Jinn & Curses

Chapter 5- Invite

Chapter 5- Invite

Nothing more was said about the bathroom incident but I felt their questioning eyes on my face every time we were in the same room. It was infuriating. I felt so lost because I couldn’t tell anyone what really happened.

I also couldn’t understand why slipping on the bathroom floor or not hearing someone screaming when I was in another part of the house was so hard to believe? It seemed plausible enough. I didn’t like the lack of trust even though I was lying but that wasn’t the point.

 I felt terrible about lying but it was better that way than the grizzly alternative I played over in my mind, every time I had tried to convince myself to tell the truth. The difficult thing about remembering those three months of 'recovery' was I remembered what had been said while I, at the time, had been in a daze. My mind was only now making sense of the conversations that had been spoken around me. The fear in my mother's eyes now made sense. My unstable moods had made her frightened of me. I remember only my brother being able to calm me down when I suddenly began screaming in a fit, trying to claw the air around me. She had been convinced being put in mental institution or seeing a psychiatrist would help me recover.

 Now her cautiousness around me made sense. And the need to lie about the demon-ghost attack made even more sense. To me, guilt was a parasite that slowly ate away at my insides. But I just couldn’t tell them, and even if I thought they'd understand, I didn’t know how.

 I even considered telling Sami the whole thing but then argued against it. I needed a security blanket in all this mess, and she was it.

College was like a Godsend when the day started. I’d hoped it would be a way to distract myself but the thoughts in my head wouldn’t go away. Neither would the ghost’s face.

 I’d queued up in the cafeteria and without warning the migraine returned. I clutched my temple nearly spilling my open water bottle over. People close to me glanced up at my sudden movement. My cheeks flushed blood red and the heat hit me like an oven door opening.

 Please don’t throw up! Pleeeease!

 I left my tray and jogged out the room, trying to reach the nearest bathroom. I stumbled through the swinging door and ran to the closest toilet, the lid had been left open. I gagged and a little acid escaped my throat. I slumped against the piss-stinking toilet for a good few minutes before I was sure that was all that planned to come up. My migraine slowly shrank to a dull ache.

 I stepped out towards the sink in front, turned on the cold tap, and plunged my face into the water.

The pain soon dissolved but my nose began to bleed. I warily watched my reflection in the water marked mirror as I held a paper towel to my nose, pinching the top with my fingers to still the blood flow. I waited for blood to come out my eyes like before but nothing happened.

 I had never felt like such a nut job in my entire life. It was worse than my zombie days on the couch. I had never been this bad, and it was affecting my whole life. I didn’t know what to do.

 I thought about maybe seeing a doctor who could prescribe me painkillers for the headaches, and maybe inject Botox in my nose or whatever they do to reduce nosebleeds.

 But who would stop the crazy ladies from flying out of bathroom mirrors and screaming until my eardrums burst and my eyes bled?

The school day finished slowly and I was glad to be outside, even in the cold air. It soothed my burning face and numbed the pain in my skull.

 I walked slowly towards my car, pulling out my car keys from my front jeans pocket.

 The sky was grey and cloudy, like billowing smoke. It made the place ominous and dull. It hung over my head like a heavy cloak, making my thoughts and constant search for solutions to my problems more unobtainable.

 As I gazed up at it, strutting closer to my mustang, a loud honk of someone’s horn behind me made me jump. I tried to act casual, turning around slowly enough so that it didn’t look like I was startled.

 “Hey Cora!” called a low, cheery, male voice.

 I bent my head a little to see inside the car and searched for the driver’s face. Zak. I couldn’t help but smile at his kind, beaming eyes even with the way I felt.

 I sidled over to the right-hand side-door only just noticing the seat was empty. “Hey,” I glanced at the seat then up at him. “Where’s Sami?”

 “Oh she’s at home today. Free day, didn’t she tell you?”

 “No, she didn’t. I thought she'd gotten a ride from her mom this morning.” My head began to feel heavy as the misery of the day sank back in.

 I’m so messed up I didn’t even notice she wasn’t here today.

 I could feel his eyes on me. I looked up meeting his and I noticed he didn’t seem to feel awkward by my long silence; in fact, he appeared to be amused by it. “She wanted to ask me,” he began, “to ask you, if you would like to come to ours for dinner tonight?”

 My eyebrows rose with intrigue. “Oh?”

 “Yeah, I mean my parents really wanna see you, specially my mom. She’s been asking about you a lot.”

 “Bless her heart. I’ve not seen any of them in a long time. Your sister’s married I heard?”

 “Yeah, with a baby on the way…”

 “Oh yeah Sami said. Guess that means you’re gonna be next in line huh? They started buggin’ you about getting married yet?”

 “Uh, I guess you could say that.” I was surprised to see he blushed.

 I felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. Sami's suspicion of his attraction towards me slivered into my thoughts. Before I had considered if it was true or not, I added jokingly, “So have your parents gone through all the cousins for a possible wife and now they’ve moved onto Sami’s friends?”

 I felt like a dunce after I said it, but to my surprise, he burst out laughing. It was warm and strangely child-like.

 “You’re funny Drake. And you’re my friend as well, don’t forget that.” He clearly knew what I was hinting at and he hadn't denied it. He also didn't show any signs of chagrin which surprised me.

 “I won’t,” I responded as an afterthought.

 I hoped secretly, that he wouldn’t forget it either. Somewhere in the back of mind a voice kept telling me not to give him the wrong impression, just in case Sami was right. I immediately put my guard up, smiling a little less and not looking into his eyes.

 He didn’t seem to be aware of the sudden change in my manner. “So will you come?” He grinned at me expectantly.

 I glanced up in thought, liking the idea of an evening away from my mother and Abdul, before replying, “Sure. I mean I need to let my mom know.”

 “Call her.”

 “I don’t have my cell phone on me.”

 He reached into his pocket and held a silver phone up with a wide grin. “Use mine.”

 I smiled momentarily exposing my teeth but didn’t meet his gaze.

 I called the house-phone and Sadie answered. She said that Helena needed my car because Abdul wasn’t back from work yet.

 I told Zak and after a moment he suggested, “Okay then we’ll drop your car at your mom’s and then I’ll drive you to mine and take you back home later. Deal?”

 His enthusiasm and warm magnetism gave me mixed feelings. I started to wonder if accepting the invitation in this way was a mistake. But being the too-kind-for-my-own-good kinda girl that I am, I didn't want to offend him.

 Unable to come up with a decent excuse not to go, I smiled politely and responded, “Deal.”