How I Met Mr Jinn ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Five

Parallel Worlds

   
     "Here you go." Olivia chirped, after handing Marisol, Amal, and I, each red envelopes.

I examined mine for a brief moment before asking, "Isn't it early for Christmas?"

"I don't do fat old man breaking into houses." Amal joked.

"What!? No. God no, I hate Christmas." Olivia replied with a sour face.

"Then what are these? Invites to Your baby shower?" Marisol laughed, pointing out the relationship between her and the gentlemen from the bookshop. To, Olivia blushed.

That's correct, they accidentally bumped into each other last week on campus, when he was delivering a few books for the library. His name turned out to be Jason. They talked a bit and with the excuse of 'keeping in touch,' they exchanged their numbers. Ever since they've been on two 'meet-ups' and TOTALLY not dates.

"No.. like I told you, we're just friends. Ok?" She warned, sending Marisol a death glare. In response, Marisol huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Anyway... These are invites to my annual Winter Sleepover." She explained, pride filling up her lungs.

"Annual?" I questioned.

She ignored me.

"Every year, I hold this sleepover to get closer to the new friends I've made in the school year." She explained. "And I want you girls to come,"

"Wow, that's an honor." I smiled. She smiled back and took a seat on the other end of the table to where she explained all the non -sense rules, and what movie we might be watching. I wished I could have paid closer attention, but I was too busy living the moment and remembering how wonderful it was to finally, be normal again.

I've been under terrible pressure for so long, kept a secret no one would care to understand or believe, and all I can say is that it was a job too hard for someone who hasn't kept a secret for longer than two days! I was only sure about one thing though, I was never going to go back there again.

Not a place, but where I once stood.

***

     The envelope had four sides, a shade of red close to maroon, and three centimeters from the bottom right corner was Olivia's signature.

I let go after staring at the envelope for god knows how long, and turned to face my luggage. I already told my parents I was going, and I even packed a few things.. but it was silly of me to think I was going to be ok when there was a chance I could see him again. After all, it was the second time I've ever seen him. He has also mentioned living nearby once.

But after that dream, I bet it would anything but awkward.

Three hours later, after Maghreb Prayer, Dad dropped me off at Olivia's place. After an hour of chit-chatting and settling in, Marisol insisted on watching a movie. A horror, in fact. But it was a good thing Olivia had a schedule, and watching Horror films was thankfully last.

First, we baked cookies but they ended up burning because of the song Marisol had on, so we just bought some from the Dollar store nearby. We ordered Pizza and a few burgers. When we were full, we decided to search the 'Treasure cabinet' where the Mcburns kept all their board games. At first, Monopoly would be your first guess of a board game, but most of the games looked old. We were barely able to find a chessboard that didnt look like it's been used for every family reunion ever held here.

"I donated most of my old games a few years ago to a kids charity," Olivia explained. "These must have been my parents. Or even grandparents. Heck. It could be centuries old!"