Gloria woke up to Christian sitting on her bed and looking at her lovingly.
"What the hell Christian?" she demanded sleepily
"Sorry, you're very peaceful in your sleep...and you smile." His puppy-like eyes were twinkling.
"Aren't you gonna tell me your life story today?"
"Let me get dressed first," all she was wearing was a big shirt and a robe.
Christian immediately stood up. "Right, sorry." he got up and stepped out of the apartment sitting right next to the door while he waited. He pulled a razor out of his pocket and started to scratch something in the wall.
Gloria kicked the covers off. She pulled her jeans on and replaced her oversized shirt with an appropriately sized one. After fastening her pony tail with a rubber band, she put her mascara on and then her orange-red lipstick.
When she came out of her apartment she saw Christian scratching something in the wall. It looked like it said Christian loves Gloria.
He looked up at her with his puppy-like eyes. In them Gloria saw he wasn't going to admit to anything. She liked that about him.
"Have you ever had a reoccurring dream?" she asked.
"None that I can remember. Why?"
"Well, I keep having this dream with my parents then I hear a choir and thunder and the rain washed it all away."
"What really happened to your parents? Did they die?"
"Yes, they did. They were protesters and they got shot. After that I got kinda apathetic and I felt the same after that shooting--" her voice broke at this point "--the other day. All I felt was anger and apathey. I wanted to get a lobotomy."
"A lobotomy? As in the surgery?" he asked concerned. She shone so brightly because she felt things. He didnt want itj all to go away.
"Maybe not the actual surgery, but something like it. All I could feel was anger, bitterness, and apathey. I wanted it all to go away. You basically slapped me in the face when I was in hysterics," she looked at Christian so he could see her greatful face. "Sometimes I think about how i'll die and hope it's during a protest by a bullet in the back of my head. I'm going someday, I might as well go like Mom and Dad." she looked proud, like she was ready to face that death any moment.
"I'd find a way to stop any part of the corruption before they hurt you. Not only because you're the only one who can save the world from the apocalypse, but also because I hate people like them. They made me wanna swallow my first pills. I've thrown rocks and bricks at those bastards who constantly overeact about everything because they expect us to treat our dreams like shit!" Christian knew his emotions were catching up to him. He was one of those people that Gloria wasnt. She chose to feel things and he chose not to because it hurt. He popped some pills (five?) and felt perfectly normal.
"Okay, give me the pills," Gloria demanded. He reluctantly tossed her the orange plastic jar. "Do you even understand what you're doing? You're buying this government bull shit! They tell you that you can control yourself and be normal. You're just making yourself numb! You dont have to be ashamed if you remember anything bad about your past. And you dont have to be ashamed because you're angry or depressed or elated, it's what makes you human."
She's right, he thought. Christian felt another spring of hope when he reallized she was trying her absolute hardest to help him. She saw him not as an outsider, not as a junkie, but as an actual person. He had to show his gratitude... somehow.
"Gloria, have you ever heard of the Jesus of Suburbia?"