Beyond The Stars

Jinns and Teddy Bears

I quickly rushed in and took off my shoes before running past the living room and the front door where his parents were calling out into the dark. Gasping for air I finally made it to his twirly swirly staircase.

Why are his parents even up at this time? It's 1:30 am. I push myself against the wall after hearing them grumpily shutting the door and making their way back to the living room where the sound of the tv soon came on.

I tiptoe up the stairs and accidentally go down the wrong hallway before looking around and finding the one that leads to Mikhail's room. I'm about to rush towards it when I notice the knob turning and the door opening slowly. My eyes widen as I quickly look around before jumping into a random room and closing the door behind me.

I wait for the sound of his footsteps to pass and realize he's going to the bathroom that's towards the end of the hall. I take a look at my surroundings squinting to see since the light from the window isn't emitting a lot.

A bed is pushed up into the corner with no covers and no pillows, boxes upon boxes hold what seem to be textbooks and little models. I walk slowly through the room taking in the murky lonely smell before my eye catches a glint.

I walk towards one of the boxes and lift up the picture frame. A little shiver runs through me as I look at the photo. The glass is cracked but the faces beneath are visible. An older looking Mikhail with a little Mikhail on his shoulders, the resemblance is striking, having the same exquisite green eyes and the same floppy brown hair as Mikhail does now.

Before I can look through more the sound of water running in the bathroom snaps me out of my daze. I open the frame quickly and take the picture out pushing it deep into my pocket before opening the door and ninja walking towards Mikhail's room.

I'm not sure what possessed me to grab the picture but I did and I'm not planning on telling Mikhail anytime soon, I close the door behind me glad that the lights are out before going into a corner and sitting down waiting for him to just jump in bed already.

If he was not in sleep mode and the lights were on I'd probably look like such a pervert, sitting in the corner wearing all black and nothing but my eyes showing.

"Ya Allah please let him be wearing a shirt," I mumble to myself, the door opens and in tumbles a sleepy Mikhail. Alhamdulillah with a shirt on.

I scooch further into my dark spot praying he doesn't see me, I begin to feel hot under the layers of hoodies but can't do anything about that now. He finally, after bumping into many things one including my foot to which he didn't even react, he finally lands face down onto his bed, wrapping the covers around himself.

I let a sigh of relief out, after a few seconds I hear the gentle rhythm of his breathing and slowly tug one of my hoodies off, and the scarf away from my nose before grabbing my phone and and turning it on so the dimmest of the dimmest light appears.

I look around trying to figure out where to first start, Mikahil mumbles incoherently and I stare at him nodding along to whatever he said in his sleep. A little gasp escapes me as I find him clutching onto a deep brown coloured teddy bear.

And to think that I thought Mikhail was tough. I giggle to myself gently as I snap pictures of him clutching the fluffy thing to his chest.

After a few more pictures I start looking around the room, thinking his bookshelf is the best place to start. His variety of books are boring and quite ugly actually, all of them ranging from the maths to the sciences, some musical ones here and there but other than that nothing of his interests.