Ashley was glad to learn that she hadn't woken up as early in the morning as she had assumed, believing it to have only been a few hours since she had gone to sleep. Her talk with Lea lasted only a few minutes until the first sunlight emerged, the time she had awoken only being as early as five o'clock in the morning. She entered the kitchen and looked towards the kitchen clock for confirmation on the current time, the hands reading a quarter-past six.
Just then, as she stood in the kitchen, her attention was suddenly diverted to a peculiar and rather foul stench contaminating the air around her. Instinctually, she turned to her fridge and opened it to look inside, instantly finding herself gagging on the heinous odours wafting in her direction. She held her nose as she examined the state of her fridge, finding that several containers of leftovers had finally expired overtime. Holding her breath, she pulled two containers out and hurried out the front door, not caring for the containers themselves as she dumped them into the bin before gasping for air.
She went back inside and was greeted to fresh air, as well as a wide open fridge that she rushed to close. Deciding to take responsibility for the state of her house, she headed over to the sink and eyed the stacks of plates and cups awaiting purification. She ran warm water within the sink and began scrubbing each piece of crockery until she was satisfied, before stacking them together in categorised groups.
Pleased with the state of her newly cleansed kitchen, she took a freshly cleaned glass and ran some cold water from the tap into it. She chugged down the water without needing to take any breaks, before relieving a petite belch. She hated it when this happened, as she felt it was extremely disgusting and impolite, particularly in public areas. Her perfectionism was more often a curse than a blessing in her daily routine, and she was painfully aware of it in moments like this.
After having settled into the morning routine, she began selecting what to do next from her many options. She paused and slowly turned to look at her easel, smiling at its mere presence. She made her way over to it and began planning her next artwork. She soon found herself envisioning a woodland during the fall, the angle held under the shade of an overhead tree. She poured the necessary paint colours onto her pallet and began outlining the environment with her brush.
The grass was made to appear dried but remaining fertile, emphasised by her choice of gold and yellow paints combined to give the effect. A similar colour was used for the leaves, while the trucks and the soil were given a crusty brown appearance. She darkened sections to represent the shade cast by the trees, along with several faint streams of light descending through the remaining gaps.
Despite her initial thoughts, she found that she had spent two whole hours painting this without a break, as evident by the kitchen clock. She stood back to view the entirety of the artwork and was delighted with the final product, feeling like she could step inside the canvas and inhabit the world it depicted. She knew that this artwork would be among those shown at the museum if she handed it over to them.
She paused at this thought and further considered it.
She looked around her home and found only the bare essentials of a home, lacking substance or variety. She eventually settled on keeping the painting for herself and took it from the rack, searching the living room for the best place to hang it. Eventually, she noticed the barren space beside the television and decided to hang it there, giving her place for daily entertainment much more of a lively appearance. Ironically, she predicted that she would enjoy viewing her painting instead of the television itself.
Checking the time again, Ashley decided she would begin preparing for work, heading into the bedroom to get changed. Once finished, she was about to head out through the front door when she was stopped in her tracks by a welling pain in her stomach. "Oh god! Not now, you stupid fucking thing!" she snarled in response to her sudden desire for nutrition, half-ready to punch herself in the gut out of frustration.
Unfortunately, she had no choice but to skip breakfast and leave hungry, heading out to the street and trying to flag down a taxi. By the time she had finally arrived at work and set to her schedule, her hunger had subsided and was replaced by a sudden fatigue. She became tired and unenergetic during her hours, knowing the cause to be her lack of proper rest during the past few days.
Unlike at home, where the hours seemed to have passed like seconds, second began to feel like hours as Ashley spent each her day. The boss had asked her if she had made any artworks since her promotion, though Ashley decided not mention her canvas of the autumn forest. Eventually, she had managed to reach the end of her hours and headed home, and extra fifteen percent of her original pay now settling in her pocket.
The moment she got out of the taxi and stepped through her front door, she bolted for the fridge and searched the many shelves for something to eat. She spotted a packet of shredded cheese and took it out, her stomach churning at the mere thought of eating. She poured the cheese into a pan and placed it onto the stove before turning the dial, allowing the cheese to melt and merge into a single layered material.
The moment she deemed it finished, she pulled the pan off the stove and poured the cheese onto a plate, caring not for the intense temperature the cheese was still currently in. She was forced to wait for the cheese to cool before she could finally eat, her stomach ache only growing with every passing second. The very second it reached a comfortable temperature, Ashley forced herself to eat the meal without stuffing her face like she wanted to, her perfectionism having returned to torment the poor girl.
While she was salvaged from the pain of starvation, Ashley soon found herself a victim to nausea instead. She had been so hungry, she never took the time to check how fresh the cheese was before she cooked it. Considering the consequences she now suffered, she made a mental note to herself to shop for more groceries in the near future. She stood up from her stool and held her stomach queasily, the pain coupled with her fatigue proving to be a vengeful combination.
She looked outside to find the glimmering sunlight and looked over to the clock, the clock reading five twenty-six. Dismayed but considerate, she decided to make up for the lost hours of sleep by crashing early. She went into the bathroom and set about preparing for bed, beginning with using the toilet followed by having a shower. With both tasks finished, she exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body.
She stumbled her way into the bedroom and steadily discarded her robe. It took her over two minutes to finally redress herself in her night dress, and she carefully slid under the covers and tried her best to ignore her aching stomach. She turned away from the daylight shining through her window to the best of her abilities and began to drift to sleep. By tomorrow, she hoped that she would be much more organised.