Mistakes

Chapter 3

I began to panic, and my brain kept on giving me irrational images of charred books, rooms and plants. I forced my brain to focus, and began to settle down, confident that I could make it out of the burning building in time. Those thoughts, however, also turned out to be irrational. As I exited building three of the mall, and began to run towards the car park, I realised that it was only building two that was on fire, and a very small fire at that. Sure, small orange flames curled from the roof, but it was already being controlled. In the distance, I heard the now familiar wail of fire-sirens.

As soon as I made it to the carpark, I leaned against some rando's car and watched as the firemen began battling the small yet tough sparks of flame.

After the entire fiasco was over, I sighed. I was so relieved, knowing that the entire situation was over, and also that it could have been so much worse.

I was standing there, basking in relief for a few several minutes, when the chime of a car turning on jarred me back to my senses. Apparently the car I had been leaning on belonged to a girl and her boyfriend, who was laden with several full shopping bags that looked quite painful to carry, actually. They yelled at me for leaning on their 'beautiful hot-pink sports car that cost a billion dollars', and ruining the car's perfect finish. After that headache was over, I took one last look at building two of the mall and then ran to the bike parking near the side of the car park. I clambered onto my bike, checked the time on my phone, and started home.

I didn't go home. I was sidetracked, and so went to a tea house to get all my frustration out. Frustration about what, exactly, I didn't know.

After downing three green teas and getting very weird looks from other customers, I finally did go home. Asha was snoozing in her incredibly fluffy dog bed that I definitely wasn't jealous of, and it had just started to rain outside. The starlings that were flitting about in my backyard dove for cover under the trees as thunder rumbled and lightning began to strike. Very distantly, of course. I found the sound of rain soothed me, so I decided to take an afternoon nap.

I crashed onto my bed, now dressed in my finest silky pyjamas. As I started to drift off to sleep, a loud clap of thunder woke me right back up. Annoyed, I put a pillow over my head and finally managed to get to sleep, even if it was only for a few minutes.