Break Point

Chapter 5

Alex
"Do you still have trouble sleeping Zia?", Dad said one day at the dinner table.
"No, Mr. Xavier, I am better now."
"Good", he said in his sweet low voice.

"Alex did you talk to Principal Shaw?", mom asked me.
"Yeah mom. He said he would look into Zia's attendance" And with that we silently went back to the food. Ignoring the elephant in the room.

It has been almost a month since the accident, no one has talked about it. Not even Zia and me. We used to share everything before, but lately she has drifted away.

After the funeral, I had found Zia in her usual spot, by the swings. She was lying there, sleeping, she looked happy for a moment. The new kid was there too. When I asked them what they were doing. They shared a look and no one answered.

The moment I took Zia away from that place she started hyperventilating again. She was worse when she came home. Dad took her to the doctor, he sedated her and referred her to a psychiatrist.

Dr. Angel said she had PTSD, very normal he said. But she wasn't normal anymore. Zia had nightmares for the next two weeks. Sometimes she was laughing uncontrallably and sometimes she cried for hours. She took a leave from school and was in the hospital for the first week. When she came home all her stuff was their and the guest room became her room. Mom and Dad took special care that her room was exactly like her room at her house. I helped. It seemed she adjusted perfectly. She never asked about her home. Her parents. Maybe she knew dad will take care of it all.

Every evening however, she took off somewhere and came back exactly one hour later. She had changed, for better or for worse I don't know.

Zia
The hospital smelled of disease, death and phenyl. A sadness settled in my heart. I hated when Dr. Angel met me at the hospital. His private clinic was so much better.

"Zia, the Doctor will see you now", his sexy secretary said.

I entered his office in a hurry to get away from the smell. "How are you today darling?" Dr. Angel asked as in sat on my seat. He was an old man of about forty. He had grey hair and his eyes gleamed of wisdom. With his height and his physic, he was almost handsome. Almost.

"Better. I came here to pick my certificate", to resume back to my 'old life', I had to get a certificate from my doctor stating that I was mentally stable to go back to studies and I won't be a harm to the society.

"You look better darling", his excess use of darling had grown on me over the month. "Here is your certificate. And don't forget we have sessions every Friday. Okay? I want you to work on your power of expression", he said as I was about to leave. I left without answering him. I was late.

Raul
It was a beautiful day. And she was looking beautiful too as she frantically tried to manage her high heels and short dress, half running half walking. Putting the loose ends of her hair behind her ears.

The day after the funeral, I tried to look for Zia at school. His friend Alex told me she was sick. A week later I found her at the swings again, which had become my hangout place too.

I felt the same not-thinking-just-moving feeling I had the day I met her. I took her hands in mine. Electricity pulsing through me and said, " I missed you". She gave a sad smile. And went to lie on the grass. I followed her. We stayed there for one hour not speaking just drinking in the feeling of each other, comfortable in the cocoon of silence we had created.

After exactly one hour she got up and left, leaving me to deal with the world alone.

We started meeting everyday at the swings. Just lying in the grass in the euphoria of one hour. And we haven't spoken or shared anything.

Today I am going to tell her all.

She skipped a puddle and came to stand in front of me. And a strange soothing effect fell on me, "We can't lie today, the grass is wet". It had rained last night, the air still had the smell of water.

"It's okay, we will talk then", that was the most I had heard from her apart from the usual hi and bye.

We sat down on the swings. I took her hand in mine. They were soft like the grass below our feet. I could feel her pulse under my thumb.

"You were right. I had PTSD. I will be coming back to school tomorrow. We can be friends there, you can meet Alex. You can sit beside me too", she said in one breath. Like she was holding on to these words for the past three weeks.

I smiled at her. She was my only friend anyway. No one really talked to me. They thought I was snobbish.

"So we won't meet here?", I asked her. confused.
"No", she said frantically, like she was afraid I will run away. Something fluttered in me.
"Okay, okay. We will meet here. Maybe we can do homework together or something."
She smiled to that, like she understood my excitement now.

We talked for the next hour. Well I talked, she just listened. She was silent that way. She observed rather than speaking up. I noticed the minute changes in her appearance everyday.

Her hair glowed brown in sunlight, locks fell to her sides, almost reaching her hips. Giving her a mysterious aura. Her big brown eyes with dark blue kohl today, did a magic of sorts. Smudging a little in the end. Giving her a rugged look.

Her full baby pink lips, curved at the end when she slept everyday beside me.

She had curves that took impossible turnes when she wore tight dresses. A habit she had adopted lately.

Every inch of her body gave me goosebumps. Her aura was my niravana. I was not sure what I was feeling. I had girlfriends in the past in England. Rich girls with perfect dresses and makeup.

Zia was raw and she was mine. Just for an hour maybe, but she was mine.

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