Inside The Cosmopolitan House...

- Amy Grier

The bus pulled away, and Sophie Lane burst into tears. As the last chugs of exhaust fumes faded into the darkness, and the tail lights grew dimmer, she wearily pulled out her phone and called the only person who might listen at 11 o’clock at night.

“Mum..?”

“Sophie, are you OK? What’s wrong?” her mother asked anxiously, 190 miles away in Shropshire.

“I missed the last bus,” she said, wearily.

She then spent the next 15 minutes listing the frustrations of her day: working late to impress her boss at the music-industry internship in central London she’d fought so hard to get; train delays to Crawley because of ongoing strikes; getting off at the wrong stop in a fog of exhaustion; missing the last bus back to her grandparents’ house three miles away (the closest people she knew near London); and knowing the only option was a £20 taxi journey – taking her daily cost for commuting to £50, which was nearly half of what she had earned that day.

“I can’t do this anymore. It’s been months,” sighed Sophie, calmer after a quick cry. “There has to be another way.”