The look of pure despair on Zen's face made Kate want to hug her and never let go. On the surface, Zen appeared to be a strong, dominant female warrior, but she was a child at heart, hiding numerous insecurities beneath her carefree, kindhearted, and compassionate demeanour. A slight twinge of words and Zen would take it to her heart and wear it like a second skin for the rest of her life. That was how sensitive her cousin was, and Kate knew all about it. "No, you don't." Kate approached to hug Zen. "I'll tell you honestly," she continued, leaning back and cupping Zen's cheeks. "I see a beautiful, adorable, lovely, charming, exquisite lady."
"Those are all synonyms," Zen interrupted.
"Get out of the writer's world for now and listen to what I'm saying," Kate calmly replied, smiling sweetly. "Zen, there's nothing wrong with you. Don't think too much. Don't let the words of unknown strangers haunt you like that."
"Mm." Zen nodded.
[How adorable.] Kate's smile grew even wider. "People, at first, might think you're different and it's totally fine. It's only because you are taller than most girls, have short hair and boobs as flat as a billboard-"
"Kate!"
Kate hid a chuckle and continued, "...and dresses like a really cool, badass fighter. And that's exactly what you are so be proud of yourself." Kate grabbed Zen by the shoulders and gave her a fierce look. "You are you. And that's all that matters."
"Thank you, Kate." Zen returned the smile.
"But..." Kate continued, "I feel like your run-in with that guy won't just end here." She tapped her index finger over her chin.
"What do you mean?" Zen asked confused.
"Look outside," Kate instructed, pointing a fingering to the window. "What do you see?"
"The moon?"
"The Dark Moon, Zen. It's the dark moon," Kate corrected.
"What about it?"
"I can't believe you haven't heard of the legend of The Dark Moon," Kate gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "Listen carefully, Zen. The dark moon is the last visible crescent of a fading moon. This fading crescent, like death itself, is believed to be a symbol of preparation for a new beginning. However, one must be wary of the dark energies lurking in the shadows. Come closer, let me whisper it into your ear."
"I will not believe any of that. There is no proof." Zen held firm in her belief.
"After all the events that happened last night, don't you think it's strange? Just think about it, you getting expelled from the dorm, a dog chasing you, then miraculously falling asleep when you know you don't usually fall asleep just anywhere like that, and then meeting that guy, all of it couldn't just be a coincidence. Nope. I don't think so."
"It's not possible." Zen argued. She knew Kate was an extremely superstitious individual, believing in witchcraft, omens, and who-knows-what out of the world sorcery that sometimes she used to think her cousin might have been a holy priestess in her past life, but no matter how convincing her words seemed to be at the moment, she wasn't going to buy it. It was ridiculous. All the bad luck that happened to her was because, according to her cousin, she was unluckily caught in an unknown conjuring action in the middle of some kind of inexpiable manifesting moon cycle. "I don't believe in all these theories, Kate," Zen added.
"I'm not asking you to believe them. Just be careful. This isn't as easy as it seems, Zen."
Zen wanted to dismiss the boring topic but strangely found herself paying attention to Kate's every word. Kate's reassuring hands on her shoulders felt like a sustainable pre-made support line for whatever storm was coming to hit her, and she hoped nothing would spiral out of her control. She had just one life to live, and she was not going to ruin it because of some illogical superstitious belief.
-~-
"Your face is so soft. Is it okay if I touch it?"
"What?" It was so dark she couldn't see a thing, but she could feel his breath on her lips The blackness gradually faded, and she found herself staring at him, his lips mere centimetres from her own. Her eyes widened upon seeing the looks of the stranger. She could recognize this person anywhere even at the drop of a heartbeat. He was still handsome, even more handsome than she'd seen in her memory, and completely sober. She watched unmoving as he leaned in until the distance between them was only a hair's breadth away. She shut her eyes tightly, knowing what was to come next.
"Ah!" Zen was startled awake by the sound of her alarm. It had been a nightmare. Her cheeks felt hot and burning. She quickly brushed off the images of the unlucky dream returning in her memory and reached for her phone to silence the annoying alarm.
Zen was never a morning person and she never will be. That was a universal truth. So, when her alarm went off at seven o'clock in the morning, the first thing she'd done was hit the snooze button that had a ten-minute interval before the next ring. Being the lazy person she was, she would continue to hit snooze until the clock struck eight. From then on, she would begrudgingly groan and get herself off the bed, a string of curses rolling from her tongue, before getting in the shower and readying herself in exactly fifteen minutes to attend the obviously long boring class that started at eight forty-five.
The word breakfast was not in her dictionary. She didn't have time to have more than two meals a day, too preoccupied juggling between part-time jobs, even a snack break in the middle of it all would be considered a blessing. Perhaps that was the reason why she was deathly thin, causing a lot of her classmates, primarily females, to envy her, but she wasn't one to pay attention to such trivialities.
She didn't care what people thought of her physical appearance. But somehow, and as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't deny her encounter with the homophobic stranger the previous night left her a bit uneasy. [I'm thinking about him again.] She quickly discarded the thought as soon as it came and went back to sleep.
Her phone vibrated for the second time and she groaned loudly. This time it wasn't the alarm but a call. Half-asleep and frustrated, she reached for the phone on the bedside table while laying on her stomach, unbothered to get up. Ripping the charging cable a little-too-violently, she slid a finger over the phone screen, nearly dropping it in her carelessness, and placed the device next to her ear.
"What?" Her tone was cold and unwelcoming.
"Zenjee!"
"Dad?" Zen jolted wide awake, immediately sitting upright, legs bent over the bed in a highly attentive manner.
"Is this true? You got kicked out from the dorm?"