No Better Heaven Than You.

Chanel

C H A N E L•

Ding. Ding.

Looking away from notebook, I turned my music down as I reached for my phone. Seeing the name, I frowned and opened the message. What was she doing texting me?

"Just extending the olive branch. My birthday party is October 31st...it's Halloween themed of course. Best dressed group gets a prize! Hope to see you there.

Much love-Mariah💙

"Hm." Standing from my desk, I walked into my closet with a sly grin covering my face.

"I guess now is a good time as any to visit Texas. October 31st huh? Nice, that's when all the demons come out to play. And I want to play." I smirked, pulling my favorite metal bat off the shelf.

This trip would be a memorable one.

•••

T R A Y•

"Tray! You have to hold my hair at the roots and work the comb down!" Sighing when Airi yelled at me once again, I parted her hair the best I could and started again. Her hair was thick, and I've already broken three of my moms combs trying to comb through her hair!

"TRAY! Ima be bald messing with you!" She snapped, slapping my leg.

"Aye! Why don't you ask Nique or somebody to do this shit!? My hair is short, I don't have to deal with all of this!" I grumbled, glaring at Dana when she laughed. She had practice after school , so Airi brought her over with her today.

"Why don't you try this, and some more of this." She snickered, throwing me a weird looking brush and a bottle of Cantu Hair conditioner.

"It's a wig brush, it'll help you get through the kinks in her hair easier. Just take your time brushing it through her hair, and make sure you brush underneath and over top of it again before and after applying the conditioner." Sighing, I shrugged and followed her instructions. It seemed to work because before long half of Airi's hair was combed through and she quiet. It wasn't until I tucked her curls into the cap, that I realized she had fallen asleep.

"She's tender headed as hell, but with the right amount of patience and conditioner you can soothe her right to sleep like she wasn't. Just let her sleep, she hasn't been getting much rest." Gently tilting her head back to rest in my lap, I turned to her sister.

"What do you mean?" When she realized her error in words, she sighed and chewed on her lip for a moment.

"Look. I don't know what's going on with Airi but. Sometimes I get scared that she..." When she trailed off, I pushed her to finish.

"That she what?" Motioning to her sister, she tapped her sleeves. Lifting Airi's arm, I pulled her sleeve back. When I saw nothing there, I turned to Dana for answers when she handed me a wipe.

"It's a makeup wipe. If you get caught I had no parts in this okay?" Rolling my eyes, I wiped and wiped until the makeup was gone. What was underneath made me clam up instantly.

"What happened?" I whispered. My eyes watered, as my fingers ran across the puckered skin there. The cuts were between superficial, deep and thin. But all of them were bad enough. The farther down I wiped, the more horrified I became.

"That long one...from her wrist to the inside of her elbow? That happened here in Texas, just before her senior year started. After she relapsed." Snapping my head in her direction, I choked on my spit.

"R-relapse? Like Airi was on drugs?" Shrugging, she shook her head no.

"No..not like heroine or crack. She was stuck on the hospital stuff. Like the pain killers and the anxiety pills and shit." Running my hands over her sleeping face, I shook my head in disbelief. There was a period of time during the end of middle school and junior year were she just disappeared. So many rumors went around about what happened, but when she returned at the new school, no one remembered her. That was until people from our old school transferred as well.