Have you guys watched that movie? It's really good one, innit? However this is not about made up stuff but based on true story…  On this day, nothing was different: just finished the work and I had an appointment at the salon (Friday night).. It was my first time with this particular master.. Struggle is real.. (Girls understand me well..) so anyways this is completely different story, but this master made me wait like more than half an hour.. and by the time she's done it was all dark and late.. In the subway.. on my way back to home.. Suddenly someone calls me: “Sista..” in uzbek.. I look at back.. Young girl in her 20's… She asks me where P station is.. 🥷🏽: I can show you where it is, I'm going to the same direction.. We started a conservation.. She was slightly taller than me.. young pretty lady with a type jawline any model would desire, long dyed hair (damaged from bleach), light sport outwear (it reminded me of my outfits from 2000's) and some sorta pants? (I don't remember exactly why)..  She would act very confident but something was off about her.. Was she anxious? .. not sure.. She also mentioned that she has 2 kids and just came back from Russia.. and asked if I'm married.. (Of coz 🤓sodda bo'miy o'liy, I told her I'm divorced).. Our train comes.. we hop in.. she sat next to me.. 🤵🏼‍♀️: You know.. I'm going to one place.. (babir chirip ketadi ishlatish kere, which means it's gonna rot anyways you gotta use it).. 🥷🏽: (Whaat?!, at this point I'm doing my best to hide my shocked face..doesn't say a thing to her.. ) 🤵🏼‍♀️: He's very nice guy, he'll give us 400,000 sum (which is roughly $35), we're gonna split.. you get 200,000 for an hour.. He's not gonna torture you…don't worry.. 🥷🏽: (What the actual F*# is happening here… pretending I'm interested in this ‘deal' and letting her talk…) 🤵🏼‍♀️: I need to go back to Russia anyways, you're gonna stay, he has 2 houses, car.. he will provide you anything you want.. 🥷🏽:(My sweetheart.. if you only knew… I had better ‘deal' than this.. when I was 20, I had a potential being one of #topGeisha in Ginza lol, totally different story based on true events.. but we will talk about it later.. I actually didn't say this to her, it's only my inner thoughts..) 🤵🏼‍♀️:Yurin… yurin… she would try to convince me to go with her…She takes out a chocolate from her bag and tries to give it to me.. 🥷🏽:No thanks.. (luckily my grandpa taught me not to drink and take anything edible from strangers since I was a kid) You need to take off in this station..now.. 🤵🏼‍♀️:Yurin…yurin (Let's go)… 🥷🏽: Next time.. She walks away..   I was thinking who was she? What was her story? Did she had someone who cared about her? What made her to choose this lifestyle? Why didn't I stop her? What could I have done differently to prevent her going there? $20? Why didn't I give it to her? Of coz, I'm not rich and etc.. but Why didn't I try to change her mind?  And most importantly why these thoughts didn't come to me at that moment when I had a chance to change something? I know maybe I couldn't able to change anything.. at least I could've tried.. But what was omens telling me? Why did I need to meet her that night? According to my classmate, I needed to ‘experience' this in order not to go out after shom.. I can clearly remember her face.. I think she was high.. she didn't had that inner peace.. would talk from ‘bog'dan.. tog'dan..) But the most saddest part is her 2 kids.. I don't wanna judge anyone.. but where are they now? Which kinda individuals they would become without mothers love? I felt bad for not being Sandra Bullock's character from “The Blind side”.. I hope I'll get to that point one day.. ✨ And to that stranger girl, who I've met that night.. I hope you'll find your inner peace soon.. until than.. I'll see you next time…

“Don't talk to strangers,” is a sentence that echoes in my head every time I break this golden rule. Quarantine brings out the worst in people. “Don't give out personal information,” is another phrase that bombards my mind whenever I hint at something too close to reality. But now is a time without rules, in which boredom hunts our repeated days and sucks us into a parallel reality. Life in Mexico looks like a faraway dream that was once my life, but after closing some friendship cycles and pouring my feelings onto paper, I realised that there is much more than this bubble-wrapped society. There is a world out there. So. Back to strangers. It all began as a joke. My sister and I found a trending website on TikTok in which you could speak with anyone in the world. England, Australia, Brazil, Spain now all seemed just around the corner, as we spoke to countless people doing the same thing as us: nothing. Some of the friendships we made on this website were as simple as five-minute conversations. Others lasted a few hours. And a tiny bit of conversations lasted a few days. That is where the Stranger comes in. In one of our many adventures surfing on this website, we met them. The Stranger is nineteen years old and lives in Kent, United Kingdom. But that is not even half of why our lives are so different. The Stranger is truly the one that popped my bubble, ripped it apart. The Stranger claims they left school at age sixteen and does not plan on going back. The reason? Drugs. In the enclosed society I live in, in Mexico, it is rare to hear about drug dealers or even about junkies, but for the Stranger, selling drugs is the only thing that keeps their life afloat. To be honest, I was taken aback, I even thought about blocking the Stranger as I saw them write the word Xanax on my screen. I had to re-read the message a couple of times. I knew the next step was to stop talking to someone who had any connection to a drug like that. But I gave the Stranger a chance. I was intrigued to know what went on in the world of drug dealing so unknown to me. Turns out the Stranger's family is a low-income family. Divorced parents. A brother who steals his money. A troubled kid kicked out of High School for selling drugs. What are they doing now? Working a minimum wage job at a mattress factory near their house with a dealing business on the side, to afford living in an expensive country like England. After countless texts, I learned to look past that and get to know the Stranger. They are nerdy and passionate about learning history and reading. Their favorite animal is the black panther and they're obsessed with watching the worst British TV shows ever. They're funny, caring, and also intrigued to know more about a different kind of lifestyle—mine. Of course, there were tense moments. Our worlds collided more than what we imagined. The Stranger sent me a picture of them smoking weed. I looked at it in their hand, so casual, so normal for them, yet so shocking for me. I got these waves of fear, a reality check. I started to look at their image again. Bluntly. Thoughts of blocking them again tortured my mind. Questioning voices traveled through every corner of my head echoing, “What are you doing?” That question still haunts me: “What am I doing?” Why am I talking to someone I don't even know across the globe who's life is nothing like mine? Would they bring positivity to my life? Probably not. But we can't be blind to reality. And that is why I texted back that one time. I see the person the Stranger is, their background does not define them. So, strangers. We are about the same age. In completely different parts of the world, with different cultures and incomes, and yet there we were. Texting with some force, filled with curiosity and of course the fact that for once in a long time, we are all united by something unwanted: quarantine. Might not be as bad to break the golden rule, right?