The man sits comfortably on the couch. The room is dim; it is lit up every once and while with small flashes of golden headlight beams sneaking past the blinds. There is a mix of various cokes and beer bottles scattered haphazardly across the coffee table where his feet reside. The woman is sleeping in the bed behind him or at least he believes she is sleeping. The television has kept her away from that much needed vacation time in dream land. Unlike him, she has a job and she is forced to wake up at 5 A.M. in order she is going to bum a ride off her older sister who chats way too much.

It’s 1 o’clock in the morning.

The munch and crunch of chips keeps her awake. She tries to think of sheep, small and plump sheep. The kind that you would see if you opened the children’s book  Mary had a Little Lamb. Unfortunately, the crackling of her Doritos bag as the man reaches in for the last crumbs keeps her mind chained to reality.

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning

The television screams as young teenage girl is murdered in the shower. One of her favorite horror movies is playing and so she is listening intently and then everything stops. A few moments later, an announcer exclaims, “And the score is 7 to 23! Ooo, it will be difficult for the Chargers to make a comeback.” The man has just put on the rest of the football game that his friend recorded for him yesterday. For the next hour or so, the woman is forced to listen to loud “Yes!”’s , the occasional “Touchdown!” and an obscene amount of curse words.

It’s 5 o’clock in the morning.

She gets out shower and puts on her work uniform. It takes her quite awhile to apply her make up because those bags on her eyes are hard to cover up. Her eyes whine to be shut and her mind is half awake. She clumsily opens the door. A surge of anger fills her when the man distractedly says, “Have a nice day at work, honey.”