We Found Love

FIFTEEN

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She stretched her limber body on her bed and yawned. It's six thirty in the morning and she could see a little bit of light in the day peering through her bedroom curtains.

Sunday mornings for Lauren typically starts with staring off glumly at nothing for approximately fifteen minutes before dragging herself off the bed. That feeling of sluggishness but you're aware that at some point in life you got to get up. It feels so heavy, and so monotonous, like an overused machinery lacking any sort of fuel to function well and do the same task over and over again.

She gets up then she will do her morning hygiene routine, put on her tight running shorts, a comfortable singlet and her running shoes, then strap her phone and keys in her upper left arm before leaving her apartment for another regular Sunday morning run. Doing so with the least enthusiasm, doing so out of habit. A regular thing that she does not because of the discipline that accompanies her attempt to stay fit and healthy and normal, but more like an acquired pattern she learned from someone she once held so dear in her heart.

But this morning, it's a little different. She wasn't staring off glumly at nothing. She doesn't have that heavy monotonous feeling dragging her out of her bed. There is no sluggishness, not in the slightest.

Instead, she woke up looking over at the used movie tickets from the previous night laying haphazardly in her bedside table, a light easy smile ghosting her lips.

When she typically wakes up feeling some weight resting in her chest but still feels so hollow inside, today she woke up feeling so light, like a feather, but bursting over to the brim with something that's akin to giddiness, a pitter patter dance in each of her heartbeat.

Lauren sat up from the soft cushions of her queen sized bed, renewed energy in every gentle breath intake that she did, proceeds to do her usual morning hygiene routine but this time, there's a bounce in each of her step, a melodic hum from her that was resounding softly in the room. A light was shining in her eyes, a kind of shimmer when the sunlight hits a crystal emerald through, the white light bouncing off different shades of green. Her teeth trapping her lip, stopping an uncontrollable smile that threatens to spread across her pretty face.

She hasn't felt anything like this for the past few months and she realized just now how exhausting being sad was. Sure, it is a feeling that anyone's entitled to and something that's out of anyone's control and sometimes it's okay to be sad.

But when you're feeling like that for a certain length of time, it drains you. It gets so tiring, so much that it takes more than just your energy, it takes away your purpose, your motivation.

And then, when that particular moment comes and you feel that lightness, a feeling of weight gently lifted off of your chest, for the first time after a long while of being so sad, it's liberating. It is that breath of fresh air you didn't know you needed.

That's exactly how Lauren is feeling that particular Sunday morning as she strapped herself up for her usual run.

She drank plenty of water before going out and taking another bottle with her. When she stepped out of the apartment, it was already ten minutes past seven. But it's still too early for her neighbors to get up on a Sunday, so it kind of surprised her to hear a muffled cluttering sound.

Then, she vaguely heard a wailing cry of a baby echoing from one of her neighbor's units.

She doesn't remember seeing anyone pregnant around so she doesn't think right away that someone gave birth to a baby recently. But the crying sound was loud enough to echo through walls and the way the baby cried sounds a little bit alarming.