“Courtesy of Hostess, Sasha Silver, Ms. Blue,” the waitress said.
“Awesome, thanks a lot,” she replied. Yvora inspected the rolled papers’ contents and then held them up to her nose and inhaled. “Ah, yes, I love Greenwood!” she said excitedly.
She pulled out a lighter from her purse and lit the Greenwood joint. She let out a relaxed sigh after she inhaled the wondrous scented fumes.
“You had this stuff before?” she asked Caiden.
“Nah, heard it was good, and natural too,” he replied.
“Try it,” she said encouragingly.
“Why not?” Caiden obliged. He lit it and inhaled. He felt the buzz hit him as he exhaled. The clarity of thought was immense.
“Awesome, right?” Yvora said.
Greenwood was a popular commodity in the city. It was comprised of a special herbal plant known for its healing properties and hallucinogenic qualities. It was usually shredded into smaller pieces that were laced with an extremely small amount of mania. It was customarily wrapped tightly and neatly into specially cut, paper-thin hollowed out tree twigs. The thin cut tree twigs were lightly dipped in liquefied manna to keep the twig wrapping from tearing or crumbling. The smoke from the Greenwood smelled like chocolate, and had a pleasant aftertaste.
“So, Caide, what do you do for a living? That sounds so weird asking you that. It’s even weirder that I haven’t ask you that already. I feel like I already know you, even though I don’t. Am I making sense?” she asked.
“Totally. It’s cool. As for what I do, well, I’m an app developer. I was in school at ACTS, but I decided to take some time away to work on some projects of my own,” he replied.
Yvora examined him for a few moments before she spoke. “I call bullshit,” she said.
“What?” he replied.
“Yeah, I call bullshit. You wanna know how I know to call bullshit?”
“Vantz fucking Marling, huh?”
“Yup,” she replied.
“Okay, you got me. So what did he tell you?” Caiden quizzed.
“Well, let’s see. From Vantz, I’ve heard that you’re quite brilliant. I also heard from Vance that you spend most of your spare time on CWR. He told me that even he’s not sure what you do, but surmised that whatever it is that you’re doin’ is probably barely legal, which he finds hilarious, by the way. You rarely ever go out or socialize. Even I can tell that, because clearly, you’re socially inept and super awkward, so I’d say, based on those bits of information, that you’re some sort of hacker,” she said.
Caiden couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious. She was clever like that. “Okay, first of all, ouch! My feelings are hurt. Yes, you’re right, and fuck, you got me figured out,” Caiden ceded while casually putting his hands up as if caught red handed.
“See? I told you!
“Since I’m nerdy and illegal then, I’d say enough about me. What about you? How did you get started? And how’d you end up on the path you’re on now?” Caiden asked.
“Good question. Well, let me think. I guess you could say I was born to create. Born to envision and realize those inner visions. Born to defy the odds. We moved around a lot from borough to borough. My mom, she was, well, she was kinda shady like you. No offense, hehe. But, no, seriously, she was kinda into the street life stuff. She ran with a small gang, got into some crazy stuff. For this reason, we always seemed to be on the move. Things really changed for the better though, after we both were almost killed by a rival gang. She would always tell me that I was her shining light. Her saving grace, I guess. After that, she got out the game and we moved here to Andromeda District. Life miraculously seemed to stabilize after that," she said.
"Whoa, whoa, wait! Huh? She just stopped like that? What about your Dad? " Caiden asked in disbelief.
"True story. As unbelievable as it might seem, my biological father was from the gang that rivaled my mom's. I met him a couple of times when I was younger, but our relationship is pretty much nonexistent. Anyway, I don't wanna dive too deep into that part of my life right now. Maybe a little later," Yvora replied.
"Okay, then, how did you get into music?" Caiden asked.
"Ah, they pretty boy asked the winning question. I have always loved singing. I would sometimes only have conversations with Mom while using my singing voice and she got so annoyed by it! It was so funny! But, eventually, my mom started to notice that I really had a good voice. So, she decided to enter me into competitions across the city. When we found out I could sing, that’s when we took life by the horns and said, ‘fuck you, we’re winning this time’. It was a long, hard journey, but now, Mom is my manager, and we are finally seeing the fruits of our precious labor. My mother always told me that dreams were meant to be conquered. And that stuck with me. And now, I always tell my fans to dream beyond fear. It’ll take you farther than you’d ever believe,” Yvora said passionately.
Her hazel eyes lit up when she recounted her early life struggles and newfound triumphs. Caiden could feel her enthusiasm. She was magnetic and captivating. He could feel his chest swelling up with a positive energy that was reinvigorating and empowering.
“You might think I’m weird for saying this, and I know we just met a few days ago, but I can tell you’re destined for something great; something amazing. I can just feel it,”
