Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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Eyes so heavy they felt like they held the weight of this entire apartment all tipped precariously against my delicate lashes, I had to sit down on my bed to put my socks on. Apparently, less than four hours of sleep for an already-exhausted mind did not bode well for the future of the day. I would have to take Excedrin before I left because I was sure to get a migraine for pretending to be alive right now.
If I had worried that things would become awkward between Kakashi and me the next morning, I needn't have worried. As soon as I stumbled my way out of my room, ugly navy polo with a few too many stains to be considered "clean," I ran right into him, a spoonful of cereal making its way to his mouth as he sat perusing something on my iPad.
"What's the deal with Sasuke?" he asked with no preamble.
I stopped short, socked feet teetering back and forth across the metal lip from the fake wood to the kitchen's linoleum. "What?" It was far too early for this. Well, really, I was far too tired to comprehend words at the moment.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Kakashi clarified, perhaps thinking me confused. And I was confused, but not about that.
"Um." I entered the kitchen. I was so tired that a frown was permanently etched into my brow, but I wasn't angry. For the life of me, I just couldn't smooth it out. My hands began moving at a third of their regular pace, fitting my travel mug under the Keurig's spout. I grabbed my lunch bag from where it lazily sat on the corner of the counter and began stuffing random things inside of it. It took herculean effort to do this, rising within me this horrible toddler-like feeling that it was all unfair and I didn't wanna go.
Some people functioned on a lack of sleep, but apparently I had forgotten that I was not one of them.
"How does this end for him?" Kakashi asked, munching on another bite of cereal. For some reason, the sound of crunching made me want to throw the bowl into his face. Or out the window. Something.
Striving for calm, I grabbed a couple of granola bars for my ride to work. There was no way I was pouring myself a bowl of cereal right now. I reached down to pick up the babies, little desperate mewls acting like Kakashi hadn't just fed them three seconds before I came out. Their little lips were still covered in a salmon-fuzz, the more foul-smelling variant of a milk mustache.
Hable was developing more of an angular face, like a cheetah. Her orange had been such an intense burst of tangerine when she was born, but now the color had faded a bit, giving her an intensely soft and fluffy look, though she was a short-hair. On the other hand, Sintar's gray nose had considerably darkened, a brown nose on a dark-gray coat that was nearly blue. She retained her circular head shape, eyes rounder than her sister's.
"I thought you weren't interested in knowing the future of the story I know," I said, which wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the full truth, either.
