That One Moment...

Chapter 39

"Earth to Sarah. Hey, girl!" 

Sarah jumped a bit as she was finally pulled out of her thoughts. She was totally running on auto-pilot today at work. It was another weekend of chaos in her life, one where she wondered if this was better than her weekends of nothing but TV, her phone, and chores at home? No responsibilities, no friends, nada.

"Your mind has been in the clouds lately." Her coworker mentioned. "Anything to do with a certain boy that regularly picks you up?"

"You know Ryan and I are dating." Sarah grumbled.

"Sure, sure...but you do seem to be more distant the last couple weeks. Like your mind is elsewhere. Half the time you are smiling secretly, while the other half you look close to tears."

Sarah was always surprised with how attune her coworkers could be, how they were aware of what was going on in each other's lives all the time. It was still such a new concept to her. She felt bad since she was horrible at keeping track of everyone else's lives usually. Sarah couldn't remember which of the other waitresses was going through which life events. It was something she should really get better at, something that she needed to foster in order to be a better work friend. Well, she couldn't be too hard on herself, since this was still pretty new.

"You are always so perceptive Denise. I don't know how you do it." Sarah responded, deciding to be truthful. "I can't decide if I am happy with my life right now, or dreading the changes that will come when school is over."

Denise laughed lightly. "Oh, to be young again. I remember when summer was this epic thing. Nowadays, every day is pretty much the same when you get older."

Sarah sighed. "That doesn't sound very fun."

Denise smiled, "It's not that bad, but it can be trying sometimes." She grabbed her order and headed back out to the floor.

Sarah thought a bit about Denise's statement. Was being an adult so boring, that nothing ever changed? Maybe it just depended on the person and what they wanted. Sarah knew her parents didn't want change, they didn't want to have to do anything really. Maybe other adults were different. Abby's dad seemed to have a lot going on. Something new to mull over as she went to welcome a new table

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Mind wandering again, Sarah was pulled back to Spanish class with a nudge from Jeremy. "You coming over this weekend? Mom is asking again. She's making a huge dinner." Sarah was surprised she could get anything done lately, since her mind was never on the task at hand. So many things to think about, from her home life that felt like it was on the brink of some new tragedy, to school work she had to do as the year was closing out, and obligations towards friends. Life was simpler when all she did was stay home and watch TV or read.

"Sorry Jeremy. I forgot it was this weekend. I was totally thinking it was another week from now. Which night?"

Thankfully, Jeremy knew she could be horrible at juggling things. Sarah had never really had a schedule before, so it was new and she still couldn't keep things straight . "You really need to put things onto your phone calendar you know. How do you not miss work?"

Sarah groaned slightly. "I have been late more than once when I mix up days, but usually there is some standard scheduling for school, work, and practice...like Monday is one thing, Tuesday another...It's the other things I forget or the extra shifts."

"It's Sunday afternoon." Jeremy laughed as the teacher caught them talking in English and reminded the class they were practicing Spanish conversations. "Still think you need a calendar." He whispered for the last word before they started attempting a conversation in the required Spanish.

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Keeled over, Sarah could not catch her breath. It was finally the end of the day. She had to make it through gym first though and she didn't think it would happen. The latest unit for PE was track and field. Sarah hated running. She didn't realize how much until just recently though.

"What's wrong?" Sarah heard from next to her. Looking over she saw both Dylan and Leo laughing at her.

"What's wrong?" Sarah gasped out. "I'm dying I think." She tried to say through her gasps for air.

They only laughed harder.

"Whoever invented running for the sake of running is evil." Sarah made out, but then needed to suck in air.

By that point Sarah had been lapped by additional people running the track.

"You run just fine in soccer." Abby stated as she stopped next to them and stared at her. "Why are you having such trouble on the track?"

Sarah looked at her. Abby was barely breathing heavily after taking at least 2 laps around the track. Meanwhile, Sarah couldn't figure out how to run and breath at the same time.

 "Yeah. I thought you were at least a little bit athletic." Leo actually joked.

After finally catching her breath, Sarah was finally able to talk more than a few words to the crowd forming around her. "I can't seem to breath while I run. Like I forget to breath. Plus, this is just so boring. I think I need a ball involved to actually run."

Dylan started cracking up laughing. "So...you are balls motivated?" 

Sarah was thoroughly confused.

"It's because Ryan's been out of town." Sarah looked over at Leo who was also laughing, "She needs some balls."

Sarah finally got what they were hinting at, but couldn't decide if it was funny since it was at her expense. 

"Funny guys, funny." Sarah half laughed as she tried to start running again just to remove herself from the group that was now asking her about what kinds of balls she would run after. Ryan was gone that week, visiting Michigan after his selection. They were doing an initial physical and he was meeting with a variety of people. Sarah missed him even though it had only been a couple of days. She was used to seeing him around school and chatting about random things.  As her thoughts wandered, Sarah found herself gasped for breathe yet again and having to stop and bend over again as the laughing group sprinted past her.

Ugh...life sucks so much right now!