Seeking Relief

Bump in the Night

Jade’s eyes flew open. She stared at her dark walls in her dark room for a few seconds gathering her wits.

Something woke her.

Like a sudden sound or movement, but she couldn’t pinpoint what exactly. She rolled to her side with a sigh to look at her alarm clock on her night stand.

2:11 AM glared at her in blinding red characters.

She rolled back to her back, putting her fingers to her eyes. She spent a few moments trying to fall back asleep, but unease prickled at her conscious. She was too paranoid to go back to sleep if she didn’t do a walk through of her apartment.

She sat up, flung the covers off of her, and swung her legs to the side. She grabbed her baseball bat and padded out of her room. She was next to useless with a bat while she had her splints on, but it was always at her side at night and she didn’t feel safe without it in her arms.

Cradling the wood in the crook of her arm, she made her round through her home.

She checked her closet. Turning on the light and pushing clothes around to make sure nothing was hiding in a corner or behind them.

Poked into the bathroom and turned on the light. She always kept the shower curtain pulled to one side, again due to paranoia reasons, so she was able to quickly see that that room was empty.

She turned on the light in the living room. She had little furniture. On one side of the room was just a stand with a tv, dvd player, and hand-me-down stereo with a bookcase full of dvd’s and books. On the opposite wall was one couch and coffee table. No corners or furniture someone could hide behind.

She swung her eyes to the dining room, looked under the table and chairs. Nothing.

She padded into the kitchen and turned on the light. She opened her pantry door. The pantry is small full of shelves, she has it stocked to the brim. So, there’s absolutely no extra room but she wanted to double check.

Again, paranoid.

She padded through her lopsided L shaped kitchen to the end corner where her washer and dryer stacked unit resided at the end. It was an open corner with a utility shelf next to the unit for storage. The shelves were open wire, so again, no hidden place to hide in.

She turned and backtracked through the kitchen turning off lights, but she did stop at her microwave that was seated above her stove. She punched the surface light on, so she did have a soft ambient light still.

She continued out of the kitchen and headed to her front door. It was seated between the kitchen and living room, with her coat closet on the other side of her pantry closet. She turned on her entry way light and opened her coat closet. Moving things one side and to the other like she did in her own closet to check corners.

She shut the closet door and turned to her front door to double check her locks. Her door had a dead bolt and what they called a security bolt. A lock that can only be engaged and disengaged from the inside. The dead bolt was seated, but the security bolt was only halfway flipped and not all the way seated. She frowned trying to remember her evening routine. She didn’t recall a distinct memory of locking the door before she went to bed. She did lock her deadbolt after the guys left but not her security bolt. She must’ve missed double checking it, and the handle to the security bolt probably shifted in the movement of the door being shut.

She reached out and seated the security bolt.

She frowned and she felt her eyebrows crush together.

She flipped the security bolt open again.

Then shut.

It had a lot of resistance. It wasn’t hard for her to seat it by any means, but since the lock was new, it still had plenty of friction on the metal on metal that it didn’t just “slip”.

Jade didn’t like where her thoughts were going, her paranoia was getting away from her, and that unease feeling just wasn’t easing.

She resettled the bat in her arms. Then checked both bolts and firmly pushed down on the handles.

Definitely seated, double check done.

She turned and strode to the living room.

She had given up on sleep before she even got to the kitchen.

She leaned her baseball bat against the couch, then went into her room. She grabbed her pillow, phone, and a blanket from her closet. Then she walked back into the living room and dumped her things on the couch. She turned to her tv and dvd player. She turned on her devices and popped in one of her favorite ‘I Love Lucy’ seasons. While the dvd ran through the piracy warnings before getting to the title screen, she got herself a glass of water from the kitchen.

She set the glass and her phone on the coffee table. She shook out the blanket and situated her pillow. She hit play all on the remote and settled in for some quality dozing on her couch.

Jade woke to her phone incessantly buzzing on her coffee table.

It had moved with its vibrating that it was up against the glass and was now vibrating against the glass. Which made for an AWFUL sound.

Her hand shot out to grab the phone. She didn’t remember setting an alarm, confused she tilted the screen to look for her ‘dismiss’ button. She saw that it was Adam calling her and not an alarm.

Happy but still groggy she answered.

“ ‘Lo?”

“Jade?! Oh good, we were worried.”

“Why?”

“Usually you’ve been up for a few hours by now. You weren’t responding to texts this morning. Then Jake called twice and you didn’t answer. So, we just got concerned.”

Jade snorted.

“Nope. Jus’ a shitty night.”

“Sounds like it. Did I wake you?”

“Uh-huh.”

She could hear Adam’s smile in his reply. “How about we bring you some breakfast? We’ve all finished up our usual breakfast at the café. We could order something for you and bring it to you.”

“Oh. ‘ts okay. You don’ haf to do that.”

He chuckled on the other end that sent goosebumps up her back. She heard other deep chuckles in the background.

“You haf me on ‘peaker phone, dontchu?”

Adam just answered with a laugh.

“Y’all err ass’oles.”

“How about we bring you some toast and eggs, with a yogurt parfait we know you like. I’ll make sure they do your eggs the way you like.” She smiled at Adam’s attention to detail coupled with his memory.

She heard Emmett speak up, “She needs some protein. Jade, do you want bacon or sausage.”

“Mmmm,” She pondered briefly, unable to decide she said, “Both?”

Emmett chuckled, “Done.”

She heard some voices murmuring in the background, she was assuming they were already flagging down the waitress.

“’Kay. Jade, we’ll be there shortly. Your food should be ready in 15 or 20 then we’re heading there.”

“Gawd. I better get some coffee, pee, and do something about my bedhead.” She said, feeling her cottonmouth from sleep dissipate. She was already sitting up and rubbing her face.

“I love the order of her priorities.” Mitch said laughing.

“Coffee trumps everything.” She countered.

They said their good bye’s and see you soon’s then ended the call.

She stood up from the couch and headed to kitchen. She started to lift the top of the coffee maker and she intended to dance through her full bladder urges while making coffee.

She decided that wasn’t going to work after all.

She dashed to her bathroom and sat her butt on toilet with no time to spare. While it seemed she had a liter to drain, she took off her splints, set them on the counter and ran her fingers through her hair.

She finished, washed her hands, and took a quick look at her hair. It wasn’t controlled and presentable by any means. But it was better than what it had been when she was in the hospital.

She dabbed a small amount of toothpaste on her toothbrush and did quick swipes in her mouth. Her intention was to get rid of morning breath, she’ll thoroughly brush later.

She rinsed and spit. She dashed into her room and threw on a quick change of clothes.

It was still shorts and a tee shirt, nothing extraordinary but it was at least clean underwear and clean clothes plus a bra.

She grabbed her splints from the bathroom and shoved them back on. She was fastening the last of the two when she was walking by her dining table.

She stopped and took a step back.

She walked towards the table and looked at the flower bouquet with wide eyes.