The Double-Tap Accident

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Bad Idea.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: "Bad Idea."

THE GOOD DAY Abisola brought up last night continued onto the following Tuesday when I was able to sleep in. I woke up to three text messages. The first came in from my sister. 

Abisola: Tell me you're having a good day.

Me: I just woke up.

Abisola: Phone didn't fall on your face?

Me: Phone didn't fall on my face.

Abisola: Sounds like you're still having a good day since last night. 

Her message made grin as I got out of bed that morning and walked into the bathroom to inspect my nose. The bruise lingered but didn't look as bad as it did yesterday especially after applying makeup. 

She must've told mom and dad because, in addition to her message, I received messages from them separately. One was a small paragraph from mom that was comprised of many encouraging words while dad's message was short.

Dad: I love you.

All three of them sending messages completely out of the blue made me feel better than I had last night in a matter of seconds.

Later in the day, I took my midterm and left that lecture room without any hesitations over my answers after triple checking. The weight, the pressure I had felt on my shoulders slowly eased up even with the numerous assignments I had all the way up to finals. I wasn't going to let it get me down, especially not with my sister who kept sending me little sentences of motivation throughout the day even while she was at work.

Abisola: How'd the last midterm go?

I had sent her a thumbs-up emoji.

Abisola: Jaime.

Me: it went well!

Abisola: Did it or are you lying?

Me: i think i did well.

Abisola: The last one had an exclamation point. This one didn't.

Me: abi.

She sent me a string of smiley faces that I cringed at before sending her middle finger emojis in response.

When I came home after a day of classes and an orgo lab, I was untangling my earphone wires, moving my braids from getting caught up in the madness and kicking off my shoes when I heard chatting coming from the kitchen. When I walked into the room, Larine and Yasmeen were speaking, talking about something animatedly.

Larine pointed her thumb at Yasmeen once she saw me, "Did you know Yas ran track?"

"Yes." I smiled, glad to know they were talking. The days of Larine swerving into the kitchen, quickly grabbing something than leaving the room with a quick hi and bye were over. I pulled my scarf off my neck and dropped my backpack on a chair. "She's insanely fast. Over the summer she showed me videos of her in high school just breezing past everyone. She was captain of her relay team." 

"I need to see those," Larine told her before looking down at her watch and pushing off of the counter. "I got a game. I'll see you guys later?"

When she left after a promise of swinging by the room after she came home, Yasmeen was quick to turn to me, sounding excited. "Larine is actually so cool. We should go watch one of her squash games and make signs." Yasmeen barely got the last word out from that sentence when someone walked into the kitchen.

Yasmeen and I exchanged a glance at each other as Mariam opened the cabinet she occupied, retrieving a granola bar.

Yasmeen gave me a purposeful nod as if she was on a mission and was ready to do everything and anything to accomplish it. Instantly, I reached out to grab her arm. The determination in her faded and turned into confusion. I rotated to face Mariam. "Mariam, can I speak to you?"