FOURTY NINE

❧ Fiorella ☙

My head hurts. It's the kind of pain you get from staying up all night making indecent decisions. The pain radiates from the back of my skull forward like a macabre crown. It engulfs my senses.

I open my eyes and stare at a high, white ceiling with delicate crown molding around the edges. It is dark, but there is a light filtering in from my left, like a lamp left on in another room. I let my eyes close and sink into an in-between space, a dreamy place where the pain ebbs and flows instead of being in a constant state.

When I open my eyes again, I roll onto my side and press my face into a soft white pillow. I lift my head and look at the sheets underneath me, they are white, and the blanket at my feet is navy blue.

I sit up and look around the room, trying to make out what little I can through the dim light filtering in. There is a bedside table, a minimalist piece, with a stainless steel lamp. Next to it, an alarm clock is giving me back red numbers. Four o'clock in the