Here’s to August and classes starting back up for all those people still in school, both students and teachers. I’m happy to look back on my school days with nostalgic fondness and the usual amount of embarrassment that comes from hindsight. College is an excellent time to try and learn good habits as you take your first steps out into the world, figuring out who you are as an adult responsible for your own wellbeing. It is also a time where you can make some mistakes as you figure out what really works for you and what doesn’t.
For our First Friday fiction I’ve written a short story that is only tangentially related to college but it was close enough that I decided it would work for this month. I feel like the story is still a little rough around the edges, but I’m happy enough with it that I think others will enjoy it. Here’s to all those young people working to start their own good habits:
Morning Mindfulness
Lydia settled on the yoga mat she had laid out on her balcony, determined to start her Saturday well. She’d stretched, made a healthy smoothie she was definitely going to finish this time, and now she was going to practice mindfulness. Getting into a lotus position on the yoga mat she closed her eyes. The magazine had suggested that box breathing was a good place for beginners, so she started counting her breathing; four in, hold, four out, hold, and repeat.
She managed to go about five repetitions before her mind began to wander. The fact the breathing pattern was simple made it hard to focus on it for a long time. Soon she could feel her mind start to wander. She tried to listen to nature, so that she could still stay present in the moment. The sound of the wind blowing past her new apartment complex, the trees rustling in the park across the street. The occasional passing car on the road two floors below. She really does try to focus, but it’s only a few minutes before her brain starts to wander further, back into the apartment.
Does she have what she needs for dinner tonight? Does she have enough eggs for the week? Should she go shopping later today? Does she have the time to stop at the grocery store for a full grocery run or should she just pick up the necessities like eggs, milk, and bread? Does she need milk?
The sound of a sliding door opening and closing cuts off her train of thought. She turns instinctively, half expecting to see her neighbor stepping out onto his balcony. She doesn’t, because she’s seated on the floor of her balcony and that means she’s shorter than the poured concrete balcony side. There’s also the two large potted plants she had bought to make the apartment feel more lived in when she moved in two weeks ago, acting as a living privacy screen. It wouldn’t be enough to block her view if she was standing, but on the floor it gives the illusion that she’s all alone.
Lydia hears her neighbor sigh and take a loud sip of some sort of drink, then say “what a nice morning.”
She stares at her plants. Does she answer her neighbor? She thinks there are three guys from her college next door, but she’s only ever seen them in passing, maybe waved at the shorter neighbor once or twice. She doesn’t even know their names!
And besides, she shouldn’t even be visible right now. Did he see her come out onto the balcony? Does he even know she’s there? What if he was just talking to himself, and then she answers, and suddenly it’s a whole awkward thing. But she is here. Does not saying anything make her some weird, hiding gremlin neighbor?
The silence drags on. Her neighbor is still drinking something oddly, her not daring to even move out of concern that she’d make a noise and alert them to the fact she was there. Was the loud drinking deliberate? Was he trying to let her know he knew that she was there?
She was reaching a breaking point when the neighbor’s sliding door opened again. “Hey Cole, we need to bring three boxes down to the storage closet I rented in the basement. Can you help me move these?”
Cole, who must have been the roommate on the balcony, was quiet for a few seconds then answered “I mean, probably? They don’t look too large and as long as you don’t jam pack them they shouldn’t be too heavy.”
There was another long silence where no one moved, Lydia holding her breath as she listened.
“Are you going to come in and help, then?” the other roommate asked, now sounding annoyed.
“You asked if I could help, not if I would,” Cole took another loud sip of his drink.
The roommate she didn’t have a name for didn’t say anything immediately, then muttered “this is why I will be laughing at you for not finding a job when you graduate with a degree in literature.” More loudly he continued “will you please help me haul these boxes down to the storage unit?”
“Nah, I’m having a rest day.”
“Half of this is your junk!”
“I’m not the one who decided to pack it up and move it into a storage unit,” Cole retorted. “Maybe I was happy with it where it was.”
“You weren’t even using any of it! It had a layer of dust so thick it was practically a second skin, you petty little-”
There was a distant sound of a door slamming open from within the neighbors apartment, carrying out of the open sliding door. Then a faint shout of “we need to throw out everything in the apartment.”
The argument on the neighbors balcony stopped as both of them asked “what?” at the same time.
The third neighbor sounded louder as they approached the open patio door. “My sister is in town and she’s saying she wants to check on how I’m doing.” They started rambling, voice sounding panicked. “Our apartment is a mess. She’s going to nag me for hours on cleaning up after myself and cleanliness and we don’t have anywhere near enough time to clean everything before she get here, so we need to just pick it all up and throw it all out before she can see how messy it is.”
“It’s not that messy,” Cole sounded dismissive, then said a sharp “hey!” that made Lydia wish she could see what was happening on the other balcony.
“It’s a pigsty,” the second roommate said, whether agreeing with the third roommate, or maybe just wanting to have a different opinion than Cole. “But we don’t need to throw everything away. We can pick up the living area and vacuum pretty fast so long as someone helps me move the boxes in the common area down to the storage locker in the basement.”
“Give me back my coffee,” Cole demanded, and it sounded like there was a minor scuffle happening out of sight.
“You get it back when you agree to help. If you’re not going to help me move the boxes then at least agree to pick up all your junk and move it into your room.”
“Where do you think I’m going to fit all of this?” Cole complained, voice growing fainter as he must be moving off of the balcony and back into the apartment. “You stuck me in the smallest room in the apartment. It’s practically a shoebox.”
“You can put it anywhere, it’s just until Michael’s sister leaves. Put it on your bed, into your closet, under the bed if you need to. Just anywhere it’s not bothering everyone else!”
At the sound of the glass door sliding closed and all three voices getting muffled on the other side Lydia scrambled up, staying low as she did her best to quietly open her own balcony door so she could get back into her apartment while still staying out of sight.
Maybe she would stay inside for the morning. She paused in rolling up her yoga mat as she heard something heavy falling in the apartment next door and someone yelling, though she couldn’t make out what was being said.
Yeah, staying in sounded good.
