THE FIRST THING Chelsea notices when she wakes up is the peeling wallpaper of her room. Then her wardrobe which she decides would look better on the other side of the room. She twists her head, hair stuck to her cheek from the humidity, and observes many other things that she wants to redecorate.

She sees these things and then her laptop, a sore reminder of the research paper that's due very soon. She gets up, showers, puts on clothes and makes some coffee. Grabbing her laptop she goes out to the front steps of her door since it's impossible for her brain to function whilst inside.

She's called the heating people but they say they'll come by next Friday. Her paper is due on the coming Monday. It's a dilemma. Frustrated, she begins to tap away at the keyboard. Outside is no better than inside. There's no breeze and soon she's sweating.

Sighing, she looks over the low wall that separates the houses and sees Zach. He's wearing a gap t-shirt and knee-length khaki shorts, oddly enough, watering his plants with the other hand tucked into his pockets.

The tag around his foot is clearly on show for the world to see. Unlike last night, it looks like he's given up on trying to take it off. He has airpods in so doesn't notice Chelsea staring at him.

After a while, she looks away and moves towards the blossom tree in hopes that it will clear her head. She perches on the swing but as soon as she starts swinging, distraction sets in. The laptop is still on her lap so when she starts to go a little higher, naturally, it slips off.

And lands with a thud on the grass, the screen stuttering to a blank screen. At first, all Chelsea does is stare. Then the panic sets in. She's on her knees, pressing keys and the power button but all she's faced with is a blank screen.

"Hey, you alright?" She hears Zach yell to her but she's still wildly trying to get her work back. She didn't save the document.

After a few more seconds of trying to revive her laptop, she looks up. Zach peers curiously at her and for no rational reason, Chelsea begins to blush.

She remembers the party last night. She'd left as soon as Zach had gone into the crowd. If he'd noticed, he doesn't comment on it.

"Your laptop broke?"

She stares at the blank screen before closing it and shaking her head. "No, everything's fine."

Except it wasn't.

She begins to get up to go back inside, all the while feeling his gaze on her. Just as she reaches her door, he calls out to her.

"How come you left early last night?"

So he had noticed.

"I had a headache." She lies.

"Right." He doesn't sound convinced.

She turns to see him push off the wall he's leaning on and head inside before doing the same.

That night she checks how much it will cost for a repair. It's far more than what she's expecting. She calculates the cost it would take to fix the heating, on top of travel and bills for the house. Some money would also have to be put aside for the essentials. She doesn't know how far her funds will allow her to go without a job.

Chelsea sighs as she tries once more to spark life into her laptop, hoping she won't have to throw away three hundred dollars for something she can do on her own. Her attempts are futile. Looking back and forth between the blank screen and the calculations she's made, the dread continues to build up. She thinks about all the work she's lost and how she's going have to pay to get it back.

No one told her how hard being an adult was. And yet she still feels like a kid playing grownup. Getting mommy's lipstick and tottering in her high heels was an illusion of the future. It comes as no surprise that life isn't as glamorous as her six year old self thought it to be.

For a moment she considers asking Zach for help. Maybe he knows a way to fix broken laptops but as soon as the thought enters her head, she shakes it away.

One thing Chelsea knows for sure is that there's no way she's going back next door.