A Thousand Years

05 | Accidents

"Depression is not a sign of weakness, it means you have been strong for far too long."

FELISHA READ the quote and closed her locker and ran as fast as she could to save her English class. She was already thirty minutes late in the school and then she had bumped into the garbage can. Everyone laughed their lungs out and stood there watching until a guy came and helped her up. The guy didn't look familiar to Felisha. Another guy who seemed to be his friend yelled from the back, "Why ya helping that crazy bitch?!".

He came forward and grabbed the guy helping Felisha and told him to back off. But he piled all the books and gave her not looking her in the eyes. It was even a shame to just help Felisha Colms. She thought and stood up from there. She thanked the guy but he didn't reply and walked away.

She felt great after the reading the quote from the unknown. When she reached her classroom, it was full. She walked in as fast as she could and sat at her place. No one noticed her presence and the ones who did made her feel guilty for being present. The professor came in and the day started.

The day went fine and it was almost the dispersal time when someone came to her classroom for an announcement. The guy looked familiar to Felisha. He was the guy who helped her in the morning. He annouced about a party being held this weekend in the school for completing the first samester. "Everyone has to come, even you." He said while pointing at Felisha.

She felt a thousand eyes staring at her like fire rising near her. She looked up from her notebook and saw the guy from the morning giving her the smile no one gave her in a thousand years. "Everyone will enjoy and no one will make fun of any freaking thing or they will be given any sort of punishment for what they do." He said and thanked the teacher and got out of her class.

Finally the day was over. Felisha had to go to the grocery store but she was already so tired. She just wanted to close her eyes and never open them. But sometimes even death hates you. She decided to go there at the night shift. But then it would be really late. The voices inside her head were killing her. Her thoughts took her back at the time she came across that guy that helped her despite the fact that she was the most hated person in the school.

"Have you done this before?", he asked her staring at the wall. "No, and I dont want to.", Felisha replied with fear burning in her eyes. "Don't worry, this is going to be one hell of a ride.", he laughed and went on. They started laughing together. The laughter that was never heard in years. But the voices were fading slowly. Their laughter becoming distant and the vision becoming blur. Everthing suddenly went black.

Felisha woke up feeling dizzy. What the hell was that?. Felisha sat up from her mattress and thought about the dream. She had the feeling she never had before. And in all this she forgot about the grocery store. She saw the time and it was seven already. She jumped and quickly hurried down the street.

In the grocery store she kept thinking about the boy. She examined every customer to see wheather if it was that guy. She wasn't interested in him in anyways but wanted to thank him.
She had paid the money for the broken set of glasses and because of that she had cancelled the plan of buying new pair of shoes this month.

She was checking the barcode of a product that a customer had bought but the machine had some problem due to which it was showing error. She went to the counter that was on the other corner of the store. While she was checking the product there she saw something familiar. She saw a notebook lying on the second shelf of the rack. The notebook the guy who helped her was holding in the morning, she saw the same notebook lying there. She opened it and read the first page. "Avan", it said and contained weird drawings. She was staring on that page when the customer called her. She came out of her thoughts and looked at the customer. "I'm sorry, ma'am", she said and went back to the counter.

Meanwhile everyone at the store was left shook when they saw what Felisha did in a hurry. The notebook was, with no support left, hanging in the midst of air. A kid who was busy with his lollipop saw the notebook in the air and screamed his lungs out. Everyone stared into her eyes whereas she was staring at the notebook. She quickly hurried and catched the notebook that was hanging in the air and kept it in her backpack. "I'm really sorry, I-I d-don't know h-how this all is happening. You may continue your work. I-I am really sorry. Just forget all this, please." Felisha struggled with that were not ready to come out. Sweat was dripping from her temples down her cheeks.

She finished up all her work and ran away home. She cried all the way and people on the street gave her those stares that added up in her tears. She reached home and cried her heart out. Now she didn't believe in nature too. Why does this happen to me? Isn't it enough, what's already done with me?. She took out the notebook from her backpack and opened it. Although she didn't want to but she was still curious about why did that boy help her in the morning. She went through pages that were filled with academic work. She stopped crying and looked at the notebook clearly. Her blur vision was not helping her to read anything. She almost fell asleep when she saw some familiar words on the notebook. "X.A.X", it said. But she was too tired to examine it carefully. She closed her eyes and, like always, hoped she never have to open them again.

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Life is totally wierd. Sometimes I literally question our entire existence. I'm learning new rules. Hope I win.

Peace,
Mariam.