Closer Apart

Laila-1

"Study, study, study," I yelled, "that's all I ever have time for isn't it?"

"No," Cindy replied softly, "you can also practice your ballet or--"

I cut her off, "Or play a perfect little song on the perfect little piano."

"I didn't say it like that," Cindy quickly assured me.

"You meant it like that though." I retorted.

My step-mother looked at me with her dark brown eyes. Her face was stern and the wrinkles clearly defined from age and worry. I rolled my baby blue eyes at her and stomped back upstairs into my room. Thinking to myself, I never have time for anything normal. I closed my eyes and fell back onto the cushion of my goose feather comforter. My eyes shot open when I realized I still had physics homework and with that thought also went my second of relaxation. Out came the textbook, pens, and notebook. That essentially summed up my life.

The next day would be the same. The same routine as every week-day on repeat.

And when I woke up I knew I had called it. I grabbed my bags, prepacked from the night before when I had finished my homework, as usual. I threw on the outfit that had been already picked out fifteen days before. My legs habitually carried my body to the bathroom, where I then splashed water on my face to wake me up and again to wash my face. It was a cycle of which I knew all too well.

I threw myself down the stairs in a hurried manner, then grabbed my iced coffee from the refrigerator and the coffee ice cubes from the freezer. I popped three ice cubes into my travel mug and then refilled the slots where the frozen coffee had once sat.

The tray was then returned to the freezer and the iced coffee poured into my cup. Splashing and dancing until it was filled to an acceptable height. Next came breakfast, as I sipped my coffee from the travel mug, I pressed play on my phone. The bluetooth system in the house automatically connected and started to play my playlist of the day, one that accurately described my mood. The reasoning behind my playlist was that if my mood stays constant every day then one playlist would be useful and less time consuming than skipping the songs while the phone was on shuffle.

As I happily listened to "Like Real People Do" by Hozier, I placed my english muffins into the toaster and pulled the butter out from the refrigerator along with a knife, from the drawers to cut and spread the butter with.

When the english muffins leaped from the mouth of the toaster, I pulled them from the heated jaws with wooden tongs. I buttered them, took my medicine with my coffee,and grabbed my car keys. I then reached for a jacket, today I wore my light-washed, distressed, skinny jeans as well as a navy blue and white plaid button-up. The outfit was pulled together with a chocolate tone fedora.

I carried myself out the door, shutting it tightly behind me and locking it. My boots clicked against the asphalt of our drive-way and I climbed into my crimson mini-cooper and then drove the usual route to my high school.