Sinister [Jason McCann]

Thirty-Three

Lea’s POV --

 

I was never fond of my appearance. I would often avoid looking in the morning for a great portion of the day. Unless it were early in the morning and I was brushing my teeth or rinsing off my hands in the school bathrooms. Otherwise, I tend to avert my gaze from my reflection.

 

Even now, standing before the mirror set on my dresser, I didn’t dare to look myself in the eyes. My hands held the silky ends of my shirt over my ribcage, high enough so I could admire the tattoo which printed my skin. I had more than enough time to gawk over it last night, while I was with Jason for an hour, but after returning home and heading straight to bed, I just wanted to be sure that I wasn’t dreaming.

 

Delicately, I traced each letter with my index finger. The texture was smooth and oddly enough I got a sense of some sort of rubbery texture as well. I didn’t strain my eyes too much because with a glance you won’t notice the scar but scrutinizing would reveal the secrets beneath the hidden message. I skimmed over the word and tried fathoming the fact that it’d be forever attached to my skin.

 

“Lea,” There’s a tap at the door then the doorknob twists slightly. My heart could have literally found it’s way through my intestines and fell out of my ass in that moment. Never in my life did I move so quickly and never in my life did I grab for the first thing my eyes laid themselves upon. In this case it happened to be a brush and casually, while adjusting my shirt with my free hand, I brushed my hair. “I’m going to run a few errands, your father’s still asleep but I should be back before he wakes up to fix him something in the kitchen. If not, I’m leaving you in charge of that.”

 

“Why doesn’t he ever cook for himself?” I twist my head in her direction, eyebrows furrowing.

 

“For the same reasons you don’t.” She retorts matter of factly, blinking as lifelessly as a baby doll. “And remember what I said about Jasper.”

 

My face curled up distastefully. Luckily, my mother had already been heading down the hall. The last thing I needed was her finding an excuse to lay a few hands on me before exiting through the front door. I waited patiently, listening to every sound she made. Each footstep reminded me of the rippling of water on a rainy day, one following after the other in sync. Her keys rattling until she discovered the correct one which would lock the door behind her as she stepped out. She twists the knob, securing it and afterwards the house becomes a remote paradise of silence--if you ignored my father’s foul snoring.

 

Aside from that, the only other noise which caught my ears happened to derive from my phone. As I’m crawling into bed, feeling upon the bedsheets in search for my cellphone, Jasper trots in and heads straight for his bed. In my head, I placed the mindset that the call I was receiving was most likely from Lana, surprisingly it wasn’t her. Instead, it was Jason and I held no complaints about that.

 

“Hi love.” I say while resting on my stomach with my phone pressed against my ear.

 

“Hey, are you doing anything today?”