NINTEEN SEVENTY-NINE
Author
Mirrors.
Michael hated mirrors. He would do his best to
avoid mirrors, going far as keeping his eyes down as
he brushed his teeth or washed his hands. He hated mirrors so much and felt as if they hated him back.
In Michael's opinion, mirrors mocked him by pointing out flaws he couldn't change, like his skin disease.
Every time he looked inside of a mirror, he was reminded of that. He was reminded of something he hated every single day. That was torture for him.
That was hell. Today was hell.
It was hell for him because he looked inside of a mirror and saw something that brought tears to his eyes.
Another patch. A white circle about the size of mandarin orange on the left side of his neck. Imagine waking up every morning with a new tattoo that you didn't want and considered ugly or unappealing. That's how Michael felt every day. He hated that feeling.
Michael's disease was getting worse. He was becoming more paranoid now. It was easy for him to cover up his body with clothing, but now it seemed as if the disease was about to spread to his face. He couldn't do a thing about that. "Fuck..." Michael whispered to himself as he looked inside the wooden Kavana mirror. His head was turned towards the far right as he analyzed the white patch with a look of disgust.
He traced his fingers over the patch, wishing that
he had some sort of magic power to make his vitiligo go away. "Fuck.." He said again. "FUCK!" He yelled before knocking everything off the sink in one swipe.
Michael was so tired of crying about his skin disease. He had it for so long and would always tell himself just to get used to it. That would work, up until a new patch appeared—then he was right back to square one.
"Michael, let's go. I'm hungry!" Ricky yelled from outside of the door, unaware that Michael was on the verge of having a mental breakdown.
"Just give me a second!" Michael yelled back as he stared at his reflection. The urge to punch the mirror into a million pieces became very tempting to do.
—
"And what would you like, sweetie pie?"A waitress kindly asked Ricky as he was the last to place his order. He was a very indecisive individual, so he
let everyone place their order before him.
"I would like the breakfast platter with my eggs scrambled." He politely smiled at the waitress.
She jotted down his order before asking him what
he wanted to drink. "Orange juice, please."
"Alrighty. I'm going to place these orders in, but I'll
be back with your drinks." The four of them all nodded and said their thanks. "I'm gonna devour this food," Abhaya said while rubbing her growling stomach.
"I bet. I can hear your wolf ass stomach growling now." Ricky joked, causing everyone to share a laugh except for Michael. He was zoned out entirely as he stared into space. The deepness of his thoughts consumed him.
"Oh shut up, Ricky!" Abhaya reached over the
table and playfully smacked his head. The four of
them were all sitting in a booth. Ricky and Michael sat on the opposite side of Angel and Abhaya. "I bet those blueberry pancakes are going to be delicious. I can taste them now." Angel stated while licking at her lips. "I wanted to get those, but the breakfast platter comes with a lot more food." Ricky mentioned.
As the three of them continued to talk, Abhaya
noticed how odd Michael was being.
He hadn't engaged with anyone the entire morning and was quiet.
She felt like something was up but pushed it
into the back of her mind. She was angry at him for
the information Ricky absentmindedly mentioned—about him having phone sex with another woman.
Abhaya wanted to curse him out but decided not
to. She was the one who ended things at the end
of the day. The both of them were free to do what
they wanted, and Abhaya was doing just that.
After sharing a kiss with Ricky, Abhaya began to develop a little crush on him. It was nothing serious, but she couldn't deny the butterflies Ricky had flying around in her stomach.
After a few more minutes, the waitress brought the drink and then food. Forks clanked against the plates as maple syrup was passed back and forth. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food, except for Michael.
He barely touched his food. He mostly played
around with it or stared at it. Abhaya was now growing concerned. Michael loved to eat, and the fact that he wasn't devouring his food didn't sit well with her.
But, she decided to say nothing as she assumed he
was acting weird because of a potential argument with the other woman. She internally rolled her eyes at the thought."Mmm, mmm, mmm. These cheese grits are fucking delicious." Ricky closed his eyes for a few seconds as he moaned at the deliciousness of the food.
"You can say that again. Somebody grandma back there cooking." Abhaya said while she scooped some grits out of her bowl. Ricky opened his eyes and stared at Abhaya for a few seconds until she noticed it. As their eyes met, he gave her a quick wink before looking over at the salt and pepper that was on the side of Michael. Abhaya looked back down at her food and smiled to herself.
"Ayo Mike. Pass me the salt and pepper." Ricky said, but Michael was in his little world, so he had to repeat himself. "Mike. Pass the salt and pepper." Ricky repeated, successfully grabbing his attention. Michael did what was asked of him but in such a way that it made Ricky look at him strangely.
Ricky took notice of Michael's off behavior as well
and decided to question him on it. "Mike...are you alright, man?" Ricky asked. This caught both Angel's and Abhaya's attention as their focus shifted towards Michael. He looked up from his plate and noticed that everyone was looking at him. "Yeah..." He mumbled.
"Are you sure?" Ricky asked again. Michael didn't say anything this time; he just nodded.
