Orphic//H.S.

Chapter 02

Toni

   My alarm blares in my ear. The sun blinds me through the huge windows in my room. I groan and flip over to bury my face in one of the plush pillows covering my bed. I don't know why I always wake up so early. Yes, I set an alarm on purpose, but I never have anything to do this early. I guess it stems back to my mom. Whatever it is, it's something I haven't been able to stop doing no matter how much I hate it.

   It's 7 in the morning, and I have nothing to do until my 11 o'clock coding class. The sun is bright but there is no way it's warmer than 30 degrees outside. I can still see remnants of snow from yesterday, but the majority is melted. Hopefully, there won't be too many people in Central Park because of the weather. I always run two miles there every morning. I don't enjoy it, but it's something Dad makes his men do. And if I'm going to prove myself to them, I have to do it as well. They have to know I'm just as strong as they are. The worst part is that Dad agrees with them that I'm not good enough to be part of the "team", as he calls it.

   I force myself out of bed and walk to my closet. I change out of my shirt and put on a black sports bra and a pair of leggings. It'll be a cold walk to the park, but once I start running, I won't need a jacket. As I walk out of my room, Seraphina is circling around my feet, waiting for her breakfast and morning cuddles. She follows me over to her food bowl, where I distract her long enough with a toy to fill the bowl. If I don't keep her busy, she tries to eat from the food container. Trust me, it's happened more than once, and it never ends well.

   "Phina, come here," I call for her once the proper amount of food is in her bowl. She trots over to me with the stuffed handbag in her teeth, dropping it at my feet as a thank you before she starts at her breakfast. I know if I can sneak out of the house while she's eating, she won't notice I'm gone until she's done. By then, she'll move on to something else anyway. I scratch her behind her left ear before standing from my squatting position to walk to the kitchen island.

   There's a hair tie lying on the counter from my run yesterday, so I snatch it from the surface and bend over to throw my hair up into a ponytail. I run my freshly manicured fingers through the front of my hair, holding the rest of it in my right hand. Once it's smooth, I wrap the elastic band around my dark bunched hair three times and grab my keys from the other side of the counter.

   I manage to sneak past the distracted Yorkie to get to the front door where my keys hang on the metal hook to the left of the door hinges. I begin to walk through the door, but I have to turn around when I feel the cold cement of the hallway on my sock-covered feet.

   "Get it together, Toni," I mumble under my breath and retreat back through the front door to slip on a pair of plain black Nikes. I check my phone and notice it took me almost 30 minutes to get out of my front door. Holy shit, what is up with me today?

   The walk to the building's elevator is short, only about 30 feet from my apartment, which is nice for many reasons, not just when I'm running late. Ms. Garcia, my 63-year-old neighbor, is standing in front of the elevator like she normally is most mornings. Her grandchildren live on the 67th floor, five floors below us. She babysits those kids almost every day while their mother is at work across the city. I've come to learn that Ms. Garcia is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life. She checks up on me about once a week, knocking on my door, always with an assortment of homemade treats. In return, I offer to help with absolutely anything she needs. Usually, she only lets me help her with groceries, as she assures she's more than capable of doing housework on her own. Still, I worry about her every once in a while.

   "Good morning, honey. Off to your morning run?" she asks when I take my stance beside her in front of the metal doors.

   "You know it, Ms. G. Gotta beat yesterday's time." I smile at her, startled when the bell dings and the door starts to open slowly. We walk into the elaborate mirrored room, and I press the buttons for Floor 67 and the lobby. Leaning against the left wall, I am parallel to the adorable lady on the right.