One Day at a Time

[Olive]

Olive opened her chocolate eyes. She instantly contemplated getting out of bed at that very moment, or laying there for another ten minutes. Simply laying there in her decision, she rolled over and pulled the sheets up over her head. She frowned then, pulling the sheets down to glance over to the alarm clock as the digits seemingly taunted her. 6:25PM. Staring at them as they changed minute after minute, she laid there for those ten minutes staring up as the ceiling before throwing the covers off and rolling out of bed. Hitting the floor she groaned, curling into a soft ball as she contemplated what to do next. Clearly she had trouble deciding how to go about her days, and that small complex of hers proved to be problematic if she didnt have someone there telling her what to do. She pursed her lips, sighing softly as she pushed herself up, rolling and using the bed as leverage for her to get up to a crawling position. She crawled over to the dresser, opening one of the drawers that she could reach while on her knees, just kneeling there for a moment as she stared at the assortment of clothes.

Why are there so many choices. She groaned, staring. There was a purple blouse; a tight bright orange tee-shirt that said "Fly" on it in black letters with a nifty pair of black demon wings across the back; a comfortable white graphic tee with a green bass guitar and giant amp on it accompanied by decorative swirls and accents; an over sized baggy black shirt with the words 'Got Milk' across the chest in the traditional white lettering as the ads; a ridiculously bright yellow shirt with an orange willow tree up the one side and birds seemingly flying down the other, and a royal blue polo shirt that had a light blue heart on it which looked like it had a gun shot through it with 'Love Hurts' written across the bottom of the back of it it blood red lettering. She wasnt about to open another drawer full of more choices as she closed her eyes and dove her hand into the drawer, pulling out the tight bright orange tee with the wings on it and shrugging.

"Whatever works."

She slid her shirt off and pulled her other one on, clearly not caring enough to change her bra. She still had on her jeans from the day before, and decided to just leave them on as she left the drawer open to crawl over to the nightstand next to the bed, still not feeling like standing up yet for some unknown reason. Reaching to grab up her watch, she put the band between her teeth and picked up her wallet, putting it in her left front pocket for the time being. Finally standing up, she moved to the kitchen as she opened the fridge and stood there. At this point in time she was eternally grateful that she only had one thing in the fridge - a bottle of dark crimson blood - she reached and grabbed it up to shut the fridge behind her. Uncapping the bottle and sniffing at it while her watch still hung from between her teeth, she shrugged as she moved to sit down in one of the two chairs around the small one bedroom apartment's table. Having the sudden urge to sit on the kitchen counter instead, she slid up onto it and finally pulled her watch from her teeth to set it down across her left thigh as she stared at the bottle in her right hand.

Microwaved, or not? She chewed her lip in thought, tipping her head to the side as she shifted her weight on the counter and reached to open the microwave. Suddenly deciding against it, she simply leaned on her elbow as her feet swung lightly back and forth hitting their heels against the cabinets noisily, tipping her head a little more upright to read the label on the bottle that she rested against the counter top. Her interest in the blood had clearly died as she just simply didnt feel hungry anymore, which she admitted to herself was odd, but didnt spend more than that one thought on it as she pushed up and off the counter to leave the bottle of blood behind. Her watch fell to the ground and she stared at it.

"I should probably pick that up." She muttered, then did just that, bending to retrieve it as she wondered which wrist to wear it on today. Fastening it to the right wrist, she nodded lightly as she turned back to the counter and reached to pick up her MP3 player and stare at her playlists.

Jogging
Hunting
Strolling
Eating
Working Out
Reading

She figured whichever playlist she randomly landed on she would do just that, that saved her the time and brain cell effort to figure out what to do for the start of the night, her thumb scrolling the highlight bar down and around the list a couple times before letting it finally settle randomly on a decision for her. Looking down at it, she blinked a couple times. So it seemed she would eat, as she moved to pop the headphone into her left ear but not the right, selecting the playlist and hitting play before pocketing the MP3 player to turn back to her bottle of blood. The music that filled her left ear was that of Frank Sinatra, and she tapped her right foot a little to the smooth melodious beat. Grabbing the bottle of blood up she realized it was full as she wondered how much she would actually drink. Shrugging then, she tipped it back and chugged, the bottle only having one fourth of the blood left in it after she was done, she suddenly threw the bottle against the front of the fridge instead of just putting it back. Her MP3 started playing Ettison Clio as she tried to decide to clean up the mess of shattered glass and thick red blood splattered everywhere; or not. Shrugging, she simply walked away and went to go plop down on the couch.

