The alarm rang angrily throughout the apartment. A head of messy black hair poked out from under a duvet that was too big for such a small woman. In a sleep-addled haze, she reached out to her nightstand and started slapping down on it. She kept doing that until she finally hit the snooze button, mercifully shutting it off and bathing the apartment in silence once again. It was tempting to just slip back under the duvet and fall back asleep, but her alarm didn't ring for no reason... usually.
She sat up in bed, the covers falling down to her waist. Her eyes could barely open, no matter how hard she tried. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes, only to have them fall right back into her line of sight. Groaning, she pushed the covers off and got out of bed, but collapsed right back onto it as soon as her feet touched the ground. Her right foot had fallen asleep, and putting pressure on it felt like she was being stabbed by so many little pins and needles. It was like her foot had been transformed into one of those toys with all the pins, where you push them in to make some sort of shape. The... uh, the that toy. Whatever.
Ugh, she didn't have time to wait for her foot to wake up. If she had to get her day started while half-asleep, then her foot had to as well. She got back up and hobbled over to use the bathroom, then into the kitchen to start making breakfast. Or at least a facsimile of one. It had been a weird adjustment making pancakes via the microwave. They just didn't have the same taste frozen as they did when made from scratch. She just didn't have time to do that on the weekdays because she had to wake up so early. There had been a choice to make: either use the stove to cook eggs or pancakes. As far as she knew, there were no microwavable eggs.
She broke two eggs onto the pan, putting a strip of bacon on to make a smiley face. Then she started to cook it as she tossed two already-made pancakes onto a plate and put it into the microwave. This seemed like an activity that shouldn't be done when she was close to falling asleep and slamming her face down on the stove, but she needed food in her belly. It growled in need every morning, so she had to feed it regardless of how tired she was. Besides, she'd been doing this enough that she felt confident that she could do it in her sleep. So there was that.
The pancakes came out fine, considering it was tough for anyone to mess up microwaving something. Her bacon, however, had shrunk some after being heated up, and her smiley breakfast wasn't looking so happy anymore. She sighed at the sight, dumping the eggs and bacon next to her pancakes. Then she grabbed a bottle of maple syrup, a fork, and a knife, taking all of them over to the folding table she ate her meals on. Setting everything down, she sat on the lone chair and began to eat.
Her new place was nice. Well, sort of new, but still nice. It wasn't big, but that didn't matter. She didn't need that much space anymore anyway. After spending months living with her dad, she felt that she needed to get out and actually get a place to live in. One that she paid for with her own money. Well, some of her own money. She didn't exactly have enough to afford this apartment yet, but Yang was helping her with what she couldn't pay off for a few months. It was something she felt guilty about, but she'd already felt guilty for bumming around at her dad's place like a jobless drop out, so she was kinda between a guilty rock and a hard place no matter what.
That was why she was waking up at six every weekday morning: to go to a job she was sort of interested in to make money so she could keep living on her own. The thought made her stomach churn, and she pushed her plate away. It was mostly eaten anyway, but she didn't want to eat anymore. She'd just take it to work and have it for lunch or something. Not much of a lunch, but... again, whatever. Who cared? She didn't anymore.
Heading back into the bathroom, she hit the lights and covered her eyes from the brightness. She was slowly waking up enough to get used to it, though, and it didn't take long for her to drop her hands and look at herself in the mirror. Another attempt was made to push her bangs back, but they kept falling into her eyes. In frustration, she ruffled her hair furiously, sighing at the sight of white flakes still clinging to her fingers. Dusting her hands off, she got ready for work: brushing her teeth, changing out of her pajamas, the works. Real riveting stuff. It fit perfectly for her riveting job.
Honestly, it was alright, but she didn't feel excited to get up every morning and go to it. It wasn't the job she thought she'd have when she was growing up, that's for sure. This was a 'job' and not a 'career', as some might say. At least, she hoped that was the case. Otherwise she'd be a real big disappointment, just as... Eh, never mind. It didn't matter. She didn't have time to be thinking about the past when she had to get out on the road.
Grabbing the hat she used to keep her hair out of her eyes, she put it on snugly and grabbed a five hour energy. She chugged it down, gagging afterwards at the taste. It was something she'd been hoping to get used to, as she really needed the energy to get through the day, but no matter how many she drank, it still tasted awful. She threw away the tiny, empty bottle and left the apartment. Maybe she should get a haircut after work. If she felt like it, anyway.
She sat in a cheap diner, having decided to 'splurge' a little bit. Truth be told, she didn't feel like cooking anything at home, so this was the next best option. Holding her glass of soda between her hands, she looked at the empty chair on the opposite side of her. A sudden wave of sadness quickly overwhelmed her, and she pulled her phone out of her hoodie pocket. She dialed her dad's number while she chewed on her lower lip.
