Too much free time

 “Meow....meow”

I woke up to Marshmallow, my cat, being well, Marshmallow.

I might be a morning person, but man is it annoying to have your cat disturb your beauty sleep!

“What do you want huh?”

I asked as I begrudgingly got up, rubbing the sleeping dust from my eyes.

“Mew”

Marshmallow guided me to her feeding bowl, I free feed my cat, which is basically where you leave a bowl of food out for your cat to eat whenever they please.

I stare in the bowl, mouth agape.

It’s all gone.

ALL GONE.

Well I really shouldn’t have been surprised, this is why I call Marshmallow, well, Marshmallow, it’s because she’s fluffy..

Said cat was now sitting on my bed that I just left moments ago, head held up high in pride, as if to say;

“Are you proud of me?You are always happy when I finish my food.”

You see, Marshmallow is a rescue animal of mine, she was left locked in an apartment for a week, so when I got her she was so frail that I thought she would crumble in my arms, so I had encouraged her to eat more and was always ecstatic when she finished.

“Good cat..”

I mumbled as I found my way to the kitchen, 

“Man, I really need tea.”

I muttered under my breath, I usually never drank tea or coffee or anything of the like, so if I needed any caffeine at all- which was almost never- I only needed to drink tea for the energy boost.

My clumsy fingers somehow found a bag of tea, I really didn’t care at all which flavour it was, and plopped it in a mug, and by some miracle I managed to avoid burning myself as I poured the boiling water in my mug.

“Meow!”

Marshmallow purred as she made my way up to my lap, curling up in a fluffy ball that resembled her namesake, a marshmallow.

This is how my mornings usually go, nice and peaceful.

I was having a lovely time, drinking tea and running my fingers through Marshmallow’s silky coat, everything was so nice and peaceful…

Wait.

I HAD WORK TO DO!

I got up quickly, mentally scolding myself for slacking off as I got up in the blink of an eye, spilling my tea on both myself and Marshmallow, who was not pleased in the slightest.

I rushed over to my workspace, which was cluttered with planning papers and other writing supplies.

I quickly opened my laptop to get to my novel, and then proceeded to scroll to the bottom of the document, only to read and find out that I had finished my book.

“Mewww…”

Marshmallow purred as she followed me into the room, albeit begrudgingly, in a way that seemed to tell me:

“C’mon Anna, you were in such a rush to work that you spilled tea on me, and it turns out you’re done!”

She then shook herself dry, spraying tea everywhere.

Thanks a lot.

“Meow!”

She seemed to be content with her fur now dry, so she went to her favorite napping place, the windowsill, curling herself up into a fluffy ball.

But I didn’t even mind about the tea all over the place, not to mention the papers all across the floor.

I was done?

Done with the novel I had been planning since I was 12?

It was really, fully, DONE?

I must’ve been dreaming, I only did it as a side hobby, so my working sessions were at most an hour.

It was a simple statement, yet it felt harder to process than anything that I had to learn in school.

With my head spinning, I decided to do my daily email check, oddly enough for me checking my email was considered a break from working, and I actually enjoyed it, like playing a video game on Friday afternoon after a particularly exhausting working week.

I sorted through all my daily junk that I always got and found some interesting daily newsletters I had signed up for and forgotten about.

I had some fun reading through some obviously fake newsletters that once, again, I had signed up for, wondering how I was so gullible.

That’s when I saw it.

The email.

I rubbed my eyes furiously, headaches accompanied with blurry vision had been plaguing me lately, so I was sure I was having another one of my “Seeing things that are not there.” episodes.

However, even after rubbing my eyes more- pinching myself even- the email was still there.

Still there.

It was still there.

I stared at the screen for another good five minutes until I half halfheartedly opened the email. It must’ve been a prank that my friends sent, they enjoyed pranks, me, not so much.

I opened it to find the following message:

Dear Anna,

It is our greatest pleasure to publish your novel, we absolutely adore your writing style, along with your choice of words.

We would like to applaud you for your hard work, your mother called us up and informed us that you have been working on this novel since you were 12, not many can keep up such quality work over such a long period of time.

Best wishes:

-Pen and paper publishing 

It wasn’t a prank?

It wasn’t a prank!?

It was real?

IT WAS REAL!

“I DID IT!”

I screamed as I threw my hands up in victory, scattering my papers everywhere, but I didn’t care, I was done, I didn’t need them anymore.

That day, I didn’t care and let myself do anything I wanted, Eat chips, ignore my working schedule, annoy Marshmallow, doodle, and practically do anything else.

Something that I found funny was me checking my social media for the first time in 6 months.

Facebook alone had over 500 notifications, and 

 “oh what a surprise”, they were all notifications from my friends..

You see, I consider myself a pretty social person, but when I have work to do, you can call me a full blown introvert.

The next day was normal, too normal for my liking.

I had originally planned to spend the whole day celebrating, but my mother kept reminding me to take care of my health, to go outside, and just act like a 20 year old, not my workaholic father.

So I decided to go ahead and join my friends at the party they had arranged for nothing in particular.

I had the time of my life, hanging out with friends, going on an ‘adventure’ to find the perfect dress for a friend who had to go to a wedding, getting angry at a claw machine while losing a week’s worth of money, and just being silly in general.

I also made the effort to take care of my health, and finally went swimming for the first time in, hmm, I can’t remember..

It was fun getting in the pool, remembering how much time I used to spend in it. I was a swimmer for the school team when I was younger, but now I seldom swam, let alone train as vigorously as I once had.

That week I also rekindled my love for arcades, remembering how I begged my mum for just one more token to get a certain plush in a claw machine.

It was so nice to be living a peaceful, happy life, after work at a cosy cafe I would go and enjoy myself, whether hanging out with friends or trying out a new writing style, I finally was investing in myself.

That’s when I remembered that I still had another goal in mind;

Getting a degree.

I finally remembered that the reason I had so much spare time was because it was my summer holiday, I checked my calendar, and to my horror, I had missed the first week of the semester.

The lectures and lifestyle in college was overall stressful, but I had a thought that was driving me forward;

I had managed to get my novel published!