WHERE THE OCEANS MEET

CHAPTER 3

               "Soothing but vulnerable”
              Dedicated to Nida Johar

“……I’m River.”

You gotta be kidding me, he really going to start this about my name.

“Right and she is tequila…”, I said sarcastically pointing towards Chloe, “and he is wine.”, I pointed to the one on his left, who’s description I’ll be giving you all in a minute but first I need to deal with this Burj Khalifa, who thinks he is funny to start making jokes about my name, but guess what, even I brought my A-game.

Bring it on.

Forget about his God damn eyes, nobody messes with my name.

“What??” The Burj Khalifa, said almost dumbfound.

Sea, he doesn’t know your name, yet.

Oh shoot!!!

“Umm…”, this is a-w-k-w-a-r-d.

“…I’m Sea, actually, Seam, but Sea for short and I guess River is your real name.”

I tried to downplay, but my mistake didn’t go unnoticed, and looking at that smirk on his face, he really was enjoying himself.

“I’m guessing, you hear a lot of River-Ocean joke on your name.” He said, sitting on the chair next to me, and the tumbldee and tumbledum followed suit, sitting across from me, on the chairs, which again I don’t recall offering, on both sides of Chloe.

Chloe.

Shit I totally forgot about her.

Well now looking at her I couldn’t quiet point out what really was her deal, she looked highly constipated while at the same time, she looked like she was shitting bricks but of course that scenario goes against biology, so looks like I need to entertain our new unwanted guest on my own

Great.

Just fucking great.

Well then let’s hit the nail straight to it’s God freaking head.

“Any particular reason why my burger is still waiting to be devoured, while I’m giving my attention where it isn’t required.” I asked rather  hurriedly, the faster we get this over, the sooner my burger says hello to my hunger.

“How about we get your attention, by properly introducing ourselves, minus the part where you think my mate was joking about his name, I’m Caiden Smith, your royal Highness, the crown princess of sarcasm.” Said the third guy from holier-than-thou trio, with fake curtesy and a dramatic tone of voice, he looked like the most laid back dude amongst the three with sandy beach hair and a face, well just like a face is supposed to be, I’m exhausted with the facial description people, maybe I’ll describe him sometime later for now, the most important of them is the one who’s-eyes-shall-not-be-mentioned.
But wait.

…..crown princess of whatever who cares.

….but princess, bitch, I’m the mother trucking queen.

“Dear Caiden, last time someone called me princess was my 70year old uncle who succumbed to his old age, Lord bless his soul. But seriously, princess, is your one leg buried deep inside your coffin already or what?” I asked hotly, and by now people you’ve already caught my drift.

My patience is running thin.

No scratch that, my patience is just seconds away from the finishing line and don’t even get me started what happens after it wins the race.

I guess everyone here is familiar with the term apocalypse, yeah that’s right.

“I give up dude, she’s a tough cookie to crack.” Caiden said laughing, pointing towards me.

Me, cookie, did I heard that correct.

“cookie, I……”, I began retorting back to his dumb comparison before I got interrupted by, again, the-one-who's-eyes-shall-not-be-mentioned.

“Yes, you’re not a cookie, I think we’ve established this by now, and I’m River Parker, which again, I tried to get it across before someone lost her shit.” River said hurriedly, trying to shut me up.

I wonder why.
Sea, keep your anger at Bay.

Well shoot me if I can’t because, hello, my burger, have you people already forgotten about it, because I can’t when I’m literally basking in it’s full glory and eating it with my eyes.

“You know just eat your burger before it presses charges on you for eye raping it.” Said my baby face mate.

Aww, the kiddo is frowning, didn’t really appreciate my joke earlier but….

He has a point.

Say hello to burger and without anymore interruption I bit hard on my burger, taking the biggest bite ever and oh my sweet Satan, I almost moaned at the heavenly flavor of spices and…..

“What?”, I questioned with a mouthful, damn the etiquettes when these three Intruders were staring at me with a sickening smirk plastered on their godly sculpted faces.

“Nothing, only now I guess your burgers gonna sue you for molestation and gruesome murder…..”, the baby face replied, maybe got over his just-few -seconds-before-humiliation phase.“..... by the way I’m Tanner Westbrook, and I don’t pluck my eye brows out, it’s called having A-genes which you of course are not familiar with.” Tanner said giving my face a once over, and yes, maybe my eye brows are thick, so what, I’ve got ninety nine problems, but my eye brows isn’t one, so why should I bring any kind of wrath upon them.

“And I’m Chloe Jensen, nice to meet the one who was wondering what my name is….”, she looked around the table expectedly at us while we stared back, “…..guess no one.” , she slumped back into the chair, with the look of rejection in her eyes.

Poor girl, you need to learn a lot.

Because you don’t seek attention, rather, you demand it.

Now watch.

With that I made a show of getting up from the chair and leaving.

3

2

“Hey, where you going?”

1

River asked almost leaving the table like he was going to follow me.

Well check.

Damn check.

Mental smirk check.

Jackpot check.

