In the dark

33

The following week moved by painfully sluggish for Peri. Time seemed to be moving slower than a turtle stuck in molasses. Her motivation of doing the same things every day was becoming repetitive. Never in all her years alone did she ever find herself lacking with something to do. The perpetual shortage of sleep did help matters. Her focus was gone. Her writing looked like rambling babbles of nonsensical things. She would forget her phone on the dining room table and would need to double back. She even forgot if she had washed her hair in the shower and wound up washing twice.

She tried to do the things she liked to do but found no joy. Reading was a chore. The painting and sculptures at the museum were all blurring together. Between the heat and the bugs, Peri had enough of outside time.

Her time watching people had become a thing of the past. Where she once saw young people riding their bikes up and down the boardwalk, now she saw Namjoon. Kids playing soccer on a field were Jimin, Tae, Kookie, and Hobi. Yoongi would be under a tree with headphones, nodding his head, listening to the bass in his ear. Jin would be at the corndog stand, waving one in each hand, ushering Peri to come over and grab one for herself. 

Peri talked to herself about her missing the boys. She told herself to give herself something to do. To keep her mind busy and let the days move along without the heartache of them not being around. She had done pretty well for herself the first two weeks, but this last one drove her mad. All of them were so close she couldn't fall apart now. Her complaints would do nothing. BTS couldn't stop in the middle of a tour and fly home for the weekend. Peri had to give herself an imaginary slap to the face. She needed to keep her shit together. 'Stay strong, Peri. You got this!' she poured into her brain as motivation. 

Peri spends the last remaining days prepping for their arrivals. Three days before BTS came home, Peri cleaned the home from top to bottom. If Cinderella had a video of all her cleaning hacks, Peri found it and used it to buff and polish the apartment. Ceiling fans, baseboards, and even the walls in between. Nothing was left that wasn't scrubbed clean. There was only one bunny allowed in this apartment, and she was pretty sure he wasn't covered in dust.

With two days left, Peri did laundry. More specifically, their bed sheets. She thought it would be a nice idea to come home to the fresh smell of clean linens. Washing seven loads of bedding, plus the main beds and the guest room, took all of her time. She washed, dried, ironed, and made every bed. It was a small things she could do for them. It was something she could do to be helpful and say thank you for all they have done for her. 

Peri's blanket was the last to be dried. While her bedding was tumbling away, Peri grabbed herself a long soak. She thought with all the hard work she had done, a bath was in order. Additionally, the hot bath would relax her body. A little chime from the other room told her the dryer was done, and so was her soak. She popped out of the tub and got dressed in Jin's large t-shirt and Tae's boxer briefs. What she planned to do required as much skin as she would allow herself to have. She paddled down to the dryer and pulled her blanket out. She wrapped the blanket around her body, trapping the warm heat and fresh scent. Peri walked into the bedroom and flopped on the bed. She didn't bother untying herself and laying the cover flat against the bed. She wanted the blanket to surround her. To Peri, nothing beats a blanket fresh from the dryer. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of contentment before dozing off in hopes of nothingness. 

A loud crack of her door slamming open jolted her right out of bed. She was so tangled up in the sheets that when the noise awoke her, she lost her balance and came crashing to the floor. Her face contorted in pain when she felt the sting on her knees and shoulder from where her body hit the ground. 

"Get out!" he snapped. "Get dressed, then get out!"

The girl looked around, dazed. She wasn't awake entirely yet, and the word the man was shouting at her didn't make any sense. "Huh?" she spoke.