Miracles

MENTALLY-ILL

JAMES

Zareena was so weird.

James thought about her for the billionth time. He tried hard not to think but it was hard. Yesterday was a roller-coaster ride of emotions. But not for him though. Most of the time he was utterly bewildered or insanely confused. But he expected as much when he was spending time with Zareena. She had a way with her feelings. Yet Zareena was his best friend. She was more of a friend than Dylan. She was special; Kate wasn't lying about that. And he could tell that she was happy when she spent time with him. She was opening up to him. She even told him about her life in Zurich. From what he gathered, her lifestyle here was mostly the same but she was a little more.... Enthusiastic. But she preferred to be alone most of the time and talked with a selected few. Among those few, a person called Ardent must have been close to her because he heard that name at least once every five minutes. But, something else caught his attention too.

Zareena talked in past tense when she said something about Arden.

'He was always there for me....'

'he had always known to lighten up the mood.'

He thought it was his interest to be a detective playing again but when he said something like,

'I'm really stating to like this Arden of yours'

A dark cloud settled on her face and her eyes became glossy. He thought that she was going to cry.

'Yes' she said then, with an amused look on her face. 'You two could have gotten along just fine.'

Past tense. Again!

'So either' he thought. 'This Arden guy used to be a close friends with Zareena but got separated somehow or he was dead.'

Though the first one was more convincing and mind but he had a feeling in his gut that told the latter was more.... Appropriate?

'Or....' he quickly stopped his inappropriate thoughts. It could be nothing but his interests playing tricks again because there was no way someone could manage to be alive and sane when their parents, brother and best friend died. But this was Zareena they were talking about.
That was not the end of that conversation.

He got to know that Zareena's father was American and her mother was German. But since they were in Zurich, she mostly used German than English.

'That explains the accent.'

He was so destracted by his thoughts that the twenty minute walk to Zareena's felt like it took only two seconds. He had to walk there because he had left his car there yesterday.

'Hey Conner!' Zareena grinned at his as she came closing the door and he was momentarily awestricken.

Zareena was undeniably pretty.

Her pitch back eyes - which looked like a really big pupil; he would tease her saying that- was soft and sparkling with excitement. Well... At least one of her eyes. The other was hidden under a mass of unruly black hair that was sticking out in every direction. It was even messier than his hair. Which was saying a lot. He had never seen a girl that preferred a hair cut that looked like I-just-rolled-out-from-bed and looked absolutely astonishing in it as well.

But that was not what surprised him. Zareena was wearing a grey button-down shirt and her usual black ripped jeans. It was the first time he saw Zareena wearing something other than her uniform of black Nike t-shirt and black jeans. Not that he's complaining. Colour looks good on her. Even though the shirt was only a shade lighter than pitch black.