Overstimulated

Stimulation

(poem by Rupi Kuar from milk and honey) 

Aurora wrapped her hands around her warm mug as she watched the moving team unload the truck and stack boxes with painstaking care. She was finally getting a neighbor. The apartment across the hall from her had been vacant for 5 months since Rebecca moved out.

She missed Rebecca.

Ok, so she didn't miss Rebecca as much as she missed having a neighbor in general. Rebecca was...messy. Different men in and out of her life, couldn't hold a steady job and relied heavily on her parents paying for most of her expenses. She was loud, annoying and always asking to borrow condiments she would never return. But she was..interesting and made Aurora's boring and monotonous life a little less boring and monotonous.

The distinct noise of a heavy box hitting the pavement pulled her back to the present and the scene below her window.

"Watch what you're doing girl!" one of the workers, a short fat white man, face red from the high afternoon sun, yelled at a clumsy girl who quickly grabbed the small and now slightly dented box and scurried up the stairs. This moving team had been here since five am unloading what seemed like endless boxes and furniture out of the bed of the large truck. Aurora was cranky as hell because of the early ass wake up call but had been watching them all day with amusement. At least they were kind of entertaining.

She sighed and took a sip of her Moroccan mint tea wondering what kind of person her neighbor was to employ such a large team of people to move in, and set up by the sounds coming from across the hall, their apartment for them.

The muted vibration of her cell phone ringing broke off her overly-imaginative mind. That Bitch Jade flashed across the screen. Aurora rolled her eyes good naturedly and swiped over to pick up the call. "Helloooo?"

"Heeeeeyyy biiiiiitch!" Jade greeted overexuburantly.

Aurora smiled despite herself. Jade was her best friend-turned-editor and the complete opposite of herself. Where Aurora was meek, Jade was bold. But that's the thing she loved about her. Their friendship gave her a sense of excitement that was much needed the past few months.

"Hey J, wassup?" Aurora turned from the scene outside and walked toward her kitchen island.

"Ok, business first," Jade said in her no-bullshit tone dragging a groan out of Aurora. She hated the business talk. "Don't make that sound bitch, if you just send over some new shit we wouldn't have to have this conversation. Your deadline is in six weeks girl," she paused, her voice going much softer, switching from her editor to her best friend seamlessly. "You gotta give us something, Ari."

Aurora sat on one of the stools, bending over to press her head into the cool recycled glass top of her island. "I knooow," she huffed. She had been very actively trying but nothing evoked any kind of emotion in her anymore. She refused to let herself go back to the dark space she inhabited when she pumped out her last book at a dizzying speed. Never again.

"I've just been having some serious writer's block, J. It's like someone stuffed a Popeye's biscuit in my brain and it sopped up all my creative juices."

Jade laughed, "Well that was creative as hell."

"You know what I mean, Jade," Aurora whined. "Nothing is inspiring me anymore. My life is just too damn boring."

"It's probably cause your ass stays cooped up inside all day. What you need to do is smoke some weed or get some dick. Shit, do both!"

"Jade!" Aurora laughingly chastised her.