Chương 3: Save Them
"Asad," I whisper to my twin as I poke my head into his room, which he shares with our little brother Ali. Since we have three bedrooms excluding the guest bedroom in the basement, my parents decided that us three sisters would share the master bedroom while my parents share one regular sized room, and the brothers share the other."Asad!"
"What?" he snaps, sitting up in his bed. "I'm trying to sleep." I roll my eyes.
"Yeah right. You were home all day. And shut up, everyone else is sleeping."
"Shouldn't you be sleeping? It's not like you actually do your homework anyways."
"Come on, please? I need help, or I'm going to fail," I say. Asad sighs.
"I'm coming, I'm coming, calm down." He comes out, closing the door behind him and follows me downstairs in the basement.
As twins, Asad and I are obviously close, but at the same time, we're a bit different from other twins I've seen. While we grew up together, we also grew up separately. As kids we didn't do everything together; we were hardly ever in the same classes and participated in different activities. For a year he'd even left the country because of an exchange program he'd gotten into. He's a genius while I'm just average I guess. He's Mr. Popular. People like him. He's more sociable, unlike me. I'm so awkward it's embarassing. I hate it. My speech is one of my biggest insecurities, and my whole family makes fun of me for it making it worse. Just because I'm quiet or talk to fast or mumble a lot. But anyways, Asad and I are still like best friends no matter what.
"So. What is it?" he asks, sitting down on the couch in the basement.
"Look." I hand him the yellow envelope. He makes a face.
"What the hell is this? A love note?"
"Just look," I say with a sigh, sitting down next to him. I don't know what to think of this. Am I supposed to take this seriously? What is it even supposed to mean?
"Uh, why do you have a picture of your crush? And who is this Asian dude?" Asad asks me. "How'd you get these? Don't tell me you took them. That's kind of creepy. I know you really like Pierce, but--"
"Hey!" I slap his arm. "You really think I would do that?"
"Girls do crazy things," he says casually.
"Since when?" I demand, ready to hit him again. "There are psycho guys in movies and stuff too. Or do you just ignore that?"
"No, it's just that I have a living example of a crazy chick as my sister," Asad tells me as he tries to hold in a laugh.
"You little..." I raise my hand angrily, causing him to laugh.
"No, but seriously, where'd you get this?" he asks me.
"It was in my locker." I say. "And you didn't even see the other paper."
"Paper?" He peers inside the envelope. "What... oh. 'Save them?' What the hell is this?"
"I don't know, that's why I'm showing you. And that Asian guy, that's Seojun. He works at Bonnie's," I tell my brother.
"Wait, the place that you just started working at today?"
"Yeah."
"How does that even make sense? Who would do this?"
"I don't know," I say. "I don't even know if I should take it seriously or not." Asad doesn't say anything for a moment. He justs stares at the pictures and note, lost in thought. I look at the pictures too. Pierce and Seojun. Who knows these two? Do they know each other? Why me? Is this a joke? Because I like Pierce? But Seojun's picture is in this too, so it doesn't make sense...
"Just leave it for now," Asad says finally. "Wait and see if anything else happens. I don't really know what else to say. But tell me anything you notice, okay?" I nod.
"Okay."
~~ ~~ ~~
"BAAJIIIIII!" My sister Soha screams at the top of her lungs the next morning as she stomps down the stairs. "Where did you put my uniform?!"
"Oh my God, shut up! Ali and Yaira are still sleeping!" I snap, putting down the knife I was using to cut the cucumbers for everyone's lunch. "And I didn't do anything to your uniform, you're the one who stuffs all your clothes in your drawer!" She screams again, stomping purposefully with force.
"Soha!" Mamma scolds, coming downstairs in a hurry. "I hung your uniform up in your closet! Quickly go and get changed. Mishal, I'm leaving for work now. You're okay?" I nod as Asad comes downstairs while drying his hair with a towel.
"Yeah."
"Okay, asalam wa alaykum," Mamma says as she heads out of the house.
"Walaykum asalam," Asad and I both respond at the same time.
"Abbu already left?" Soha asks us.
"Yeah, he had to leave early today," I say. "Now go upstairs and change. Oh, and go and wake up Yaira and Ali before you do."
