Fiction

Signs of Confidence

"Morning, Kim."

Out of breath from the climb up the stairs from the parking lot to the university entrance, Kim waved a greeting, smiling at the one friend who cared about her.

He held open the door and asked, "You look tired?"

Tucking her hair behind her ears gave her a bit more time to catch her breath. "Those antidepressants are messing up my sleep rhythm. Seems to be the only thing they do."

"You sure about that?"

"Hm?"

"This week I haven't seen you run back to your car to check if it's locked or if you forgot something. Guess it might be a sign that you're too tired to care, but looked to me like you being not so anxious any more."

That gave Kim pause. "Maybe. I'll pay attention." As she saw him smile, she thought she might more often be looking at people rather than the floor, too. There were worse thoughts to start the day on.

Comments

Very nice. It has a fresh feel to it. It's all very believable too, I could see this happening - I really like that. It makes me like the characters so much more. I like the way you wrote it too, short, direct, and not over done. I was able to really appreciate the details more that way. Really very good.

Thank you for sharing it.
Kwee

Thanks for your comment. :)

I write a lot of fantasy, but occasionally something "mundane" is a nice change of pace.

Yes. Nice little slice of life.

Thank you. :)

That's a small and vital victory in the end. I smiled.

I'm glad. Smiles are good. :)

This is great. I like how subtle the hope is at the end, but very realistic. "There were worse thoughts to start the day on," makes me think Kim knows exactly what those worse thoughts are, and that it's a struggle for her not to think them. But today, it wasn't as much of a struggle. There is a lot of depth to these characters in such a small space. Very well done.

Thank you very much. :)

Worse thoughts indeed. This was a nice neat little slice of life. Thanks for sharing.
Karen :0)

Thank for commenting. :)