Finding Her Joy

Just Breathe

*A/N Hello again. Just thought I'd pop in and see how things are going. I'm trying to upload 2 chapters a day. I've got a bit of a layout already, but I'm really just trying to go with the flow of ideas. I think the next chapter is going to be another story from Mia's childhood. I'm not sure if anyone actually reads these, but if you are, I have something to tell you: You're doing great. I also hope you had a nice day.

(MIA POV)
As I roll over to check my phone again, I see it's only 4:45 am now. My attempt to fall back asleep until my alarm went off had failed. I knew it wouldn't work very well anyway, seeing as normally I'd have had to drink a few glasses of wine before bed to sleep. Definitely not enough to get me drunk, but just enough to shut my mind off. After work yesterday, I ended up coming home to put ice on my face and then just threw myself into my bed to try and sleep off the day.

I decided to just get up and ready instead of wallowing in my bed. On my way to the bathroom to shower, I looked in the mirror at my face. Couldn't even tell I had been punched the day before unless you knew or had been looking closely. The bruising was little enough to be covered by some makeup. If I was going to try and get back on Reece's good side, I was definitely going to wear makeup today.

Even after taking a shower, doing my makeup, fixing my hair, and getting dressed, it was only 6 am. I made myself some coffee and sat in my kitchen to drink it. Breakfast wasn't something I normally indulged in, so coffee was about as far as my morning routine went.

I tried sitting on the couch to watch one of those mind-numbing shows, but after scrolling for 10 minutes, I chose to go into work early. Maybe if I got there sooner, I could run into Reece without Marjorie.

There were parts of me that just wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted so badly to come clean and tell him everything Roger had done to me. He would know if I was telling the truth or not. Roger did treat him the worst, so he knows what he's capable of. But in the back of my mind, I knew he would take one look at me and call me a liar just because I had been painted as the villain for so long. This realization killed me.

As I arrived at the building 15 minutes before anyone else would be there, I received a text from Reece saying he wouldn't be coming in. "Great. Just what I need when Roger is on my back." I thought to myself as I lay my head on the steering wheel.

The day wasn't going to be a total bust, though. I checked the schedule, and Charlotte was coming to cover for the sick staff member again. She was also on the early shift, so she would be the first to arrive.

My palms started to sweat, and my heart started to race as I saw her pull into the car park. I found myself, once again, staring at her. "Get a grip. She's married." I grabbed my things and headed to the door to unlock it for us. There was no harm in being friendly to her, right?

"Morning, Charlotte." I said as I reached the door. She looked over at me and did a small smile. Small enough that most people wouldn't notice.

"Mia." She paused and walked through the door. I followed behind her, "How's your face?"

"Just fine. I appreciate the advice last night. The ice definitely helped." I replied, trying to sound friendlier than usual. I started screaming at myself in my head because I knew it was going to be awkward if I tried to stay and chat with her. "I'll be in the office if you need me."

I walked away before she had a chance to respond and realized I was the devil spawn. What was I doing? I needed to get my mind clear and focus on the real objective. Reece.

Parents started coming in to drop kids off around 30 minutes later. I stayed in the office doing paperwork and going over some children's files. If I was going to be here, the least I could do was make sure things were detailed and organized. Chaos had always been something that made me very overly stressed. It was a fun thing I had developed after my dad left.