STRESSED: a status short

Stressed

Stressed

(story inspired by a facebook status)

Copyright @ Mireille Chester

 

            The day was beautiful and the sun warmed me as it shone through the window to where I sat at my computer.  A small sparrow landed on the window sill and chirped me a song.  It was one of those days; the kind where my fingers flew over the keyboard and still couldn’t keep up with the scenes running through my head.  A strong breeze blew my jaw length dark brown hair into my face.  I reached back to the bed without looking, grabbed my baseball hat, and put it on to avoid any more annoying hair in the face moments.

            BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

            I groaned.  “Allie!  Allie!  Turn your music down!”

            BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

            “Allie!”  I pushed save on my file and stood.  “Shit, I get the whole music is inspiring thing, but come on!”  I was also a true believer that music inspired.  In fact, my own writing playlist was flowing from my computer’s speakers.  The difference?  Only I could hear it, whereas I was sure the neighbors could hear Allie’s.  I stalked down the hallway to my roommate’s room slash office.  It didn’t look much different than mine; laptop, desktop, bed, dresser, shelves full of books and a lamp.  One of the only ways to tell the rooms apart was by the color schemes.  Hers was emerald green and mine was khaki green.

            I knocked on the door, waited a few seconds, then walked in.  Allie finished typing out the sentence she was working on, paused, nodded and looked up.  She could have written a whole paragraph before looking up and that would have been alright by me.  I knew she wasn’t ignoring me.  The worst feeling ever when you’re writing is the one when someone interrupts you mid-thought and you can’t get it back once that person leaves.

            She tucked some long red bangs behind her ears and her green eyes squinted with her smile as she reached over and turned the music down.  “Hey, love, what’s up?”

            I leaned against the door frame and wrinkled my nose.  “Can you turn it down a bit?  Your inspiration is drowning out mine.”

            “For sure.  Just after the next song.  These two are the best.”

            I nodded and tried to keep my annoyance out of my own green eyes.  Allie turned her music up and I headed back to my room.  I took a deep breath, sat back into my chair, and set my fingers on the keyboard.

            BOOM! BOOM!

            Great, I thought to myself.  It’s gone.  I blew a breath out of my nose, pulled my USB stick out of the desktop and grabbed the backpack that help my laptop before heading downstairs.  Sammie, our third roommate, closed the refrigerator door and smiled.  Her long dark blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail.

            She glanced at my backpack.  “Are you heading out?”  Her grey eyes looked up the stairs to where the thundering base was coming from.

            “Yeah.  I need to take Smokey for a walk.  I’m gonna head to the park.”

            My german shepherd went to the door at the sound of his name and brought me his leash.  I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed outside, the rhythmic BOOM BOOM of Allie’s music following me down the block.