She looked timidly at her watch circling the parameters of the clock face. A terrible grimace resumed on her dark complexion. She listened carefully at the stream of traffic, the wave of continuous crowds scurry towards the stairs of the subway. Eagerly, she followed their rapid footsteps hoping to meet the ascending build of a man near the fluorescent green way out sign. Weighed down by her clumsy stature, she blindly reached into her shallow pockets. A heart shaped bracelet thread its beads through the creases between her fingers.She was showered with endless relief as a young man danced out into the cold.

He was wearing a short black leather jacket which barely concealed his lower back. His overly tight jeans were accompanied by rough knee-high boots.
"Here you go," he said, twisting the strands of his fringe.
"Thanks," she replied, forcing a slow smile on her thin lips.
The palms of her hands were squeezed in an awkward handshake as the man left. She rankled with disgust at the inanimate needle wrapped by a dusty test tube. She wished to eradicate her memories of her framed friend but she saw glimpses of her future encapsulated by the hollowness of the tube.

She walked unsteadily towards the vertex of a lonely alley. Inside was an enormous street bin. Against her better judgement, she took the long needle out of its gift packaging and furnished it with its new rancid smell arising from household garbage and a flood of alcohol bottles. A lasting smile spread between her dimples as she began to walk against the crowd, heading home.