Ricky knew something was wrong but didn't know what to do, so he decided to joke around with him a bit. "It's almost a hundred degrees outside, and you have on a turtle neck. You are not alright." Ricky laughed a bit.
Michael looked over at Ricky with annoyance before his eyes rolled deeply. "Shut up." That was all Michael said before his attention went back towards his now lumpy and cold grits.
Ricky being Ricky continued to crack jokes and make everyone laugh, except Michael, of course.
Michael's blood was starting to boil. He felt like whooping someone's ass, and Ricky would be the receiver if he didn't stop talking.
"Y'all notice how Michael got a turtleneck in
every color? This Nigga needs to be a turtleneck
for Halloween. Ole' grandpa ass Nigga."
Michael's fist suddenly connected to the table, making everyone's plate, as well as drinks, shake.
Abhaya, Angel, even Ricky jumped.
Michael turned his head towards the right to glare at Ricky. "You're gonna make me fucking kill you." Ricky was a fearless man, but how Michael was looking at him made him believe that he would do it.
"You're gonna make me grab this fucking butter
knife and jab it into your throat so you can stop fucking talking." The table was now tranquil as everyone looked at Michael with shocked facial expressions. The seriousness was what shocked everyone.
"Michael...Ricky was just playin—" Michael cut Angel off immediately. "I don't give a fuck."
Angel was at a loss for words. Michael never talked to her in such a way. It was unlike him.
Abhaya felt the need to interject.
"I don't know who pissed in your cornflakes this morning, but you need to calm down." She said.
Michael's eyes snapped to hers within an instant, a shiver suddenly crawled down her spine like an eight-legged spider. Michael's stare on her was haunting.
"I wasn't fucking talking to you." He said, making Abhaya's slight fear become replaced with anger.
"Well, I'm fucking talking to you. We should've left your stupid self."
"Stop fucking talking to me, Abhaya." This was
the first exchange between the two since Abhaya
ended things almost a week ago.
The both of them were mad at one another, so the tension was already high.
"You make me fucking sick. I swear you do." Abhaya angrily spoke as she shook her head.
"Ditto." Michael's nonchalant behavior was making Abhaya livid. Thoughts of him having phone sex with the other woman just days after their "relationship" ended passed throughout her mind once again.
She began to express her anger from an emotional standpoint. "You are a horrible person Michael. You are. For the longest time, You had me believing you were some saint, but you're not. You're a piece of shit!"
Angel quickly interjected. "Guys, we should just
pay for the food and leave, okay! We all need to
calm down!" Michael ignored her.
The only thing he could see was Abhaya, and the only thing Abhaya could see was Michael.
"Well, you slept with this piece of shit, so what are you?" Michael asked. Abhaya immediately threw her orange juice at his face before rising from the booth.
"I hope you fucking die!" She yelled before storming out of the dinner.
As she exited the small restaurant, she began to cry hysterically. She was so angry.
How dare he. She thought.
Losing her virginity to him was unique, and for him to use that was a low blow. She despised him for that.
Abhaya was now behind Ricky's van with her
forehead against the back door. Tears poured from her eyes like a river as she tried to control her breathing which was becoming more and more erratic.
Suddenly, she felt her arm being pulled, and her body was snatched forward.
Michael stood before her with hell-filled eyes.
He looked her up and down for a few seconds before yelling at her. "You hope that I die? You better take that back right fucking now!"
"No! I mean it. I hope you die, and I hate your ass! I hate you so fucking much!"Abhaya tried to snatch her arm away from Michael, but he tightened his grip.
"Let me go!" She screamed.
"You don't know what the hell I'm going through!
How dare you say that to me. Take it back!" Michael yelled as he ignored her screams to be released.
"What you're going through!? What the fuck are
you possibly going through, huh!? If it's about a secret Bitch of yours, that's your damn fault!"
She used her free hand to push Michael against his chest, but he didn't bulge.
Abhaya then slapped him across the face. "I wish I would've fucked Ricky instead of you!" Michael's heart started to pound so fast that for a second, he thought it would explode. He was livid.
Abhaya felt her shoulders connect to the rear end
of the van before realizing Michael had pushed her.
Just as before, the two started to fight, which
only consisted of pulling and pushing like children would do. Before things could get as severe as the time before, Angel and Ricky managed to find and pull them apart. Ricky angrily pushed Michael towards the side before yelling at him.
"Calm the fuck down!"
Michael pushed Ricky back. "Fuck you!" He yelled.
The two of them started to wrestle, which almost led to a fistfight, but Angel managed to break it up.
"Everybody needs to calm the fuck down! We need
to leave now! Right fucking now!" She screamed out of pure frustration.
"Fuck all of you! I'll walk back!" Michael yelled.
"You wasn't about to get back in my van any damn ways!" Ricky yelled back. Michael shot a bird at him before walking away. Angel began to cry out for him.
"Michael! That's a thirty-minute walk, and it's a hundred fucking degrees! You don't know your way around, and you have a turtleneck neck on, for crying out loud!"
Angel pointed out every reason for Michael not
to act on his anger and irrational behavior, but his stubbornness got the best of him.
He ignored Angel's pleads and kept on walking.