"Uh, hey dad. Just wanted to see what was up. Uh, I'm having dinner right now, and... and I was gonna see a movie too." She hadn't been planning on doing that. It just came out of her mouth without her thinking about it. "So, uh, hope everything's going alright. Yeah, so... so, uh, call me back tonight if you can. Bye." She hung up and sighed, putting her phone away and grabbing onto her glass again. Her dad hadn't answered, and her drink wasn't exactly a great conversationalist. She decided to get up and go grab a newspaper so she at least had something to do while waiting for her food. It was as good a distraction as any.
Of course, most of the articles were either bad news or things she didn't know all that well. Finances and the like. She sighed and flipped to the sports, wanting to get away from all the reports of people's misery. It wasn't that she was trying to be disrespectful to their plights, but she really didn't want to think about such negative thoughts right now. That wasn't going to make her feel any better.
Her food didn't have much flavor, as much as she tried to force her mind to believe there was. She'd paid for it, though, so she needed to eat all of it. While in the middle of forcing another forkful of food down her throat, she heard a loud 'boom' from outside. Looking out the window, she groaned at the sight of rain coming down in spades. It'd been overcast when she'd come into the diner, but there hadn't even been a drop of rain then. Now it was a complete deluge. That was going to be hell driving through. She wished she'd checked the weather report more thoroughly. At least she would've known to bring an umbrella.
After finishing her dinner, she stood at the door and stared out at the rain. She wasn't looking forward to going out into that. There wasn't any other choice, though, unless she wanted to stay at the diner until it abated. Pulling her hood over her head, she drew the drawstrings tight and pushed open the door. She ran through the parking lot, yelping as water got into her shoes. It splashed around her as she sprinted to her car, fumbling in her pocket for her keys so she could unlock the car and jump in.
She locked the car and sat in the driver's seat, her clothes soaked and clinging to her body. Her heart was beating fast after the run, but the energy she would've felt from it was dampened by the wetness of her skin. It made her feel absolutely miserable to be sitting there in soaking wet clothes. She just wanted to go home and have a nice, warm bath, but she'd told her dad that she was going to see a movie. There wasn't any movie she wanted to see, but she didn't want to lie. Even if it was something so simple, it made her feel too bad to actually go through with it. So she started the car up and drove to the movie theater. At least she could dry off in there.
The drive there sucked. Her windshield wipers were moving back and forth as fast as they could go, but the rain kept pelting the glass relentlessly. She had to lean forward and squint to make sure she didn't crash into something that would've otherwise been obscured by the rain. Her fingers hurt from gripping the steering wheel so tightly, but every time she loosened her grip, she just naturally clamped back down again. She had the heat directly on her, but she was still too wet for her liking. This weather sucked too.
She parked the car and ran out into the rain again. At least her hood kept her hair from getting wet, but that wasn't going to keep her from being thoroughly soaked. Thankfully she wasn't the only one dripping water onto the theater's carpet. Others were coming in out of the rain, and not all of them had umbrellas either. That made her feel slightly better. Now she had to pick a movie to watch.
Out of all the movies that were displayed on the screen, only one was about to show right then: a movie she'd never heard of called Pieces of You. She shrugged and bought a ticket for it anyway. It didn't matter what it was about, as long as it meant she could tell her dad that she saw something. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long, whatever it was. Ignoring the concessions, she showed her ticket to an employee and headed into theater five.
The new and upcoming movie advertisements had already begun by the time she entered the theater, yet there were barely any people there. Either this movie wasn't very popular or it was old and everyone had already seen it. She didn't mind too much, since it allowed her to pick whichever seat she wanted. Sitting in the final row, she unzipped her soaked hoodie and dropped it on the seat next to her. Her shoes and pants and everything were still uncomfortably wet, though. Would it be too weird to go grab a bunch of napkins and try to dry off with those?
It was about two minutes into the movie when she realized that she'd made a mistake. The beginning revealed that this was in no uncertain terms a romantic movie. She felt her stomach start to hurt as she watched the low-stakes plot unfold on screen. Despite her misgivings, she gutted it out for about forty-five minutes, but she could already see what was going to happen. There would be a misunderstanding that would tear these two lovers apart, but they would make up in the end and get back together. They would live happily ever after. How... How wonderful...
She stood up, barely remembering to grab her hoodie before she left the theater. It felt like she was going to throw up, but that was probably just her negative feelings wreaking havoc on her stomach. She made it halfway down the little hall that would lead out of the theater before she sank down to the floor. With her back to the wall, she pressed the back of her hand against her eyes. Hot tears were falling down her cheeks, and she was very thankful for the darkness at the moment. She didn't want anybody to see her like that.
