Faint Echoes

CHAPTER 1

Zeerah's POV

"Ara, Araaa ,Araaaaaa, I could hear my mom's call, but I had to quickly answer Thomas's text asking me if I was available to help him teach some students after school.

'Ara, are you deaf?' my mom scolded, 'What are you even doing on that phone? Answer me before I strike you with this...'" She brandished her slippers menacingly, and I took two steps back; my mom is the most dramatic person I know.

"I was doing my assignment, you know how Mr. Jericho can be with assignments," I replied, trying to appease her. She simply hissed and instructed me to stay in her grocery shop because she wanted to visit her friend, as if I didn't have friends too.

I took my phone with me and continued chatting with Thomas. I usually enjoyed chatting with him because, well, I had a crush on him, even though he had a crush on Faith, the social prefect. If only I could be as endowed as her, maybe, just maybe, he would notice me.

"Zeeee," I instantly recognized that voice; it was Lola's.

"Hey," I simply replied, not returning the energy she had given me. She had been ignoring my calls for days. Who does that to their best friend? And now she showed up at my house with a boy.

"A BOY..."

"Zee nau, what's wrong?" she inquired, concern replacing the initial excitement.

I rolled my eyes and went to attend to my mom's customer. "Zeee, what the heck?"

"When you're done, you'll go back home,"Lola  chuckled, and before I could say anything, she was inside my shop with the boy.

"THE BOY," who had to leave before my mother got back, or my life would come to an instant end.

"I want water, Zee," Lola said.

"Bitch, you know where the fridge is," I retorted. As she got up to fetch the sachet of water from the fridge, which was kind of a distance from where we were sitting, the atmosphere became tense and sour.

Right in front of me was a handsome guy I didn't know, absorbed in his phone, completely oblivious to the fact that he was on my fucking property.

"Hi," he said, as if he could my read mind. Oops.

Before I could reply, another voice interrupted, "So Zee, that's Senior Daniel, our head boy."

"First off, what is your head boy doing here?" I asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. The Daniel boy looked startled, but I couldn't care less.

"Zee, be nice," Lola pleaded.

"Nice, huh? Why should I?"

"Zee, he's my boyfriend."

Oh, wow. Lola had always been the beautiful one with boys following her around like they were hypnotized.

"Your boyfriend...!"

"Zeeee, please be nice," Lola implored, looking like she might cry, which only irritated me more.

"Hi Dan," he stretched out his hand for a handshake, and I shook it, feeling a strange shiver down my spine and a warmth inside me.

"Shittttt!"I screamed inwardly..

"So Dan..."

"I call him Dan," Lola interjected.

"Why, Lola? You're a senior. What are you trying to do?"

"Zeeee."

"Babe, it's fine," Dan reassured her. "Nazeera, I actually like your friend, sorry, I love her, and I promise I'm not gonna hurt her."