A Slip in Time

An Introduction

          The sun shone brightly and the birds sang, but I was not a part of that picture. Instead, I was stuck at home doing a paper about myths that challenged my identity. Luckily, I had the company of my friend who was in a similar situation. As my face scrunched up with annoyance, my friend proceeded to ask what bothered me so much. "Well, if you must know it's this paper because I have no desire to complete it," I said with despair. It makes absolutely no sense, and my brain can think of no solution! She teased 'Oh, come on it's not that bad "I showed her the question then the required length for the paper and her mirth dropped instantly. She hesitantly asked, "Bailey when is this paper due? "I quickly glanced at my watch and casually say "Well it's due in approximately four hours, seven minutes, and 50 seconds." Her eyes darted to me than the clock and my empty Word document with disappointment. She then took a deep breath before scolding me by saying "This is no light task this requires forethought, proper planning, and weeks of planning!" Her face grew quite pale as sarcastic words flew out of my mouth. "Oh, really! I had no idea, thanks for such a profound statement! You should really consider going into the advice industry." I said with a jesting tone. 

       As those words left my mouth, I sensed that a mistake had been made. She sat sullenly across from me for a few minutes before standing up determined to leave. My brain leaped into action by standing up to block her path and uttered an apology for the previous statements. She looked at me forlornly before whispering "No, not this time." As she packed up her book bag and walked right past me. I felt my heart stop for a moment before repeating her question in hopes of an answer. We had the pleasure of enjoying quite an amicable friendship with no major fights before. We both knew that could take sarcasm too far occasionally so it couldn't be that, right? She didn't answer it until we reached the front door of my apartment. She sighed as if the question was too much to bear and answered "It is not your fault, I just need to leave right now." She then slipped on her boots and left without giving any further explanation.

             At first, tears rolled down my cheeks but it was quickly replaced with anger and harsh words. Why does she think she is giving me such a vague message? How is that going to help me write this confounded paper? I continually came up with reasons for her betrayal while angrily typing my paper. However, my anger caused my head to start pounding like a drum, forcing me to stop. I took some ibuprofen before starting back up on the daunting paper. I quickly glanced through my half-finished paper reading a couple of the sentences. The following sentences stated "Most of the stories about George Washington are false which deeply disappoints me. It is an odd feeling because I never even knew him but still looked up to him. He seems like such an indecisive, boring, and cowardly person." 

             After reading that it seemed a bit too harsh, but I kept it in the paper anyway. As soon as I finished reading over it, my headache returned in full force. This time it felt as if I had a personal thunderstorm going off in my brain. I could not work through this, so I slammed my laptop shut in defeat. I glanced over at the clock, and it read 9:35 pm. My inevitable doom was edging closer, and my paper had not even dipped into how the myths of Washington troubled me. But if I did not stop it felt as if my head would explode from the irritating pounding. I told myself that I would just close my eyes for 30 minutes that was it. I quickly hopped into my bed and was strangely granted the sweet release of sleep. Instead of hearing the annoying beep of my alarm, I felt something sharp prodding my side.