Laurel

1

Bee do do bee... Bee do do bee

She rolled over with a groan and aimed her finger at the big orange snooze button on her phone before snuggling deeper under the feather-filled duvet on her bed. Asking the universe for another ten blissful minutes of sleep in her warm cozy bed before having to face another day. She has been feeling so dragged down lately, like she can't ever get enough sleep or some vital nutrient was missing from her diet. She was going to have to do a better job of taking care of herself.

She blinks. The alarm goes off again, a stupid, intended to be pleasant nothing kind of chime pounding into her skull like a hammer. She thought the bland chime wouldn't annoy her, but she was wrong. Honestly there probably wasn't any sound that could wake her up without making her cranky, mornings were not her thing. Again she groans, and lets out a deep depressed sigh with her next breath. While inhaling she flips the covers off, letting a rush of chill air inside the oasis of her bed. Goosebumps rise on the pale skin of her naked legs and arms in reaction to the sudden change in temperature, waking her up as well as a splash of cold water on her face would have. She wishes she could afford a better apartment with less drafts around the windows or hell, if she was wishing that she could afford to heat this one enough that she wouldn't feel a constant chill. But she had to budget her money carefully, she had big plans, but no resources just yet.

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and reluctantly rises out of the bed, stands up and plods her way sleepily to the bathroom clad in nothing but her skivies, why bother covering up if there's no one to see you? Plus saves on laundry. She travels the short distance from her bed to the small bathroom, not bothering to shut the door behind her and glanced in the mirror on her way to the shower to check how bad the bedhead was this morning. The worse her hair looked, the worse she had slept. Today was most certainly not one of the better days judging by the wild array of tangles her hair was in.

She starts the shower, the hot water tap wide open while she removes her panties and throws them in the hamper. After letting the pipes warm up she slowly nudges the cold water tap on until the water is as hot as she can stand on her skin without burning. She lays her towel and hair wrap down on the table beside the shower and hops in the tiny stand up shower to perform her ablutions. It might not be luxurious but at least the water was hot and steady. She's not religious but if someone told her there was a deity responsible for hot showers, that is who she would pray to.

This is her favorite part of her entire day. She allows herself a few minutes to just enjoy the cascade of hot water over her body and hair. Letting the hot water warm her completely as it sluiced over her skin on its way towards the drain. She starts by shampooing her thick auburn hair: lathering up, rinsing it out in a laborious process, working a wide toothed comb through her curly hair in the stream of water to facilitate washing the shampoo out while gently teasing out the tangles. She massages the conditioner in through the ends of her hair, and using a tie from around her wrist, she twists her long locks up in a bun while the conditioner works its magic on her unruly mane. Condition setting, she starts working on shaving her legs, underarms and trims up her bikini zone. Not that anyone has had reason to notice her efforts the past few months, she laments to herself.

While rinsing out the conditioner she calls out to the Google home mini in the kitchen to play some music. She likes to call the speaker's voice Midge, like Midge is a friend or roommate. Midge is the thing she talks to the most some days, might as well think of her as a roommate at this point. Midge picks some terrible, random early 2000's playlist. Definitely not what she had in mind, but it's better than the silence pressing in on her, so she let's it play. She grew up listening to the two FM radio stations she could catch near her home, so she just thinks of it like it's a radio and tries to go with it. While washing her face a song she actually likes comes on, but since she is facing into the shower stream rinsing her face she couldn't even sing along to her favorite part. Just her luck lately.

She languishes a few extra moments in the hot shower. Still enjoying the hot running water over her skin.

Beep beep beep

Fuck. That is the 'you are running late and need to be dressed and almost ready alarm'; not the wake up alarm. Shit shit shit she hisses out loud as she starts to scurry faster.

She continues her curses, getting more creative with her language; jumps out of the shower, throws her hair up in the wrap and hastily dries off. She rushes back to her bedroom and hastily rubs lotion up and down her arms and legs, just trying to get it done and not taking much care with the task. She grabs a pair of tights, is careful to not snag them on her nails as she pulls them on. She grabs her favorite navy dress with bell sleeves and the cute tie waist and throws it over her head and pulls it on. She grabs a few accessories from her tray and jewelry display board on the wall, it holds her best earrings, necklaces and rings and displays them so she can easily grab the piece she wants. She rushes back to the bathroom and starts to work on her makeup, thankful that she can usually get her face done in just a few minutes. She only uses foundation, concealer, powder and mascara most days. She lets her hair down from the wrap and quickly throws it in a pair of French braids before twisting and pinning the tails together in a neat arrangement at the nape of her neck. Less than 15 minutes since she rushed out of the shower and she looks put together.

She runs into the kitchen, throws the ingredients for a sandwich in her lunch bag, grabs her purse, work bag and the lunch bag and runs out the door to her car. She blasts her favorite album in the car during her short commute to work, singing along loudly and car dancing when the mood strikes her.

She arrives at work, lifts and waves her bag with her key card over the first, second and third security checkpoints gaining admittance to the office building. She heads to the office kitchen once past all security doors to drop her lunch bag off in the fridge. She bumps into another supervisor in the kitchen.

'Good morning my beauty and how are you this fine morning' Marilyn says in her perpetually chipper voice. She was a kind motherly type of woman.

'Oh ya know, at least it's not a Monday right?.' her voice cracks a bit as she speaks, almost like it's rusty after not being used much since she ordered Chinese food the previous night.

Marilyn laughs at her quip lightly. They share a few more pleasantries, discuss the current dismal wet spring weather, and wish each other a good morning. She makes a mug of peppermint tea, and carries the warm mug to her desk in her hands, warming her fingers after the cold commute. Laurel sees Delia in the hallway as she heads to her desk, and she says hello as they cross paths. Delia was one of the few people in the office who helped her feel welcome, and reached out to her when she was new.

She briefly gets a bit concerned that she might be coming down with something. She has been feeling cold and lethargic the past few days and it seems to be getting worse. She flicks the mouse to wake the computer up, signs in to the computer and starts to log in to all the various systems, programs, emails and business communication tools she needs access to in the run of an average day.

All signed in and she starts to work. Thanks to all the programs she has running she barely ever needs to actually speak to anyone. She can do everything she needs silently in her cubicle. She works through her morning, occasionally taking thought breaks to check the news, scroll through social media. It's a quiet day, doesn't seem like her friends are posting as much as they used to. She takes her lunch break, makes her little tofurky sammy and cup of soup, sits with some coworkers. They share light conversation but most of the time everyone is busy looking down at their phones, scrolling or checking in on their personal lives. She looks like she is doing the same, but there really isn't much of anything happening in her own life.

She tries to not let the loneliness get to her, but it does. She moved here a few months ago after landing this job,it was too good an opportunity to pass up and came at the perfect moment, but it meant moving away from her friends and family. She didn't think it would be so bad, everyone swore they would keep in touch or visit. But no one had ever come to visit, and the only person to still reach out was her mom for a call on Sunday nights. Unless her mom was busy that is, then it might just be a couple short text messages through the week.

Out of sight and I'm out of mind for everyone she thought to herself. Before shaking her head to clear the intrusive sad thoughts out of her mind. She finished up her lunch and returned to her desk. The rest of the afternoon was just as uneventful as the morning. She never had to speak to anyone the rest of the day.