// Chapter nine //

Serabi was stunned when Ashton had helped in the hallway. She expected he would ignore her for the rest of the high school year like he had done for the past five years. Now she sat in an empty classroom, wondering if she was wrong for being hostile to him, he was just trying to apologise after all, yes?

She got up from the chair and walked in the empty halls to the cafeteria but she didn't get pass the doors when she saw Ashton and surrounding him was Jemma and her minions. She questioned in her head what they were doing with him, that wasn't even the "popular" table.

Serabi reasoned that walking over to him first would be a good idea but stopped once more and didn't proceed further when she saw Jemma's long arm reach up and touched Ashton's arm. She should have moved, she shouldn't have stayed still and she shouldn't have let him see her.

She walked back and found an empty classroom. She wasn't sure if it was the same classroom that she was in, all the classrooms looked the same and were only differentiated by the teachers and number on the door; which she didn't take note of for the last one.

The last bell rang and that was her cue to get to class. She stood up and joined the busy hallway. A jock had bumped into her shoulders and he didn't even say sorry or turn back at least. She felt like an ant among roaches or a small fish in a big pond. She didn't bother to call him back to apologise, she just walked into her English class which was her favorite class at the moment.

The bell rang again for the last time and everyone picked up their backpacks, slung them over their shoulders and walked out the door not really paying much attention as the English teacher yelled and reminded the class to study the next chapter before hand.

"Serabi? Is that you dear?" Kelly her mother asked from the kitchen.

"Yes mom." Serabi said.

"Could you come help me in the kitchen?" Serabi sighed. She didn't need one of her mother's bring-you-back-to-the-world. Serabi didn't give her mom an answer, that alone was enough of an answer. She made it upstairs to her room, dumped her bag by the door and fell back on her bed.

                  _______________

"Come Serabi, come join me." Adrian looked at her. She walked over to him and sat on the wooden beach chair beside him. "What do you think of this water, Serabi?" Adrian's gaze on the stilled blue water that the sun shone over.

"What do I think of it?" She looked at him puzzled.

"Yes." He affirmed his question. "Do you think because it's still, it doesn't have life and do you think because this beach is quiet, it's dead?" He removed his eyes from the water and looked into her brown eyes that were similar to his.

It didn't take her anything to know he referred to her as the water and beach. She didn't reply though.

I always love her talks with Adrian. In case of confusion, yes, Adrian is her dead brother. Yes, she does talk to him. But it's all in her head. She imagines herself talking with him because he was one of the few people in her life that got her.