It's 2:43 a.m. and the kitchen clock is the only thing making noise. I can hear it from the couch where I'm lying. It's not loud, just steady. Tick. Tick. Tick. The kind of sound that gets louder the more you try to ignore it.
I should be asleep. I have work in five hours. But my mind keeps circling back to things I said earlier, things I didn't say, things I should have done differently. The clock doesn't care. It just keeps going.
Sometimes I think about getting up and turning it off. Unplugging it. But then I'd have to walk through the dark kitchen, and I don't want to. So I lie here and listen to the ticking instead.
Outside, a car passes. Then silence again. Just me and the clock.