It's Friday again.
The sun wasn't up when her alarm went off. For a moment, she lay there looking at the ceiling, staring at the golden pattern painted by her night light. Her room was quiet, save for the soft buzz of traffic a few blocks away. Lazily, she rubbed her eyes and swung her legs off the bed, stretched and walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. One of her roommates had left the lights on. Again. Must have been Nia, she's always the last one to clock off for bed.
A quick shower, a soft hoodie and jeans. Simple make up to try hide how little sleep she'd had. She wrote a small note to her other roommate, Elise, which she stuck to the fridge door. By 7:15 she was out the door, a handbag hanging off her right shoulder, phone in hand and earbuds plugged in.
The walk to the cafe usually took her seven minutes. It was cozy, with good lighting and a terrible 90's playlist. Most of the staff knew her by now, and her order too. Oat milk latte with two shots of caramel, extra hot. She stood at the pickup counter and absentmindedly looked at the barista's tattoos and thought of how one of them didn't make sense and the other was not accurately done.
"Good morning Sienna," the ginger girl said as she slid the cup to her.
Sienna managed a smile and muttered a "Thanks", then left for the bus stop two streets away.
The NGO office was almost half full when she got there. She gave a few smiles, a nod to some and a soft hello to the girl she shared her office with. She sat down, took a sip of the beverage, logged in and began with her emails. Reports followed, a summary and a fact sheet someone needed before noon. It was all clockwork, or that's how it felt to her. Get in, open emails, reports from those emails, a summary here, cross checking sources there, submit, move on.
At lunch, a girl from the other office came and invited her for lunch, "Wanna go eat on the rooftop? The sun isn't too hot today," Amina cautioned with a smile and large eyes. Sienna agreed.
They sat on the concrete ledge, each of them chewing on whatever meal they had. Amina was talkative, entertaining, vibrant and made Sienna laugh, genuinely. Not many could do that, with everyone else she laughed mostly at the right times, not because things were necessarily funny. Sienna liked Amina.
Later that afternoon, one of the managers popped his head into their office.
"Sienna," he called in a voice that sounded friendly. It was. "That report you did on the impact assessment was really well drafted. I loved it!"
Sienna managed to force a smile out. "Thanks." She didn't remember the report he was talking about.
An hour later, she was on a bus on the way back home. She had her wired headphones in, listening to nothing in particular. Her phone buzzed, her roommate had sent her a meme which she reacted to with an emoji and leaned her head on the bus window.
Saturday had a little bit more flair. It was louder.
Elise had insisted they go for a night out. "We haven't been out in forever. Come on guys." She had cried and dragged Sienna and their other roommate Nia to a small rooftop posh bar.
"You guys are gonna love it," Elise said with the widest grin she could manage. She went on for another minute about how amazing that bar was.
They got there a few hours after sundown. The bar had creatively designed lighting and good music with overpriced cocktails served by well-dressed bartenders. They got themselves a table, with a good skyline view of the city. A waiter appeared and wordlessly placed menus on the table and disappeared just as fast. Only to reappear later with a small notepad in hand, indicating with a nod who should order and when.
Their drinks came, they all admitted they liked whatever they had ordered. Elise offered the other girls a sip of her's. A man from the next table had tried to talk to them. Sienna had smiled politely and took a sip of her cocktail, Nia had wandered off earlier and Elise entertained him.
It wasn't a terrible night, Sienna admitted to herself. She liked her drink, it was sweet, probably the strawberry something, she couldn't remember. The music pounding from all directions was decent, she nodded along to some beats, even danced for a bit, laughed a bit, ordered another cocktail with an extra shot this time. It all felt good, really good.
They got to their apartment past midnight. Elise passed out on the couch, Nia went for a shower and Sienna was left packing the fridge with the takeout boxes of food they had brought. She took a glass of water then stared at the fridge door for a while, thinking about nothing in particular.
She washed the glass, covered Elise with a light blanket, lights off and went to bed.
The following morning, she caught the 9am train to her parents' place. The ride was quiet and scenic.
They were expecting her. Her mom had called and insisted it had been too long since she had visited home. It had been 4 weeks. She helped her with the stew in the kitchen and occasionally sat with her dad for brief conversations. He talked about a new unsolved crime podcast he liked.
"How's work darling?" her mother asked as they ate.
"It's good, nothing I can't handle." She replied briefly.
They were silent for a while, chewing, in silence, an uncomfortable silence. Her mother studied her for a minute, "You look... better, livelier."
Sienna chuckled and whispered something father and mother couldn't make out.
They didn't push at her, they never did. They asked enough questions to anyone would expect from a present parent. She liked that about them, she loved her parents. They loved her, they really did.
She took the 4:30pm train back to the city. By nightfall, she was back in her apartment. Showered, robe on, made tea she slowly sipped while journaling. She picked out the clothes she would wear on Monday.
Later in bed, she checked her weekly calendar, added one thing, removed another. Set her alarm. Slept.
In her external life, everything worked like it should. Everything was in place.