63rd St.

Chapter 9

Pounding.

Heart stoppingly painful, skull cracking, life ending pounding.

That is the only word I can use to describe what is happening to my body right now. My head is pounding so hard I feel like my temples have on boxing gloves.

My stomach is pounding in a way that makes me want to barf up my insides. Each one of my legs are pounding so hard, I contemplate checking them to see if they are bruised and swollen.

There is not a single ray of sunshine flowing into my room, yet I still feel like it's blindingly bright in here.

I throw a pillow over my head adding so much pressure on it, threatening suffocating myself. Maybe that's not such a bad idea...

With all the alcohol I drink, you'd think I'd be prone to hangovers, but the constant churning of my stomach right now proves otherwise.

Memories from last night instantly come flooding back in at the thought of alcohol.

Andrew, The Vodka.

Walking to the house, seeing Jasper. Smoking weed with jasper.

Talking with him.

Him walking me back home.

Him giving me his number on that cigarette, which for some reason is on my chest.

Him telling me to keep in touch.

Him leaving.

My left temple makes another pound into my head, and I cringe so hard from the pain that my eyes shut.

God this is brutal.

I press the pillow harder into my head trying desperately to drown out the echos of headache, when three booming knocks on my door startle the pillow out of my hands and onto the floor.

My mom bursts into the room with an obnoxious smile on her face, that drops as soon as she sees i'm still in bed -at what I'm assuming- this late in the morning.

"Good morning Pumpkin. What are you still doing in bed at this hour?"

Even with the World War lll going on in my head, I still manage to turn my face up at the pet name.

"I get up at this time every morning," I lie. God she doesn't even know her own daughter has insomnia. "Not that you'd know, considering you're never around." I spit daggers at her with my eyes, but my tone is as sweet as honey.

I can tell she's taken aback, but she quickly covers it up with a composed face.

"I have plans for us today." She says, sounding proud of herself.

Try to give her a chance Athena! It'll pay off! I remind myself. Taking a deep, annoyed breath I reply. "Whoopee!"

"We are going to a Ballet this evening." I look at her like she just spoke in Arabic.

"Since when do you like Ballets? I thought you were only into Tinder and wine coolers." I say in mock confusion.

I mentally kick myself for being mean, but it's honestly like an instinct now to take a jab at her whenever I can.

"I haven't been on Tinder since I've been with Rob," she seethes through her teeth, before composing herself once again. "And Ballets are beautiful performances, I think it'll be important for you to see something like that in live action."

I roll my eyes.

"A... Co-worker of mine's daughter is in the performance. He got us two free tickets, and we are going to use them dammit!"