Daily Writing Challenge May 25th 2023 – Day 5 – Miracle/Tension

Daily Writing Challenge May 25th 2023 – Day 5 – Miracle/Tension

 Andivia sighed. She hadn’t meant to, it just sort of came out.

 She was sitting at the island in Camliri’s kitchen, drinking some peach iced tea, and watching hers and Cam’s kids play in the pool. Cam’s cat, Lily, lounged in the shade of a brightly colored umbrella, occasionally opening her eyes to look at the kids, like they had disturbed her beauty rest. There was no sign of Dennis the Demon Dog, or Mal, today.

 The Arcanist eyed her friend warily, one long, slender brow arched. Andi caught the look and shook her head.

 “What?” she demanded, maybe a little more harshly than she intended. Cam held up her hands and did her best to look innocent.

 “Nothing, I was just thinking that you look… good. You look healthy and more alive than the last time I saw you. How have you been doing?” Andi frowned a bit.

 Truth be told, she hadn’t been doing well the last few years, but things were starting to look up, at least she thought they were. She had gone back to her spot at the Shielded Mind clinic and began seeing patients there again. There was a baby boom going on, and lots of new babies meant lots of new business for her specialty; pediatrics. On the days she wasn’t working there, she had resumed baking food for the orphanages, mending and making clothing and toys for them, and was even thinking about doing a fundraiser for care boxes to send to those fighting the Incarnates over on the Dragon Isles.

 “I feel…” she hesitated, trying to put into words just how she felt. “I feel kind of alive again, like the rut I had been in has finally passed, and my life has meaning again.” She gave Cam a weak smile and sipped more iced tea.

 “Andi, your life has always had meaning. You are one of the most genuinely good and caring people I know. I mean, I don’t know anyone else that would care about, and take care of, their ex the way you do. Or all of the kids that you help through your practice and work with orphanages. You are good, you are kind, and you are wonderful, and I think everyone except for you knows that.”

 Andi huffed out a laugh, blinking back tears in her bright blue eyes. She had to take another drink of tea to help swallow the lump in her throat. Still, she couldn’t keep the tears from slipping out and trailing down her cheeks, which were fuller and full of more color than this time last year. She did manage to not sob, though, and she thought that was a win.

 Cam came around the island and put her arm around Andi’s shoulders. Still a bit too frail, Cam thought, but getting better. Hugging the Priestess tightly, she said against Andi’s sunny blonde hair.

 “Go ahead, hon, let it out. It’s okay, this is a safe space, always.”

 The tension seemed to melt from Andi’s shoulders and she wrapped her arms around Cam’s waist and let her friend hold her while cried; hot, burning, angry, hopeless tears for the years she had let slip by in a daze, in a fog, burying her emotions so deep inside she was afraid she had pushed everyone she loved away. Tears for the years she had felt so alone, when she wasn’t really. Tears for the bitterness she had felt for even her dearest friend because Cam had a life that Andi wanted. Tears for the relationships she had actually ran from, from the ones that could have been that she hid from, but, most importantly, tears for the ones that were still there; Cam, Andaeros, and his awful puns that she couldn’t help but grin at, Dicenne, who always had a smile for her, Ryland, and his cheeky grin when she saw him, Leomar, and his quiet nods when they sat together in Cam’s living room by a fire in the winter, Mal, who loved to ruffle her hair and tease her about smiting him. For Felon, and his love of their children. And even for Red, who, although he was an ass so, so much of the time, he never failed to be around, just when she needed a reality check. Kalen and Tobin, the terrible twosome who would never, ever leave her alone, even if she begged them.

 And, when she thought about it, there were a slew of others that had always been in her life, had been a constant, even when she was floating in that sea of bitter loneliness.

 It was a miracle that she still had any friends at all. She hadn’t been a very good friend to any of them as of late, but she intended on fixing that. She wanted to be with her friends, with her people, with the ones that had become family to her.

 She wasn’t sure what had changed, but one day, something inside just… cracked. And instead of the usual hurt, the usual anger and bitterness, the usual fog, there was hope.

 Hope of the life she had wanted, and still did. Hope that she wasn’t too far gone to live that life. Hope that her friends were still there, still wanted to be there.

 And it felt good to hope. To have something to look forward to when she awoke, and the dreams of the future when she slept. She was ready to embrace that hope, and her life again.

 After all, her last name was ‘Hopebringer,’ it was high time she lived up to it.

@daily-writing-challenge @andaerosdawnflare @dicenne @rylandfalkov @rosecrownreserve @felonous @tristennedarkmorn for mentions.

Thanks @aerdendios!

@tristennedarkmorn Thanks @turning-through-the-never!

That people assume her whole life revolves around the twins. Yes, a lot of her life does, but they're teenagers now, with their own groups of friends, their own interests, their own hobbies, and they don't need Mom looking over their shoulder anymore. Andi feels like she lost a lot of herself when she became a mother, instead of being recognized as a good doctor, the organizer of charity events, a baker, or a seamstress, it became "Andi, the mom of Annie and Caleb, and, oh yeah, she's a doctor too."

Thanks @theconstructsworld