This and That

"Am I not supposed to work in the hospital?" I carefully asked while studying Xes. She took a deep breath and scribbled something on the notebook beside the phone.

[Arthur was also a doctor but he stopped practicing and focused on administrative work after a table death. But you're NOT supposed to remember that.]

I heard a deep chuckle from the receiver. "That's not it. This is just a nice surprise for me. You can work on the field if that's what you want. Just make sure not to slack off with your duties as a Director."

I was a member of the board?!

My eyes rounded at Xes and she just shrugged. "O-once I get a clearance from my doctor then I'll tell you."

"That's great!" My father sounded really happy. "Come home this weekend. Your Mom's planning a barbeque party to welcome you home."

"Home?" Where is that home?!

My Dad heaved a very deep sigh. "I know how much you hated having people in your house so I told her to do it here instead. Don't turn us down again this time. She's been through a lot of stress since your accident."

"B-but…"

"What is it?" His voice suddenly sounded strict and there was no trace of his jolly tone just a few seconds earlier.

I shut my eyes tightly, trying to ignore the panicked expression on Zes's face. "I don't know my way home."

My father chuckled heartily. "That can be arranged quite easily. I'll ask Rachelle to send you the location."

As soon as the call ended, I turned to Xes. "WHAT DO I DO?!"

"You should have just turned him down." She said nonchalantly as she took my glass to wash it. "You had no problem turning your father down when he asked you to go on a blind date."

It took a while to process her words.

Then I recalled that she was able to have access to my memories and my jaw dropped when I finally remembered the incident that she was referring to.

It was right after Zee and Craige got engaged. My Dad probably felt that he also had to marry me off since Zee was already getting married so he pestered me to go on blind dates. I remembered that we got into a huge fight back then.

I shook my head to get rid of that memory. "This and that are two different things. Dad was being irrational back then. Why do I also have to get married just because Zee was getting married?"

Xes shrugged and leaned her hips against the sink. "Maybe he wants to have a lot of grandchildren as soon as possible."

"Grandchildren? He barely had any time for us. And I barely had any time for myself. Why would he want me to follow his footsteps and force me to create a family that I would just neglect?" I looked at the bodice of her dress that hugged her slender figure and wondered if she was not feeling uncomfortable with what she was wearing.

"Makes sense." She folded her arms with a smile. "You practically slept in the hospital ever since Craige and Zee got engaged. You operated on patients like a madman without getting proper sleep to a point that it would be no surprise if you suddenly dropped dead from fatigue."

I narrowed my eyes on her. "What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing. Just that you made your sorrow way too obvious. Maybe that's what worried your dad." I was about to retort when she suddenly stopped moving and frowned. "Something's not right."

"There was nothing right in what you said." I wanted to laugh out of frustration. But when she didn't say anything and just continued frowning, I blew out a deep breath. "What is it this time?"

She washed her hands then closed her eyes for a second and opened them. Closed them and opened them again. She did that a couple of times then she looked at me and shook her head. "Nevermind."

My brows creased at the center and I followed her with my eyes as she walked towards the bedroom. "What is it? You're making me nervous."

"It's nothing." She didn't even look back and closed the door behind her.

When she didn't come out after some time, I followed her inside. "What are you doing there? We're still talk--"

I stopped in the middle of my sentence when I opened the door of my room and she was nowhere to be seen. "Xes?"

I checked the bathroom and it was also empty. I also checked the other room for the closet but she was also not there. "Xes!"

Did she disappear again?

'Knock knock in my head. Xes, are you there?'

But there was no response.

No matter how much I tried to call her both verbally and mentally, she wouldn't respond.

Then I remembered her words. "Something's not right…"

Did something happen to her?

She was only washing the dishes…

I looked around the house once more but she was definitely nowhere to be found. That was when I felt a tugging sensation at the pit of my stomach. It was weird and very uncomfortable.

"What's going on?"

Then it disappeared when a hand tapped my back. I turned around to see Xes standing there with an awkward smile on her face.

"Xes!"

"How many times do I have to tell you? It's Xescilliz." Her laugh sounded forced as she took a step back.

I wanted to grab her shoulder but I held myself back. "What happened? Where have you been?"

"I just went to check on something."

I frowned when I felt that she was hiding something from me. "Can you at least give me a heads up before disappearing like that? You scared the hell out of me."

"I scared you?" Her laughter was filled with amusement. "I thought you wanted me gone? Didn't you wish for me to be just a hallucination?"

"That was before I knew that I'm an alien here." I pointed out honestly. There was no use to mince my words with her since she could read my mind anyway.

She looked at me with a baffled expression on her face. "How shameless."