The Scars Never Fade

Chapter 2 - Saturday

"Okay so disjoint events are when if one outcome happens, then the other ones can't happen. Independent events are when two or more events can happen at the same time, but one event happening doesn't affect the second event happening."

"Uhhh what?" Amrin smiled apologetically.

"The difference between disjoint and independent events is that -" A phone started ringing. Amrin checked her phone, but it wasn't hers.

"Yasir, you gonna get that?" she asked the guy sitting across the table from her.

He looked up. "Hm? Oh yeah, one sec." He took his phone out and answered the call, standing up and walking a few feet away.

Amrin shook her head, amused. She looked down at her statistics textbook and tried to figure out the problem they were working on. She pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt out of habit and glanced down at the underside of her arms. The scars were slowly starting to fade, but they were still visible. Amrin heard Yasir coming back to the table and quickly pulled her sleeves down.

"Sorry about that. My mom wanted to make sure I was coming back to the house to help set up for tonight's party. So, where were we?"

"Independent and disjoint events," Amrin replied.

"Right. So how do you find the probability of two independent events?"

"Uh, multiply them?" Amrin asked hesitantly.

"Good. So what do you get then?"

Amrin reached across the table to grab her calculator. Her sleeve got caught on the edge of her binder and pulled back enough to reveal her scars. She tried to pull her sleeve down again but she wasn't quick enough. Yasir grabbed her wrist and pushed her sleeve back.

He narrowed his eyes. "Amrin, you want to explain why you have all these scars on your arm?"

Amrin snatched her arm away from Yasir and narrowed her eyes at him as well. "It's none of your business Yasir. Let's get back to stats."

"No. Tell me why your arm is covered with scars."

"I burned myself while cooking, okay?"

"Those are not burns, they're cuts. Amrin, what's going on?"

"Nothing. Just leave it alone, Yasir."

"Amrin, I'm trying to help. You can tell me anything, you know that."

"Yeah? Well I don't need your help. I'm just fine on my own, thank you very much." Amrin packed her stuff in her bag and left the library, her eyes filled with tears.

"Hey Shoaib, have you noticed anything off about Amy lately?" Yasir asked his cousin.

Shoaib picked up a basket of garlands and faced Yasir, frowning. "No, not really. She's been her usual sarcastic self around me," he replied, walking over to a table, where he dumped the basket. "Why? Has she been acting weird around you?"

"Well, no, not exactly. But..." Yasir trailed off.

"But?" Shoaib prompted. "Wait. Don't tell me you like her?!"

"What?! No! I mean, there's nothing wrong with Amy, but I don't like her like that. We're just friends. Besides, her parents trust us to meet by ourselves for tutoring. I'm not going to do anything to break that trust."

"So then what is it? There's obviously a reason you're so interested in how Amy's been lately," Shoaib said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Yasir grimaced. "It's not like that. Besides, I don't think I'm in any position to be telling anyone this."