“Just going on a grand search for a fuck to give, wish me luck.”, I replied with the sweetest smile and a wink towards Chloe, I turned around, threw a peace sign over my shoulder and walked off, but not before catching the death glare from my favorite Blondie from the other side of cafeteria, damn I was being a show stopper.

Well Chloe my friend, in order to demand attention, you don’t give attention.

………….

“So what brings you here, today?”, said the ginger head maiden, donned in a white coat, sitting in a room with white walls and white curtain, behind a mahogany desk with a pen and a notepad, ready to psychoanalyze the living daylights out of my life.

“Maybe because I bare a scar on my wrist.”, I replied with honesty, stealing one last quick look at the clock.

5:47p.m.

School already ended hours ago and now it was time I pull down my sarcastic veil and embrace the real damaged girl beneath it.

Hope Institute for Mental Health Neuro and Allied Sciences may rank the least favorite places in my book, but still, it’s the place where I  let my guard down, pull down my façade, rip off my mask, and leave myself bare and vulnerable to my past, to my scars, to my circumstances, to my life.

After all, once in a while, even the sea succumbs to the atrocious storms, and let it guide to whichever direction it zeal’s for.

“Or maybe the scar in your mind which you keep well hidden from the world.” , said Dr. Ivanov, DR. Octavia Pompi Ivanov to be precise,  the Russian enchantress, whose hands hold the commadance to the reins of my life lately.

“Well in that case I also keep the scar on my wrist well hidden that nobody notices or maybe nobody stays that long for these scars to get noticed.”, I said in a low voice, that almost came as a whimper and I hated myself for being so weak, but what can I do when I miss the one person who was supposed to be beside me right now, after….. right now, and several afters….. from right now and even before RIGHT NOW, we were supposed to be together. Doesn’t people who come together, leave together, then why did he leave before me, why am I still here and not he, why is he not here and me six feet under.

We were holding hands when we saw the first light, that took away the light from our mother’s eyes, but at least even in that moment of darkness, we both illuminated each other, then why now.

Why???

“You had your first day in school, how did it go? Made any new friends?”, Dr. Octavia questioned with genuine curiosity, lately she’s the only human soul who’s remotely interested in my life after my dog Timothy, but of course he doesn’t count as a human soul, loyal soul maybe, but not human soul.

If only friends came on eBay, I’m so desperate, I’d even buy friendship from cheap sites like Alibaba, but of course, these days, even to get your itch scratched, you need to go on tinder, and here this lovely lady, cue to sarcasm, thinks it’s easy to get people become your friends.

“More like making enemies, that’s the only category of people who fall on my radar.”, I replied with a sarcastic laugh that almost sounded pathetic.

That’s what you are.

Pathetic.

Don’t expect better.

…..and she’s write, always right, I sighed mentally.

“Define enemies?”, Dr. Octavia questioned.

Weird question, but okay.

“People with mutual hatred.”, I replied with a 'duh' tone.

“Define hatred?”

And we go again.

“When you highly condemn someone so as to wish death upon them.”, I replied, a bit intrigued now, so as to know where we’re going with this.

“Do these people wish death upon you?”

“No”

“Do you wish death upon them?”

“No”

“Then they are not your enemies.”, well she’s good at her job.

“I get it, you’re good with words.”, I said slightly chuckling to myself, this is the reason why she’s the only one to witness candid Sea, with no false filter or fake sarcasm to end my conversation.

Just me, plain and simple me.

“No, I’m good with emotions and that’s why I’m here and I’ll always be here.” She said with deep concern, the same look, my mother would be sporting if she was alive.

Are you sure about that, she’d hate you for what you did, and yes, HATE, you killed her son, you don’t deserve this…

“…..snap out of it Sea, your consciousness is your killer, search the voice of instinct, it’s still there, look deep and hard Sea, you’ll find everything that you seek.”

“Even a friend.”, I asked.

“Especially a friend.”, she replied.

“Aren’t you here for that?”, I asked. How do I explain it to people, it’s not easy to let them near because when they catch a glimpse of me, they’ll want to dig deeper, they’ll scrape for more, demand what I can’t give them.

Trust.

Because you trust those who you know, and you know those, whose past is known to you, and my history is like that manuscript which is on the top last shelf, decorated with dust and cobweb that nobody likes to touch but it keeps all the secrets the universe has to offer, it’s simply waiting for that one person that’ll take the risk of climbing the deadly ladder, and reach out for it, when the whole world neglected it.

And I’m still waiting for it.

……..River…..

….came the voice from somewhere deep in the farthest corner of my mind.

Was that the voice of my instinct.

“You don’t pay your friends to talk to you…..”, she said slightly amused.  “…….Put yourself out there, you are Sea, visit the islands this universe is offering to you, don’t hold back, scars remind you of where you’ve been, but it doesn’t dictate, where you’re going.”

And with that, I left my little sanctuary, rolled up my sleeves and for the first time in four months, let the cool breeze touch my wrist, like it was caressing my scar, so soothing but also open and in peril to the world.

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