losing sleep, c

After a full day of club activities and reviewing and recording the minutes for the last couple of student council meetings, Nessa had intended to go back to his room and get a full night of sleep. But, as it generally does, said sleep evaded him. In fact, it didn't just evade him, it fled from him. He'd laid in bed for nearly two hours before getting up and going through motions he was all too familiar with: Pull on a t-shirt, lose the pajama bottoms, put on spandex, put on shorts, socks, tennis shoes, and then leave as quietly as possible. From there it was a borderline memorized walk to the school's track.

Nessa had been hurdling since he was in junior high. He didn't like many sports, but he found that the mix of sprinting and jumping was a good way to release the excess energy and irritation that seemed to plague him almost ceaselessly. As a result it was no surprise that he found himself joining the high school team almost as soon as recruitment requests were posted. And it was this passion for the sport that led to his late night treks to the track.

On top of being a passionate hurdler, Nessa was also a chronic insomniac. For years he spent his nights just laying in bed, looking at the ceiling and waiting impatiently for sleep to come. But, this method was lackluster. At most he got an hour or two of sleep each night, and the next day was done barely functioning normally. Once he'd left home and got himself a job it was only that much harder to survive on such little sleep. And then one night it hit him. He spent so much time hurdling in his free time to blow steam, why not do it at night to get to sleep?

It's this habit that brought him out to the track almost every night. With only the light of the moon to guide him he set up hurdles, one after the other, and then got to work running them. Back and forth, back and forth, until he was tired. That is how Nessa functioned this night as well.

With careful hands and mostly silent feet he propped each hurdle up carefully, kneeling to make sure it was lined up properly before moving on to the next. Once they were set he got to work. Run, jump, run, jump, a constant switch between two actions. He engrossed himself in the workout, pouring all his energy into each run in the hope that after a bit of time he'd be able to go back to his room and get some proper rest. With this focus, it was no surprise that the boy in the stands went completely unnoticed by Nessa. Why wouldn't he?

erik alejandro

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