07

JOL WANTED TO PRETEND that the day before hadn’t happened— though, she didn’t know what had happened, either. If she could just ignore the pulsing pain at the back of her head, the reminder that something wasn’t right in her head, she could go to lunch with Afia in the park. Jol had decided that today was the day that she would confess to Aafia.

“Girl, if it ain’t obvious she’s blind,” Dan cackled over the phone.

Jol laid her head back on her pillow and chuckled. Maybe Dan was right. Jol had been anything but subtle with her advancements.

Sidedly there was a screeching sound in Joel’s ears, like somebody had just slammed on the brakes of time and hit rewind. Her vision blurred.

“Jol!”

“Jol!” she heard Dan yell as the world came back into focus.

“Huh? Sorry, I, uh… spaced,” she murmured the lie half-heartedly.

“So, are you going to tell her?” the man asked excitedly.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jol replied with a grin on her voice.

―

That night, Joel’s stomach was in knots as she walked to the park. Aafia was waiting there with a big smile, as usual, but that night it felt different. Special. Jol brushed her curls back into their messy ponytail and tried not to grin too stupidly.

“Jol!” Aafia greeted her happily. Jol couldn’t stop her smile.

“Aafia,” Jol nodded.

Aafia bounced on her toes. “So, what do you want to do?”

“Look at you,” Jol murmured.

“What was that”

“Um, look at the stars,” the girl corrected.

Shockingly, Aafia didn’t look like she believed her, but she let it go with a sly little grin. “Let’s go then.”

They walked aimlessly for some time before the pair decided to sit down on the grass. Jol tried to smoothly put her arm around the other girl, but ended up losing balance and falling. Aafia giggled at her before grabbing Jol’s hand and wrapping it around her shoulders.

Jol felt her face heat up. She glanced over at Aafia, who was looking up at the stars with an adoring expression on her face.

“Hey, Aafia—”

Suddenly Jol felt like she was falling through endless space. Her mind felt like it had traveled to a different dimension and left Jol sitting there. Her head pulsed with pain, and her eyes stung. Then Aafia was there, calling her name, but she kept glitching, like she was in two places at once.

“HELP!”

Jol felt tears in her eyes and warmth at the back of her head. She couldn’t differentiate between the screams for help and what Aafia was saying in front of her.

“Help— code blue… call doctor— need… of dexmedetomidine—”

Jol felt an impact, heard a thud somewhere behind all of the screaming, and then her lungs felt empty.

Jol gasped, gagging, still hearing those awful screams for help. She didn’t feel like she was falling anymore. Instead, her body felt like gravity was trying to drag it down through the ground. Jol could barely see, could barely move, couldn’t hear the world around her because of the screaming and her thundering heartbeat. Jol felt helpless, alone. Aafia’s image drifted in and out of focus.

“HELP-” The screaming stopped.

Joel’s last thought was that she hadn’t kissed Aafia when she had the chance.