Beyond the Bounds

Chapter Nine

My mom is leaving me by the 20th. I assumed I'd be unhappy since I would be left mom-less in this three-story house, but I only felt relieved that I didn't have to hide my lies anymore. This basically leaves me (and Jasper technically) alone in the house. This would probably give Jasper and I a safer time to communicate and think about possible solutions and probable ways to get him out of there since I had nothing, or rather, no one to hide it from.

It's 10:00 AM on the 18th of August. We were in the laboratory for our Biology subject and had our manuals on top of our tables. We were at Exercise 3 when our professor left us for a while to take hold of the examples for today's experiment. My laboratory partner was skimming through my manual when something caught his attention.

"Hey? What's this?"

I gave it a look.

It was small, it was black, and it was not meant to be seen.

It was Jasper's SD card.

My first instinct was to immediately take it from his hands. However, Chastine randomly popping up from nowhere caused me to drop the darn thing. It fell to the floor like a coin. Chastine was quick enough to crouch down and take it. She instantly rose up when she finally had it in between her fingers. "What's this?" She said while looking at it.

"Oh, I must've misplaced it." I immediately grabbed it from her and placed it in my pocket. "It's my camera's."

She looked sceptical, but thank goodness for our professor for walking in right on time. Chastine was forced to take her seat without asking any further question. That was close.

One more close incident was when my mom almost caught me that same night while I was in the bathroom talking to Jasper. It was a good thing that I had a book in hand, which made it easier to invent a cover up.

I was asking him how he's able to defecate and urinate in such an enclosed space. I know, weird. But I was curious on whether the room smells toxic or the length of time he's stayed there caused him to be immunized by the unpleasant scent.

"I do it on one side and cover it with the tissue they give me,"

"They're kind enough to give you tissue huh?"

"I guess. They even give me a plastic bag per week so I could scoop it up and place it there. They'd eventually take it out when it got full."

"Now look at that, they have a heart."

"That or they just didn't want this place to reek of shit."

I burst out laughing, "Whichever way you want Mr. Lockwood." I was practically taken aback by his outstanding choice of words. He's always been so kind to me with his please and thank you's, so I wouldn't expect "reek of shit" to be a part of his vocabulary.

A voice from the other side of the bathroom door cuts us off,

"El?" There was a knock, "What are you doing in there?"

I instantly sat up the floor and accidentally—and stupidly—bumped my head in the sink. "Ow!" Mom rushes in when she heard me moan in pain. "Geez what happened?"

"Nothing. I was just—" I looked at my book. "—Reviewing."

"Oh, I thought I heard you talking to someone."

"I was reviewing aloud."

"In the bathroom?" She eventually picked up.

"Helps me concentrate."

I may be lying but a part of that was real. I did have a higher concentration rate in the bathroom where I was in an enclosed space with complete silence. At least nailing that lie went on smoother than my SD card encounter in class, since my mom eventually left me alone after.