𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 | 𝐩. 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫

𝟎𝟐. 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐚 𝐥𝐞𝐠

— 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐀 𝐋𝐄𝐆 —

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THE WORLD WAS A KALEIDOSCOPE OF COLOR. And then the second of deja vu passed as the hues faded and grew dull. Max groaned, pulling herself out of the bed she didn't even remember lying down on. On the plus side, it was her bed. She'd evidently made it home without a hitch. And then she looked at the time and saw it was about noon.

"Shit," she swore under her breath. She jumped up from the bed, rushing around her room to find something decent to wear. Of course it always felt like there was nothing in her closet when she was running late, and her indecisiveness would decide that was the best moment to kick in.

There was a knock on the door. It was ignored for a solid minute before the rapping overpowered her own capability to think. Max pulled at her hair, released a short shout of frustration, then acknowledged the person on the other side of the door. "It's unlocked!"

"Good morning to you too," her roommate muttered, eyeing the cluttered mess. "Or should I say 'good afternoon'?"

"You didn't wake me," Max complained, struggling to tug her boot up over her pant leg. "You promised you wouldn't let me oversleep."

"Yeah, I set half a dozen alarms," she gestured to the clocks piling up on the dresser. "And you slept through all of them. Also, if you're going to snore that loud we may want to consider sound-proofing our walls. We received a noise complaint last night half-an-hour after you stumbled inside like a drunkard... What were you on last night? Think you could hook a girl up?"

"What? No!" Max quickly shook her head, grunting with a final effort to put her boot on. "I wasn't drunk and I wasn't high! I was..."

"You were..."

"I don't know." Max shrugged. "Lost."

"Don't tell me you were experiencing another existential crisis." Her roommate placed her hands on her hips. "You went back to Stan's, didn't you? Was the date really that bad?"

"His name was Irving... and that was the most interesting thing about him," Max countered. Her eyes narrowed accusingly. "That reminds me. Set me up on another blind date and you will face my wrath, Hardy."

The two girls stared at one another, unwavering in eye contact before breaking down into laughter. The threat was empty, but it certainly didn't go unnoticed.

"If it makes you that unhappy, then I'll back off," her roommate agreed.

"Honestly, I think I was just exhausted, Fliss," Max sighed, rubbing the remaining grogginess from her eyes.