You Wouldn't Believe Me

"Yeah sorry if your a fan I'm not doing photos for awhile" Cora said with a dismissive wave as she paced out of the restaurant.

"Um you gonna order or just hang about" a raspy voice coming from behind Ari said as she jumped at the sound.

"Um yeah sorry" she said turning to face the pale man in a hoodie before turning back to the self service screen and ordering herself and Dave more food.

Awkwardly walking back to her seat Ari sat with the blood drained from her face.

"Ayo Brooks you good?" Dave said seeing the fearful faraway look in Ari's eyes.

Turning in his seat he looked over at the screen she was stood in front of and saw the hooded man stood there.

"He do something?!" Dave asked pointing at the man.

"No..." Ari said under her breath shaking her head.

Dave raised a skeptical eyebrow towards her.

"Okay fine look" Ari said holding out her scarred palm for Dave to see as his eyes went wide.

"I went somewhere last night, you won't believe me if I told you where but I saw someone from there. It wasn't that guy" she said looking him in the eye shaking her head before continuing:

"So don't act up Dave I'm fine, just a little shell-shocked. Thanks for being concerned though" she said with a soft smile as she settled back into her seat.

"Wait where were you" Dave asked staring at Ari's palm.

"You wouldn't believe me" she replied with a shrug.

"Try me" he said intently.

"You wouldn't believe me" she replied shaking her head.

Going in this repetitive go around until their food was ready they ate their breakfasts staring each other down before Dave bit into his burger and the contents spilled out

"Stop looking at me like that" Dave said as Ari creased with laughter. "No, no stop" she replied while chewing her muffin and chuckling to herself.

Having finished their breakfasts and headed out Dave gave into his temptation. "Aight tell me" he said as he nudged Ari with his hand.

"Oh can't. Promised I wouldn't" she said with a sly grin as she walked off and headed home.

Arriving back home she walked into the empty house. Walking into her room she picked her phone up off her desk, removing it from the charger and flopped onto her bed.

Sitting up at the realization her room was still reminiscent of a crime scene she jumped up and pulled all the sheets off her bed.

Collecting them all into a large ball she panicked her way to the laundry room and stuffed as many sheets as she reasonably could into the washing machine.

"Fuck" she said as she clicked the start button on the machine and slumped against the wall adjacent from it.

"That was close. This shit is actually nuts" she said letting the thoughts she was avoiding catch up to her.

"Wait so I'm going through all this so what the hell is Cora thinking, she probably thought it was all a weird dream. Shit couldn't imagine being her right now" she said pulling her phone out of her pocket.

The surrealism of seeing what she thought was a dead woman alive and well as if nothing had happened was not lost on her.

Losing herself in Cora's dms her finger hovered over the keyboard as she contemplated whether or not to message her.

"Nah too weird" she said as she tossed her phone onto the bloody sheets next to her.

Looking over at it she realized her blood smeered pajamas were still in her room and ran to fetch them.

Forcing all thoughts from her mind she sat on the couch waiting for her laundry.

Spending five minutes scrolling through the plethora of channels her face dropped at remembering how bad television had gotten over the years.

"Fuck this" she said turning it off and flinging the remote to the side.

Heading to her room she turned on her PC (personal computer) and logged onto a fighting game to make the time pass.

"Uh..." she said as her mouth fell open once she'd lost her first match by two rounds to nil.

"Nah" she said as she lazily shut the computer off and headed back to the laundry room.

Sat with her phone in her hands she went right to the internet to lose herself in random mindless videos.

Having scrolled through the first few unfunny skits on her explore page she gave up on procrastination.

Giving in further she found herself back on Cora's profile with her finger hovering over the dm button.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep sigh she clicked it and wracked her brain for an opening line.

[Ari: Hey it's me the girl from the fast food place you ran into. Don't worry the dream you had wasn't random, it was real and I remember it too]

Looking through it with a fine tooth comb she resolved that this was the best that could be done for now and hit send.

As instant regret bubbled up to the surface she was saved by the buzzer of her washing machine.

Once the first set of covers were hung and the second was in the machine she found herself giving in and checking her phone.

A mix of emotions set when she saw the message had been left on read and Cora was online.

"Yep it was a terrible idea in the first place" Ari said as she put her phone in her pocket and walked away.

In addition to cleaning up the crime scene she'd left her room as her day was filled with her repeatedly caving in and checking her phone.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours before she resolved that a response was not forthcoming.

By the time she'd finished cleaning the blood everywhere she'd cast Cora from her mind as the sun set and she heard a set of keys in the door.

"Zariah!" she heard her father shout.

"Yes dad?!" she responded from her room as she spun around ensuring not a spec if blood was left anywhere.

"Can you come here!" he shouted as she heard him shut the door and set his keys down.

"Dad?" she said nervously as she came around the corner into the living room where her dad stood with a plastic bag.

"Um, I saw blood in the bathroom" he said nervously as her heart dropped.

"I asked your aunt what happened and she said it was your time of the month so here" he said as he handed her the bag.

"I... what?" Ari asked as she instinctually took the bag and looked inside to find a pack of tampons.

"Um yeah yeah I got my period lol thanks for the tampons" she said dying of embarrassment as she turned and walked away.

"Tell me if you need anything else" he said as she cringed and prayed for the ground to swallow her whole.