A musty smell of moist and overused air hit Sara’s nose like a sledgehammer. The bed was left unmade; the desk littered in papers, ash, and old leftover food; and the window covered and blacked out.
Sara ripped the curtains and cardboard from the wall, letting the daylight flood into the room. Unhooking the window itself, she pushed it out into the street, the wood cracking and splintering from disuse. The improvement was immediate and a welcomed relief.
The tenants were night owls, according to the neighbour’s reports. Up at all hours of the night, for some currently unknown reason. People would come and go from the rather humble abode from midnight onwards, causing the neighbour’s dog to go into a barking fit every half a second.
“Any luck in there, Sara?” Garrick squeezed his way into the door jam, his nose wrinkling on impact with the still present air. “Smells like my teenager’s room at home. Don’t look in the waste bin,” he chuckled.
“Thanks for that image, Garrick. Didn’t want to ever think of Rhys doing that.” Sara wiped the thin layer of dust and ash from some of the documents on the desk.
“It’s only natural,” Garrick sniffed, “not the amount he does it though.”
“Does he know his father talks about him like this?” Sara picked up a handful of the papers, scanning through their contents quickly.
“I’ve heard the way his mother talks about him to her friends, he’s lucky how kind I am to him,” grinned Garrick.
Today's prompt: half a second
If you'd like to participate too, the contest can be found here: @mariannewest/day-1590-5-minute-freewrite-sunday-prompt-half-a-second