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The birds softly hummed in greeting as the sun slowly came up. Madelline groaned and tossed before realizing she had to get up. She doesn't even know why she was up early. She felt as if she got beat up, proceeded to fight back, then was beat up all over again.
Every part of her body ached, begging for more sleep. Yet, after mindlessly staring at a certain corner of her ceiling, she slowly sat up and stretched her arms over her head. A smile appeared on her lips at the weirdly satisfying sound of her bones cracking before she stood up and reached for her door.
The eerie silence greeted her as soon as she left her room. She dragged her feet behind her as she navigated the entire house until she reached their kitchen. A lazy smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she spotted a steaming cup of coffee her father had left for her. Silent thank-yous were uttered inside her mind before she enclosed the cup with her cold hands, silently sighing in contentment at the warmth.
Taking the coffee with her, she went back to the room, where the feeling of fatigue still enveloped her body like home. However, the moment she placed the half-drunk coffee on her table and pulled the soft comforter around her, she was out like a light once again.
The sun shone down harshly on her face like a reminder, prompting her to wake up with a groan and an arm covering her eyes. Attempts to fall back asleep became futile, so she decided to get up and begin fixing her bed while still out of it.
Deciding to spend her day being productive instead of binge-watching movies in her bed while there were unsettled corrugated boxes waiting for her outside, she spent her entire morning dragging and carrying heavy boxes along the stairs while still clad in her pajamas as jazz music played in the background.
Madelline Smith held a soft spot for her vinyls and, of course, her turntable that her father gifted her for her thirteenth birthday. She ensured that there were shelves on which she could store her vinyls and even searched for ways to properly take care of them when she was younger. Next to her vinyls were her books. It provided her with an escapade—a sense of comfort with a little bit of magic sometimes—which she needed when life suddenly became too much.
"Hey, Maddy!"
She furrowed her eyebrows and made her way to her turntable to stop the music. She went back to her window to peek out, just to see her father, fresh from work, standing on their doorstep with his hands stuffed inside his pockets. Before him stood Charlie, and beside him was a long-haired man in a wheelchair. She also saw Bella standing beside them with a boy who looked to be around their age; his black-colored hair lay flat against his back.
Despite the confusion, she opened her window to respond. "Yes, dad?"
