The Ghost of You

Chapter 13 - Saahar's POV

I had fallen asleep on the sofa without realising. The last thing I remembered was being held in my mother's warm arms. Like always she had nursed me back to health both mentally and physically.

While I had slept there, it seemed like she had crept away without me noticing. As the bright morning sun woke me up, I sat up to see I was alone in the echoy room. I looked at the clock to see it was close to ten - the time both my parents usually go to work. Somehow I had slept through both of them leaving the house despite the nightmare that had plagued my mind.

Luckily, my heartbeat was steady and was no longer damaging my breathing. I was glad the physical effects of my nightmare were gone, however, mentally I was still not okay. I couldn't stop rerunning the memory in my head. All I could see was my brother. Not his face, just the small hand that I had taken too long to grab. I couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if I had just grabbed his hand sooner. I should've just grabbed it.

I rubbed my face, desperate to wipe the thought from my mind. However, it was useless. When I went back to my room, the first thing I looked for was my phone. Coincidently, as soon as I grabbed it, it vibrated loudly due to an incoming call. I peered down to see that I was getting a call from Lola. I sighed before answering the call.

"Sandy!" she screamed, damaging my ear drums.

"Jesus" I exclaimed.

"Sandy, are you okay?" she asked worryingly.

"Uh, yeah?" I answered, "Why wouldn't I be?".

"My Saahar senses were twitching".

"Those aren't a thing, Buggs".

"Uh over ten years of friendship, they definitely are. How do I always know when you're on your period".

"Because we sink every month. That's mother nature, not supernatural powers".

"Call it what you want, they're real" she defended, "And since I know there's something wrong why don't we all meet up and talk about it?".

"We?" I asked.

"Yes, we Sandy!" cheering Hadley, in the background.

"Guys, it's not even noon, why are you already together?".

"Because both of our Saahar senses went off and we had to meet to ensure we were getting the same thought" answered Hadley.

"Oh god." I scoffed.

"Look, just meet us at Gino's in 30 minutes".

"Wait, what 30 min-" I began.

"See you then, we love you" they both interrupted before quickly hanging up the phone.

My best friends since childhood- Hadley and Lola. We were a trio - Sims, Buggs and Sandy. They were both rays of sunshine and I was a storm cloud. Most of the time I didn't know how they put up with my gloomy personality, however, they never seemed to mind. No matter what people said about me, they always had my back.

They could tell something was wrong with me from the way I'd style my hair. Because of this, they believe they had special powers when it came to telling my mood - Saahar senses. It wasn't a power, it just showed how well they knew me. But times like this when there was actually something wrong and they weren't there to see my expression made me think that perhaps it was real.

However, when I got to Gino's I quickly realised how they knew. Instead of asking me questions like "How did you sleep?" or "Are you sure you're okay" over 100 times, they told me the heaps of gossip that circulated around our school throughout the week. They knew something was wrong with me but pretended not to know so I would be distracted. They only did this when someone told them something was wrong with me. Not just anymore - my mum.