Shatter Me

20 Years Ago

“One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten”, counted six-year-old Freya as her parents’ yelling continued to echo through the house. She didn’t know much, but she knew that their yelling made her scared, and she didn’t like it. Something crashed and she tried to bury herself in the covers, pretending she was invisible. Her grandma visited them last night, but she wasn’t happy about it. Every time she came, her mother became angry afterwards and they were fighting.

“I will not stand for her attitude Andrew! Your mother or not, she has no right coming here and judging every single thing I do!”

Lately, whenever they would start fighting, Freya would start imagining green meadow and a lake so blue it reflected skies. She saw it on television once, so it must be real. For a brief moment she couldn’t hear them, her imagination running wild with sounds of birds and laughter from her parents. In her dreams they looked happy.

“What do you want me to do Isabelle? She is my mother for God’s sake!”

“I want you to grow a pair and tell her she can’t behave like that!”

And she could hear them again. Some days she would wake up with another one of their fights, others like this one, she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Her friend from school, Annalise, lived only with her mother, and her mother looked happy. Annalise told her they were separated.

Freya wondered if both her mother and father would be happier if they weren’t living together. Maybe they should be separated as well?

She got up from the bed, going straight to the window, hoping that the one overlooking hers would have a light on. Surprisingly it did.

Last year a large truck pulled at the house next to theirs, full of man pulling furniture and working in the house. Then one day, as she was sitting on her swing, a car approached with man and a boy inside. If she wasn’t so shy, she would go and say hi, but making friends was hard for her. Even in school, she mostly kept to herself.

She saw him watching her when she played with her cars, but not until her mother took her to welcome their new neighbors’ days after their arrival, did she truly meet him.

“Freya, say hi to your new neighbor.”, her mother urged her, but she wanted to hide. His father stood at the door as well, looking at two of them. Boy smiled and extended his hand.

“Hi, I’m Caleb. And you are?”, she looked at his hand, then at her mother and timidly took his hand.

“My name is Freya.”

“Nice to meet you Freya. You have pretty eyes.”

No one ever told her she has pretty eyes, except for her mother and father. She decided he will be her new friend, and that was the day Caleb Masterson became her safe haven.

Present

Toronto had that ‘something’ which made you love it, but its winters were almost making you hate it. Freya on another hand also had love-hate relationship with morning shifts, especially when there was no daylight even at 6 am. Her alarm was blasting in full force, and if she didn’t really like her job and needed money, she would just shut it off and continue sleeping. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the books for her.

Dragging herself from the bed, suddenly feeling cold without the comfort of her blanket, she tried rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Dante, her two-year-old cat, meowed at her, probably complaining about something.

“I know, give me five minutes boy. I will feed you then.”

Her reflection in bathroom mirror looked better than she felt it will. She did look tired, if black spots around her eyes were any indication.

“I need a vacation.”

Last couple of weeks were hectic at work, what with Christmas and then New Years Eve, running all over the place. Hotel industry wasn’t an easy one, but surprisingly, Freya loved it. She, however, hated January.

Stepping under the blast of hot water, she let herself close her eyes for a couple of more minutes, imagining she was somewhere warm, possibly on the beach with mojito in her hand.

With a cup of coffee in one hand and her phone in another, she dreaded opening any of the social media applications in fear of seeing the headlines.

‘Breaking Point coming to Toronto for final leg of the tour’

It’s been ten years since she last saw Caleb Masterson, and while her anger might sound silly to some, she couldn’t forget the way he left. Shaking her head, she couldn’t allow those thoughts to mark the beginning of her day.

Her email pinged with new notifications, and she quickly went through daily reports for work. Taking a deep breath and praying that none of the guests will be in exceptionally prissy mood today, she grabbed her keys and kissed Dante before heading out.

“Be good today, okay?”

The answer was just loud meow, as he dropped his head on a pillow and went back to sleep.

“So much for love, eh?”

Running in high heels should be a sport, or at least so she thought. Being stuck in morning traffic wasn’t how she wanted to start the day, and even more, almost being late to her Morning Briefing.

“Wait! Hold the elevator!”, a masculine voice called out, and as she turned around she spotted disheveled Chris running towards her. As any good friend would, she held the door, all the way laughing at his appearance.

“Rough night eh?”

He was out of breath, leaning on the wall of elevator, with a smile on his face.

“You have no idea.”

“When did you even get home last night?”, she sipped coffee, taping her leg rhythmically, wishing for elevator to go faster.

“Oh it was definitely not night.”, Chris smirked and stole her cup.

“Hey!”

“I’ll buy you another one, I promise.”, with ping from elevator, they rushed towards Executive Office with a couple of more colleagues.

“Freya!”, her friend Alicia squealed and almost everyone winced a little bit.

“You are way too loud this early in the morning.”, she hugged her before sitting at the desk.

“You didn’t hear?”, Alicia’s concerned face worried her.

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen.”, at that moment Ricardo, their General Manager entered, not wasting a single second on pleasantries and heading straight for business.

“Right, I have some exciting news for you all, and I hope we can keep it under wraps and complete secrecy.”

People started looking at each other, hoping he was not resigning or worse, firing someone. Ricardo was in his fifties, and for all the bark, he wasn’t biting too much. Great mentor, good colleague and understanding boss.

“I believe most of you have already heard that Breaking Point will be in Toronto next week.”

Freya went pale at that, squeezing Alicia’s hand under the table.

“Well, they chose our hotel to stay at for the duration, and from what I’ve heard, they might be in Toronto for a couple of months.”

Her heart was beating so hard, she had a feeling it will jump out of her chest.

“Freya?”, Alicia hit her under table, and it took her a moment to realize Ricardo was talking to her.

“Yes, sorry.”, she straightened in her seat, trying to calm herself.

“As I was saying, with this kind of account they will need someone they can really rely on. With your exceptional background, working skills and professionalism, we’ve decided you will be a direct contact and sort of a Guardian Angel for the band.”

“I’m sorry, what?”, he almost laughed at that.

“You handled that football team last year, what was it, Manchester United? We already met with the band and their managers, and they agreed to this. For next couple of months, you will be their go-to person. Chris will take over most of your duties at Front Office so that you can fully focus on this.”

She didn’t know what to say, didn’t have words. Freya was almost certain that Universe decided to kill her today.

Just like that, she was thrown towards one thing she thought was long lost history.