Normal
Chapter 1
Normal
The alarm went off at 6:47 AM.
Mia Bennett silenced it before the second buzz, rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling of the bedroom she shared with her best friend. On the other side of the room Jade was still dead asleep, one arm thrown dramatically over her face, her silk bonnet slightly lopsided on her head.
Mia smiled.
She sat up slowly, careful not to make noise, and let the morning settle around her. The apartment was quiet except for the sound of New York bleeding through the windows horns, voices, the distant groan of a garbage truck making its rounds. The city never waited for anyone to be ready. That was something she had accepted a long time ago.
She padded across the floor to the small kitchen, filled the kettle, and stood at the window while she waited for it to boil. The street below was already alive. A man in a yellow vest arguing with a delivery driver. Two kids in school uniforms chasing each other down the sidewalk, backpacks bouncing. An old woman walking a tiny dog that looked just as tired as she did.
Normal people. Normal Friday morning
.
Mia pressed her palm flat against the cool glass.
Nine days, she told herself.
Nine days and she would walk across that stage and collect everything she had worked for. A Business degree. Four years of early mornings, late nights, endless case studies and group projects and exams that had threatened to break her more than once. Four years of holding herself together after the ground had completely shifted beneath her feet.
Three years ago she had lost her parents. A car accident on a Tuesday ordinary, random, devastating. They had been good people. Hardworking, warm, the kind of parents who showed up to everything and made her feel like the world was safe. They hadn't left her rich. But they had left her enough. Enough to keep the apartment, enough to finish school, enough to not fall apart completely.
Just enough.
She had learned to make just enough stretch a long way.
The kettle clicked. She made her coffee a proper cup, not the instant kind, because some things were worth the extra dollar and settled at the small kitchen table with her laptop open. Her final business strategy submission stared back at her. Due in four days. She had three quarters of it done. The last quarter was the hardest part and she had been circling it all week.
Her phone lit up beside her.
A text from Aunt Vera in London seven in the morning New York time meant noon for her.
Aunt Vera : Good morning my love. How are you feeling? Nine days!! I'm so proud of you I could burst. Call me this weekend?
Mia typed back quickly.
Mia: Morning Auntie. I will I promise. Love you
She set the phone down and stared at the submission again.
From the bedroom came the sound of Jade inhaling sharply her version of waking up followed by shuffling and then the creak of the bathroom door.
Two minutes later Jade appeared in the kitchen doorway in an oversized t-shirt, bonnet now completely sideways, looking personally offended by the concept of morning.
"Why are you already on your laptop," she said. It wasn't really a question.
"Final submission," Mia said without looking up.
Jade made a sound of deep disapproval and moved to the kettle. "It's Friday."
"The submission doesn't know that."
"Mia."
"Jade."
Jade poured her tea and sat across from her at the small table, wrapping both hands around the mug and fixing Mia with a look that meant she was about to say something important.
"We are going out tonight," she said.
Mia finally looked up. "I told you
"Nine days." Jade held up a finger. "You graduate in nine days. Four years of you working yourself into the ground. You haven't been out in three months. Three months, Mia.”
"I've been busy."
"You're always busy." Jade leaned forward. "There's a new club downtown. Vega. Everyone is talking about it. We are going, we are dressing up, we are having exactly one night of fun before you become a fully certified adult with a business degree and responsibilities." She paused. "I already picked your outfit."
Mia stared at her.
"You picked my outfit before I agreed."
"I picked your outfit because I knew you'd agree." Jade smiled, completely unbothered. "I know you Mia Bennett."
Mia looked back
at her laptop. At the half finished submission. At the four years sitting behind it.
She thought about her parents. How her mother used to tell her that all work and no joy was just a slow kind of dying. How her father used to drag them both out for ice cream at midnight for absolutely no reason just because life was short.
Life is short, baby girl. Don't forget to live it.
She closed the laptop
.
Jade's eyes went wide.
"We're not staying past midnight," Mia said.
Jade was already out of her chair.
