On the Road Again

Chapter 5

          I wake up at the random time of seven o'clock a.m. I groan unhappily, this was definitely not planned in my itinerary. I toss and turn for a while before realising I have absolutely no hope in falling back asleep. It's just kind of always been a habit; once I wake up, I'm awake.

          I throw my legs over the side of my bed and they slightly recoil as they face the shivering air. I stuff them into my bunny slippers and trudge out of bed.

          I walk down the hallway towards the bathroom. I pull my long brown hair out of the loose high ponytail I put it in before bed and comb out all the irregular waves. After undressing, I step into the shower. I have a quick rinse to wake me up and I then move on to my hair and make-up. I curl my hair into beautiful medium-sized ringlets and set the look in stone with a dash of hair spray. After shuffling about in my messy make-up draw, I find my neutral pallet of eyeshadow and touch up my eyes with a nice brown colour. I then do a small wing with eyeliner and a few brushes of mascara on each eye. I finish the look with a thin layer of lipgloss and with an acknowledging nod, I leave the bath room.

           I start to walk down the stairs (still in my pyjamas) when I smell some thing in the kitchen. It smells like, bacon! But whose cooking it? The first delusional answer that comes to mind is Mimi. I bolt down the remaining stairs and slightly frown when I see it isn't her. I see Cherry's familiar scruffy blonde bob in the kitchen and sit down on one of the stools. She turns around with a pair of tongs in hand.

          "I figured you might wake up early, so I decided I would come down and make you some breakfast," Cherry says turning over a strip of bacon with the tongs. I look at her in a confused way.

          "Thanks for that, but my door locks automatically when it closes so how exactly did you get in?" I ask pointing towards my closed front door. Cherry dangles a key card identical to mine in the air. I suddenly remember the time I gave what used to be Mimi's key card to Cherry when we were at work, telling her it was incase she or I had any emergency.

          "So do you want your eggs sunny side up, or over easy?" Cherry enquires, sliding several rashers of bacon onto a plate.

          "Over easy please." I answer, absentmindedly twirling my finger around one of my curled locks of hair. Cherry brings me a plate containing two slices of toast, five rashers of bacon and two eggs. My stomach gives a loud grumble making it evident that I am hungry.

          "Someone's hungry," Cherry teases. I bump her shoulder playfully.

           "Come on, let's eat in the lounge room." I say gesturing towards my red couch. Cherry nods and we both make our way there with simmering hot plates of food in our hands.

          I sit down at my usual end of the couch and Cherry seats herself at the other end. This reminds me severely of Mimi and a nervous shiver sprints down my spine. Cherry picks up on this and sets her knife and fork down on her plate.

          "Something bothering you?" She asks, her brows knitted together in concern.

           "Oh, it's nothing," I sigh, knowing there is no reason to kick up a stink about something so minor. Cherry frowns.

           "Okay, I can tell, it's something I've done." She says coming closer to me. My cheeks slightly flush.

          "How did you know?" I ask fidgeting with one of my curls. Cherry grins.