Fuck all of them. He thought.
—
It was now three in the afternoon. After the massive blowout at the breakfast diner, Angel, Abhaya, and Ricky cooled themselves down in the hotel room.
Michael hadn't gotten back to the hotel yet, and it worried Angel to death.
She didn't want to let Michael roam around in
a city he wasn't familiar with all by himself, but it
wasn't much she could do to stop him from going.
"I think I should call the police, you guys," Angel said, which caused Ricky to smack his teeth.
"That Nigga not a child. He's a grown-ass man who made a stupid decision to walk in the hot ass sun with a turtleneck on!"
Angel sighed. "He was irrational because he was angry, Ricky."
"So what!" Ricky yelled. "He threatened me with a fucking butter knife. Fuck him!"
Angel rolled her eyes at Ricky.
"Just for a heads up, I'm sleeping in here tonight.
That Nigga is not about to kill me in my damn sleep. No sir." The loud slamming of a door caught Angel, Ricky, and Abhaya's attention.
"Do you guys think that was Michael?" Angel asked. It has been five hours now.
"Ricky go check and see if it's him," Angel stated.
He scoffed at her demand. "So he can shank me with a butter knife? No fucking thank you."
Angel then looked over at Abhaya, lying against her bed and staring up at the ceiling. "Abhaya, go check..."
"If you care so damn bad, you check," Abhaya spoke with an attitude. Angel groaned out in frustration.
"I'm scared, okay! Michael's acting crazy, and I'm scared to check!"
"So you send us to check on his crazy ass?" Angel ignored Ricky's comment.
Angel continued to beg Abhaya to see if Michael made it back to his room for the next 15 minutes until she couldn't take it anymore.
"Fine! Just shut the hell up!" She yelled at Angel before angrily stepping out of her bed.
"If he pulls a butter knife out on you, just yell for Angel." Abhaya ignored Ricky as she made her way outside of the room. She wasn't in the mood for jokes.
Abhaya walked towards Ricky and Michael's room which was just a few feet away from hers.
She began to knock on the door harshly.
"Are you in here, asshole? I don't give a fuck but
Angel does!" She yelled. She knocked a few more times and figured he wasn't there yet, so she turned around and began to walk towards her room, but something stopped her. Something told her to just try one more time. So she did. She knocked three times before placing her hand against the steel knob of the door.
It was so hot that it burned the palm of her hand.
She retracted it back immediately before letting out a hissing sound.
Abhaya mentally prepared herself to touch the knob again as she counted to three within her mind.
The door was already unlocked, so she pushed it
open with her forearm and made her way inside.
The first thing to hit her was the heat of the room.
It felt as if the sun was vacationing in or something.
Abhaya suddenly thought about Ricky telling her how the AC went out in their room a few days ago.
Her eyes scanned the room to see no sign of Michael until something caught her eye.
It was a loafer hanging from the side of the bed that Michael slept in.
Abhaya's heart suddenly dropped.
"Michael..." She called out.
No response.
She began to slowly walk towards the side of the bed until she saw Michael's body lying face down on the floor. Abhaya dropped down towards his side within an instant and began to shake him roughly. "Michael! Michael!" She yelled.
She pushed him towards his back and noticed
blood all over his shirt and nose. Whenever Michael became too hot, his nose would severely bleed. Abhaya knew that from past instances. A scream erupted from within her throat as she continued to shake him.
He wasn't moving.
He was like a corpse.
Though this wasn't the best time to think about
tarots, thoughts about the tarots of death she pulled from Adershinis deck resurfaced within her mind.
She then thought about how she told Michael to die just a few hours ago.
Her eyes swelled with tears. "Michael! Michael, please..." Her voice cracked at the end.
She placed her hand against his forehead and felt
his skin on fire. His body temperature had to be over
a hundred-something degree. With little time, Abhaya quickly thought of what she used to do when Michael had nose bleeds. Give him cold water. This nose bleed was far more severe and potentially fatal since he fainted.
Abhaya stood up before placing her arms underneath his armpits and dragging him towards the bathroom.
As soon as she got inside the bathroom, she turned
the shower on towards the coldest temperature before stripping Michael down to his underwear.
She used all the strength she had to hold Michael up and bring his burning body underneath the extremely cold water.
Abhaya splashed the water over his face and watched as it mixed with the blood.
It began to run down his chest and then below his feet until it came in contact with the drain.
"Michael! Michael, wake up!" She patted his face a few times before slowly bringing them both down towards the shower's floor. Abhaya had Michael's back against her chest as they both sat underneath the cold water.
Michael began to make a few groaning noises which relieved her instantly. She could finally breath.
"Michael...I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I told you to die." She sniffled and continued to rub Michael's bloody nose.
She was freezing underneath that cold water but
didn't care. The only thing that was on her mind was those tarots and the thought of losing Michael. She didn't know how close she was to losing him today, but she knew she never wanted to find out. Ever.
—
Thanks for reading!
Tell me your thoughts on this chapter. I'm interested to know because a lot went down.
The next chapter is going to be the moment we've all been waiting for. 👀