Faith and The Vampire ✔️

Chapter Twenty

Thursday morning, four thirty A.M. I was so washed out I should call in sick, and Aisha told me so, but I needed to get out. Rest assured, I had micro analyzed myself and I felt much better now. Doctor Olbrychska and the nurses let me out yesterday. They decided not to let me went to classes of course, I still had to rest. Today, boredom finally beat my sickness.

I stared at myself in the bathroom morro. Two days' sickfest had bleached me of color. My eyes were puffy and bloodshot. My lips were pale and flaky. I looked like I've been trapped down as mineshaft.

After doing my morning prayer, I sat on top of my bed, staring at the ceiling. I recalled every moment with Khalid when I was sick. He was nothing but decent and kind to me. How did I properly thank a tutor, an older tutor, for helping me? A thank you note or a red velvet cake wouldn't quite cut it in this instance. I was probably a girl with no manners whatsoever.

"Mel?" Aisha called me from her bed, right under me

"Hmm?"

"You sure you don't want another day to rest?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. I'll be dead if you trap me here."

She let out a soft laugh. "All right. Just don't do anything stupid, okay?"

I gave her a harsh laugh. "I'm the reckless one, you're the cautious one. Not the other way around."

"Hi, weirdo," Andrei called when I stepped out of the dorm building. "Are you sure you shouldn't stay home?"

"I'm as good as new." I answered, grinning.

We walked out to the pavement and I breathed my first fresh air in days.

The aftermath of my dramatic faint was about as horrible as I'd expected. My classmates kept asking me nonstop questions. The only way I survived was by putting blinders on, by ignoring everyone and everything. It kept me sane - barely - but I hated it.

Neuropsychology, Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology, French, History of Psychology, Physical Education, classes I attended went on and on. Andrei sat beside me all the time, he probably just worried I might faint again.

I stared blankly around the classroom, processing what I'd been through the past weeks. It fully hit me how much things had changed since the stupid whore rumors first started. For some people, I remained a nonstop source of whispers and laughter. Overall, I realized, my classmates actually gave me very little of their skeptical attention anymore. This became especially true when something new distracted everyone.

Me. Fainted in front of the entire Institute, because of low blood pressure.

At the end of the classes, I headed out to meet Khalid. The course was my favorite part of the day now, partly because of my stupid crush on him and partly because I didn't have to be around the others.

Once I arrived, Khalid was nowhere to be found. I forced myself to sit down. I waited there for several minutes while scanned the commons around the library. The clock said 04.10 P.M., when I sat upright again.

I looked at the clock. I waited for a small eternity, and a minutes ticked by. To amuse myself, I decided to make one full lap of this library, tracing all the shelves. One pass along the old shelf in the corner of this library and I was done. I took another look at the clock, 04.32 P.M. Khalid never this late.

Bored, I decided to leave the library. I did pray, but I started to walk to where the prayer room was.
I moved my feet to the second floor of this building, strolled straight along the hallway, took the stair up one floor, and there it was-The Institute Counselors office.