Lily

Chapter 16: Sarah

Since when has my house been so messy?

I reorganised all the cutlery in the cupboard and categorised them from smallest to largest, then subdivided them in their colours starting from red to violet. Not all the colours are in the rainbow though, so the ones that weren't had to be arranged in order of the alphabet so the pink cups were placed before the white plates.

Hang on.

What about glass? What colour is glass? Should I classify it as grey or put it in a separate category?

I gave up and took them all out of the cupboard. I then washed all of them, making sure that not a speck of dust was on any of them. Then I went back and dried them all. I then placed them back in the cupboard, starting the process all over again.

I heard a knock on the door. It was truly jarring, having been taken out of the zone, especially at this time of the night, but I suppose it was another thing I could occupy myself with.

"Hannah? What are you doing here?"

I knew full well what they were doing here. They were going to ask me dumb questions like 'Are you okay? Why weren't you at the cafe?'

"Can I come in?" That was another dumb question: I'm not exactly allowed to say no, am I?

Hannah looked at the kitchen cupboard, at me, and then back at the kitchen cupboard. Now that I was no longer in the zone, I could see that the kitchen looked like the cupboards had exploded- so much for spring cleaning, eh?

"Busy job hunting, I see."

I looked around embarrassed. I completely forgot about that. "Hannah, now's not the time."

"I can see that. I would hate to be the one to have to clean that up." Despite obviously implying I didn't want them in my house, they walked right past me and went to the living room couch.

"Well, are you gonna say something?" I asked after a while. They gestured for me to sit down next to them and to be honest, I didn't have the energy to do anything but comply.

"Did you hear the police report?"

"Yeah. They think the fire was caused on purpose. The electrical circuit was tampered with, causing the whole affair."

"There's going to be a vigil held in two days for all those affected. You're going, right?"

"How can I not? Mariam's parents are going to be there. I have to support them."

"And who's going to support you?" Hannah sounded slightly irked when they said that.
We regarded each other for a few moments. I haven't exactly been making it easy for them or Jake, have I?

Hannah waived first. "Why don't we go for a friends' night out? Just like old times."

"I'm pretty sure it's in 'old times' for a reason. I don't wanna."

"Jack won't be there."

I quickly unfolded my arms and straightened my back. "What does Jake have to do with any of this?"

"He told me you guys had an argument."

"Did he say what about?"

"Nope. Didn't ask. But I assume it has something to do with the conversation we had about liking a certain someone."

I stayed quiet because I really didn't want to confirm that. What else to say then?

"I'll come."

Hannah's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really."

"That's great! See you at nine." They then got up out of their seat and it looked as though they were about to walk out the door, until they turned back.

"Here, I want you to have this."

"What is it?"

"It's a diary, of sorts."

"What? Yours?"

"Yeah. I bookmarked two pages. If anything happens, I want you to read it."

"If anything happens? Anything like what?"

"Oh, you know. Just stuff." I locked my eyes onto Hannah's and realised that for the first time ever, they had avoided eye contact and were looking at the floor.

"Promise me you won't read it until that time." The enigma looked at their watch, still trying to look everywhere but at me.

"What ti-"

"I gotta go. Love you. Bye."

Well, now I have to see what this is about.

No. They told me to only read it when 'that time' has arrived, and, even though I have no idea when that is, I'm gonna try my very very best to keep my promise.