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Nobody remembers Kaimi's best friend, and she seems to have disappeared. Or has she? |
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A Short Story: A Kiss In The Dark Before~ I was making my way back home from school. I had to walk because Mom was taking my sister, Estella, to her ballot classes. I was listening to Linkin Park on my Ipod, listening to their song Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying. It was a good song, I had to admit. I push my hair out of my eyes. Mom has been trying to make me get it cut, but I’d always refused. I liked my hair blonde and messy. I make my way down the sidewalk and a car engine roars behind me loudly. I turn around, having to shield my eyes from the bright lights of the car. The car roars toward me, heading straight at me. Wait! The car swerves back and forth as it goes down the road, as if the driver is drunk. The car nears and it goes right at me. My heart leaps into my throat as the car goes over the sidewalk and straight at me. It’s going to run me over! I think. I freeze like a deer in a car’s headlights, and I jump out of the way just as the car goes right where I was. I landed in the Landerson’s yard, hitting my head on a rock that was lying on the ground. I immediately see stars, my head spinning as I stumble and try to get up. I finally got up after a lot of stumbling and little oof! Noises. “Watch it punk!” the driver of the car jeers at me, shaking his fist. They peel away, serving as they do so. I stumble again as I start to walk, but immediately get back up and start walking home. I run all the way home, stumbling a few times, but as soon as I get home I fall on the couch and pass out. In Between~ My alarm goes off, and I groggily turn it off. I get up out of bed and get dressed in a white button down shirt and crisp jeans. I put on sneakers, adding to my outfit. I go down stairs as the smell of pancakes hits me. Pancakes? I think.My mom never makes pancakes. She always liked to make healthy food options, like fruit salad or a banana. That should have been the first sign. I enter the kitchen and when my mom turns, I feel a blow to my stomach. My mom is wearing makeup. She never wears makeup. “Do you want some pancakes, sweetie?” she asks me, smiling. I furrow my brow. “Does it have blueberries in it?” Mom never makes pancakes unless she has some fruit in it. Mom raises her brows. “No, you know I don’t make blueberries in pancakes. Plus, I hate blueberries.” My suspicion starts to rise higher. I brush it off, thinking my mom is trying something new. After all, people do change. “So do you want pancakes?”Mom asks, holding a plate piled sky-high with pancakes, maple syrup, and whipped cream. As she sets it down on the table with a smile, I imagine all sorts of bugs crawling through those pancakes. I swallow down bile, turning away from the food. “No thanks, Mom. I want to meet Lethia early today,” I say, grabbing an apple instead. I stare at the apple then set it down. I wasn’t very hungry after all. Mom has a questionable look in her eyes. “Lethia? Who’s Lethia?” I turn to look at Mom. We knew Lethia, my best friend and crush since the sixth grade, since we were babies. I examine her totally clueless face. I was almost fooled. Almost. “Nice try, Mom, you’re not fooling no one. It’s Lethia, for God’s sake. I mean come on, I kissed her on Valentine’s Day, remember?” I stare in my moms blank eyes. In sixth grade on Valentine’s Day, I kissed Lethia, and she kissed me back. The best day in my life, and I forever treasured that moment. “Mom, you can stop trying to fool me. It’s not working.” I leave the kitchen and start to go outside when I hear Mom say sadly, “But Kaimi, I’m not trying to fool no one.” I slam the door, annoyed with my mom. I think of Lethia, with her flowing hair that is so black it looks like it has blue and purple highlights, like a raven’s wing. I think of her startling green eyes and beautiful smile that is brighter than the sun. I arrived at Cookie & Crumble Bakery, where Lethia was supposed to be waiting for me to talk about our science project. I quickly scan the booths of couples drinking coffee and eating sweets, none of them holding Lethia. I sit down at the back of the store when I realize Lethia isn’t there. I wait for a full three hours before I leave. Lethia has ditched me, and it makes me feel sad. Lethia was supposed to be my friend, my best friend at that. She is your friend, I tell myself firmly. She probably had to cancel to watch her beastly siblings or something. I check my phone for text notifications to see if she texted me. Nothing.I continue making my way down the street when my red pickup truck squeals beside me. My other friend, Radar, leans out the truck. “Yo, why are you walking alone on the side of the road?” he asks, revving up his truck. “I’m trying to find Lethia. We have to start our project for science,” I explain, getting a blank look from him. “Who? Dude, we’re working on the project for science together, and we finished it already, remember?” says Radar, and he revs his truck up more. “And who’s Lethia? Is she some chick that you met?” I give him a serious look. “Not funny,man. C’mon, be serious. Lethia has been our best friend since grade school, don’t you remember her?” panic starts to build in my throat when he shakes his head. “Nah, man, don’t remember her. Are you feeling well?” he asks, and I feel a pulse of anger. Everyone is messing with me today. “Radar, she lives a few blocks away from you,” I say, and Radar shakes his head again. “I can prove it to you! Drive me to