Sitting in the recliner chair instead, she reclined it and stared at her phone vibrating against the coffee table as the song in her ear ended and rolled into the next one; a soft Nat King Cole song. She grumbled a little as a hand went to her stomach, she had drank too much but there was nothing she could do about that now. Fingers tapped to the beat of the female's smooth voice, drumming pads of fingertips against the arm of the chair, she relaxed and stared up at the ceiling with her chocolate brown hues wondering who was texting her at this time. It was probably her sire Mora, but she just couldnt find it in her to move to grab up her phone to check it as she had (difficultly) decided on relaxing after eating. She kept glancing to the loudly buzzing device however, it simply kept going off and trying to grab her attention as she finally rolled her head to the side and closed her eyes, taking a little nap.

Starling awake to the blaring screamo music of Atreyu in her one ear, she jumped clean out of the recliner and nearly tumbled into the coffee table. Kicking at the coffee table out of instinct, her eyes got wide as she misjudged it and mid-shin connected against sharp wood with a sickening crack. She hopped around on one foot for a moment, screaming "Oh, sugar cubes!" Before rubbing the pain away and looking to the coffee table to survey the full extent of the damage. Her leg had put a rather nasty split right down the middle of the table, and she laughed at it, shaking her head as she plucked her headphone from her ear, letting them hang to the ground as she bent down to pick up her phone which had been thrown to the ground in her spontaneous choice to assault the table.

Deciding to check the texts finally, she scrolled through her phone until she got to the messages, scrolling through each one as she scanned over them clearly uninterested. Shrugging she only sent one reply. 'Just another day.' Tossing her phone to the safety of a couch cushion, she grumbled as she wondered what to do next for the day. She knew she had to go get more blood packs or bottles at some point, as well as had to meet up with her sire eventually to ask her a couple questions that had arisen since they last spent time together. She also needed to take a run, and expel some of the fledgling energy she still had pent up inside of her, not to mention eventually find a good book to read at the library that her sire so conveniently owned. As well as stopping by a cafe to check the forum, and possibly even checking her email. She crossed through the bedroom into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, as well as did her hair, though she didnt bother to throw on any makeup as she simply turned to grab her jacket. Deciding against the jacket however, she made her way for the door, absentmindedly grabbing a short sword out of the array of weapons she had stacked there before reaching for her keys, and slipped out.

Following the leash that was her headphones she lifted them up and put both of them in her ears this time, pulling the MP3 player out of her pocket and flipping it to the 'Working Out' playlist even though she was just running some errands. Entering the elevator to go down she bobbed her head lightly to the Shinedown song that blared, her fiery red-orange mohawk barely moving in the movements of her head as she strolled out the now open elevator doors to exit the building through the lobby to the street. Stopping, she slowly thought about how she was going to tackle the things she had to do. After a long moment of just standing there listening to the Shinedown song fade out and a new Ke$ha one start up, she decided on the cafe first, she headed that way, crossing the street and walking in a slow stroll as she put her hand to the hilt of her short sword she had strapped around her waist while walking through the lobby. Opening the door to the cafe that was the closest of her errands finally, she walked inside only to stop and look up as she stared at the menu choices.

Danish Croissant $2.00
Bagel (with cream cheese) $3.00
Blueberry Muffin $1.50
Strawberry Muffin $1.60
Cappuccino $2.50
Coffee (sugar and cream optional) $1.25

Ordering the blueberry muffin, she pulled out her wallet and paid for it with two crisp one dollar bills, taking the muffin up she left the change behind for the woman to put into either her pocket or the tip jar - either way Olive just didnt care. She slid into computer terminal number two and set the muffin aside, not having any intentions to eat it whatsoever. Logging in and trolling the forum, she simply sat quietly as her headphones jammed Pink! and she dashed her chocolate hues over the screen. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one was reading what she was reading, because that would clearly be catastrophic to their health in terms of Olive having to make the choice to either kill them or simply follow them and report them to someone who would; she wouldnt have known either way what she would have done since no one else around seemed half interested in what she was doing. And she was thankful for that as she turned back to scan over a few more posts. Chuckling softly at one, she shook her head and logged out and cleared the history; simply neglecting to check her emails as she figured she had none anyways.

Picking up the muffin to carry it outside with her, she handed it to the homeless man she was walking past as her headphones started playing a One Direction song, shoving her hands into the pockets of her black faded jeans and smiling as she walked along. The cool night air was comforting and she sucked in a deep lung-full of it as she came to a cross roads. She could take either a left or a straight to get to where she wanted, and she mumbled something about what a hassle it was in having to make the decision. Heading straight she didnt bother waiting for the stop light to turn in her favor - it was already well past traffic hours as no one was coming from either direction, at least that had worked out in her favor. She didnt quite feel like having to explain to a human that was freaking out at why she wasnt very injured from being hit by a car at 50 miles an hour that she was a vampire and vampires couldnt be easily killed.

