“Li Hua”.

I bolted upright, hearing my heartbeat resonate through the dark room. The cold sweat that had penetrated my skin was now gathering into drops which fell into my eyes as I panted, staring at the wall before me. Using the back of my hand, I ran it over my forehead, feeling the wetness of the beading sweat.

I slowly started to realize that it was only a nightmare, and soon after the memory of the bad dream had erased itself, leaving only the fright behind. Nightmares were only occasional in my life, but recently, things have gotten complicated.

Swinging my legs out of bed, I walked to the bathroom and felt around the wall for the light switch. As it flicked up, my eyes tightly shut as the light flooded through the small room.

Dark circles had taken up my under eyes, taking the glow of my eyes with them as well. I hadn’t looked this sick since I had pneumonia, which was almost ten years ago.

My hair sat on my head in a huge knot with clumps of hair sticking out in different angles, from the tossing and turning all night - definitely not in a good way.

After splashing some water on my face, I walked out, wiping my face with a towel. It was 4 o’clock, and I was quite used to waking up at this time, usually to study, but now it was because of the nightmares.

The odd thing is, I never remember my nightmares.

Not even a single thing.

The experience is real, but the memories aren’t.

Walking down the cold marble stairs, I looked around to realize my parents weren’t home. It’s not like they were ever home anyway. They were busy with their own business, and I became their second priority.

At 26 I was in my last year of med-school, studying to become a doctor. Naturally, I was drawn to the art of healing people, but it really wasn’t enough to push myself through the intense rigor. By the last year, I had become a completely different person, always drowning in work and thinking about nothing but what my next assingments were.

Seeing the croissant sitting on the table made a smile creep up my face. At least they had left me breakfast.

As I happily munched on the flaky bread, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

“Hello?”.

“I’m picking you up in 10 minutes, we’re going shopping!”, a high pitched female voice squealed from the other side of the line.

I pulled the phone away from my ear as if I could feel her spitting on me.

“Ariel are you serious?”, I groaned, taking another bite of my croissant.

Ariel was a close friend, probably the closest one out of all of my parent’s friends children. We had a whole gang of boys and girls of similar ages due to constantly meeting at our parents’ Christmas parties. Over time we had started to bond, and now we were inseparable. 

“Rosalie! This is one of the only days you’re not busy, and I’m not taking no for answer”, she argued.

“But-”.

“No buts, I’m coming in 10 minutes. Bye”.

The beeping of my phone greeted me after she left me with no room or argument.

I rolled my eyes and let out a laugh.

Maybe it was time I go somewhere else but university and home.