In His Trap

Ch. 2: Sudden Amnesia

The alarm clock wakes me from... the floor. Literally, I find myself, surprisingly, lying on the floor instead of my bed. How did I end up on the floor, anyway? Oh, whatever.

I managed to crawl to the bedside table and reach for the alarm clock to turn it off and eventually get up from the floor. My feet are as heavy as feet that were being chained to a large rock with thick heavy chains. My sharp headache comes as if my head is being nailed with a hammer; it's almost like a construction site in my head. It's even starting to look blurry in here. Perhaps, when I have a shower, I'll be just fine.

I searched and grabbed my phone from the bed, rubbing my eyes to see the time, clearly. It is thirty minutes past five in the morning, which is strange, I think. Don't I used to set the alarm later than that? Well, at least it'll give me a lot of time to prepare for school, and even zone out along the line.

I place my phone by the bedside lamp of the bedside table and I left for the bathroom to begin my morning routine. I normally do yoga in the bathroom while filling up the bathtub for a warm bath, though it's been a while since I last did yoga or sat in the bathtub.

After stretching and doing yoga, I pour in a bubble bath into the bathtub filled with water while the tap runs water into it, making it bubble up. I turn off the running tap and take off my nightwear before entering into the bathtub and sitting with my legs stretched as I finally rest my arms on the bathtub, resting my head on the wall and closing my eyes just to feel the warmth of the water. I grabbed my sponge and began scrubbing softly.

Surprisingly, I didn't zone out when I finally had the chance to do so. Even when I sat in the bathtub for a long while, but still, nothing. Why do I always zone out at the wrong time?

I head to the kitchen after to make myself breakfast. I find my aunt already making some toasts, spreading a lot of ketchup on the breads before toasting them with the toaster. Just as I like them.

Lilah and I have only one thing in common, which is the fact that we love bread with absolutely anything. I now plan on making hot chocolate for the toasts. That combination tastes like heaven.

“Auntie Glo,” I call her by her nickname.

She turns around to face me “Oh! morning, Gwen. You're up already?”

“Yeah, I think I set the alarm clock a little bit too early, though I now have plenty of time to have a complete morning routine and get prepared for school.”

“I suppose it's just stress. I mean, you've been studying so hard for school. I'm certain Stacey put you up to this.”

“Put me up to what?”

“To being too hard on yourself by studying too much, especially on math, you need to relax a little,”

she said.

Stacey is like a math wizard. She's so into general maths and even further maths. She's even the reason I'm top of my class when it comes to math. She even gets too aggressive when someone tries to tell her to take a break. However, I don't remember acting like her. Perhaps, auntie Glo is saying this because she saw me studying or something.

“So, wanna have hot chocolate or black tea?” I change the topic.

“Black tea with some milk will be fine for me,” she answered.

•••

“Hi, Gwen.” Sylph comes over to my table where I'm sitting to read and whispers my name as she leans against the bookshelf by my right.

For the first time, she comes at the right time. Just when I needed a distraction from my thoughts. However, this is the library, and it isn't a place for to have a conversation, though I wonder the reason she's here.

“Wow, that's a surprise that someone like you would come around me. I wonder why you now decided to come around,” I said in a low tone.

“Shall we head out?” She asked.

“Hmm... No, I'm busy at the moment,” I answered straight up.

Sylph pulls out a chair next to me and sits.

“What ever you have to say, please keep it low. You know I can get suspended from using the library again because of you.”

“Trust me, I don't even wanna waste time with someone like you.”

“Then, don't waste it,” I replied, harshly.

An astonished expression appears on her face on my sudden outburst. I'm even surprised myself. Why am I behaving this way anyway?

“Anyway,... I'm here because of Luke,” She said.

“What happened to him?”

“I came to ask if you're still coming for the party.”

“What party?”

“Are you that forgetful? I literally sent you an email about it.”

“Really?”

I grabbed my phone from the table and checked my emails. It turns out that she did sent me an invite to Abigail's birthday party. However, she didn't even tell me about it, or did she?

“So, I want you to see this as an opportunity to show Abigail and I that you're worthy of being one of us,” she said.

“Okay, so why are you trying to convince me to come over for a party—” I look through the email again, “... that'll last for two days?”

“I'm not trying to convince you. I'm saying that Luke would like someone who's gonna–”

“... be his errand girl, right?” I asked. “Look, it seems you don't still get it. I'll make it clear for you.”

“What?”

“I'm not gonna be like you anymore, I'm done being like you– a pathetic errand girl.”

“What did you just call me?”

“Isn't it obvious? I mean, Luke couldn't come ask me out himself, instead he sent you to go bring him someone. Besides, I dated Luke, which will never happen, you'd become... my errand girl too,” I said.

Sylph clenches her fist while rising from the chair with an expression of annoyance on her face as she turns her back, wanting to storm out.

I stopped her, “Oh, Sylph, put this book in that shelf for me,” I said with a smirk on my face.

She groans in anger and finally storms out.