WOE: Freedom

Write on Edge Prompt: You have 400 words to write a fiction or creative non-fiction piece about freedom, in any way that makes sense to you.  This is a Zenna and Boone story.  If you would like to read more about them, click on the tab "Writing By Prompt".  

 

The sunlight of the day was streaming through the open curtains, so I kept my eyes closed while I slowly became conscious. It felt late, but I didn't move.  Like so many mornings lately, I just did not want to wake up. If I was awake, then I had to deal with Andy.  It wasn't the insults, the little jabs and digs when I didn't do what he wanted.  It wasn't even that last time, when he had hit me.  Those daily events weren't what kept me in bed pretending to be asleep.  It was the whining.  Just the thought of his whining about how late I had slept made my shoulders tense up.   He had probably called a dozen times already, wanting to know where I was.

And then...recognition dawned.  I didn't have to deal with Andy anymore.  Because I had left him.  Eyes still closed, I touched my empty ring finger.  I smiled, picturing the look on the bartender's face as he found his tip.  

I was free.  Free of Andy and his abusive, overcontrolling, suffocating, ways.  My chest expanded as the idea took hold of me.

I didn't have anywhere to be just now.  I didn't have anywhere to go.  I didn't have to be on time. I didn't have to put on certain clothes.  I didn't have to sit demurely.  I didn't have to look a certain way, or behave a certain way, or say whatever I was told to say and not a syllable more. 

I opened my eyes to the day, my smile widening.  I was free.

I stretched, arching my back, and then my right hand came down on the warm skin of a naked hip. I left my hand on that very masculine hip, and let my fingers move over their muscles as they began to move and stretch away the sleep as well.   My dragon tattoo pulsed with a pleasant heat as I was suddenly pulled into strong arms, a warm breath teasing my ear and electrifying my skin. 

I was free.  I didn't even have to get out of bed if I didn't want to.  Not that I wanted to.