Dark and light: The Shadows

Chapter 16

Bekati kept folded warps of toilet paper under her eyes and silently cried in the girl's bathroom. She'd been keeping it together, and all it took was a random person's in-passing murmur to break. She was just glad the girl wasn't in the archery club she was in. It was just that she didn't expect the comments to outwardly manifest. She breathed in slowly. Rugged, but slowly.

She reminded herself that she would be on Easter vacation, in Brazil, finally. Warmer, and away from school. None of her siblings could believe that school was reopened and closed as quickly as that. And she couldn't believe that Abosk got his first broken arm. She chuckled at the scene through her fading moment of sadness.

He was goofing off with his friends as they walked out of some sports practice. He was actively sliding across the iceslope near the sidewalk, with another teammate, making and doing cartoon references. And then he came to the edge prematurely, moved like a cartoon character about to slip in reflex, and came down with a crash. The dude laughed till he felt a sharp pain trying to get up. And they had to drive him to the nearest hospital. Bekati felt a sting of pain, so she KNEW that hurt. Still, she laughed because she never thought he'd be stupid enough to walk on an ice slope, much less, play. He's mostly healed now. Sulking in his room, having to miss sports practice. She sulked too because in the class they did share together, she had to help him with books, and those were heavy.

tw mention of bulimia *
Bekati shook her head and got to the faucet. She assessed how red her eyes looked and thanked the Gods, Orishas, and angels she'd only need to be in here a few minutes to get them cleared up enough. She attended to that while feeling her stomach with her available hand. The last few weeks, in the wee hours of the morning mainly, she'd be face over the toilet. She was convinced purging caught up to her, her body doing it automatically for her. She still kept from getting and eating whatever cravings she got at random in the week. 'E.D. patients experience that situation a lot from restriction and starvation,' her therapist told her once. *

She exhaled as she pushed the thought away and got on with the rest of her time for archery practice. The last time she checked, crying wouldn't make her a great archery player. She needed to observe and replicate what the seasoned athletes on her team showed her and her teammates. She already missed out on most of it last semester.

Anya finished her first dance practice of the semester with a mild aching in her left temple. She exhaled and closed her eyes, clapping. She hoped her teacher didn't call her over to have any words with her. She didn't want to hear anything about a future dance team interested in taking her on. She had many to choose from already, and doing background work on some of them had her depressed on some things in their history.

Her teacher must've gotten the memo when Anya waved, rubbed her temple, then grabbed her bag and walked out. She got to the elevator and rested her head on the back of it. She was tired but still had to rack her brain to figure out which herbal-floral blend would aid her headache. And her right calf.

She trekked on to her room, past her sister's. She'd stop in later. Deven texted her earlier with concerns, and Bekati was courteous enough to share schedules this semester. Anya chuckled dryly. Her brother had to get hurt for that door to open.

The room was nice and quiet. She locked her door immediately and plopped onto her bed. Her temple pulsed a bit more. Did she hit her head during practice? Was something in her water? She did get it from a different source. She wasn't convinced it was the latter but made a note to not get any from that place again. She chalked it up to having to do that dissection yesterday, and it reminded her of something. Someone. She was uncomfortable running that scalpel along the skin of whatever animal part that was, fully expecting blood to emerge but saw none. And then it reminded her of death. Cause that's just what the animal was.