There is Everything for You Here

Chapter 28

"You look like an alien," Jameela said, as I smoothed the cold facemask over my skin.

"Am I at least a cute alien?" She took a moment to consider this, cocking her head to the side and pursing her lips together.

"No," she teased, and I handed her the container. Full from breakfast, I felt energized as we laughed together. Klara and Liam both sat slouched on the floor, passing a stray bouncy ball back and forth to each other, having already applied their masks.

"Don't drop that in the toilet," I warned.

"Come on Stella, we are far too agile for that. My cat like reflexes would never allow that to happen," she said  in a matter-of-fact way, but closed the seat nonetheless.

"Ew, this mask feels so wet on my hands," Jameela said, touching her hands to her face.

"Don't touch it, you're going to mess up it drying," Liam warned, adjusting the hairband that she had leant him.

"I bet we look so cute right now, like the blue man group, except we're green," Klara said. "We should take a picture or something." Just then, Isaac walked past the bathroom, stopping for a moment to peer in.

"Good morning," I said, leaning into him and giving him a quick kiss.

"Ew, PDA," Jameela gagged, miming vomiting. I made a face at her, grabbing one of Isaac's hands.

"Feel like doing a face mask with us?" I asked. "It's supposed to suck all the oil out of your pores. We will all be nice dry husks of human beings after this." He frowned, looking at the mask on my face.

"I think I'll pass for today," he said. "I don't want to be a husk."

"Suit yourself," Liam called, as Isaac mumbled something about going down to breakfast.

"What's a husk?" Jameela asked.

"You know, like a husk," he responded.

"I'm not sure if that really clears it up for me."

"You know like corn? When you remove the corn part then you just have the empty outer vegetable shell. That's like a husk."

"I'm not sure I want to be corn."

  "No, you'd be the husk part."

"Oh my god guys. Don't worry. We are going to be glowing after this." Klara said, tapping her mask to see if it was dry yet. She inspected her hand, green clay on her fingers. "Or at the very least, played by this beauty company."

--

"Hey, where's your lover boy?" Jameela sat up straight, looking past my head as we set up chairs later that afternoon for group therapy. Today we were discussing the progress we felt we had made in our various stages of the program.

"I'm not sure." Maybe he fell asleep or something."

"Well, he's going to miss a great session today," Liam said dryly on the other side of me. "I for one am looking forward to talking about all my feelings and my progress."

"I know that's a joke," Klara said, "But I love this kind of stuff. Talking about your feelings is the best."

"I think you may be alone here in this one," I teased her, sending a quick text to Isaac on my phone.

—

Therapy was fine, but I couldn't help but wonder about Isaac, especially after yesterday. I wandered to the backyard after dinner, wanting to check on him. It wasn't like him to miss any meals. I slid open the glass door to the backyard, and was unable to locate him immediately, so I took a few steps out, trying to avoid the dry patches of grass as I did so.