Cherophobia

10

I woke up with a massive headache.

My head was pounding and it felt like someone had used my head in a football game.

I groaned and went to the bathroom to have my morning routine and deliberately avoided the mirror before me because I knew I looked like a zombie.

I went back to the room for my phone and wasn't surprised to see it was almost noon.

I had missed my first two classes, but for the first time, I wasn't scared or anxious about me missing class or a pop quiz. I was just..numb.

Didn't feel anything and didn't feel like doing anything either. I decided to skip school today and grabbed some food in the kitchen. I almost cussed when I forgot to have my quiet time.

That was so not me, I did that quickly and scrolled through my feed to see what was happening.

Obviously there were missed calls from my friends and none from Darien.

Avoiding him was much easier than I thought.

I did what made me laugh; going through funny videos online especially on Youtube. I played with my hair and subconsciously sniffed my hair.

Gross!

It smelt really bad due to the heat from my hair extensions.

I went back to my bathroom and washed my hair. I felt all McReynolds today, so I played his songs from my phone while I applied the leave-in conditioner in my hair. I left them in deep big twist for me to braid later.

Shoot! I forgot about my feature, I had to get the magazine this weekend to see my story, I just didn't want to go in right now.

Perhaps in the afternoon. I had to write another one anyway and prepare the slides for my presentation next week. I came back to the hall and sat to watch some documentaries while singing softly.

"And she does sings."

I shrieked and threw the remote control at the voice as I ran to the kitchen, looking for something to fight the intruder. I opened the drawer and picked up a knife.

"Whoa!whoa! it's just me" I made a sharp turn pointing the knife to the person infront of me.

"What are you doing here?" I harshly said with my heart almost ripping out from my chest.

"You're not supposed to be here, how did you even get in here?" I spoke harshly again still pointing the knife at him.

"Can you please put that somewhere? You're scaring me right now." He replied with his hands up almost whimpering.

I sighed and brought my hand down placing the sharp tool inside the drawer. I deliberately cleared my throat gesturing him to follow me back to the hall.

"You didn't answer my question, are you not supposed to be in class?" I questioned but he sassed.

"Are you not supposed to be in class?"

I rolled my eyes and went up for the chips I had on my bed. I came back to see him watching the documentary on the tv.

"Darien, seriously what are you doing here?" I stood before the tv with my left hand on my hip.

"I was worried about you, I didn't see you in class this morning so I went to ask your friends.

They told me they hadn't seen you all day so I had to come here and see if you were here. Buy I made up my mind that if you weren't here, then I'd go to your workplace and ask of you but I guess..." He continued to ramble making my mouth twitch.

"As you can tell, I'm very fine. You need to go." I answered ushering him to the door.

But he took my hand and brought us back to the couch.

"Look, we both know you are not okay. I can stay here, you don't need to say anything. Let me keep you company besides, I'm enjoying the documentary." I kissed my teeth sighing in the process.

It won't be that bad right. Just some few hours and he'd be gone.

I muttered a fine and he fixed his eyes back on the tele while I munched on my almost flattened chips.

We sat in silence watching documentaries one after the other till it was three. I went back to my room to pick out an attire for work.

It was a Friday and as usual I'd stay till morning to anchor the Saturday morning news.

I packed everything plus my long braided wig and sent a quick but long message to my friends who were worried about me.

I lied to them that I was at work all day which technically was the truth. I looked through my mail and smiled when I saw the reservation at Souper Cuisine.

I forwarded everything to my two best friends and told them I wouldn't be joining them.

Then went back to sit with Darien who for once hadn't left his seat. I facepalmed myself when I realized I hadn't even offered him anything to drink.

"Uhm do you want something to drink?" I spoke softly almost embarrassed about my behavior and he nodded.

"Juice would be great." I brought him that and he gulped everything.

He was here because of me, did he even eat before coming?

"Give me thirty minutes I'll be back." He nodded and gave me back the glass as I went to the kitchen to heat up the leftover from yesterday.

I brought it to him and he beamed, looked like he was hungry.

He chugged everything down and grinned, thanking me over and over again making me feel even more guilty.

I smiled and went back to put the plate in the sink thinking of a better way to make him leave without being rude.

"Do you want me to leave?" He asked getting into the kitchen as he stood there waiting for me to answer.

"You should be on the couch not here." I ordered and cussed inwardly.

"I mean do you want anything else...maybe another juice?" I mumbled in a soft tone this time and he shook his head. I nodded and kept myself busy with washing his plate and before I knew it he was standing very close.

"You want to talk about it?" He questioned picking the soap from the sink but I just shook my head.

It was too hard to talk about. Someone out there was wishing for the life I'd been living but I wasn't really excited about it. I wasn't proud or happy about myself.

"I know it's hard and I'm so sorry I made you go deep into this but I wanted you to know, not because you were struggling but because-" He stopped and deeply inhaled cleaning my hands with a napkin as he brought me back to the couch.

"I'll be here every step on the way, and whenever you want to talk, I will be here to always listen." He mildly squeezed my hands and the tears instinctively rained on my cheeks.