Why Me?

Chapter 10

Noor:

            I walked up the stairs to take a shower.  I could feel the cuts on my arm, just as Jerry could see them.  Salt and sand matted my hair.  When Drew was over, I almost forgotten what I had just been through.  I had never seen him more mad before.

            “Why are you wet?  I thought you couldn’t swim,” Jerry had asked after I finished explaining how beautiful the sunset was.

            “Oh, my friends splashed me,” I had said unconvincingly.

            “Uh-huh, and what about the cuts on your arm?  So many of them,” he said, and came over to fuss over them some more.

            “Oh, I fell on some rocks.  There were quite a few nearby.  Me and my friends were running around and...bam!” I said, hoping Sophia would come soon to cover up for me.  If I kept coming up with stuff like this, Jerry would probably end up thinking I had gotten in trouble with the police or something.  My lying skills were just that bad.

            As if she could read my mind, which in a way she could, Sophia walked in.  “That was so fun!  Haha, I was able to avoid all the water being splashed around.  Noor, you are so bad at hiding,” she said playfully, gesturing at my soaking figure.

            I was relieved by this.  She could lie much better than I could.  Jerry looked back at me.  “That’s great,” he said with a smile.  “I think you should go ahead and take a shower now.”

            So now I was going up the stairs to take a shower while Sophia was downstairs staring intently at something on her phone.  I wondered what it was.  Any hope I used to have that Sophia and Drew could be friends was definitely gone.  Drew obviously hated her now for not believing me.  Now that she said sorry, though, I wondered if she did believe me.

            When I came downstairs for dinner, Jerry had eaten something on the way back, so Sophia had made some shrimp pasta for the two of us.  I sat down to eat the odd smelling bowl of pasta before me.  I carefully took a bite, and it actually was pretty good.    

            “So,” Sophia said slowly, “I have a question for you.”

            “Oh no!” I gasped sarcastically.  “Sophia has a question for me  Am I in trouble?”  Sophia looked at me in a way that said that she was serious.  “Sorry, go on.”

            “Okay,” she said.  “Why do you want to keep back the whole drowning thing from Dad?”

            That was a good question.  I didn’t really have a reason, more of a gut feeling that I shouldn’t tell him.  But if I told Sophia that, she would probably go tell him, thinking that was best.

            “I, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said half-heartedly.  Sophia turned red and looked down at her lap.

            “I know you have no right to trust me, since I don’t believe you, but please.  I’m sorry,” she said quickly and quietly.

            I was confused for a moment.  Then I realized what she was talking about.  “Oh, no, it’s not that!  It’s just that my reason is really dumb.”

            “Oh,” she said, looking relieved.  “How could it be dumb?”

            “It is,” I insisted.

             “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” she said eagerly, scooching closer.  I sighed dramatically.  I guess there was no way to stop her.