Far From Perfect

Chapter 1

My alarm goes off but I refuse to move. I just lay in bed and stare up at the glow in the dark stars on my roof, thinking if I just lay here long enough, my alarm will shut up and my responsibilities will just disappear with it.

I close my eyes and feel myself drift off to sleep when I hear a fist pounding on my door.

"Alexa, get your lazy butt out of bed! You need to get ready for work," I hear my best friend and roommate yell from the other side of my bedroom door, bursting my bubble. I groan in complaint.

"Go away," I yell back and sluggishly throw a pillow at my door. I roll onto my stomach and hear my door creak open and before I know it, my blankets are being pulled off of me. "Seriously, Mia?" I complain with my eyes still closed.

"Seriously," she responds with a laugh and smacks me on the head with the pillow I had thrown at the door. "Now get up and get ready. The last thing we want is to be late to work."

"Fine. I'll start getting ready. Just give me five more minutes."

"No, Alexa! Get your lazy ass out of bed," she demands and starts pulling me by my leg until I'm literally clinging to my bed to keep from falling off.

"Okay, I give. I give. I'll start getting ready now," I say with a huff and feel her release my leg. "Now go away, so I can get ready."

 "Fine, but you better be ready in half an hour."

"Yes, mother," I say with a roll of my eyes and climb out of bed, giving up any hope I had of getting even one more minute of shut-eye.

"Don't give me that attitude," Mia says with lots of sass and places her hand on her hip, but I know she's just messing around.

 "Okay, enough. I need to get ready now that I'm up," I say with as much energy as I can muster.

"Thank goodness," Mia says, throwing her hands up in relief. "I'll leave you now. But now you only have twenty-five minutes since you took so long."

"That's fine. Now shoo," I tell her and gently push her out of my room before locking the door behind her, glad that she is finally out of my hair even if it is just for the time being. Don't get me wrong. I love Mia to death. I just don't appreciate when people get between me and my sleep, but in this case, it can't be helped. We both have to get to work.

I quickly do my usual morning routine and get in a quick shower before getting dressed. I give my outfit a once over and simply accept the fact that I'm not going to look any better than I did yesterday or the day before and completely skip the mirror and walk past my stash of makeup on the bathroom counter and grab my hairbrush.

On my good days, I would at least put some mascara on and maybe a pop of color for my lips, but today I'm not feeling it. The last thing I want to do is look in the mirror, so I skip that part altogether and brush my curly hair.

People often compliment my long raven black hair that falls in waves around my shoulders and back, but not even my hair is enough to give me the boost of confidence that I need to feel good about myself, but there are those rare days where I actually do like what I see in the mirror. They are few and far between, but when I have those kinds of days, I cling to them as if they were my lifeline because those days are what help me keep going.

I walk out of my bathroom, refusing to look at myself in the mirror and make my way towards the kitchen with my purse in hand.

"You look really pretty," Mia comments just like she does practically every day, but I feel that her saying it is no different than my mom telling me that I'm beautiful, which she really only says because I'm her daughter. That's basically every parent's obligation, and I feel that Mia feels that same sense of obligation since I'm her best friend and roommate, but I thank her just the same. I never do take her words to heart though, because I have a hard time believing them no matter how many times she tells me I'm pretty and beautiful.