other party would probably work, except that this time, they might just decide to lynch her first, and then do the legwork themselves. She turned sideways to face the man head-one and gave him her best don't-bullshit-with-me look.

"Look here, mister. The job's done, fair and square. Are you trying to mess with me now?"

"I would never dare, love. But needs must when the devil drives. Surely you are all to familiar with that?"

"So what are you trying to say now?"

He finally turned to look at her face on as well, with his right hand loosely around his glass of scotch, little finger tapping against the wall. He was waiting. It wouldn't be long now. Her own glass of scotch was half-empty.

"I would of course give you what is due, but I'm afraid that you probably won't be in any state of mind to collect it. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't started drooling about 2 minutes ago. What I gave you was supposed to work quite instantaneously. Not the first time I've tried it, you must understand."

"Why you scum of....."

Her words trailed off, and the fire suddenly went out of her fierce gaze. It was almost comical; he could have sworn she was acting on cue, like what she usually does. Her posture suddenly slackened, relaxed. This was the first time he had seen her look remotely human, and the contrast from the dangerous, uptight her was almost jarring.

He said nothing more, pausing to dredge the contents of his glass. Curiously enough, the non-volatile poison was said to taste similar to scotch, although he wondered who was the poor fool who had to supply this information.

He left a fifty dollar bill on the counter, signaling for the bartender, and disappeared into one of the many alleyways lining the street.

After being so hectic for the past 2 weeks I have been more or less taking my own sweet time to read my notes for the past few days.

Not good!! Exams are already here and I finish very fast so there won't be much time to study. Correction: there won't be any time to study at all.

Oh dear.

On the other hand, I think I didn't screw up driving too badly today. One one bloody car honked at me! It was at a complicated junction so it wasn't really my fault haha. I mean you must make allowances for rookies right?

Yeah actually I am quite looking forward to getting a driving license. Sound quite good and anyway, this is probably quite overdue, when most of the people I know are already driving for one or two years.

I will strive to mug hard! Freedom is two weeks down this long scary tunnel. Beware the monsters of idleness and the demons of the Really Tough Papers!

Instead you take a meandering sideways approach.

Which is why I finished reading parts of story books today.

Let me try to pull an all nighter! It should be fun.

Hell I'm shaking in my boots.

Maybe we're all just going slowly unhinged at the corners of our eyes, the parts that we can never see.

That's why the last person to know would always be yours truly.

It's a meltdown of cataclysmal proportions, and it starts and ends in inactivity.

The middle of it all was a blowout only behind the eyes.

Which then comes apart and all hell breaks loose in a flurry of optical fluids.

Among which some tears are shed, but it was not like you could tell.

All you need is someone to go to the movies with you when no other people will on a busy Tuesday afternoon.