The alarm beeped shrilly in my ear. I opened one bleary eye and waited for the room to come into focus. As I began to shift on the bed, my cat woke up. She gave me a very irritated look before stretching her jaws in an impossibly wide yawn and curling back up into what I can only call a puddle of cat.

Carefully, I slid out my bed and stumbled to the bathroom. Sunlight and fresh air streamed in through the open window. I avoided looking in the mirror, a habit I had cultivated long before I started attending high school.

I slid the shower door open and turned on the water. While I waited for the tone of the spray of water hitting the porcelein tub to change with the temperature I busied myself with the other necessities of morning routine: taking a leak, brushing my teeth, and getting undressed. I never brought a change of clothes with me into the bathroom because I didn’t know what I wanted to wear until after I showered and was more awake.

As I stepped into the shower I wondered what the day would bring.