Brown Girl

Light A Fire.

"Alisha, wake up! Wake up!" Alex shook her, trying to get her to wake up.

She woke up with a start. She was trembling and sweat covered her as tears flew down her cheeks endlessly.

She looked at a worried Alex, the dream still fresh in her mind. It's been a while since she had that dream.

"I..." She choked out but didn't know what to say. She didn't want him to see her like that.

He didn't say anything but simply put his arms around her as she buried herself in his chest. He stroked her hair as she cried into him. God, she felt pathetic.

Kissing her on the head, he murmured. "It's going to be okay. It's all going to be okay. Everything's just fine."

He rocked her soothingly in an attempt to get her to stop shaking. She put her arms around him, in an attempt to calm herself down. She didn't even have to tell him to say that to her, he already understood.

"Alex, I-"

"No." He cut her off. "It's okay. You don't need to say anything right now."

He kept stroking her hair, placing kisses on her forehead, rubbing soothing circles on her back. She focused on the feel of his hands, his smell, his kisses and slowly, the dream faded, the memory became a blur.

She felt safe. So, she revelled in it. He did something that Karan also never could.

He took the dream away.

~

After a lot of convincing from Alisha's side that she was fine, Alex finally left. He was worried for her and she got that, but she was embarrassed about him having to see her in that state. She never lets her guard down around anyone, but Alex was different. She was always herself around him.

Her mother was sound asleep in her room after returning from an all-night shift. So, to clear her head, Alisha decided to go for a run. She used to run every morning back in India but that stopped as soon as she had an incident of a guy following her in the park and stalking her for days after that. Well, that was a lemon which took time to crush.

She collapsed on her street after running for a total of five miles. Trying to get her breathing even, she leaned against her knees. It's been a long time since she ran like that.

"You look like you stink." Alex's voice was heard. She looked up to see that she had collapsed a bit behind his house. He was standing on his porch with a bottle of water in his hand. He threw it at her and she caught it with ease, gulping it down in one go.

"Thanks." She muttered, sitting cross legged on the pavement.

He came towards her and sat in front of her, studying her intently. "Did you run like a hundred miles?"

"Five." She clarified.

"Same thing." He shrugged making her smile. There was a brief moment of silence between them.

"Look...about today morning-" she began.

"You don't owe me any explanation, niña." He shook his head, cutting her off.

She looked at him gratefully. "I feel like I need to give you one."

"Alisha," he began, pronouncing her name in that exotic accent of his. "You're obviously not ready to tell me any of it and so when the time is right and you feel like you can trust me...I'm always there for you."

She gave a genuine smile. "Just get back to porn and stop throwing around such mature philosophies."

He laughed. "Believe me, I'm trying."

~

Alex sighed as he plonked on his bed. The scene from today morning was playing over and over again in his mind.

He was woken up by Alisha shaking beside him. He opened his eyes to see tears leaking out of her clasped eyelids as her hands covered her body as if shielding it from something. As she began to scream, her hand automatically went to her mouth and the other clutched her stomach desperately, almost as if she was re-living an experience.

Her face twisted in pain, making Alex freak out. He tried his best to wake her up. He shook her, screamed for her to come back to him, but she was too far gone. He continued desperately, not able to take her in that state.

She kept screaming through her clamped down mouth, which tore him apart. After a million years, he shook her so hard that she woke up with start. She looked confused. She turned to look at him and he saw something in her eyes that made his heart ache...fear.

He instantly put his arms around her, soothing her and cutting off any need for her attempts to speak. He knew it wasn't any normal nightmare or dream. It was a memory. Something terrible and agonising had happened to her, and it was killing him to not know what it was.

It seemed so surreal to him. Just yesterday, he had a girl, he thought he knew, in his life who he desperately liked and knew for a fact that she liked him back and life seemed perfect. But today morning, he saw a side of her that he didn't know she had. He wasn't scared by it. He was worried by it. Worried what it was doing to her.

The reason he didn't ask her out yet is that he knows that there are things that he doesn't know about her and there are things that she doesn't know about him either.

~

Colin was fidgeting as he walked into the dark alleyway. His eyes were bloodshot red due to all the drug usage and his hands were trembling since he hadn't smoked a joint in couple of hours.

"Do you have it?" He huskily asked the man waiting for him at he end of the alley.

The man nodded and gave him a packet which had white powder in it and Colin slipped him the money.

"And the other thing?" He demanded roughly.

"You sure about that?" He asked cooly.

Colin could only manage a nod. The guy shrugged and slipped it out. After checking around for anyone watching them, Colin took it and slipped it in his bag.

He walked away, feeling more relieved than before, the weight of the gun in his backpack easing the heaviness in his chest.

~

The weekend passed by quickly. Saturday flew by and Alisha was glad everything was normal between her and Alex again. On Sunday, she tried to spend some time with her father but to no avail. It has been a long while since they have had a real conversation. Well, she gave it a try.

"My, my, chica." Alex whistled coming up behind her and placing a hand on the locker beside, leaning in, as she got her books out the locker. "Don't you look ravishing today?"

She turned with a raised eyebrow, her breath hitching at the lack of space between them. "So, I don't look ravishing any other day?"

He stumbled. "No, I didn't mean it like that! I just...forget it!"

She laughed. "Work on the flirting."

"Will do." He nodded, smiling.

"And use 'chica' more. It sounds sexy." She winked, walking away, leaving him with a goofy grin.

~

The second period had just ended. Alisha was walking with Mira to their lockers, while Mira gave her all the details about her date with Colt. Alisha was rolling her eyes at the cheesiness as they pushed the glass door to the hallway.

After that, everything for her occurred in slow motion.

She spotted Colin. He looked like s**t with his hair messed up and an unshaven beard on his face, standing in between the hallway glaring at the people passing by. He turned his head in her direction, looking her straight in the eyes, with hurt and anger swirling in his orbs.

He got the hand out that was hidden in his hoodie, raised and pointed his gun at her and fired.

-----------------------------