Headphones blared Story of the Year next as she rounded the corner to head to the shop now, subconsciously making the decision for herself as she realized she didnt really want to be aimlessly wandering the streets so late at night. Sure she was a vampire, a hunter of the night, but that didnt mean she wanted any trouble as the shadow in her urged her to stay near the darker parts of the streets and sidewalks. Spotting a shop that she knew would still be open, she slid into it quietly and up to the counter. "Hey George. Three blood packs and... some 10mm ammo." She wasnt sure why she was buying the ammo, she had plenty of it at home and didnt even have a gun on her at the moment, but it seemed like the right thing to say as she pulled out her wallet and paid for the items that were bagged up for her in a medium sized sturdy brown paper bag. The guy behind the counter said something, though she couldnt hear him because of her headphones, she just nodded and smiled lightly at him. She decided to take the change this time, stuffing it back into her wallet and putting her wallet in the rear right pocket this time, picking up the bag and nodding in silent thanks to the guy behind the counter that she had named George as she turned and slipped out back into the cool night air.

At this point she was glad that she had a key to the Library because Mora's place of residence (among many) was above it, and she made her way that way, staring up at the stars as she walked. Picking out the big dipper, the little dipper, Orion and his belt; she smiled softly to herself as her headphones started playing Carrie Underwood. Suddenly a shady man stepped out in front of her, his green eyes slightly reminding her of her sires although hers were a little more vibrant, probably due to her being a vampire. She stopped as her hand instinctively slid onto the hilt of her short sword. "What?" She asked lightly, tipping her head to the side as she stared him down with her chocolate brown hues. "Hey, hey. Come here." She blinked for a moment, then reached up and plucked the right ear bud out of her ear and stepped towards him, but made sure to keep her distance enough that she could easily walk away if uninterested. "You wanna fly, I can make that happen." She blinked at him. The **** is this crazy guy talkin- oh. She followed his wildly dashing eyes to the front of her shirt, and she actually laughed, still staring at him. Is he serious? She raised her eyebrows at him, leaning to whisper "Whatcha got?"

She wasnt sure why, but it seemed fun to do something illegal in that moment, and so she was actually contemplating buying whatever it was off of him that he was offering to her; but the second he produced a small pint sized bottle filled with crimson liquid she nearly took a step back. She showed him her brown paper bag and shook her head. "Got all I need right here dude. Thanks anyways. Maybe you should just stick to the other normal illegal stuff. I heard that stuff is ten times more dangerous to have." She laughed lightly as she walked around him in a wide arc so he couldnt detect what she was and probably do more harm than good - to himself of course. She strolled along, finally making it to the Library as Evanessence started playing in her one ear, she pulled her keys out of her pocket and slid them in the door easily, unlocking it so she could enter quietly and crossing to turn off the alarm for the time being. She'd only be there a minute, she already had in mind the book that she wanted as she headed directly to the correct isle and plucked it from the shelf where it was located, as if she had done it a thousand times before with that one particular book.

Tucking the book in her back pocket, she made her way to the back stairway up to the second floor, taking them up to the door that was the entrance into one of her sires many places to stay. She slid her key into the lock and opened the door slowly, not wanting to startle her sire if she was there - or possibly startle any company the woman might have had if that were the case. She stood in the doorway and looked around for a minute. "Mora?" The silence coming from the apartment was her response that her sire was clearly not there at the moment, and Olive laughed lightly at her horrible luck as she simply turned around and locked the door behind her before heading down the stairs back through the library to the alarm key pad. Resetting the alarm, she quickly walked out and locked the door behind her before heading off in the direction of the place she had originally come from. She knew that eventually she would have to clean up the mess that was the bottle of blood that she had thrown so carelessly against the fridge, though she really didnt feel like doing that right away as she still needed to expel all the energy she had been quelling within her lately, and the energetic Trapt song that played in her ear didnt help matters either.

Finally making it back to her current place of residence, she slid into the lobby and pressed the up arrow on the wall to make it glow an eerie dull orange, successfully calling the elevator to the ground floor. Stepping into it once it dinged to announce it was there and opened its heavy doors to her, she turned and leaned against the wall of it as she unstrapped her short sword and held her bag with the blood and ammo in the same hand, then pulling her keys out of her pocket with her free hand to step off the elevator and step up to the correct door to slide her key into the lock fluidly. Pushing open the door with her foot she pulled her key from the deadbolt and slipped inside, setting her short sword on the coffee table instead of back in the pile of multiple weapons where it should have gone. She tossed her keys to the couch where her phone still was, it lighting up and vibrating to indicate that she had another text waiting for her as she waved at it in a dismissive manner and kept walking to the bedroom with her bag of blood and ammo. The song switched to a more slower AWOLNATION one as she simply sat on the edge of the bed and took a long, deep sigh. Flopping back on the bed with the bag still in hand, she stared at the ceiling again as if it had all the answers.