After sitting there crying for a couple minutes, she pushed herself back up onto her feet. She furiously wiped at her eyes before picking her hoodie back up and leaving the theater. It was okay. The movie had just made her feel emotional, that's all. She was fine. Shaking her head, she walked out into the center of the building, trudging to the exits. The rain hadn't let up yet, but she wasn't surprised. Hell, it was perfect: the weather fit her mood to a T.
That was the issue: the movie was happy, and she was sad. It wasn't a big deal. That just wasn't the right movie for her to see right now. If she'd known what the movie was about, she would've seen something else. Shrugging on her hoodie, she ran out into the rain again, giving up any semblance of dryness for the foreseeable future. At least it hid the fact that she had started crying again. Stupid romantic movie, making her cry like this...
God, she missed Weiss so badly.
She laid in her bathtub, letting the water warm her up after having spent too much time in her cold, rain-soaked clothes. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head against the back of the tub and sighed, breathing out up to the ceiling. When she opened her eyes, she grabbed her phone from the side of the tub and opened it up, scrolling to the bottom of her contacts. She bit down on her lower lip as she looked at Weiss's name, having her memory flooded with all things Schnee.
The picture she'd assigned to Weiss's contact was from happier times. It was the two of them with their arms around each other, smiling. That was a rare sight even in the best of times, and she'd always treasured the pictures she had where Weiss was smiling. She still had a number of pictures of her on her phone, even after all these months. They were both a blessing and a curse to look at.
Her finger hovered over Weiss's number: a dilemma she'd faced many, many times. It'd be so easy to hit that number, to listen to the stomach-churning rings in the hope that the call would be answered. Her heart would always beat faster at the thought of Weiss picking up the phone, allowing her to hear her voice again. It'd been way too long since she'd heard that wonderful voice talking directly to her. The memory of the sound just wasn't the same. It never could be.
What would she say, though? That was the question that always plagued her every time she was so close to making the call. She wasn't sure how to say what she needed to say, or even what the proper thing to say was in the first place. If she apologized, would it even matter? Besides, how would she recover if Weiss didn't pick up, or hung up on her? She was only getting by on a thin string most days. Something like that would slice it clean and send her plummeting into an emotional abyss.
She didn't make the call, again. Her phone was set back down, to not be touched as she drained the water out of the tub. Even after all the water had gone down the drain, she remained there, staring up at the ceiling. She wasn't really looking at it, though. Her mind wasn't there at the moment. Instead, it was back in the past, during better times that she wished so fervently that she could go back to. She wanted to go back and live every happy moment over again: to take a snapshot of every single joyous occasion.
After a few minutes, the chill of the apartment reached her body, making her shiver slightly. She finally got up and wrapped a towel around herself, heading over to the sink to get ready for bed. Another mundane night of brushing her teeth and noticing the black bags beneath her eyes: eyes which no longer held the same shine they used to. She finished drying off, hung her towel up to dry, then changed into her pajamas and walked out of the bathroom. As she approached her bed, she remembered that she'd forgotten to turn the light off again. Her shoulders sagged as she spun around and hit the switch. Weiss had always hated when she'd forget to turn off the lights. It was a bad habit of hers that she still found hard to break.
She stood in front of her bed and took a good look around her room. There wasn't a lot of space that wasn't taken up by her bed and desk. Her bed was the perfect size for her. Just the exact amount of room needed for a single person. A single, solitary person... Groaning, she punched the light switch and stood there in the dark until her eyes adjusted to it. Then she flopped into bed face down, wanting to just shut off her mind so she could get some sleep that night.
Every night she tried to tell herself that it would be alright. That things would get better, despite all the evidence to the contrary. It was so difficult to keep going, though. She felt like a shambling zombie sometimes: just completely dead inside. The only way that she was able to keep going day after day was with the thought that someday things would go back to the way they were. She knew that she and Weiss were meant to be together. It was something she'd known since before they'd even started dating. The fact that they weren't together destroyed her mentally and emotionally every single day, but she kept holding on because she had led herself to believe that they would get back together again. They were meant for each other, and they couldn't be apart forever... right?
She closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep, where her dreams of her and Weiss together could last until her alarm made her wake up for another day of longing. But, hey... at least it was one day closer to when Weiss would wake up and realize that they were meant to be together. Weiss still loved her, she was sure of it. She had to still love her... Just like she hadn't stopped loving her.
Her alarm woke her up at six the next morning, and everything was still the same.