Older Brothers

Chapter thirty-two

Khloe

After dinner, I went back into the lounge. I sat down where I was before and soon Tommy and Charlie joined me.

They didn't say anything when they saw me already sat down. Charlie just sat besides me and picked up some flash cards that he had made on Othello and handed them to me.

"Thought these might help." He said.

I thanked him and began flipping through them, reminding myself of the key concepts like jealousy, the concept of tragedy and even more on setting and motif.

"Khloe." Tommy said to me. I looked up from the flash cards and he pursed his lips again as if he wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Yes Tommy?" I asked.

"Are you doing okay?" He asked me, it was weird seeing Tommy asking me about how I actually was. I could tell he felt weird about it too.

"Getting there." I said.

"You know you can talk to us?" Charlie said. "Whenever."

"Good to know." I said, but it was odd. I'd still felt like when I started speaking I was exposing myself. "Now what do you think Othello's fatal flaw was?" i said, trying to change the subject.

Tommy and Charlie looked at each other almost unsure before Charlie turned to his notes and gave me an answer. I tapped my pen against my leg as i listened to him go on about Othello's jealousy, trusting Iago, not believing desdemona etc. However, my thoughts seemed to preoccupy themselves with worries. I kept thinking, i'm going to fail, i'm going to fail. But, what i was doing right now was all i could do.

"You get it?" charlie asks me.

I nodd. "yeah. I guess it's just however you spin the argument at the end, right?"

"Yeah, just have a clear argument and you'll be fine." He smiled at me.

We spent the next couple hours studying until our brains couldn't take anymore. Then i headed upstairs. I decided i'd have a quick shower and then go to bed so i quickly got undressed and headed to the bathroom. When i got there, i switched the shower on and put some music on and jumped in.

"Khloe!" Someone shouted from behind the door. "Khloe, you in there?" They said, i recognised the voice to be Dean.

"Yeah!" I shouted back.

"What you doing?" He called.

"Showering, duh!!" I said, annoyed.  You can hear the shower from outside the bathroom door. Of course, i was showering.

"Hurry up, Elliott told me you should get to bed." Dean called.

I rolled my eyes. Did me admitting that my mental health was falling below an A* mean they were going to annoy me like this the whole time?

I finished conditioning my hair and then got out of the shower and went to the sink to brush my teeth. I picked up the tooth brush and placed some tooth paste on it before i started brushing.

I looked up at my reflection and looked myself over.  I had dark circles under my eyes and my skin was paler than usual. My eyes trickled down my body and I saw my collar bones weren't as prominent as they used to be. I gulped slightly and picked up my towel, wrapping it around myself so i couldn't examine myself any further. I didn't want to go looking for thing i didn't like.

I looked back up at my face and my eyes were glassy. I blinked and concentrated on brushing my teeth thoroghly, but it didn't help, i was still pulled back into the flashback.