My breath shortened, and my sweats were cascading down to my temples. I took long strides as I jogged by the park over the luminous grass that was drenched with morning rain. Crisp wind swept on my skin, diminishing the heat that arose in my body. Aside from the song blaring from my earphones, I heard my heavy pants as I was reaching the border of the park. Though my heart was hammering in my chest as if it was about to fall out, my legs couldn’t stop running. Energy had overflown inside of me, neglecting the twinge in my chest. My heart was begging me to stop, but since I didn’t want to have another attack, I kept moving.
Jogs had made me overcome my illness along with my medication, and it helped overcome the worry or panic I would always have. This activity had helped me cope up with the anxiety which also gave me more strength to fight the battle in my head. It wasn’t rare to have mental suffering; everybody would have this attack at least once in their life. But sometimes, I couldn’t help but think of how I brought it up to this day when twenty years had already passed by. It wasn’t a rare case, but the agony and trauma failing to subside throughout those span of times though I was taking my medications were bizarre. The people in my therapy session had already overcome their issues, but here I was, still living with it and it never once went away.
I halted when I jogged past the huge tree and hunched my back to rest. Grasping my thighs just above my knees, I looked down on the ground as the sweats fell on the grass. I unplugged the earphones from my ears, and all I could hear now was the thumping of my heart. My skin was already glimmering with sweat when the sunlight hit me, as I grimace from the heat. Glancing at my wristwatch, I checked the time, realizing that I would be late for work, only if I had one.
The mortifying event last night had appeared in my head so vividly. I remembered the moment when the manager fired me because of my irresponsibility and bad temper. All I could do was curse myself for arguing with a customer yesterday because I was disrespected. That old woman had tested my patience, provoking me into speaking up and practically getting myself fired right after the misunderstanding. How I wish I could go back to that time and resign myself because that job had given me a hard time that I almost degraded myself. I hadn’t really enjoyed being in that awful restaurant where the crews were as nasty as that place because I wasn’t getting enough salary for working hard as a waitress. But though I badly wanted to quit that monstrosity, I had to pay for my bills and support Aunt Odessa because she was getting old.
Now that I had no job or anything to support us financially, I was embarrassed by myself for letting this unfortunate thing happen. I wasn’t moping over losing my job, but the fact that I wouldn’t have something to fund me and my aunt.
Sighing in frustration when these nagging thoughts had crept into my head, I proceeded to walk further to deviate my attention from the problem that I was currently facing. I strolled along the pavement, ignoring the little kids that would gawk at me for being so drenched with sweat. I had this abnormality rooted in my anxiety that caused me to sweat uncontrollably when I suppressed my agitation. This was the oddest flaw I had that I wished would go away because it was part of my insecurity. It made me look like I just came out of the water and forgot to dry myself down.
I stopped on my track when I noticed a poster attached to a brick wall on my right side. Averting my attention to it, my brows lifted as soon as I read ‘hiring’ text on the uppermost part of the poster. It was written in bold and emphasized by a red color so it wasn’t too hard to catch attention. Realizing that I lost my job yesterday and there was this hiring signage that suddenly popped up, I highly doubt this was just a coincidence. Nevertheless, I trailed my eyes across the texts, reading every bit of it, as my mouth almost gaped when I realized what this job was all about. It made me disconcerted, a bit skeptical, and the last thing I knew, it triggered my anxiety in just a blink of an eye.
My heart thumped rapidly and my head went on a spiral. Biting my bottom lip, I forced myself to keep calm and steadied my breathing. I shut my eyes closed and pretended like I saw nothing. But when I felt a cold surface touching against my bare legs, I immediately jolted and flicked my eyes down. I would’ve screamed if I hadn’t realized right away that it was just a husky that was sniffing my legs. Sighing in relief, I crouched in front of it and rubbed its head.
“Hey there, buddy,” I said with a playful tone and noticed the dog’s leash hanging loose on the ground. “Where’s your owner?”
“Athena,” someone called near our area as I flitted my eyes up.
The dog immediately walked away from me, running towards the guy who was now approaching my area.
At that point, I thought my anxiety worsen because sweat oozed out of my hands and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of the guy. And I concluded, it was probably because I was smitten in less than a second.
I raised my brows in awe when the guy started to move closer in this vicinity. He was now holding the leash of the dog that approached me a few seconds ago, as it stared at him with its tongue sticking out. I couldn’t blame her; if I were a dog, I would be drooling over this masterpiece. It was just a shame that I was constantly attracted to a guy like this. He towered over me, seeming like a wall that was enough to block my way so I could only focus on him. I swallowed, taking in the view in front of me, and tried not to appear dumbfounded. Slowly ba
After the long jog I had at the park, I went directly to the café to meet Valerie. I pulled the glass door open, as I immediately inhaled the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee. There was jazz music resounding through the entire place along with the chatters of the people inside. The vicinity was lit with yellow-colored lamps that hung on the ceiling just above the wooden tables. It wasn’t too swarmed by a lot of people, leaving the place neat and spacious. It also didn’t take a while before I spotted Valerie, sitting in the corner of the café, just beside the glass pane that had moist from the air condition. Her chestnut-brown hair was tied to a high ponytail, and her lips were plastered with bright-red lipstick. Her gaze was fixated outside the café as if she was waiting for me, and she would casually glance at her go
“You’re kidding me?” she asked, putting the poster down the table. She stifled her laughter, as I shrugged in response. “You’re seriously taking your werewolf fantasy that far. Seriously, since when did you stop taking your medications?” she sarcastically said and I shifted my hand and snatched the poster from the table.“I didn’t stop taking my medications, Val.” I chuckled, folding the poster and slid it back inside the pocket of my denim jacket. “I mean, these people won’t be offering
I laid flat on the bed, hands clasped above my abdomen, as I stared at the ceiling. The dim light of the lamp on my bedside table had illuminated the room, as the gust of frigid wind passed through the window, caressing my bare skin that caused me to pull the blanket to cloak my entire body. It was already dark outside and I was inside of my room, contemplating.Since the time I was having anxiety attacks because of the trauma I had when my parents died, we’d moved out of our place and transferred to another. We were currently living in a small ap
The day went by and I got dressed for the medical appointment today. Grabbing the keys on my nightstand, I headed out of the room and sauntered downstairs. Just in time when I reached the bottom of the stairs, Aunt Odessa appeared in front of me and gazed. I halted, putting the keys inside of my pocket before gripping the strap of my bag.“Where are you going?” Aunt Odessa asked.
“Porsche?” Valerie looked over her shoulder, with the guy’s arms still wrapped around her. I looked down to cover my face though I couldn't be unnoticed. If only this nurse didn’t have a loudmouth.I could see Valerie in my peripheral view, slowly walking towards me with her skeptical look. The nurse handed out the form after confirming my appointment for today so I faced her to finally leave this counter.
“Are you my doctor?” I glared at his prideful demeanor.He looked around the office and finally answered my question.“I guess I am.”&nbs
Valerie had been my best friend since high school. We were neither nerds nor part of the queen bee’s pack, just normal high schoolers who did their best to maintain scores above the passing rate. We got along well, being socially awkward people but at the very least, Valerie was able to improve her social skills. For the most part, we just saw each other and knew we should hang around. I honestly had no idea how our friendship developed. There wasn’t a time that we weren’t together at school. Every little thing, we had to do it together, except when one of us was sick and had to skip school.