A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The car door slammed shut behind you as you clenched your jaw in effort not to cry. Today had been horrid; losing your favourite water bottle somewhere between the house and work, no parking where you needed there to be, and on top of it all, your boss, blaming you for a mistake on a project that wasn't yours to begin with. It was enough to drag even the brightest, happiest person down, and while you weren't that person, you certainly tried to keep a positive mindset.

But today just flat out sucked. All you wanted to do was curl up in bed in your pyjamas and your boyfriend's t-shirt that you always stole, but life couldn't be that easy. The house was still a mess from breakfast, a hasty affair due to the fact that your alarm didn't go off, and it had to be cleaned up before you could even think about dinner. On top of that, Bradley wasn't home. It was late for the both of you to be arriving home, and his absence just made the lump in your throat just that much bigger.

You made it in the door, dropping your bags on the hardwood in the front entryway and just letting out a strangled huff, the only expression of your overstimulation that you could muster. It was like everything was too much and not enough all at once. And not in a good way. The sound of the now-falling rain pattering on the window panes had you gritting your teeth, trying desperately to hold it together long enough to change out of your work clothes. At least you weren't caught out in the downpour.

Closing your eyes in a frantic attempt to keep your wits about you, you navigated upstairs, flopping backwards on the unmade bed that you knew would make Bradley cringe. God knows why you had to fall for a Navy man. He could be a neat freak when he wanted to be and while he usually wasn't, the bed was the one thing that could make a whiskey-coloured eye twitch. It was the last thing you needed. Yet another thing on the list, another item precariously thrown onto the comically large pile of stuff to do that you were struggling to balance.

Your breath punched out of you, heart pounding in your ears as your clothes felt too tight on your body. Everything was just too much.

Too loud.

Too quiet.

Too bright.

Too... everything.

"Fuuuuccckkk..." you whined, covering your eyes with your shaking hands. Your chest clenched, body struggling to reorient itself as you cried.

Your mom and sister had told you that sometimes a good cry fixed everything, and right now, you were really hoping that they were right because everything was going wrong. But the lights were too much, so begrudgingly and painfully slowly, you made your way over to the light switch, flipping it off and collapsing back onto your bed, letting the tears flow.

You relinquished your control on your feelings and just cried. Your head hurt, your chest ached as you tried to take in another breath into your desperate, air-starved lungs. "Why today?" You mumbled, burying your face into Bradley's pillow. His scent was still clinging to the fabric, offering you some small relief in the smell of your apple body wash and his cedar and bergamot shampoo.

God you just needed Bradley here. Needed him to hold you close, just wrap you up in a tight hug where the world wouldn't be so loud, where you could just forget about the shit you had endured all day. That was all.

You didn't know how long you had laid there or when your tears had stopped, but you had. And your chest just ached, both from crying and the numbness that was settling into you like storm clouds gathering in a valley. The world was still too noisy. Too bright even as you lay in the dark, still wearing your work clothes and your body half-hanging off the bed.

It was at this moment that your boyfriend came barging into the room, flicking the light on, humming some random song. Bradley had no idea you were in there. He knew you were home, but he honestly had no idea where you were, but figured that changing was probably his best move before he found you.