Soulmates

Chapter 9

"What's that on your head?" asked Teagan. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Leena. It looks like it hurts." said Almada.

Why was she talking to me all of a sudden? She hugged me so tightly, as if I was a friend she genuinely cared about, hands in my hair and her lips nearly touching the space between my cheek and my eyes type shit? All of the girls that used to hate me were suddenly making a fuss about taking me to the nurse's office and getting an icepack. People only felt bad for you when they could see you hurting, I guess. They asked me if I needed painkillers or anything as well as them relentlessly pushing me for more information: was it a robber, a break-in, what did the perpetrator look like? They didn't look like anything, they were invisible. 

My mouth was sealed shut. 

It was sealed even after the police had arrived last night and interrogated me. Sandra and Noah were rendered paralysed and speechless when they had come across the scene - of me lying on the floor, severely injured with broken furniture and crockery surrounded. 

"Can we close the investigation, please?" I simply said.

"No, we can't do that. It's clear that what has taken place is serious." said Sandra.

"I, as a victim, testify that this is not a serious matter."

"Leena, you have a large scar on your forehead from blunt trauma, to the point where we need to admit you to a hospital to check for broken bones or internal bleeding. And you have fainted, is that right?" asked the doctor. 

"Yes." I replied unenthusiastically.

"Then why do you think this is not serious?"

Man, I was so tired. As I sat in Engineering, I felt two robust but gentle arms wrap around me from behind. The arms of an amateur basketball player. His tall presence looming behind me was as comforting as the sun to a sunbather. 

"Leena. Oh no. What is this, love, why is there a bruise on your forehead?" Ethan brushed my hair back and ran his thumb across it. I winced as he touched it, because the skin was tender. "Sorry. Does it hurt?"

"Obviously." I shot him a glare. "I tripped and fell."

"My parents heard about it from your mother."

"Sandra." I corrected.

"Hey, a trip couldn't result in complete destruction. Tell me what's really going on, please."

"I can't." 

He took a step back and studied me, my bruise, my injured lips. His honey-brown eyes peered into mine. A thought played behind them, flickering like a candleflame. His eyes seemed to be concentrated and thinking and his eyebrows were slightly creased as he wondered what could be going on with me.

"I already know. It was a ghost, or some kind of spirit." he said softly.

I wanted to nod. But I couldn't. It felt like an invisible hand was clenched onto my head and held it firmly in place. I was prohibited from betraying the true events of last night.

                                                           ╚══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══╝

"You can stay at my house." Ethan said after school ended.

"I don't need to." I whispered.

"You're always welcome to stay at my place. I want you to be safe."

"Ethan, stop involving yourself in this."

He looked a little bit hurt. The thing about Ethan was that when anyone raised their voice at him, he looked dejected and it made you feel instantaneously guilty.