Readings (N.H)

{1}

It started with a deck of cards.

"Lemme give you a reading"

"No."

It was dark out, the sky pitch black and the cold air blowing through the open kitchen window. I could feel the hair on my arms stand from the cold draft, shoulders hunching together as I tapped my foot impatiently on the marble floor at an almost obnoxious speed. We've been at this all day and all night.

I could feel my finger tips sting from the countless of pricks that have abused them from the harsh thorns, some drawing blood and others simply prodding. the tips of my finger felt hot, warm from over working them. My hands ached, my head hurt, my spine needed to be cracked, yet I was determined to finish. I was waiting for my eventual slumber that seemed more and more appealing as time went on.

My friend, my best friend, had roped me into helping her prepare for a wedding she has to cater tomorrow, or technically today. Problem was she wasn't just making the food. No, she was making the food, the cake, and the floral arrangements. Funny, because she's not professionally into a business nor does she run one. Why she took the job was beyond me, why she even had a job seemed even more ludicrous but I didn't like to question her. She would give me a ridiculous answer that wouldn't even make sense anyways.

 I sat at the long table that looked like it was one of those seen in the mafia movies, long stretched with chairs at the side and two grand chairs at the end of each head. dramatic yet somehow elegant. By the look on my friends face every time glanced at the table, it obviously was not her choice of design. I looked towards her, noticing how she held the small thin cards in her hands, running her gangly fingers over the edge, brown eyes alight with mischief as she leaned against the door frame, watching me with a lazy smile on her face. The cards I observed were rightly colored, thin, fragile looking. Fragile looking cards into fragile looking hands. How fitting.

The house was big, too big, or so she often complained. it was big price wise, that I did know. She never liked big houses, too lonely she said, but she's a sucker for giving in for the people she loves. That's why the house was here, with her inside it. She looked puny standing in the tall arch way of the door.

She was silent.

"You don't know even know how to read cards." I told her, pushing my boring brown hair out of my face as I reached for another orchid, forced to talk due to her silence.

She eyed the vase, smiling once I placed it carefully in the middle of the arrangement. It was an elegant crystal vase with delicate floral patterns grained into it, to be honest it probably cost more than what I'm wearing. Walking towards me, her eyes flickered to the living room where movement could be heard, her eyes went from happiness to caution, walking more slowly and quietly towards the table. The Columbian was not to be awakened, not if we wanted to finish this job.

"I can. I've been practicing for a while now."Her airy voice spoke, she reached forward and gently plucked a white rose from the pile, setting it to the side and ignored my confused stare.

"Since when?"

"Since Columbia."

That was a little over half a year ago.

I sighed in annoyance, never once has she told me that she had got into fortune telling. Then again it's not a practical new hobby but there was nothing practical about her in general.