beyond the monotonous city

twenty

Their New Year's was more relaxed than most would.

Her mom opened a bottle of champagne, Lauren declined, sticking to her grape juice instead. They watched fireworks in their backyard as they watched the second hand of the clock approach midnight.

She closed her eyes, thinking what the New Year really meant for her. She was really determined to make it a new beginning for her as the event barely meant anything to her last year. She felt her sister hug her as she jumped up and down and Lauren opened her eyes to see the cascading colors of light in the sky. She smiled.

She thought of the person that she was before the accident happened and how she had changed drastically. She decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing, that she could just start anew and start over, much like the new year.

Her siblings a few days after new year because of their school. Her grandfather picked them up again and she waved goodbye to her siblings. Her mom put an arm around her, watching them leave and she tried to hide the fact that she knew her mom was close to crying. If she let on, her mom would cry harder and she didn't want that.

She leaned her head on her mom's shoulder. "It was a good Christmas break. It was nice to have them back."

Her mom sniffed, and cleared her throat. "It sure was, now go clean your room." She ordered.

Lauren chuckled, going to her room. Moms still remained moms no matter how emotional they are. Lauren started fixing the clothes strewn over the floor and put them in the laundry chute or back in her closet. She started fixing her vinyl collection as well, dividing them by genre, arranging them by decade of release.

When she was done, she decides to start another painting. She thinks of what Keana had told her and thought of what to do to win Camila over. She was going to paint. She starts painting a brown landscape with her brush and decides to put a pyramid somewhere in the distant corner. Once she was satisfied, she sets it near the window to let it dry. She realized Keana was right as she found it easier to finish a painting than deal with the influx of emotions she had for Camila, along with the rest of her whirlpool of emotions. She was satisfied.

--

She asked her mom to drive her to the hospital. Her mom had looked at her funny as she was carrying a plastic container full of paper and crayons, and a large box that contained candies and chocolates.

"I'm doing this charity thing for the kids, thought I might make myself useful." She said, rather shyly. Clara's face grew soft as she beamed at her daughter.

"That's really nice, dear. I'll drive you there now."

She quietly rode in the backseat, as her mom told her about the time she was a volunteer in a charity when she was in her teen years. Lauren listened as she watched the view from outside. Despite everything that changed in her and happened to her the past year and a half, her town never changed. She started thinking if this was what Camila meant when she said there was life beyond the monotonous city. The gray in the pavement and sidewalks weren't just literal as they seemed to resemble how the city felt to her as well, bleak and monotonous. She found it ironic how the city sort of resembled how she felt about herself for the most part of the year, nothing out of the ordinary.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Clara pulled up in front of the white faced building. Shs turned to Lauren and gave her a kiss on her cheek before saying, "I'm really proud of you for doing this Lauren."

Lauren made her way to the children's ward as some of the nurses recognized her and pointed her the way when she asked. Before she had left in her session with John, she had asked him about a possible place where she can make kids happy like what she did with Shawn. He happily offered the children's ward as there were many children there who would be spending the holidays there. Lauren thought of it as the perfect place to begin.