I woke up drenched in sweat again. The same bad dream, my recurring nightmare.. my own personalized hell.

I sat up in my bed, looking around my room. It's surprising how well a 17 year old girl can live on her own, all she needs is a few part time jobs and an abandoned treehouse. It's even more suprising how I've managed to get into a college with my record. I definitely won't be taking any of this for granted, I'm one of the lucky one's. I can't imagine how hard it must be to be homeless, without a penny. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Trying to put my mind at ease I got up out of bed and put on a pair of jeans and my worn out hoodie. I needed to get out of this small treehouse and get some fresh air. Ew, and some breathe mints.

Climbing down the ladder I decided it would be best to go get some food too. Ughhh I'm starving, heaven knows when I last ate a proper meal. I haven't stocked up the mini fridge in a while so I haven't eaten anything in a couple days. Working so many part time jobs hasn't given me much chance to focus on myself, let alone my basic needs of eating and drinking, so stupid.

When I felt my feet touch the firm ground of the forest floor I immediately set out in the direction of the nearest supermarket. The tree house was hidden away in the Papaya forest, a good few minute walk away from the town square. However, the forest's usally referred to it's nickname 'souls wood', this is becuase of the old folks tale well known around these areas, but also partly just town gossip spread to scare wandering children away from the hunting grounds. Lucky for me, I don't believe in bedtime stories.

Seen as today I don't have to work any lousy shifts at any of my shitty jobs, I wanted to go run a few laps around the worn out countryside paths. Might as well do something beneficial other than sit around all day.

When I finally got out of the forests maze and onto solid cement ground I felt a surge of excitement bubbling up inside me. Or maybe it was just my stomach trying to eat itself.. nonetheless, I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of Saddie's beef pies. They were flat out amazing. Peices of sliced up beef mixed up with chunks of carrot and potato, smothered in thick gravy all put into a pastry the size of my head. My mouth was watering just thinking about it.

Saddie owns a bakery with her husband Steph. They had originally planned on opening a sweet shop but when Steph got diagnosed with diabetes they agreed it was probably not the best of ideas. Even though it was harmless Saddie couldn't bare the thought of loosing her husband. If you ask me, it's nice to see such a devoted and loyal relationship in this generation. It sure beats the pathetic relationships people my age have, with all the cheating and petty fights, ruined friendships and inevitable heartbreaks. Look at me sounding like an over privileged gran.

Anyway, every Friday Saddie gives me a beef pie on the house. I guess it's just one of the bonuses of being a regular customer.. if you count a customer as someone who doesn't buy anything and just comes to look. That or she just pities me for all the jobs I have to juggle. Either way I get me an on the house meal and don't have to worry about counting my pennies. How great is that!

Heading into the bakery I was immediately hit with a waft of intense heat. It made the clammy summer's heat outside feel pathetic.

Fumbling around to find the switch for the AC I saw Saddie running through the kitchen back and forth. Curious, I made my way past the counter closer to the back of the bakery. Up closer I could now see she was covered in pouring sweat, sprinting from one oven to another, pulling out racks full of all sorts of pies, cakes and pastries and throwing them down on the nearest kitchen counter. Every couple seconds she'd run to the other end of the kitchen to start wisking ingrediants and pouring them into molds and oven dishes. Steph must be out if she's having to juggle so much all by herself, poor women.

After watching the chaos for a couple minutes.. and yes, shamefully trying to find her damned beef pie, I tried to catch her attention by coughing but my half hearted attempt didn't phase her in the slightest. Clearing my throat I yelled "Saddie!"

All of a sudden the objects in her hands went flying up into the air and came crashing down in all directions.

"Bloody mary! .. you startled me" she said breathlessly, it only took her a few seconds to catch her breathe before she dropped to her knees in a hurry to pick up all the broken utensils and splattered pastries. Oh shit, what have I done. I immediately ran to help, scrambling to pick everything up and apologise profusely.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that, I'm truly sorry. Really. I was just trying to get your attention and then ughh, I'm so sorry, I'll make it up to yo-" I was splattering out uncontrollable nonsense glad that she finally stopped and interrupted me.

"Lila! Calm down" she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, "it's fine, I'm not hurt. Just a bit flustered was all. I wasn't paying attention and you caught me off guard, it's fine sweety. Really". She gave a sincere smile.

"Still.. let me make it up to you. All this wasted food, I'd feel terrible if you just let me off. Is there something I can do?".

As soon as the sentence came out of my mouth I internally cursed at myself, it was too late to take back. The sentence slipped out of my mouth and I could tell by her signature mischievous smile I was going to regret it. It was the one which screamed out 'I'm thinking of something you'll absolutely hate'.

Ever since I told her I was single, she'd made it her personal mission to hook me up with my 'soulmate'. That's what she'd called it anyway. I swear to god the women's secretly a teenage girl trapped in a middle aged women's body. Always talking about boys, love, sex, you name it. She has absolutely no filter whatsoever, and most likely feels no shame about it either. My minds fully scarred by all the gross sexual stories she'd made me listen to. I shuddered just thinking about them.

But nonetheless, she's undoubtedly amazing at giving advice and is probably one of the most down to earth people I've ever met.

After giving it some thought she finally stood up and said, "okay.. there is one thing you could help me with..". Then got back into her chaotic bubble of work without giving any clarification to what she wanted me to do.

Good, better she gets distracted and forgets about any sick plan she had in mind for me. Now where did she say my beef pie was?