Beyond The Stars

Squiggly Lines and First Nights

Rafa's pov

"Okay so he looks like he's up a tree here but then there's this squiggly line which I don't understand, maybe it's a code. Search up what squiggly line with dashes in it stands for and make sure to write it down properly. " I say to Mikhail who's leaning back on the bed with his phone in his hands and his glasses perched on his nose. "According to google... 'Squiggly  line with dashes in it' means a tilde?"

I raise an eyebrow asking for elaboration and he says, "according to Wikipedia.....The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of it came into English from Spanish, which in turn came from the Latin titulus, which I think means title. The reason for the name is that it was originally written over a letter as a scribal abbreviatio--"

"Okay wow close that mouth." I say shutting his rambling down.

He blinked at me a couple of times before running a hand through his hair and looking back down at his phone. "Oh Raif what even is this? It looks like you're shoving a stick up an elephants butt what kinda adventure is that?" I say squinting the weird drawings my brother had drawn into his journal.

Mikhail leans over, quite too close but he's been closer than this so I let it be, and says, "it looks more like that weird rock guy from fantastic four." I tilt my head and say, "you're right."

"He's so dumb! What does this mean?" I cry out frustrated when I can't figure out anything. Mikhail takes the journal from me as I fall back down onto the bed messing my hijab up from the back.

"I'm not sure but we can continue driving up north tomorrow, the further you get through these pages the more it seems as if he's going to an even snowier and mountainous range."

"I would escape this coldness not rush into it if I was him." I mumble sitting back up. Mikhail nods and tosses the journal onto the side table before looking over at me.

"Can I see your hair?" He asks with a small smile.

I smile back and say, "sure!"

His eyes seem to brighten up as he leans on his fist and says, "really?"

"No," I say stopping my wide grin from advancing any further, his face falls as he whines, "but why not, we're married!"

"So? Oh and speaking of marriage, who's Mahra?" I ask curiously loosening my hijab a bit around my neck. He cocks an eyebrow and clears his throat before saying, "what does marriage and Mahra have in common?"

I shrug, "they both start with the letter m so it came into my mind, now who is she, I thought I knew all your cousins." He laughs before looking away, "she's nobody."

"Okay if you say so." I say letting the topic go and getting off the bed, usual Mikhail being all secretive.

"Wait wait wait hold up," he says grabbing my wrist, I tug it free turning to him, "what?"

His lips slowly spread into a cocky smirk as he says, "are you jealous?"

"Where'd you get that from you idiot?" I say scrunching my face up, "you just said she's nobody why would I be jealous geesh man."

"Oh." He mumbles before laughing to himself and turning his phone on again. I head to the bathroom to take a well needed shower. The hot water felt good after my running around in the snow in the freezing cold. I grabbed my towel before remembering that I don't have any clothes to change into. Our bags were in Mikhails car.