Tearducts

The ride home

(Kamariah pov)

After an insufferable 2 hours of getting my scalp pulled at from all angles, Raina and I finally parted ways. Too tired to walk home after all the confusion of this early morning, I just ordered an ober instead.

I sat on the sidewalk outside the salon waiting for the car to arrive, already craning my neck from the new weight on my head.

There wasn't any traffic? So what was taking the driver so long?

10 more minutes passed before a small black Toyota pulled up to a stop in front of me. I double checked the license plate before entering inside and adjusting myself on the ripped seats.

"Sorry for the lateness! Traffic was crazy.." the driver apologized while adjusting her mirror "you know how it's been recently"

Oh. So she was one of those small talk ober drivers huh?

"Yeah with the protests and all the roads been pretty blocked, plus the people trying to leave early to avoid crowded planes later"

I looked down at my phone hoping that the conversation would just stop there but I heard her voice pique up from the front of the vehicle.

"Protests? I don't think we're on the same page honey. I was talking about the tredip ducks that keep swarming the streets. They've been a real pain to drivers seeing as we can't move them on our own. But tell me about the protests your talking about, maybe I'm just too old to know of them" the lady chuckled at her last remark.

I had to admit, she had a couple grey hairs, maybe looked old enough to have a child in their late 20s but i highly doubt she didn't know about it.

As I got lost in my thoughts, I felt the car slow to a stop and a slow sigh left the woman's lips. "Well animal control is gonna take a while to get these new ducks off the street" she pointed to the blue birds sitting in the road. "So.. tell me."

I really didn't want to have to explain anything to the woman, so as she turned around in her seat, I opened the same article that had caused panic in my phone and showed it to her. Her eyes scanned over the screen and I watched as her previous unseen face went through a whirlwind of emotions. She read with interest bordering recognition when all of a sudden it went silent.

The radio was off and it was a relatively empty morning. There were no words exchanged between us but it felt like the non existent sound had stopped as well.

She glanced up at me, with glazed over, toxicly bright blue eyes.

"i̴̱̞̍̊́̈̀̂̅͘ ̶̹̽͐͌ď̶̤͇̳̟͔͕͗͊̌͛̈̋͜ò̶̮̲̳͓̩ ̸̰͈̬̬̹͔̘̂̍͝n̵̡̢̛̯̩̣̜̫̱̏̀̏̇͝͝͝o̷̧̨̱̰̼͔̣̱̺̅̏̑͊͌̓̈́̄̃͝ͅt̷̜̤͙̫̟͓͖̏̔ ̴̨̩̥̜̙͈͇̣͉̼̄͒̑͋̊͘͘̚r̵̖̤̘͕͉̮͓̘̾̓̾́ȅ̴̡̨͖̭͇͎̼̝̪̅̽͑̑c̷̛̟̭̞̫̀̓͋̕̕o̶̢̧̰̲̳͎͈̤͔̣͂̒̎̐͆̈́͘ǵ̷͈̪̪̱͎͙n̸̯̤̞̤̣͒̇̑̅ị̸̢͕͛s̷̯̱͚͙͊͋͌̾ë̸̝̗̦́ ̷̛̟̩̓̎̈̒̓͠ṱ̷̤͈͑̈́͆̌͐͗̚̚̚͠h̸̰͖̗̬͂̏̓̂ḯ̸̹̮s̶͕̦̿̀̉̓̎̈́̔̚̕"

She said before handing me my phone and returning to her seating position facing the windshield. Okay... that was weird but maybe it just unsettled her.

Obviously I had come to the conclusion not to bring it up again. We both sat in the uncomfortable silence waiting for animal control to arrive and take care of the animals obstructing traffic. I felt hyper aware of all movement around me.

The crumbs on the seat stuck to my thighs and the oil on my hands irritated me to no end. The constant scratching sound made me turn my head looking for the source. I was met with the driver scratching her eyelids like one would do when they were sick. Maybe she was? But sick people wouldn't twitch as much as she was.

I was starting to get even more uncomfortable. The scratching intensified to the point that if not for the fact she wasn't screaming, I would've thought she was clawing her eyes.

"Are... are you ok?"

I asked tentatively in case she snapped at me.

The scratching stopped as the lady turned around looking at me with kind brown eyes.

"I'm fine dear. Maybe you should come down since the traffic isn't clearing soon. Will you be fine going home yourself or will you wait it out?"

I couldn't look in her eyes anymore, they made me feel nauseous
"I'll walk home thank you"

I slipped her a 10 dollar bill since we had only gotten half way to our destination and quietly but quickly exited the vehicle.
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(Third person pov)
One agonizing walk later Kamariah pulled out the keys from her pocket and unlocked the door to her house, walking in to the homely scent of vanilla and whatever it is that her mom sprayed every morning.

"IM HOME" her voice echoed around the building. Her keys were set in the bowl and shoes were promptly taken off and discarded at the door.

"Kams.. come to the kitchen really quickly we need to talk" the voice of her mother rang out.
Saying a quick prayer to God to help her get out of whatever she was in trouble for, Kamariah walked to the kitchen and set her bag on the stool. She warily eyed her mother and the phone in front of her.

"Kams.. Raina called me. And not a patient to doctor type of call, more like a worried partner to the girlfriends mom type of call, explain please why your acting strange and talking about packing and protests and evacuations please? If you had a nightmare it's perfectly ok but don't go scaring people becau-"

"What do you mean nightmare? Don't tell me you don't remember. Mom this was just yesterday, is this a joke? It's not very funny."

Kamariah cut off her mom. She was starting to get irritated by the amount of people seemingly unaware of what was going on.

"Look Kamariah. I understand if your trying to do one of your 'pranks' but if it's starting to worry people then I think you should stop."
Hee mother repeated as if she hadn't just said something that sent the world crashing around her daughter

"Ok please tell me what's going on mom. Why is everyone acting like the whole thing didn't happen? You don't remember the article? The protest? THE DINNER? You're seriously going to tell me you and Raina magically forgot about something so important? Absolute bullshit. Please mom this isn't the kind of thing you joke about-"

"What did you say to me?... Kamariah. Did you swear at me? And your going to accuse your mother of lying?"

Kamariah looked at her mother to see nothing but rage reflected in her eyes.

"Go to your room. You want to act like an adult? I'll have to remind you that you're a child."

She couldn't believe what was going on
"But that's not fa-"

"Kamariah damilola Ayolabi if I open my eyes and your still downstairs you are not stepping out of this house till next month!"

Silenced echoed on the four walls of the kitchen as Kamariah processed everything. She snatched her bag and stormed up the stairs, wanting to slam the door but resisting because she knew from her mothers tone that was in fact a promise. Not a threat.

WHY WAS EVERYONE ACTING LIKE THIS? WHY WAS EVERYTHING AGAINST HER? WHY DID HER MOM NOT BELIEVE HER?
WHY WAS SHE CRYING?
WHY?
WHY?
Why.

Kamariah picked up her phone and dialed the familiar number that immediately went to voicemail

"You've reached Amara! Probably being a bill nye reincarnate. Leave a message after the beep! Bee-"

And why was her older sister not picking up when she really needed her the most.

Letting all her frustrations out, Kamariah did all she could do at the moment. She let silent tears slide down her skin and drip onto her pillow.

Why was everything so weird?

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Authors note:
It's actually been like over a year lmfao what 😭 but funny story. I got like rlly sick + school + mental health so out of commission for a while I guess. But now on a random Tuesday at 5 am I decided to update this so slay. HAPPY NEW YEAR
~ads👹