Night and silence, and suddenly a call, sharp as lightning, breaks into the apartment. The usual ringtone plays - "Loneliness Bastard." This melody perfectly reflects all my feelings. I just always wanted to be alone. I wanted to stay at home and not go anywhere. And now my "dream" has come true. Now I'm always alone. The mother has been living with her grandmother for a couple of years, she started having health problems and the mother moved in with her. And I remained in an empty cold apartment, abandoned and forgotten by everyone.

I pick up the phone and squint, trying to see who is calling. I have trouble with my eyesight, it's time to wear glasses, but I still can't decide on this. I even have lenses for special occasions. And I don't even want to walk around the house with glasses on. I think that if I put them on, I will finally sign in my old age. I mentioned old age, but I was only twenty-six in June. But all the best was left far behind, back in the summer of two thousand, I don’t remember which one, but now everything is “painted” with gray paint. And it's all my own fault.

“Who calls so late,” I grumble under my breath and pick up the phone.

- Hello Yulechka, are you awake? – Katyukha’s voice, she’s probably the only one I’m glad to hear now.

“Hi, Katya, now I can’t sleep anymore ...” She doesn’t let me finish.

- In short, there is such a thing, our general appointed all the interviews for tomorrow. Well, I told you about him, he’s so tall, important ... - she rumbles incessantly and I can’t make out everything.

Interview, what are you talking about? I stopped her. It looks like my memory problems have already begun, or it's from the pills I'm taking. Although I used to think not so fast, now I’m specifically slowing down. And at school I was an excellent student, and at the institute ... institute ... in the second year I went on academic leave for pregnancy, from which I never returned. I don't like to be reminded of it. But the first year I studied for round fives (except for one retake when I was in the hospital).

– What is it about? Zotov himself, our general, conducts an interview, although he usually does not do this. Well, have you forgotten? I've been telling you about it for days now.

“Zotov, Zotov,” I painfully try to remember. - The one who always wears a suit.

- Well, yes. – Katyukha rejoices that I don’t have to explain everything again.

- And he also has a supermodel secretary, a blonde meter eighty ... And also a wife, and a mistress, and each of him has a child - I usually quickly recall such facts.

- Yes, ah, - rejoices Katyukha. - He's still handsome. Broad-shouldered, tanned, with black hair like yours. Also, he's single.

“But what about the wife and child, mistress and child ... Okay, I’m listening further.”

- In short, we need a SMM manager, and then I remembered you. Do you still work there, in a beauty salon?

- Yes, - I smile ironically, - they don’t take me anywhere else with an unfinished higher education.

- Come to us for an interview tomorrow, I knocked out time for you, wrote a resume for you and threw it to him. She wrote that you were an excellent student, the smartest, well, Yulia, you are a smart girl.

“Yeah, some kind of…” I waved it off. “I don’t even know the word “SMM.” By the way, what is it?

- You'll figure it out. There's nothing complicated, I'll help you, - turns to a whisper. “Besides, the boss doesn’t look too hard at knowledge. You should have seen what kind of girls he had yesterday, I thought he called prostitutes. So no pants. The shortest skirt, the highest heels, styling, aggressive make-up. Yulia, you know how.

- I? You're confusing me with someone else. I don't understand what I'm doing here.

- I'm confusing you with someone? With you, what you used to be, have you already forgotten?

Everything is in the past, this whole life is in the past. And now I'm a lonely old maid, quietly living alone in my apartment. It remains to get a cat, ten pieces.

- Yul, how long can you bury yourself. Forget about him already, live your life. Besides, what kind of models are there - you are the most beautiful of all whom I know.

- Thank you, - I even have tears in my eyes, it's so nice to hear a compliment from a friend.

“And I won’t let you bury yourself at twenty-six, you hear. Take your feet in your hands and tomorrow at eleven like a bayonet for an interview.

- A resume? You said you prepared it...

- I submitted your resume and inserted your best photo from the contact there.

- Where am I with Tolik?

- No-o-o-o, I wiped Tolya, and it's time for you to turn this page.

Tolik is my ex, everything started so well with us, and I almost immediately flew into it. And then ... then there was something that I don’t remember without tears. How many years have passed since then? Seven! And I remember every word, every step, every gesture, as if I live this moment every day. This is my groundhog day. Everything after that doesn't matter to me.

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“Yulka, what are you talking about?” - Katyukha disturbs me, she has become so nimble, although of the two of us she has always been inhibited.

- Think.

- You think? Well, stop thinking, you don't think, you doubt. You always doubt everything. That's why your life is so uncertain. - Katya is sometimes so tactless. But I always forgive her everything. - All right, tomorrow at eleven, and better come early. Don't let me down girl.

“Thank you,” I whisper back.

“Well, that’s another matter,” rejoices Katyukha. “What are you doing with the voice?”

“I already fell asleep,” I justify myself.

“I fell asleep at ten in the evening… not at all like you.” Something happened?

- Yes, I got sick at work, and I went home. I drank a cup of coffee and fell asleep.

- Coffee to fall asleep ... of all my acquaintances, only you drink coffee to sleep, usually they drink it to wake up.

“Well, you know, I've always been weird.

- Okay, sleep on there, I won’t wake you up ... by the way, like a mother, in the sense, how is Aunt Ira, - Katyukha was always friends with my mother. And while she lived here, she even often went to visit her. Not to me, but to her.

- My grandmother, you know, she is sick, she can hardly walk anymore ... old age.

- And you feel bad ... What kind of family do you have? By the way, Yulia, do you still have your husband's surname?

- No, I returned the girl's.

“Oh-oh-oh, so Yulia Savash, I indicated everything correctly in my resume,” she says to herself under her breath.

- At least tell me what kind of resume is there so that I don’t disgrace myself at the interview.

- Don't worry like that, Zotov will not look at the resume. - And again it turns to a whisper, as if someone is listening to it there. - The main thing is that your skirt is shorter, your legs are what you need, they will take you without any resume ... If you see our secretary, you will understand everything yourself. Okay, there’s no time for me to trynet with you, I’ll go and put the children to bed.

At the mention of children, a stifled smile appears on my face:

- Say hello to your husband, Dimka, and children, from Aunt Yulia.

- All right, I'll pass it on, tsemki-tsemki.

- While Katyusha.

- Until Yulechka, - she puts down the phone, and I am left alone in a cold apartment, wrapping myself in a thin blanket.

"We need to prepare for tomorrow's interview." I turn on the light in the room and squint at the bright bulb. Everything annoys me now: a bright light, a loud sound, I am either hot or cold. It became so painful.

I get out of bed and drag myself into the bathroom, but I don’t hold on to my side, I remember how in the morning they started to prick me there, I got scared and took time off from work. And as soon as I got home, I kind of let go. I can’t do anything, only get sick, suffer and sit at home, I’m so sick and unhappy.

I go into the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror: sleepy and tired. Where do these bags under the eyes come from? Hair…hope the styling fixes it.

I take out my toothbrush and start brushing my teeth. I wasn’t going to clean them now, I just have this reflex: I woke up, went to the bathroom, turned on the light, and my hand took the brush and spread the paste on its own. And here I am already standing, brushing my teeth, and the brain is still sleeping. Well, let him sleep. Brushing your teeth again won't hurt. I also have a velcro so that the teeth are white.

I smile and look at myself in the mirror. Even with a toothbrush in his mouth - looks good. I’m so cute when I smile, it’s a pity I just don’t want to smile lately.