3AM Thoughts

Chapter Fourteen

"This, or this?" Niomi asked, sticking her hand out of the crack in the bathroom door and holding up a maroon skater dress and a dark blue skirt. I pointed towards the skater dress. As she closed the door and began getting changed into the dress, she talked to me through the bathroom wall.

"I'm so nervous, Evelyn!" she squeaked. 

Grinning, I curled the last piece of my hair and then stood up to review my attire. 

"Same!" I agreed. "I think I look slightly more acceptable than usual..." 

Niomi emerged from the bathroom, dress hiked up just above her knee, her chocolate hair cascading down her shoulders, eyes twinkling, legs freshly shaven and... her face completely and utterly consumed by make up, so much, I didn't recognise it was her. 

"Niomi..." I stalled, trying to conjure up a suitable sentence. When it failed, I decided to be blunt. "...you look like someone's thrown up on your face." 

"That bad?" she asked. I nodded and giggled, running over to her and arming her with a make up wipe. 

"Just...take it off. Do your normal look, it's the best," I winked. 

After waiting half an hour for Niomi to feel remotely confident with her apparel, Dad dropped us both off at a local cafe, where we waited for Caleb and Tiph to show up. 

"Okay, give me some conversation starters, Evie!" Niomi shrieked, tapping her fingers on the table.  "Wait, no! Pretend you're Tiph, okay?" 

"Okay, go ahead," I said, deepening my voice as best as I could to resemble a man's voice. "Hi, Niomi, you look beautiful today." 

"Oh thank you, you haven't scrubbed up too bad yourself," she winked. "So, how are you?" 

"Oh I'm terrible!" I lied, throwing my hands in the air in exasperation. "I'm really bad at flirting, and there's this really stunning girl right opposite me. I don't know how to get her to know I'm insanely attracted to her!" 

"Oh, I don't know what  I can do about that!" Niomi giggled. 

"How about this?" I wiggled my eyebrows, and lent in, implying I was to kiss her. Niomi flailed her arms around, roaring hysterically with laughter. 

We earned several reprimanding glares from some of workers in the cafe, but continued nevertheless, so hard that tears rolled down our cheeks. 

"Eveleyn! Oh, and hey Niomi, nice to meet you!" 

Niomi and I swivelled our heads round at the sound of our names, and Caleb greeted us. But he was alone. 

"Hey Caleb, is Tiph here yet?" Niomi asked. She glanced expectantly around the room. "Old man, old man, old lady, wait, is that one a girl or a boy?" 

Deadpan, Caleb looked straight in her eyes. "That's Tiph." 

Her hand flew to her mouth in horror, and apologies spewed from her mouth, quite similarly in fact, to how a urine would flow from a boy when he would use the urinal. I almost spewed myself at the similarity. 

"Woah, woah, Niomi, calm down!" Caleb chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm joking, it's not Tiph! I don't know who it is!" 

Red blushed to Niomi's cheek, and she slapped her forehead in embarrassment. 

"Anyway, Tiph's going to be here in a few minutes, he's just running late, that's all," he explained. "I'll go and get some drinks." 

As soon as Caleb was out of earshot, Niomi grabbed my arm in a burst of ecstacy. 

"He is so good looking, Eve!" she congratulated me. "You know, hot boys have hot friends. I have high hopes for Tiph, Evie!" 

"I bet he'll be good looking!" I agreed, nodding my head. 

"How much?" 

The voice drowned the rest of the room out. I couldn't hear the old ladies chattering about their pensions, or children wailing because they weren't allowed a cake. I could only hear that voice. 

That malicious, distinctive, cruel, callous, disgusting, repugnant, vile voice. The voice that sent millions of nauseating and heinous memories shooting down my spine. The voice that made me feel panicked and made hysteria consume me. That voice I'd finally though I had been rid of .

I turned round to a familiar egotistical smirk planted upon a face I had tried so hard to forget. 

I turned round to have the past that I had seeked to surpress punch me right in the face. 

I turned round to see the root of all my pain. 

Kit.