Ink (On Hold)

Chapter 5

My eyes fluttered open to see the room bathed in a beautiful yellow-orange morning light. I sat up and Alice's side of the bed was empty. Just then the bathroom door opened up.

"Good morning Sky," Alice said with small yawn. Her hair was slightly messy but she still looked great. I didn't even want to know what I looked liked at the moment.

"Morning." I stretched my arms high in the air and then extended them in front of me. As soon as I saw the black writing I gasped and quickly laid down, bringing the blanket up to my neck. I looked over at Alice who was staring at me through her mirror on her dresser. Her eyes wide.

"What was that?" She asked.

"What was what? Hey, what time is it?" She hesitated before looking at the clock on the wall.

"It's almost 6. We got up kinda early. I don't even know what time we went to bed. But, seriously, what was that?"

"What was what?" I asked again, adding in a laugh that sounded uneasy. Alice spun around from the mirror.

"I saw something on your arm," she said.

"Like what?" My voice wavered just a little. My heart pounded fast and my hand started to shake  slightly underneath the blanket from nervousness.

"I don't know. It was black. Just let me see your arms."

"Uh, no." I said. Alice walked over to the bed, determined.

"Let me see."

"There's nothing on my arms Alice. Seriously."

"Then let me see."

"No," I said, trying to add in laughter like I was being funny. Like this was just a game. Far from it though. Alice ripped off the sheet covering me abruptly. I braced for her reaction, closing my eyes tight.

"What the hell?" I opened my eyes but didn't look at her. I just looked down at my arms, at the... clear skin? The writing was gone. I looked at my watch. 6:01. Oh thank you baby Jesus. Relief washed over me and then I looked at Alice.

"See? It was nothing," I said, my voice back to normal.

"Then why were you hiding your arms?"

"Oh, I just messing with you is all." She stared sat me suspiciously and then a smile spread on her face and she picked up a pillow.

"You goof," she said as she chucked the pillow at me, laughing. She walked out of the bedroom and I quickly ran into the bathroom shutting the door behind me. I sat down on the cold tiled floor, back against the wall.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," I whispered. That was too close. Way too close. I couldn't sleep over at someone else's place ever again. Not if they didn't know about me. It was too risky. I took a deep breath and rose up from the floor, avoiding the bathroom mirror. I've never really liked mirrors to be honest. After all those times my mother would see me looking in the mirror she would say, "What's the point in looking at yourself? You're already disgusting, the mirror isn't going to fix that." And then she would laugh her way all the way downstairs. Yeah, I had some pretty encouraging parents.

* * *

Alice gave me a lift back to my apartment at 1:30. We had breakfast, watched some movies, then went out for lunch. I have never spent so much time with someone other than Jamal. Alice parked in front of the apartment building.

"This was fun. Can we do it again sometime?" Alice asked.

"Yeah. That'd be nice," I said, giving her a genuine smile.