Abscond Street, I swear she’ll be there!” Radar scratches his head. “Fine, but we’ll have to hurry, a storm’s coming quickly, and Ma wants me back before it starts.” I jump in his big truck and he speeds away. As we drive slowly down Abscond Street, I look for Lethia’s big yellow house. “Where is this chick’s house at, man?” Radar asks, slowing down. “Look, there!” I say, pointing to the cheery, butter yellow house. Radar pulls up to the house. “Man, that house is for sale.” “No it isn’t,” I say, and then I spot the For Sale sign. “What?” I whisper, getting out of the truck. I walk up to the front door as Radar’s truck pulls away. I knock on the door, but I only hear an echo of the knock inside. “Lethia?” I go around the side of the house, looking for Lethia or at least one of her little brothers. “Lethia?” I called. “Lethia?” I panic when I see the swing set and trampoline missing from the back yard. “No!” I yell, swinging around and trying to spot her. My yells echo around me, mocking me as I start to run. “ Lethia, answer me! Lethia!” I start to run into the woods that are behind Lethia’s house. “No. No, no, no , no!”Rain starts to pour down as I run to the creek. Lightning flashes, but I’m not scared of getting struck. I’m scared of losing Lethia. I fall to the ground as the creek comes into sight. I think of my friend who always wore red overalls with gold silk shirts. That was my friend. No! She is my friend. As I lay on my knees panting as I think of Lethia, I feel a pressure applied to my lips. It’s as if someone’s kissing me, and it wakes me to my senses. Lethia is here somewhere. “Wake up, please, Kaimi,” a voice sighs right above me. “Please.” “Lethia?” I get up and start running towards the voice, only to realize it’s gone. “Lethia?” I start running back towards the house, but I realize that I’m lost. I’m running in circles, trying to find the way back to Lethia’s house. I trip on a root, falling face to face with Lethia’s body. It’s rotting, the skin peeling away from bones. There’s bugs crawling over the empty spaces where Lethia’s eyes would have been, and I scream. “Nooooo!” I stumble away from the body, panting as I do so. “I-can’t-breathe!” I hear little voices in my head, crawling around in my head. “Help! Please help!” I look down at my hands and see bugs crawling all over them. “NO!” I fall to the ground, the voices pounding in my head. You’ll join Lethia soon. Die. Help. The pain, oh the pain. Lethia. I curl up in a ball, covering my ears with my hands, willing the voices away. They whisper horrible things, making me squeeze my eyes shut.When I think the voices are never going to stop, a sweet voice whispers in my ear, “Kaimi, wake up. It’s time to wake up. Everything will be okay.” I look up and see Lethia standing next to me. She simmers slightly, as if she’s made up of mist. “Am I dead?” “No, Kaimi, you’ve just been in a very deep sleep. It’s time to wake up,” she smiles and I know everything will be okay. She leans down next to me.“Now wake up!” After~ I peel my eyes open and find something tickling my face. It smells sweet, like vanilla and cinnamon, and like Lethia. Lethia! My eyes snap open and I see Lethia standing over me, smiling and clinging to my hand. “Lethia,” I croak, and tears form in her eyes. “Oh, Kaimi!” she throws herself at me, smothering me in a tight hug. “You’re awake. You’re really awake!” I hug her back, breathing in her scent. I close my eyes for a second, then open them. My mom and doctors crowd around me. I look around, realizing that I’m in a hospital room. “What happened?” I look around at all the solemn faces surrounding me. Nobody answers, so I look at Mom. “Mom?” She shakes her head. “Oh, sweetie, this is too horrible for me.” “Lethia?” I look at Lethia, who smiles sadly. “Please tell me what happened.”“Well, Kaimi, you’ve been in a coma for twenty-six days,” Lethia says, sitting beside me. " Cameras from the Landerson’s house shows a car almost hitting you, but you jumped out of the way in enough time to avoid getting hit, but when you landed you fell on one of Mr. Landerson’s yard rocks, hitting your head. The footage shows you walking away, but when you’re mom found you lying on the couch, passed out, barely breathing and not responding to her, she freaked and called for help. When you arrived here, the doctors announced you were in a deep coma, and they didn’t know how long it would take for you to wake up. They said you might die in the middle of the coma.” I look from Lethia to Mom to the doctors. I swallow hard, my throat feeling parched. Twenty-six days? I remember my dream-like reality, where Lethia had disappeared and no one remembered who she was. Based on the dream, it was only half a day. Guess time is different when you’re in a coma-like dream. I furrow my brow at something. “Lethia?” I ask her. “Hm?” she asks. “Did you kiss me while I was in a coma?” I ask. Lethia turns a beet red, mumbling something. “I-uh- well-um-maybe,” she says finally. “Don’t kill me, but I’ve had a crush on you since the eighth grade.” I laugh. My voice sounds rough. “Really? Because I have had a crush on you since the sixth grade.” He backs out and everyone laughs. My coma is possibly the best thing that happened to me, I think as Lethia kisses me again. The End! Lethia smiles shyly. “Really?” “Really,” I say firmly. “And Lethia?” “Yes?” I beckon her to come closer, and when she comes within my reach, I kiss her. Just then, Radar walks in. “Hey, I’ve got your message. Is he up?” He scans the room and sees me and Lethia. “Whoa, I’ll, uh, come back later.” |
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