it’s not cold this time. that’s the first thing she notices. it’s not cold to where she can blame the numbness on her fingers. rub them together to keep herself occupied. it’s not cold and she’s can’t quite find anything to keep herself occupied. the phone does a good job of giving her weight to focus on, the voice on the line pressed so close to her ear that the words make her shudder. but she’s drifting - nothing to really ground her.
not the way the trees rustle around her. not the sound of gravel, rough and scraped against her sneakers. it’s been a while since she’d worn these. it’s been a while since she used them but in the past month that’s all she’d done. run and run and run until her body was on fire. until her chest burned and she was forced to see the stars above as she laid. in grass, in gravel, away from thoughts that plagued her during the day.
she’s been running. circles around the neighborhood near her house, daring only occasionally to run too far. far enough to where her father would call and ask where she was going. far enough to where her phone would beep and she’d ignore it. like today, where she muted everything that wasn’t jamie, sam or seungho. muted and went about the concrete until even her feet were on fire.
she finds herself back in that same playground, back against the wood chips, back in the same tiredness. the one that doesn’t come from lack of sleep or too much activity. the kind she can’t just sleep off and keeps her wide awake.
the more she stares up at the sky, the more she wishes to dip inside of it. to slide until she’s gone. but she can’t. she can’t really do anything. about her situation, about where she is, figuratively and literally. she hears the voice through the phone telling her to breathe and she finds her chest expanding again.