Finally Free

Fifteen

***BEEP BEEP BEEP***

"Fuckkkkkkkkk" I mumble while turning my 5:45 am alarm off. I lay in my warm for a minute before pushing the blanket off to get up. As soon as I stand up I have a sharp pain in my side. "That's new," I say to myself while walking to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom I lift my shirt to look at my side only to see a huge pretty dark purple and yellow bruise then I look up from that and see the fairly dark black eye I have at the moment.

"Fucking fuck," I whisper then sigh and start changing into my clothes for twirling. Next put on deodorant, moisturizer, vanilla body spray, brush my hair, and tie it in a high and tight ponytail. Once that's all ready I start layering up to go outside. First I click the automatic start button that Harry gave me for Christmas one year that I usually forget about but since I remember it I can actually prewarm my car up. Next, I put on a marbled grey Nike zip-up jacket with thumb holes, my black fuzzy North Face jacket, my earband/ear warmer thing, and my black Sperry rain boots. Before walking out of my room I grab my wallet, headphones, car keys, water bottle, and baton bag. I quickly grab a Granny Smith Apple as I walk past the fridge so I can have something to eat to make sure that my blood sugar does not go completely crazy. But I make sure to lock my bedroom door and the front door before walking down the stairs to my Jeep as fast as I can.

Thankfully there isn't any frost on my windows so I don't have to scrape it off. Once in my, thankfully warm, Jeep I make the maybe 4-minute drive to the campus rec center. Since it is only 6 am I can easily find parking close to the doors. I quickly walk into the rec center, scan my student ID that gives me access, and heads downstairs to where all the gym equipment, weights, basketball courts, and racquetball rooms are.

"Hi I'd like to reserve a racquetball court," I say to the downstairs front desk. Since there are usually a lot of people you have to reserve things like treadmills and racquetball rooms and if I reserve a court then I can't get asked to leave

"It's 6 am. Just take one." The girl says barely looking up from her phone

"Sorry for following the rules," I say as I walk away from the desk and towards the very last room. Once inside I shut the door, set my keys and baton bag down, take my shoes off, and start stripping layers until I am in just my tank top. I sit down to start stretching and of course while I am stretching I grab the Apple I brought to eat it while I also grab my phone to go to Spotify and turn my twirling playlist on. This playlist has all of my potential twirling songs, my favorite songs, the ones I use to warm up/get motivated and it just has a little bit of everything in it. While I'm in my split I grab my batons out of my bag and put them by my front foot and take a picture on Snapchat making sure to add the time stamp and the caption 'It has been a few minutes' before sending it to my streaks and also posting it on my story. I should mention that my Snapchat streaks are Harry, Louis, Beth, and Marissa. After the picture is posted I stand up and start doing my basic tricks like my body rolls before moving into the more complicated tricks like tosses.

***TIME SKIP***

Okay, I'm done. I've been twirling for two hours now and it has just been practicing skills. I am sore beyond belief not only from stretching and using muscles that I haven't used in a while but also because I am covered in dark painful bruises. Not to mention the new bruises I added from trying to do the newer roll series I was taught.

"I should probably call my coach," I tell myself as I am putting my batons away. Once those are away I change back into my boots. After I am ready I pause my music and do a once over of the room to make sure I left nothing behind before walking out and heading back to my apartment.

"Hey!" Taylor chirps as I pass her in the hallway of our apartment building.

"Hi" I mumbled pulling out my keys to unlock the front door. It is currently 8:30 and I have class at 11 so I have a little bit of time to get ready thankfully. As soon as I'm in my room I set my stuff on the bed and walk directly to my Keurig and turn it on to start heating water for my coffee. Next, I grab clean VS PINK underwear, a dark grey clean VS PINK strappy sports bra, clean pair of black leggings with some mesh cutouts, and a random dusty rose-colored boyfriend fit T-shirt.

I plug in my phone before walking to the bathroom and turn the water on for a quick shower. Once the shower is on I strip out of my clothes and take my hair out before retying it in a super high messy bun that sits directly on top of my head. While I am in the shower I really feel the pain from the bruises covering my rib cage and just start to cry. After spending longer in the shower than I wanted I carefully climb out, dry off, and get dressed trying not to move too much. Once I am dressed I grab my medicine case and take all of those making sure to add Advil to the daily pills. After taking my medicines I quickly put on deodorant, body spray, and moisturizer for my face. While the moisturizer dries basically I take my hair out of its messy bun, brush it out, spray a little dry shampoo in it, and then tie it in 2 Dutch braids that are tied off at the base of my skull leaving the hair in just two ponytails.

Next, I apply makeup to make this black eye look not nearly as bad. Since the bruise goes from my nose to my hairline basically on the right side of my face and a little bit around my left eye including on top of my nose I cannot completely cover it completely but it is not nearly as bad now. The only super noticeable part is my bloodshot eye.

"This will have to do," I tell myself while sliding my glasses on. I quickly clean up the bathroom before walking out and grabbing my phone off the bed. Shit, it is 10 am already. I guess my long shower, complicated(ish) hair, and lots of makeup took longer than I thought. I have to leave in 30 minutes. I put a coffee pod into my Keurig, add caramel syrup (from Starbucks of course) into my travel coffee mug, and begin brewing my coffee. While that is making I grab a pair of random ankle socks from the drawer and slide those on. I grab my backpack and make sure that I have everything I will need for all of my classes today and making sure to put my wallet and a few granola bars into my bag.

"Ugh, I'm cold," I tell my empty room before grabbing the marbles grey Nike zip-up jacket I wore to the gym and sliding it on. I check the time as I grab my coffee mug and walk to the kitchen to add creamer. I have to leave in 5 minutes. When I get back in my room I slide my black fuzzy North Face jacket, my backpack, my black Sperry Rainboots, and my gloves on. I plug my earbuds into my phone, grab my apartment keys and coffee before heading out the door. I make sure to lock my bedroom door and the front door as I leave. Since I never bought a car pass I walk to all of my classes which really is not a bad thing it gives me time to just be by myself and listen to my Skillet playlist.

While I am walking I debate getting on Tinder but decide against it because the idea of getting on Tinder is intimidating to me. Plus I just got out of a basically 2-year relationship a few days ago, I don't think I should be looking for someone else. But at the same time, I think I started getting over Colin months ago. I was just to chicken to do something about it. Plus I am in college, this is the best chance I have to do stupid things.

I am not going to do it now but probably later, when I am not in mass amounts of pain, like almost in tears mass amounts of pain. And when I am not in class because I am a 4.0 student who doesn't want to mess that up in any way.