Chapter 1

Homo-Sapiens—the species of bipedal primates to which modern humans belong, characterized by a larger and well-developed brain capacity. Aiming to achieve the impossible and create the unknown, humans are overridden by emotions…

Bullshit! Olivia ripped, crumpled the piece of paper into a ball and threw it in the trash on top of about twenty others.

She massaged her throbbing temples as she glanced at her textbook. The words seemed to blur together, and her mind rebelled refusing to digest a new brainstorm.
Blinking rapidly she pressed her forehead on the textbook as if trying to imprint it in her memory. She had poured herself into the pages, scoured the book and read it until she felt cross-eyed, but the words merged into nonsense.

She leaned back in her armchair and groaned, glancing at the ceiling. She loved psychology and dissecting the human mind in a given context. Why did she have such a hard time with this report?

She forced her gaze back to the defying book, her thoughts groggy and incoherent. Stifling a yawn she rubbed her bleary eyes and slid a finger over the smooth surface of her iPhone. Her school countdown app indicated that in exactly three hundred nine days, sixteen hours, thirty-one minutes and two seconds, Olivia Jeffries would graduate from UBC Faculty of Law.

“UBC Faculty of Law,” she muttered. A world populated by young people where twenty-eight is practically middle age.

Another groan found its way past her lips. She pushed the chair back, rose to her feet and strode out of the small closet she had converted into an office.
She took a deep breath. The psychology report about human behavior would give her extra credits. Unfortunately, its twisted reality had begun to distort in Olivia’s mind. It challenged the once mundane facts about humans and brought the topic to a turbulent new sphere where even the sense of self, seemed up for grabs.

She moved to the living room and sunk into her soft leather sofa. Worries cluttered her mind, and every one of her muscles felt tight. Her body screamed for her to sprint down the street and loosen her tension. To spend the unexplained energy that kept piling deep within. She turned on her TV and scanned through channels. Her usual calm had been replaced by a carousel of thoughts, each one more worrying than the last. Her mind replayed facts trying to sort through them.

One: she was at the top of her class.
Two: law firms were always on the lookout for good lawyers.
Three: would she be that lawyer—one that every firm wanted?

Her stomach heaved and her knuckles whitened from effort to keep a lid on it, negative thoughts tumbling at an incredible speed.
Up until now she had planned her entire life down to the last detail, but as the first semester approached, her anxiety level rose. In the six hours she spent in her bed, she must have woken at least six times. Just enough to break her sleep into weary chunks.

“Everything will be okay,” she encouraged herself.

Will it? Her pessimism resurfaced, firing a new tense feeling in the pit of her stomach. She could feel tension racing through the air loading it with static and blasting her face with its intense breath.

She needed fresh air and dinner out with a friend seemed like the perfect solution. She clicked the OFF button on the remote, then grabbing her phone from the coffee table, she dialed Debbie’s number.
The call went straight to her voicemail, and Olivia saw no point in leaving a message. When Debbie’s phone was off, a new flavor of the week dominated her time.
Olivia knew that Debbie ticked more than enough boxes to qualify for the town tramp cliché, but she also knew that Debbie was sweet, friendly, and reliable, and that made her Olivia’s best friend.

So what if Debbie doesn’t want to settle?
Olivia shrugged in response to her thought, and a new stomach throb brought her back to her own anxieties. Maybe eating alone was not a bad idea. It would give her time to reflect on her unfounded worries. It might even put the edgy feeling out of her mind.

She pondered for a moment, then decided on Ol’Mama’s bar and grill. Private, serene, and relaxing—the perfect place for quiet thoughts. With the decision settled, she grabbed her purse and left in a hurry.

Outside, she sucked the air in as if it was something new, something that she experienced for the first time. The fragrance of summer grasses and flowers had never been so apparent to her before, but now they jumped at her like cake commercials at someone on a diet.