Familiar Strangers

Chapter 9

Never had a second passed so slowly for Melissa.

Sitting there, on the floor, with Jasmine on her lap the unmoving hand of the clock seemed to be mocking her, challenging her to surrender. The faces of the people in the growing circle closing in demanded an answer. The air, heavy from the scent of coffee suddenly turned suffocating. Everything around her looked blurry and frozen. Everything that is, except her and Jasmine. She began feeling light headed herself.

I don’t even know her. Logic argued fiercely inside her head.

But you haven’t even tried! A weaker, more emotional side of her claimed.

She gulped and united all of her contradictory thoughts into one final decision. The second passed. The clock ticked. The scene was no longer frozen.

As Melissa stirred, attempting to rise from her place, Jasmine’s eye lids flickered slightly, catching her attention. She held her breath expectantly allowing the movement to shine some hope. When finally two identical blue-green eyes stared up at her disoriented, she sighed relieved.

“Here’s your water!” The blonde waitress made her way through the ring of customers who had gathered around the girls, holding a tall glass of water. Her eyes fell from Melissa to Jasmine and back again and her shoulders relaxed. “Thank God she’s awake! I was beginning to worry! I’ve never had to deal with this sort of thing before…” she continued rambling as she handed the glass to Melissa, who helped Jasmine sit next to her and offered it to her.

Melissa wiped her hands on her blue jeans and observed Jasmine’s pale face while her trembling, drained of colour lips swallow ravenously the cold water. It was only after Jasmine was finished with her drink and gazed at her exhausted and frightened that she remembered where she was and logic regained control.

“Let’s get you somewhere other than this floor.”

She extended her hand out to Jasmine and helped her with getting up. It was a slow process that left Melissa supporting her sister to their original table. A couple of people rushed to help her and after that things moved along faster.

“Thanks” Melissa said to the two girls as they sat Jasmine down.

“Yeah…thanks” Jasmine mattered faintly too.

The girls nodded, smiled and scattered back to their tables. The waitress, who hadn’t left their side but had proved herself useless by only talking their ears off, lingered close by.

“Are you alright you two? Need anything else?” She asked smiling nervously at them, as if she expected Jasmine to collapse any moment.

Melissa looked at Jasmine who tried to shake her head but she ignored her, figuring she was in dear need of some nutrition.

“Bring us another two of this…” she pointed at her empty glass “And one lava cake, heated, with ice cream and whipped cream please!”

Jasmine threw her a horrified but thankful glance before her face turned into an expression which Melissa supposed was meant to conceal her emotions. She forced herself not to laugh, seeing her fail miserably.

Oh darling! You seriously need to practice that! Let me show how it’s done…

As she thought that all emotion from Melissa’s face ceased to exist, leaving behind a blank canvas, like the ones she kept in her studio back home. This seemed to baffle Jasmine and Melissa smirked inside her head never letting anything show though. After playing this silent game, she decided it was time to cut to the chase and figure what all that was about.