Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
I had another hunger brewing, one that left me ravenous. It had been so long since I’d had the urge to do anything artistic that that too felt foreign, but when I looked over all that I had done in the last few hours, I found that I had created three new songs from my pitiful ramblings.
I was more surprised by the fact that no one had come to bother me in all this time than by my progress. Usually, Rachel, my aunt, or my uncle would’ve popped their head in by now, but when I listened for any sound from downstairs, there was none.
I wiped the fatigue from my eyes, and that’s when I saw the note Sydney had left on the pillow for me to find. I hadn’t seen it yet because, at some point, I’d moved myself to the carpeted floor of my bedroom, surrounded by sheets of discarded paper that I had no recollection of using.
Now I know why no one had bothered me. To give me some time, my friend had lied to the home’s other occupants that I’d taken one of my pills and gone to bed. Since everyone was very well aware that I usually did that after an interview and that that was my preferred method of escape, no one doubted her.
I considered heading downstairs to prepare a meal but moving away from what I was doing made me feel tired, so I dove back into writing and rearranging.
It was another few hours before fatigue kicked in, and the words began to blur on the page. As much as I wanted to push myself, I knew from experience that I’d pay the price the next day, well, today, since it was already three o’clock in the morning.
So, I forced myself to get up, head into the en suite bathroom for a much-needed shower, and work the kinks out from sitting in one place for too long. The shower revived me, and I was back at it before the water dried on my skin.
Wrapped in a comfy old robe, I climbed onto the bed this time and settled down to do some serious work. Please leave it to Sydney; she always knows what to do. It was just a stroke of luck that I’d run back up to my room after the maid had cleaned it and made the bed to jot my thoughts down as a kind of exercise before heading out to the interview.
Had I not done that, she’d have never found my journal, and none of this would be happening. I wrote furiously until the sun came up. Turning the words I’d written in my darkest moments into art. My mind felt the clearest it had been in some time, and there was a little spark of hope for the first time in way too long.
I smiled down at the finished work, feeling a sense of pride, but as much as I was tempted to rush to my home studio, I knew I would be no good to do that now on no sleep. Still, the tunes ran through my head after I put everything away in my little hiding spot and settled to sleep, pulling the covers up beneath my chin and letting the first strains of sleep take me.
The next afternoon, I went downstairs feeling fresh and renewed. Only Rachel was in the kitchen on her phone, which she hung up with a smile as soon as I walked in. “Hi, sleepyhead. How many of those pills did you take anyway? You’ve been asleep for hours.”
It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about, and when it came to me, I put a smile on my face and carried on with the façade, unwilling to throw Sydney under the bus for lying to them. “I must’ve overdosed myself. I was just that tired. You know how I am after one of those things.”
“That’s true. So, what did you and Sydney talk about yesterday?” There goes that jealousy thing again.
“Nothing much. We just did a little bit of catching up.” Her eyes followed me as I emptied the destroyed sundae down the sink and washed the dish before placing it in the dishwasher.
No matter how much help I have, old habits are hard to break, and mom was not the type to let her teenage daughter slack on household chores no matter how famous she was. “Oh, cool. Are you doing anything special today? Or are you just staying in?”
“I have no plans on stepping out those doors for at least a week. Why? Did you want to do something?”
“No, I just figured I’d run some errands if you didn’t need me for anything.” I waved my hand dismissively and urged her to go ahead and enjoy her day.