CHAPTER TWO

Brrrrt..... Brrrrrrrt..... 

My eyelids flickered, and my fingers scratching on my neck as I moved my tongue in my mouth to feel my taste buds. I glimpsed a figure standing in front of me as the phone vibrates in his back pocket. Then I blinked twice to clear my blurry vision. The young man shoved his hand in his back pocket, stared at his phone in a jiffy and swiped to receive call.  

"yes, yes... Okay" he answered expressing consent then he hung up the phone. 

 I turned wittingly to check if Candice was still here. Poor girl was already meditating with her eyelids twitching as tears swam down one cheek. We were unprepared for the apparition that confronted us. 

As I observed all activities for a while, my mind exerts a phantasmagoric pull. I noticed an officer struggling with the touch pad mouse. The effect was an oneiric blend on his computer screen that moved me to Alvin again.

After dinner... I went to my room and shut the door closed with my foot. Then I let out an enormous yawn with my hands stretched out in the air, followed by a loud belch. I hopped in my bed covered in a cosy blanket. I looked up at the fan rotating for sometime then I started counting the ceiling.  I began to pick on my nails and cycled through the chorus of a song that had just come to my mind. "la-la la... la la la-la Hmm... hmm" My vocal mellowed to humming. 

I jackhammer my legs up and down. "Argh!" I grumbled. There was nothing on my To-do-list. I gazed at the hands of the clock, ticking. Then I quickly recalled with my fingers snapped, jumping  out of bed. 

Where is it, where is it?? I became nervous as I searched the whole place, throwing out stuffs from the drawer. I paused, with my hand clutched on my waist and my fingers drumming on my lips, I struggled to call to my mind where I had last seen it. I immediately raised my pillows to check if it was there, but it was not found. I bent down to look under my bed with a flashlight. Eww.. It was a bit messy down there, starving for the sweet romance of a broom. I could not find it anywhere in my room. I got so frustrated, I made a long guttural sound in my throat, squeezing tightly my fist. I stormed into my sister's room banging the door behind me. 

"What is it?" she jumped from the bed in shock.  

I ignored her questions as she continued to ask further "what are you looking for?" I completely gave deaf ears as I turned the apartment up side down. 

Finally I spoke with lost hope that it wasn't there "have you seen my book?" I asked.

"Your book? No dweeb! Just look at what you have done to my room" she wailed with her hands in the air. She made a terrible gesture expressing frustration. "What is all this? Your stuff isn't in my room... Proper humans knock before invading people's personal space. I mean, I just cleaned my room this weekkkk.." she said elongating her last words. 

I paused for a moment, with my hands on my head and my mouth wide open. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed. 

I rushed to the sitting room slamming the door against her. "come back here you sl....." she screamed.

I bent in front of the TV set in the living room searching for the novel I had with me earlier today so as not to block the view of my parents watching their favorite family drama together. 

"Emily, get me a glass of water" daddy ordered. 

I hurried to the dinning room to pour water from the dispenser. My mind was diverted. As the water reaches the brim of the glass cup, it overflowed. Being conscious, I hastily turned off the dispenser and accidentally spilled some amount of water on the floor. 

"What is the matter with you" mom lamented, talking with her hands.

"I'm sorry" I sincerely said, bowing my head.  

"Dry this up immediately" my father said in a harsh tone.  

I handed him the glass of water on a saucer. He looked at me with contempt, titling his head back slightly and made his gaze follow down his nose as I refused to make eye contact with him. 

"Move away from the TV screen and get a mop stick." Mom said waving her hand.

I moved to and fro, in a state of delusion. I went into the store room to get a mop stick.

  

Mopping the tile at one spot in a circular motion, I could only imagine if I had forgotten my book outside and God help me Alvin did not leave with it. I left a note fantasizing about him and I wouldn't want him to see that. 

"No, no, no, no!" I cried out. 

Mom and dad had sneered at me, with the expression on their faces, I knew I should be in my room. 

I lied flat on my bed, hands together on my chest, with my head out at the edge, as my neck bent back.. causing the funitures in my room to look up side down. I couldn't help but think; what would happen tomorrow. Could it be that Alvin has my novel with him? If Alvin gets his hands on my book, he'd read my love note. Oh no.. how stupid was I to write 'From Emily to my boyfriend Alvin' I rubbed my hands over my face. "Who does that?" I asked my self. "Oh no.. he'd finally know I have a secret crush on him. Everybody will know. No, no. I'm doomed". I bewailed. 

That evening, I was devitalised. Having lost determination and confidence, I forced myself to sleep.