My Last Remaining Brain Cell

What is life? A heavy question I know but I have to wonder sometimes. I mean, in my case, life has been shambles for as long as I can remember. Not my life. My life is great. No, it's everyone else who live in chaos where they wish there could be order. The problem is I think it might be my fault. I mean I was born in another country. My parents split, my mom was remarried, my dad was an ass. I've been to more schools than I can remember and brought chaos with me as I went. Blew up a couple of lives but saved a couple to, if I do say so myself. I may or may not have weaved a problem or two over my 19 years but at least I managed to escape unscathed and just a couple years ago got accepted to my dream school. A change I thought would scare me but turned out amazing considering I made the move at seventeen. That was two and a half years ago. Now here I am, lying in my bed, staring at my apartment's ceiling at one o'clock at night, reminiscing, as I often did, about the past, something I'd finally managed not to do for awhile. All the people who'd hurt cause I couldn't be what I was suppose to be.

I rolled over to face the window next to my bed on the opposite wall to the door. I reached out and pressed one hand to the cool glass in an effort to cool down. It was a particularly warm night and despite the short sleeve nightshirt I was wearing, I was sweating. Bad too. I sighed heavily and closed my eyes, rolling to my other side and tried to drift off to sleep.

I woke to find a soft blue light illuminating the wall.

What time is it?

Tap.

I sat up straight in bed and whipped my head around to stare at my dresser. I tilted my head. That's odd. I was looking at my IPad which I had carefully centered and turned off for the night. The screen was glowing, the cover agar, as though it had been recovered in a hurry. I squinted around the room for anything abnormal. I looked back to the dresser and noticed the time on the clock next to the IPad. 2:47. Ah, I thought, That explains it I'm just dog tired.

I lay back down and closed my eyes. "That's it Inaya, you're imagining things, your IPad is fine, there's no one in your room, and you totally imagined that, sigh of relief. Now stop talking to yourself in the third person." I shut down my brain and tucked into the soothing blackness. After a moment I was nearly back to sleep then I felt it. My brain had a minor meltdown as I realized there was no way I was imagining the soft whoosh of breath on my face. I kept perfectly still.

Maybe whatever it is will think I'm sleeping.

I felt it softly brush a curl off my face. My eyes sprung open and I sat up. A survey of the room revealed nothing out of the ordinary. So, I thought to myself, Either, I've finally lost my remaining brain cell or I've succeeded in my life long dream of being haunted.

A light chuckle echoed through the room and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Wide eyed, I pulled the blankets up over my head 'cause clearly duvets create an impenetrable force field. I then didn't sleep until 6 am. Today was gonna be fun.

***

"So you think you're being haunted?" Archer asked incredulously. I sat in a cafe with my three best friends Archer, Angelica or Angel, and Kylie. My morning lecture had thankfully been canceled so I managed to get a few hours sleep before meeting them for our weekly lunch date. I lifted my head off the table to glare at my friend while his sister turned and flicked him in the forehead. "Hey," Archer whined, batting Angel's hand away. Kylie, who was texting next to me in the booth having already finished her lunch rolled her eyes. I sighed, thunking my head back down on the table. Kylie rubbed my back while I released a long groan. "Honey, how well have you been sleeping? I mean I know you've been pushing it lately with the assignments and work and all but do you really think the extra projects are necessary?" Angel asked gently. I rolled my head to look at her. She smiled although her green eyes were wide with worry. "She has a point," Kylie said.

I huffed mainly because they were right. I have a habit of getting side tracked which usually leads to side projects which are never finished cause I get side tracked. In short, I'm easily distracted. My latest was a research project on the myths of dragons across different cultures. "I mean if you're so tired you're hallucinating perhaps lumping an additional research project on top of the five you already have to do for your classes and the lesson plans you have to set up for the tutoring sessions," Kylie pointed out, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

"I told you guys, I wasn't hallucinating. I felt something move my hair off my face and the cover on my tablet was moved. Last I checked, a hallucination can't do that," I sassed.

Archer chuckled as Kylie pinched the bridge of her nose, "What exactly do you hope to accomplish in this conversation?" To be honest, I wasn't sure why I'd even brought it up. My initial guess would be lack of sleep. I shrugged at her and threw a fry from my plate at the still laughing Archer. "What the hell is so funny?" Angel asked, poking him in the ribs.

"Ooo, the angel said a bad word," I said in a sing song voice before making a tutting sound at her. She stuck her tongue out at me before turning back to her brother. "I just find it funny that Miss future science professor is convinced she's being haunted and the law major is giving her advice on her mental state while the future sleep psychologist is sitting here saying unhelpful, generic, and obvious statements," he chortled.

"Well, first of all, she didn't ask for my help, second I'm not gonna be a sleep psychologist, I'm gonna be a dream psychologist, and third your judgey for an electrical engineer," she said before standing up, "Come on, girls." Kylie stood and, when I didn't move, grabbed my arm and hauled my ass out of the booth.

"Where are you guys going?" Archer asked standing as well.

"We're heading to the library," Kylie states as though that should have been obvious.

"Right and somehow that translates into you guys not paying again," he stated with a sigh. Kylie made finger guns at him and winked. "We'll pay you back," Angel called over her shoulder.

"No, you won't," he called back. I blew him a kiss as Kylie hauled me out the door. He flipped us off through the windows of the cafe and Kylie and I giggled as Angel returned his gesture. Angel, my ass.

