The Seven Kings of Jinn
Blushing, Ari looked at the floor, unable to meet his eyes as she replied, “You don’t look at me like you want to be just friends, Nick.”
“That’s because I don’t. I want more.”
“Then we shouldn’t hang out. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
“I know where you stand. I do. I can be friends with you without making you uncomfortable. Just… give me a chance. Please?”
Feeling bad, Ari grimaced. “Nick, I want to hang out with you this summer, but I can’t if you keep saying things like ‘I want more’.”
He laughed and pushed away from the counter. “Okay. I won’t. I swear.”
“Do you know how many girls would kill for you to say that to them? You should be in that living room, talking to one of them.”
He shook his head. “I want someone special. I’ll wait for her. And while I’m waiting, I want to hang out with my friend Ari.”
Flattered, despite it all, that he thought her so special, Ari stood up, pulling a fresh beer out of the refrigerator for him. “Come on,” she said, clinking their bottles together. “Let’s go get that Playstation turned back on.”
Nick and A.J. kept her mind off Charlie for the rest of the night with their antics. She laughed a lot with them, letting her worries disappear, as she spent one last night with all the kids she’d hung out with at high school for the last few years. The genie mysteriously disappeared an hour after his arrival, an hour before his booked time. Rachel was pissed because she’d paid to have him there for the two hours. Somehow, Staci talked her down. Personally, Ari was glad he had left. The guy gave her the creeps and as for the thing she’d wished for, she didn’t even want to think about that.
For a moment, when A.J. wasn’t cracking a joke, Charlie and the girl upstairs crossed her mind and the breath whooshed out of her body. So distracted by her emotions, she even let Nick put his arm around her shoulders as they all hung out. The party played out around her in a blur of movement and color. Words were spoken, hands touched, lips kissed a cheek. But none of it meant anything to her. She let it happen, glad for the distance between her mind and it.
It was late when people left. Rachel and Staci wanted to stay behind to clean up, but Ari just wanted everyone out. Maybe she was more like her dad than she thought, because all she wanted now was to be alone. She wanted silence. It took a lot of energy, and some pleading with Nick, but between the two of them, they persuaded Rache and Staci to leave. She hugged her friends as they stepped out into the cool night air and watched them throw themselves into the back seat of Staci’s dad’s car. God, she hoped they didn’t throw up. She shut the door.
Alone. At last.
Ari turned the lock on the door and strolled slowly to her living room. Paper cups, streamers, and wrapping paper littered every available space. Her gifts were scattered all over, some of them already broken. Drink spilled onto furniture, food crunched into the floor. Just the thought of cleaning it up exhausted her.
“I’ll do it in the morning,” she mumbled, turning for the stairs.
The strange events of the day buzzed in the background of her mind and echoed in raw pain in her chest, but exhaustion won out. Kicking off her shoes, Ari climbed into her huge bed with her jeans still on and collapsed against her pillow, sinking into the cold mattress.
Her eyes were just closing when she heard the creak of her door. Her heart spluttered and she looked up, squinting in the dark. “Ms. Maggie?” she whispered, watching as the dark shape of a person appeared in the doorway. “Who’s there?” She scrambled up into a sitting position, her heart pounding. An image of the creepy genie guy Rabir flashed across her eyes and she tried in her panic to remember where she’d put her baseball bat.
“Ari,” a familiar deep voice croaked and her eyes widened as the shape formed in the dark, moving closer to her bed.
“Charlie?”
He gazed down at her, his hair all over the place, his clothes in desperate need of an iron. Ari felt the ache in her chest spread when she took in the haunted look in his eyes. They glimmered with unshed tears, blazing with the agony of his grief. Ari felt the choking sensation in her throat and tried to breathe through it. Somehow, everything that had happened until that point disappeared and all Ari saw was the boy she loved, needing her. Silently, she moved over to make room for him, watching quietly as he climbed onto the bed and stretched out beside her. Charlie rested against the pillow and he turned on his side to meet her eyes. A tear slid down his cheek. He made a rough choking sound and his body shuddered with wracking sobs. Without making a sound, Ari slipped her hand across the comforter to grasp his. She felt his fingers curl around hers, squeezing tight. It was only when the sounds of his deep sobbing quieted and the echoes of them finally faded that Ari relaxed. She studied his chest as it stopped shuddering, easing in and out slowly as he slept. Assured slumber had momentarily eased his grief, Ari finally closed her eyes, letting her conscious do the same for her. Their hands anchored one to the other.