Why cant I decide anything for myself easily? Why does it have to be difficult for me? She shook her head as the ear bud fell out, now playing a P.O.D. song, she could still hear it clearly as she closed her eyes and savored the music. The book she had "borrowed" from the library was jamming into her lower back but she didnt attempt to remove it as she was comfortable otherwise. She could hear her phone buzzing off the hook in the other room, another perk to vampiric senses no doubt, as she grumbled and chose to ignore it for the time being. She did however get up and make her way to the kitchen with the bag in hand, emptying it out on the counter and grabbing up the blood to store it in the fridge as she turned to open it with a foot and place the blood packets inside. Shutting it again, she turned back to the counter, placing both hands on the edge of it while the glass from the earlier bottle crunched under her feet. She chuckled softly at the small amount of destruction in the kitchen from this mornings antics. Why did I do that again? She laughed then, not having an exact answer to her question at hand, she shrugged and grabbed up a towel to clean the mess up finally.

Throwing the glass in the garbage and wiping up the rest of the blood off the fridge and floor, Olive idly thought about how she should have taken pictures first. It really honestly had looked like she lured some woman into the apartment and murdered her. She laughed again as she stood up and tossed the bloody towel into the sink, leaving the 10mm ammo on the kitchen counter as she headed into the living room for her cell phone. She flipped on a light and plopped down on the couch, the cushion giving a soft whoosh as her petit frame pushed some air out of it. She reached and pulled the book from her back pocket, Leaves of Grass by Henry David Thoreau. She set it in her lap and picked up her phone, debating on which to read first; her texts or the book? She settled for her texts first and scrolled through them. Replying to two, she tossed her phone aside and put her feet up on the split coffee table, cracking the book and immersing in the pages of it as she smiled softly to nothing in particular.

After one hour, twenty three minutes and fourteen seconds of reading, she set the book down on the coffee table and picked up her phone. Frowning, she read a text and quickly sent one back. 'It was me, looking for you.' Apparently she had set the alarm wrong at the library and the cops showed up and determined it a false alarm. She shook her head and tossed her phone to the side again, looking around for something to do now. Spotting the fireplace, she got up with a grin on her face as she tossed a couple logs into it and stuffed some kindling under the logs, lighting the dry pine needles with a wooden match to sit in front of the fire. It had taken her a couple of tries because the flue was open; certainly she did not want to burn down her sires apartment in her second week of turning, though she was successful in lighting the fire safely in the fireplace as she sprawled out to lay on the rug in front of it with her face turned towards it, chocolate hues watching it carefully as she slid her arms to pin them under her chest comfortably. Feeling the heat on her face as the flames licked high, she smirked softly at her job well done and finally got up to head back to the bedroom.

Stripping her pants off she replaced them with a pair of work-out shorts, lime green ones that in no way matched her shirt as she picked up her MP3 player that was still playing and headed to the treadmill in the far corner of the living room that looked like it hadnt been touched in ages. She liked running, that much she knew as she straddled on its sides and pushed the on button. Setting her MP3 player on top of the console in front of her, she tucked both her ear buds back into her ears comfortably but firmly as she selected her 'Hunting' playlist and a Saliva song started blaring full blast in her ears for her work out. Stepping onto the treadmill that was gaining speed she kicked it up to the highest notch it could go as she ran easily against the speeding belt beneath her sneakers. After fifteen minutes she was covered in a thin sheen of glistening sweat as she finally started to breath more heavily, finally feeling the expanse of energy in her body starting to lessen. Running at full speed for another fifty-four minutes, she finally pressed the off button and simply stepped off it to the side as sweat now poured down her skin. "I feel better." She announced to no one in particular but herself, nodding lightly as she picked up her MP3 player that was now blaring Papa Roach in her ears and heading back through the bedroom to the bathroom.

She stripped to get into the shower including the MP3 player which she still left on for no reason other than she didnt feel like turning it off just yet, turning just the cold water on, rinsing off the sweat and washing herself clean in only a couple minutes flat. Getting out she didnt even dry off as she moved to put new clothes on, this time randomly picking out the blue polo and a pair of blue capri pants that she had to roll up a little extra due to the length. Sitting on the bed to do so, she slicked her hands through her hair first and then set to rolling the pant legs one at a time, the left one first. Looking over to the clock, she blinked. Its already midnight? Huh. She shrugged and got up, making her way back to the living room and picking up her book to accompany her to sit in front of the fire. Crossing her legs indian style she cracked the book again, diving into it once more as she listened to the fire snap, crackle and pop gently.