Under the Stars

14. Waltzing in the supermarket

Chapter 14: Waltzing in the supermarket

Mia's POV

*****

The following three days were painful to say the least. Every inch of my body was killing me, and the smell of calamine lotion was starting to make me sick. I didn't even dare looking in the mirror, knowing that all I was going to see was a person covered in white, and their hair resembling a bird's nest. Due to the amount of pain I had, I didn't find it in me to wash my hair when I felt it getting sticky, and because of my waves, there was no way I could brush the calamine residue out either. I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have many spots on my face, minimising the chance of getting marked by them. 

My days were spent lying in my bed, my laptop on my lap as I watched countless YouTube videos and read a couple of books. Thankfully, I wasn't missing out on much at school, and we were barely getting any homework. Most of the things they were doing in math class were things which I had already been tutored on, and I was already ahead on my english Lit reading. The rest of the classes nearly never gave us any homework, so all I had to do was cover the topics they were doing in class. The lack of motivation I had, however, gave me the perfect idea to try and find the topic through a YouTube video instead, allowing me to learn far more than I would have if I actually went through the notes sent to me. 

The only thing which was able to make me forget my pain, however, was talking to Layla. On Monday, when she found out that I had chicken pox, she tried the best she could to deviate the conversation from it, and went on to talk about her day, something which I never got tired of hearing about. I loved the way her and I would treat a conversation where the other person is not feeling their best. It had become a ritual of the sort between the two of us, finding out that the only cure there was, was simply talking to each other. On the other days, we could only talk by messaging each other, and even from the short time we spent messaging she had been able to make my day so much brighter. 

All I needed for my day to be even better was to actually see her. That was why when Thursday evening rolled around, I excitedly switched on my laptop and sat upright on my bed. If it were any other person, I would have hated to show my face the way it was in that moment-covered in calamine lotion and topped with some messy hair, but given that it was Layla, I knew that she wouldn't even comment on it. Not wanting to show myself like a total clown in front of her, however, I tried as best as I could to get my hair into a ponytail, putting some water on the top part of my hair to try and flatten it out slightly, doing quite a good job of it. I quickly hit the accept button as soon as the call from Layla lit up my screen, and as I saw her bright, happy face, I quickly forgot all about my itchy skin. 

"I have great news," she instantly said, her glowing eyes making me smile. Her happiness was so radiant and contagious, that simply seeing her happy was enough to put a smile on my face. 

"Spill it," I curiously said, wanting to know the reason why she was in such a great mood. 

"Theo broke his arm." My mouth opened partly as my eyebrows scrunched down in confusion. I couldn't comprehend how Theo breaking his arm sounded like such great news to Layla, especially since Theo was her brother whom she seemed to care about. 

I certainly did not find that as great news. All I could think about was the pain he must have went through breaking his arm. I had never broken a single bone in my body before, but I had heard how painful it actually is. Imagining Theo going through that unbearable pain made me feel truly bad. 

"How is that good news? Oh my God, is he okay?" I asked, slightly panicked, thinking that there must have been something wrong in her head.

 "Relax, he's fine. He's broken so many bones while playing basketball that he's gotten used to it. It hurt him at first but he's fine. It's good news because he has to stay two weeks home from school, which means that he can keep you company." I rolled my eyes at her words, not understanding how she could be so excited at the fact that he and I will get to talk more, despite me being slightly happy about it myself. "He told me this himself."