Chapter 7

Grace was just lying on her bed and doing some ceiling gazing. There was this particular pattern of cracks in it that really resembled the sugar phosphate backbone of DNA. She must be losing it; Grace thought to herself and closed her eyes. Three hours of biochemistry tended to do that to anyone.

She turned her head towards her closed bedroom door and sighed. She couldn’t even get out of her room to get a snack from the fridge because of some asshole in the living room. She could still hear mumbled insults and accusations through the opaque door, things that sound like, “ungrateful brat…. Just like her mother…. Ugly mum-of-a-b**ch….”

Grace reached over to her table and turned up the volume of her CD player. Ahh…. Finally some peace and quiet. She took out her diary and began to write.

25th February Wednesday 4.30pm “Fucking awful”

Grace forgave herself for the occasional, well-deserved vulgarity.

[It started out as a beautiful morning. I woke up, fully refreshed and ready to study for the rest of the day. I was ultra productive, breezing through 2 tutorials and a lab report. Then I stopped for lunch, and from there everything went wrong. He came home, apparently having lost his job for the eighth time this year and started hurling insults at everything he saw.

You know, I’d give him credit for his 3-hour tirade if not for the fact that he lacked creativity in his choice of vocabulary. I mean, how interesting can “daughter-of-a-f*** tart” sound when you’ve heard it at least a hundred times? “f*** tart” sounds like a masculine noun anyway.

I really don’t have to put up with this. I think I’ll just go meet Angel earlier.]

Grace took a shower and left for Orchard road. She was an hour early and decided to just wait at the bus stop for Angel. Anything beats staying home and listening to bullshit.

And so Grace just sat there, unmoving, barely aware that her butt has gradually lost its sensation. Suddenly, a bout of violent coughing from somewhere behind her brought her senses back. She turned instinctively towards that alveoli-shattering cough and saw that the cougher was doubled over and trying to catch her breath. When she straightened up, Grace gasped.

“Angel! That ghastly cough was you?!” Grace rushed to Angel’s side and patted on her back.

“I’m ok, it’s just the rain yesterday you know,” Angel gave one hard sniff and rubbed her nose. She had always been susceptible to the common cold, and the recent weather didn’t help much with the sudden pourings.

“You should have told me and rested at home. I could get the present for you,” Grace shook her head in disapproval, “when will you learn to take care of yourself?”

“I’m fine really. Nobody dies from flu. And pneumonia doesn’t count,” Angel pre-empted Grace’s retort, “let’s just go get the wallet fast okay?”

That silly girl was going to be the death of her, Grace was sure of that. She was always putting herself last where her family was concerned. Angel definitely needs a boyfriend to take care of her, since she wouldn’t take care of herself.

“Did you at least see the doctor?” Grace asked, although she was sure of the answer already.

“Erm… well, you know that a good rest is all you need for a cold. There is really no need to see a doctor.”

“You could have at least gotten something for that hell of a cough!” Grace raised her voice a notch higher, with that increasing concern for her stubborn friend.

“Those syrups don’t do any good. And I’m too lazy to remember to take them,” Angel shrugged it off. It wasn’t like this was the first time he had a terrible cough. She’d live.

“Some day, Angel, you’re going to cough out a lung, and I will be there laughing my ass off,” Grace totally gave up. She wasn’t even sure why she had to always get to irritated.

Angel froze in her steps, “did you cross paths with your dad today?” she asked.

“How did you know?” once again, Grace marveled at how her friend displayed her psychic mind reading powers.

“Because you said ‘ass’. You never said anything vile unless you’re really pissed. And I can’t think of anyone else who could do that besides your dad,” Angel paused to consider if she should ask what happened.

“I see,” Grace said passively, “it’s no big deal, just the usual shit. But I don’t want to talk about it. Anyway, the wallet I saw was just around the corner.”

They made their way to the shop, paid for the wallet and Grace steered them towards the bus stop, “Now let’s get you home and you better rest well or else,” she admonished, “and I better see you get some cough syrup in school tomorrow.”

“We’ll see. My bus is here, I’ll see you in school tomorrow,” Angel ran towards the bus, which was a big mistake because the cough took over again.

Sleep. Plenty of sleep was what she needed now, Angel thought to herself as the bus started to move.

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