The Middle Takes Ages [gxg]

2

The next day was better.

Bo stretched to take a look out of the window before laying back down and burrowing deep beneath her lilac duvet.

It was only a bit better she concluded.

The weather wasn't so miserable as yesterday but the sky was still the same dull, grey. Not so promising. Not so promising at all.

Bo knew she should be happy about having the whole summer practically to herself. She was to start university in September and until then her life was vacant of responsibilities and she was free.

But somehow...maybe it was the dreary weather because somehow Bo didn't feel excited by the prospect of freedom. She didn't feel like freedom was altogether accessible in a world like hers.

To avoid being labelled 'lazy' or 'wasteful' by over-the-phone relatives, she still had the job of 'living' to do. The hardest responsibility of all so technically she wasn't exactly free anyway.

For example she still had to get up in the morning, eat three meals before sundown, shower at least once a day and then go to bed at a reasonable time.

But what Bo had found was that it was quite hard to live by such mundane rules. The monotony had already killed her desire to be productive and it had only been two weeks since she had officially graduated from college.

Where was the freedom in that? Bo wanted to argue. Although currently there weren't much people in Bo's life that she could argue with.

There was the attractive postman that she hid from every Tuesday morning. Or Miles, her weird overly inquisitive neighbour.

Then there were her three closest friends, all of them low maintenance enough to be satisfied with the odd text or FaceTime now and then. And then finally, there was her mother, who often called to check in and demand to know what Bo's 'plan' was for the week.

Bo wasn't an argumentative person anyway. Bo just wanted a cat.

Bo really wanted a cat. A little grey one she could come home to and stroke and cuddle without having to partake in exhausting conversation. She wanted one so badly she was afraid that one day when she next spotted the cat across the street, the one with the spotted collar, she would simply pick it up and walk away with it.

For this reason amongst many, Bo had forced herself to go outside yesterday. Also because she had been inside the house for three days straight and the sight of her crumpled band t-shirt was starting to make her think funny thoughts.

On this particular morning, the only thing pressuring Bo to get out of bed so early was the fact that she had a doctors appointment.

She groaned internally. Doctors appointment or not, she would eventually to have to leave her warm comforting bed. Might as well be...In ten minutes time? That sounded good to Bo. That sounded like a compromise.