Pieces Of Love

♡ Chapter 10 ♡

Two weeks flew by, or as Zaria would put it, dragged by way too slowly. She could feel her body begin to give in to all the stress and pressure she found herself under constantly. Although most of it she had put on herself to begin with. 

She needed to do this, and do that, and think about this, and think about that. Her mind was filled with thoughts twenty-four-seven as much as she felt burnt out.

The fact that Zach had been on her case about taking it easy really hadn't helped her off but she couldn't bring herself to tell her brother off when he was only worried. 

With all going on she hadn't had time to visit home as she had promise, and apart from Zach's trip a few weeks back she hadn't seen any of her family or friends. 

"Zaria...Zaria...Are you even listening to me?"

Zaria snapped out of her thinking bubble and turned to the woman who was waving a hand in front of her face. 

She sat up and nodded. "Yea, sorry Serena. I just keep spacing out" She mumbled. 

Serena was an African-American woman about Zaria's age who had just moved into the apartment across hers. They were about the same age, but Serena seemed to have the energy of a little kid on a sugar rush constantly.

She introduced herself the second she moved in and insisted on becoming friends, not like she got an objection from Zaria who in all honesty enjoyed her company. She was fun to be around.

"You should get some sleep then. We can have coffee some other time" Serena said in a worried tone as she scanned over Zaria's expression as if looking for something wrong.

Zaria quickly shook her head. "No no. I slept all day yesterday anyway" She insisted, leaning forward on the table over her cup of cooled coffee. "So what did Adam say after that?"

Serena gave her a worried glance but shrugged it off slightly and continued with her story. She excitedly talked all about her adventures with her friends as they traveled the world before she came to settle here. 

It made Zaria miss her own family and friends, but she was also sort of avoiding her brother right now. He was becoming a little too overbearing and she didn't have the energy to deal with it right now, so she distracted herself by intensively listening to every single word that left Serena's mouth. Sometimes it was nice to have a friend that just talked and talked to keep the conversation going when you weren't in the mood to.

"Oh, shoot it's already half past. I lost track of time" Serena whined as she cut herself off mid-sentence from the story she was telling. Zaria looked over at the clock on the other side of the cafe and realized they had sat just talking, mostly Serena, and laughing for three hours.

"You have to meet your classmate for the project?" Zaria asked, as Serena gulped the last of her coffee and nodded. Zaria watched her scramble to gather all her things, for a biology major, she was quite disoriented but it was amusing.
"Have fun!" Zaria called after the woman who only shot her a playful glare for laughing at her misery and dashed out the cafe door. 

After Zaria finished the last of her coffee, she headed back to her apartment. Maybe she'd change and just go for a walk in the park a little later to clear her head.

She ended up taking a nap on her couch and woke up to the ringing of her alarm that she'd set just in case she did fall asleep. She shut it off and got up, rubbing her eyes and processing. 

She scanned over the empty apartment, decorated with way too many houseplants and pictures, and forced herself off the couch. After patting her hair down into place she lazily slid on her shoes and a jumper. 

Her mind drifted off to work tomorrow, as she stepped out of the apartment fiddling with the zipper of her jumper. Her actions suddenly stopped when she remembered that she hadn't completed the document Andy had asked her to complete by Friday so he could do his part and send it to Aubreyanne. 

And it was Sunday. Surely both of them would have her head. This wasn't the first time she'd forgotten to do something and Aubreyanne was sure to get tired and rid of her no matter how much she favored her. 

She was already in the hallway, and it seemed to be stretching farther and growing thin, cutting off her air. She leaned against the wall for stability and her legs felt weaker. The last thing she wanted was to have a panic attack in the middle of the hallway over something that wasn't a big deal in the slightest. It was neither the time nor the place. 

"Hey are you alright" She could hear distant footsteps approach her. "hey breath. look at me. You're ok" their hands run through her hair, and a hand guided her to a sitting position where she immediately pulled her feet to her chest. 

"I'm right here look" her vision was blurry with tears, but she let the finger on her chin guide her head upwards. "It's fine, let it all fade away" Such a soothing voice.

As her thoughts went from that, slowly found it easier to breathe, following the voice and breathing in and out when told to. She focused on the breathing pattern, and when the tears stopped and her mind could focus she looked the person in the eyes. "Are you alright now?"

Aubreyanne...her voice had been so sweet and calm, Zaria barely recognized it. She looked up at the older woman and immediately went red with embarrassment. This was the absolute most embarrassing and worst thing to happen. She really didn't need this today. 

"What are you doing here?" She asked suddenly. She'd just picked one of the millions of questions bouncing around in her mind. It wasn't her intention for it to sound so rude and snappy, but she was still too shaken to activate her filter. "if it's about the Andy thing. I was going to get them to him soon I swear-" 

"I came to drop off the clothes you left at my place last weekend. I forgot I had them until I saw them in the laundry. And you already returned mine so I didn't want to hold on to them any longer" Aubreyanne said cutting her off. "And if it's the documents you're worried about I already asked Andy to take care of them himself since you'd be occupied with the new project. Andrew should have sent you an e-mail" 

Zaria nodded, feeling the embarrassment settling in more. Great, now she had s panick attack over nothing. She took Aubreyanne's offered hand and pulled herself to her feet taking the bag, which she assumed were the clothes Aubreyanne came to drop off.

"Do you have panic attacks normally?" Aubreyanne asked. "they're pretty serious"

"I'm just exhausted. I should head to bed" Zaria said, her gaze dropped to her feet as she held the bag up "Thanks for dropping them off"

Aubreyanne murmured a soft. "you're welcome" and turned to leave. 

"Wait" Zaria suddenly called out. "How did you know where I live?"

"It's in your files, and a nice woman in the lobby helped me find the floor. Serena was her name...I think" Aubreyanne casually answered, despite her previous statement having been ignored.

"Actually...would you like to come in? I can make some us something to drink or eat" Zaria offered, feeling guilt rack up her insides. 

"No thanks," Aubreyanne said turning back around. "you should get some rest" She mumbled, walking down the hall, Zaria watched intently and to her surprise, Aubreyanne stopped and hesitantly turned around.  "If you ever have another one you can always call me. I'll send you my number so I'm easier to reach" Aubreyanne said, and for a moment Zaria saw the softness in her eyes before she spun around and left. All Zaira could think was,

I'm such was a mess