Only within the boundaries of her dreams would she ever see that smile. . .
A distinctly cold presense overtook her. Zaire stood there staring at herself in the mirror. Despair. The girl on the other side of the mirror was screaming on the inside, crying on the out. But Zaire? She was crying on the inside, dying on the out. In her imagination her emotion caused the mirror to smash into a million tiny pieces just as she felt her heart had. And yet all this while, she could feel, hear, see something drawing her back towards him. Him.
Zaire shook her head furiously, slamming her hand onto the edges of the sink and exhaled loudly. She touched her stomach instinctively as parts of the dream continued to flash across her eyes. Her shoulders slumped as she felt defeated, she walked back to bed and even though there was so much on her mind, she was exhausted. It wasn't long before she fell back into a deep sleep.
Zaire woke up feeling so much better than she did the night before and what a night that had been! The sunshine shone through the blinds in Maro's room. She got up and stretched then went in search of Maro. She got to the kitchen and that he'd left a note for her saying he'd had lectures to attend to and he'd be back by three and he'd left his phone in case she needed it seeing as hers had been destroyed. She quickly looked at the time on the screen. 13:49pm. She couldn't remember the last time in her life that she'd slept this late. She'd missed work, something her she seldom did. She kissed her teeth in annoyance and decided to phone in even though she was several hours late of doing so.
She knew the number off her head and quickly dialed it and asked to speak to her manager.
'Hello, its me Zaire.'
'Good afternoon Zaire, you feeling better?' She looked at the phone in confusion. 'Your friend called earlier and explained that you were poorly. I must say it isn't like you, you're always at work but I guess we all have our days eh? How you feeling then?'
Awful! My face is all cut and bruised, I'm weak and I feel battered and depressed. Well, that's what she wanted to say. She was tired of lying and hiding this part of her life away. But realistically a lie would have been easier for anyone to swallow than her truth.
'A little, I'm still quite ill.' She said quietly.
'Well contact me tomorrow if you feel up to coming in. Take care now.'
'Thanks, Stacey.' From the corner of her eye, Zaire spotted Fola saunter into the kitchen in his boxers, her eyes followed him as he dashed a cereal bowl into the sink. He raised a brow and smirked when he caught her staring at his bare torso. Looks like Zaire wasn't the only one who had got a nice long sleep.
'Hey you!' Fola winked.
'Hi.' Zaire felt flustered for some reason, maybe because Fola was so gorgeous and charming.
'I thought you and Maro were doing the whole let's be friends thing, I didn't know you two were...'
'Ooooh!' Zaire gasped. 'No no nooo we errr, I just stayed the night.'
'I know, I know I'm just teasing.' Fola chuckled. Zaire hit him on her shoulder, feeling a tad bit embarrassed.
'Need anything, I'm about to jump in the shower...' He offered.
'Erm...' She pondered. 'No, I'm good for now. Maro will be home soon anyway.
'Cool, see you later.' His eyes lingered questioningly on the cuts on her face before he turned and walked out of the kitchen. Zaire bit her lip playfully as she admired Fola firm butt.
Zaire ran water into the kettle and picked up Maro's phone to call Priscilla who was the only other person she could rely on to help her.
'I hope she's not at work...' She said to herself as she called her.