***

Angel grumbled something about lunatics and conspiracy theorists as she slammed another book shut. Kylie chuckled, "I think you broke her." I looked up from the book on a school haunting I was reading to find Angel, usually the optimist of the three of us, growled in frustration at another book picking it up and throwing it at the pile she accumulated next to her. Three of us were currently looking for evidence of ghosts and more specifically how to detect and/or capture one. We're understandably having issues finding a reliable source online so switched to books around 20 minutes ago. I was rather enjoying reading all conspiracy theories but Angel is more one for solid facts and hard evidence which is a little odd given her major of choice isn't exactly an exact science.

"You know, given that we can't find any solid evidence for ghosts, doesn't that mean they don't exist?" Angel asked, frustration clear in her voice.

"This was literally your idea," Kylie pointed out.

Angel pouted, crossing her arms. "I didn't know it would take this long," she whined.

Kylie shrugged, "You gave Inaya research to do about something that hasn't been proven or disproven, that's like dangling a stake in front of a dog and expecting it not to eat it."

I glared at them before refocusing on the book in front of me. I heard Angel sigh, "Have you considered it wasn't a ghost?"

I glance up at her, "Intrigued, you may proceed."

She rolled her eyes at me before continuing, "Are you sure someone wasn't playing a practical joke on you?"

"I swear on your life, Angel if you and Archer are-"

"I don't mean us, I mean someone else."

"That makes no sense," Kylie said, shaking her head, " She doesn't have any other friends to play practical jokes on her." I slugged her in the shoulder and Angel giggled as Kylie rubbed her arm, glaring at me. I made a face at them, mainly because they were right. "Ok, so maybe it was one of the guys you're always hanging out with," Angel suggested.

Kylie shot me a grin, "As if they would ever risk pissing her off after she humiliated that one kid."

I glared at Kylie, "We agreed to never speak of that again."

Kylie shrugged, "I didn't say his name or what happened, what more do you want from me? To just never mention the most glorious revenge I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing?"

I snorted as Kylie got the dreamy look in her eyes that usually got whenever she thought about that day. I was tutoring most of the basketball team in philosophy. Why were almost the entire basketball team in philosophy, you may ask. Because the philosophy professor they thought they were getting was a pushover when it came to sports teams and often fudged grades for them. What they hadn't counted on was the professor being caught and fired then replaced by a professor who hated the entire basketball team for no apparent reason so they ended up in danger of failing.

Lucky for them Archer happened to be friends with one of the guys and asked me if I'd tutor him. He started passing and the coach asked that I tutor the rest of them offering to pay me for my time when I initially rejected the request and the rest is history. I was now decent friends with most of the team aside from one guy who'd tried to push me around which resulted in the previously aforementioned incident we don't talk about. They were quite sweet once you got past the playboy personas and menacing height.

However, Kylie was right in saying that they knew not to cross me despite the fact I was a tiny 5'8". Tiny in comparison to them anyways, given the shortest guy was 6'3" on his off days. "I don't think the guys would be able to fool me anyways," I said with a laugh.

"Maybe we should check your apartment, just in case," Angel said, rising and scooping up her stack of books.

Kylie and I followed suit and soon the three of us were walking arm in arm to Kylie's baby. Kylie's baby was a suped up 1970's Dodge Super Bee in a steel gray that matched her eyes. The car was a going away present from her parents and was Kylie's pride and joy. She often went on about the cars engine, interior, and other stuff I sorta phased out when she was explaining it. All I really know about it is if anyone ever tried to drive it they'd be put to death on the spot.

Piling in, Kyile started the car and cranked up the radio before screaming out of the parking lot. The woman drives like a bat outta hell whenever given the opportunity, something I found quite endearing as a lot of my family were also quite the kid racers. The three of us howled away to some Shawn Mendes song.

We pulled into the parking garage under my apartment complex a few minutes later. Hustling to the elevator before my jackass of a neighbor managed to get the doors shut, Angel winked at her as she retreated to a corner. I jabbed my friend in the side as she continued to make eyes at my archnemesis. Like a traitor. Angel scowled at me in return muttering something experience told was about me being a buzzkill.

The elevator doors open on my level and we all exited, charging down the hall to my home to look for clues. I led the way into my room and did a quick scan just in case something else had moved. Not surprisingly, nothing had moved. The other girls began searching the room for any sign of anyone being there.

After around 10 minutes we all ended up splayed out on my double bed, staring at the pun and sarcastic quote mural on my ceiling. "You know, maybe you should just set up a camera to record your room the whole night and just watch it back the next day," Kylie suggested.

Angel sat up and stared at Kylie then yelled whilst throwing a pillow at her, "Why didn't you say that an hour ago?!" I laughed softly as Kylie and Angel started arguing about nothing. I smiled up at my favorite quote of my sarcastic mural. I was right in the middle in bright pink: "Keep your head high and your middle finger higher." Words to live by, words I live by.

With a battle cry, Angel suddenly lunged at Kylie, landing on me in the process and dragging me off the edge of the bed along with the two of them. With a thud, we landed in a pile of limbs on the floor, yelling at each other. After throwing a few insults around I dissolved into lack of sleep induced hysterical laughter. The girls started laughing along with me also likely due to lack of sleep. Eventually we got hungry and got up to make chocolate chip cookie dough and milk. I began to contemplate what to do tonight about the possible haunting I had somehow picked up. Logically, I know it's likely that I dreamed the whole thing although my iPad cover did move but it was entirely possible I moved it and just didn't remember. I knew it was crazy to think anything else but you know a girl can dream, right?