Sweetest Thing (gxg)

5. Early Mornings ఌ

Friday Morning, 26 January 2018
Los Angeles, California
***

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Nyla's phone alarm went off right next to her head early that Friday morning.

"What... the... fuck," she groaned as if her alarm doesn't wake her up at the same time every other morning she has to be at the production studio early. It was so early that the sun wasn't even out yet, and still, she had to get up and get ready for her day even though she hadn't gotten home from working at the bar until after one in the morning. To say she was tired was an understatement. The only good thing about Fridays is that she didn't have to go to class. That Friday in particular, though, she had to be up early to make it to Aven Picture Studios by 6am to meet with the costume design coordinator she's been interning for the past year.

Between juggling classes, long nights working at the bar, and long days working on set, Nyla felt like she had no time to herself. She's always busy and barely has time to breathe, let alone have a social life. Everyone she talks to on a daily basis she either works or goes to school with. But somehow, she makes it all work and finds enough hours in the day to get it all done. She knows that it isn't forever and the more she pushes herself now, the better the payoff will be in the end.

So just like every other morning she contemplates rolling over in her bed and getting the well-deserved rest she knows her body needs, she forced herself to get up. The only way she feels she can successfully do that is with a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

"Why are you still awake?" Nyla asked her younger sister, Amara, when she made her way down to the kitchen and saw her sitting at the dining room table with her laptop open in front of her. She was sitting in the same position Nyla saw her in when she came home from work, except with more papers spread out on the table and a now full cup of coffee.

"I've been studying. I have my first exam for anatomy and physiology II."

"The semester just started a few weeks ago."

"The class moves fast," Amara said as she brought her coffee mug to her lips to take a sip. "We have a lot to cover."

"Amara, I keep telling you about pulling all-nighters. If you don't know it, you just don't know it. Not sleeping isn't healthy for you."

"That's crazy coming from you of all people. When was the last time you slept for more than four consecutive hours?"

"Alright," Nyla decided it was pointless to argue with her sister, especially when she's not a good example of what to do herself. "I only came down here to get my coffee. I'm not in the mood to lecture you." 

"I just brewed some. It should still be hot."

"Which beans did you use?"

"The ones mom brought back from Ethiopia last time. It's the last of it too, I need to remember to tell her to bring more when she comes back again."

"God himself knows when that will be." Their mother said she would only be gone for two weeks, but those two weeks quickly turned into over two months. They weren't surprised though. They knew it would happen the second she booked her one-way flight with no set return date.

"You're going to the studio today?" Amara asked as Nyla made her coffee. She decided that Nyla was right after all. She closed her laptop and started to pick up her papers off the table. If she was good about it, she could get a couple of hours of sleep in before it was time for her to wake up and head to her campus for her exam. She was so exhausted that she didn't think the coffee would stop her from falling asleep the second her head hit her pillow.