"Why can't you do it?" Soha demands. I stab a cucumber slice in frustration.
"You're going upstairs, idiot," I snap. "Hurry up, we don't have all day."
"Did you put a bagel in the toaster for me?" Asad asks me, throwing the wet towel on a chair at the dining table.
"Yeah. Can you put the cream cheese on everyone's? They're all toasted."
"Baaji," Yaira calls from upstairs. "Ali doesn't have any pants." I sigh, finishing up all the lunches.
"I just did the laundry! Go and check the pile again!" This hecticness is stressing me out. We've been all over the place lately, and it's too much. I swear, it's like Asad and I are raising these kids, not our parents. But then again, they are the ones working their butts off to make a living for the five of us. We're always struggling financially. "Asad, I'm gonna go change. Make sure everything else is dealt with."
"Got it." He gives me a thumbs up as I head upstairs.
"Baaji," Ali calls suddenly. I groan.
"What?" I call back in annoyance. Why can't they ever ask Asad for help?
"Um, I did something in my pants."
~~ ~~ ~~
I watch Pierce walk into lunch with that stupid grin stuck on never-could-be ugly face, his blue eyes sparkling in amusement. For a moment, I swear he glances over and catches my gaze for a millisecond, but then I blink and it's as though I imagined it. Raising my eyebrows, I turn away and try to focus on my food, but end up looking over at him again, the letter crossing my mind. What would he possibly need to be saved from? And how could I possibly be the one to help him? How does that even make any sense?
"Mishal. Oh my God. Are you seriously still staring at him?" Chloe puts her lunch tray down and sits down next to me. "What's wrong with you?"
"Huh?" I blink, pulling myself out of my thoughts. "I wasn't staring." She snorts. "Yeah right. Jia, she was totally staring, right?" Jia nods.
"Yup. She definitely was."
"No I wasn't!" I say defensively.
"I was sitting here the whole time. How are you going to argue with me?" Jia asks with raised eyebrows. I feel my face burn up a little.
"I was just thinking," I mutter.
"Thinking? About what? Your face is turning red," Chloe says with a teasing smile. My mouth drops at this.
"Seriously?" I stab my fork into my salad. "You guys are so mean."
"I can't take this anymore. I've had enough," Chloe tells me. "Hey Pierce!" she calls. He looks up from his table, his blue eyes now focused on us. My eyes widen.
"What are you doing?" I hiss as someone else comes and sits at our table.
"What's going on?" Audrey asks as she sets down her tray.
"Can you come here?" Chloe asks Pierce. Oh my God. Why is she doing this to me? From Pierce's table, I catch Asad's eye. He glances at Pierce, who is coming our way, then at me, then at Pierce, then back at me. His eyebrows slightly come together, but then he finally gets it. And you know what he does instead of helping me? He starts laughing. That jerk.
"Yeah?" Pierce asks.
"Sit," Chloe says. He does.
"What do you want?" he asks. I can feel my own face turning red even though his attention isn't even on me right now. This is so embarrassing. I need to get out of here before she does something stupid.
"I'm going to the bathroom," I mumble, getting up abruptly. I don't wait for a response and hurry out of the cafeteria. I go to the bathroom that's farther away, closer to my locker, my heart racing. Sometimes Chloe can be really frustrating because she doesn't always remember her boundaries. She literally doesn't care what people think, so she wouldn't understand my embarrassment. I don't hold it against her or anything. It's just her personality. Taking a deep breath, I push open the bathroom door to leave and head back. As I make my way down the hall, I hear a locker slam closed, causing me to turn my head automatically. Someone in a dark grey hoodie hurries off in the opposite direction. It takes me a moment to realize that they were standing right by my locker.
"Hey!" I call, running down the hall, but they're already gone. Panicked, I practically fly to my locker jerking open the door. And low and behold, a yellow envelope is lying at the bottom. Glancing in the direction the person ran off, I slowly reach for it, picking it up with caution. Who was that? Should I ask to see the cameras or something? But what am I going to tell the office? Biting my lip, I tear open the envelope and take out its contents. This time, it's only a note that reads: Please. Save them.
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