Hybrid

by Melissas Writings

  Someone threw cold water on my face, my eyes sprang open and I shrieked "What the hell?"

  I had slept late last night, after everything that had happened in the next room. I was replaying their conversation again and again. Nothing fruitful came out of it. There was no point in asking Sammy as he himself has not opened his mouth about the meeting. So I decided that I will ask my dad about all these people and the part of the conversation that I understood. He might shed some light on the weird conversation.

  Cold water was still dribbling down my face. Not only he disturbed me in my dreamland, but also spoiled my nightdress. How can someone torture a young girl like this? There are so many better ways of waking someone up.

  Zach looked impassively at me "Get ready in ten minutes."

  "There are other ways also to wake someone up." I yelled at him.

  I am not going to back up today. Ashley, remember the not word.

  My yelling also had no effect on him "10 minutes."he replied straight-faced and started walking towards the door.

  I screamed at him. "I have to wash my hair also. I will require roughly" I started calculating in my mind how much time It will take me for taking off my clothes, then pouring water, lathering soap on my body, shampoo on my head, then washing head, applying deep conditioner, then keeping my head in shower cap for ten minutes and in the meantime I will wash my body. Then with lukewarm water I will wash my hair. In the end I will rinse with cold water. Rest of the activities will take 7 minutes. "40 minutes for bathing."

  He turned and in the next second he was by my side. He lifted me up and took me to my bathroom.

  "What are you doing?"I squawked.

  "Teaching you a fucking lesson." he replied nonchalantly and dropped me in the bath tub. He turned on the handheld shower and directed its nozzle towards me. I raised my hand and tried to block the water spraying from the head. I was trying very hard to direct the spray head in the other direction. Zach clearly had an upper edge here as he was stronger than me.

  What did he eat to have so much muscle power? I think I should ask him or better yet steal his food. I was trying to figure out many things at once. Like his diet, calorie intake and the amount of time he must be spending in gym.

  By the time I got out of my reverie, he had already rubbed the soap all over my body and hair.

  "I do not use soap on my hair."I yelled angrily.

  I mentally apologized to my hair on his behalf.

  He started spraying water on my body.

  Answer me Jerk, and then you can get back to torturing my hair and body.

  I looked at myself and realized I had my clothes on.

  "Zach, I have my clothes on."I informed him without yelling. He might reply if I talk to him nicely.

  He was so engrossed in lathering soap everywhere. It was like he was a man possessed by his mission. This was the first time when he raised his eyes and looked at me "Do you want to get naked in front of me baby?"

  His eyes were looking at me with such intensity that I didn't want to take my eyes off him. I was so fixated on his eyes that I didn't even hear what he said. So, naturally the first thing that came out of my mouth was "W-What?"

  His face inched towards me and my mouth flung open in amazement. He had a black mole near right eye. It was so pretty. I raised my hand and touched his mole with my index finger. In the very next moment, he raised his hand and lowered my hand and his mouth was next to my ear.

  hYBrID X

  The first thing that my eyes focused on was a young boy of my age sitting across the table. He had hazel eyes and he was wearing a blue shirt and jeans. He had a chiseled jaw and he was crunching something so loud that my ears were hurting. Not literally, but it was loud.

  "How old are you?" he fired the first question as I moved towards him.

  "I am 14 years old."I replied

  He responded with a sigh. "Even replying just 14 would have been fine with me. One shouldn't waste one's energy in speaking unnecessary things when only one word is enough."

  I just nodded and picked five cashew waffles from the table and sat opposite to him. His eyes were following my every movement.

  If there is something on my face, you can tell me. It’s rude to stare like that.

  I had changed clothes so fast that had Simon been present here, he would have patted me on my back or awarded me with an icecream. I didn't even check whether I looked fine or not.

  "Your body size is?" he questioned me while his eyes ran through my body following each curve and halting at three points longer than five seconds.

  "I dunno. Is it important? " I mumbled, my mouth full of cashew waffles.

  His eyes then shifted from my mouth to my eyes."Come here and I will tell you how important it is."

  "Is that going to help me?"I raised this question; my tongue was savoring the waffle.

  There was a dreamy look on his face and he sighed "Man want a woman who have a figure and fills a dress with curves and a feminine form.” Then he looked at me and smiled wickedly “If I do not like it you can work on it. In fact it would be my pleasure to teach you a thing or two. How to become more lady like?"

  I stood up and walked towards him. If he could tell me, then there was nothing wrong with it. And then if I want to work with him or not that is a different matter altogether.

  He raised his hand and was about to touch my chest when a very angry voice bellowed from the doorway "Do not even think of touching her."

  I looked up and saw Zach standing there with his eyes glowing. I blinked and looked at him again to find his angry glowing orbs were directed on the person standing next to me.

  I blinked once again. And then the Glow was gone.

  I must be hallucinating.

  The guy got up and looked at Zach. "Do not raise your voice on me. You might have gained access to this areas every nook and corner in two months, but I know better. There is something off about you and I will make sure that these people also realize this fact sooner." He paused and then added."One more thing I want to make clear to you. She doesn't belong to you. She belongs to-"

  He was cut off when Sammy entered and looked annoyed with the scene unfolding in front of him. "Alex and Zach, do not fight in front of her."

  He had my mother's brown eyes and he was also tall like Zach. Even though he was 9 years older than me, he didn’t look his age.

  "I am not penny." I murmured referring to Alex's statement

  Their heads snapped towards me.

  "Who is Penny?" Alex asked

  Sammy replied "Penny is our dog."

  Alex frowned in confusion. "So why is she saying she is not penny."

  Zach growled in an obvious tone "because fuck!” Sam’s eyes snapped to Zach in warning but he continued “ - she thinks only dogs and cats can belong to someone."

  My head turned from Alex to Zach.

  He is definitely a mind reader. I wish he could pass me this ability of his so I could read my parents and brother's mind.

  Sammy then looked at both of them.

  It looked like they had changed their medium of talking.

  After some time he turned his head towards me and said "They were not comparing you to anyone. Zach here got little angry at Alex and as a result Alex said some words which he didn't even mean."

  "It is fine."I mumbled. It was not such a big deal.

  Sammy came towards me and slided the chair out . He gestured towards the chair and muttered "Sit down."

  I sat down on the chair and he took the chair next to me.

  "Ashley we have- I mean I have made one decision for you.” he grumbled

  “What?”I asked softly

  “You are going to attend public school from tomorrow." His eyes lit up when he mentioned that.

  My heart rejoiced on hearing that. It was like a dream come true for me. I always wanted that. I will have real friends with whom I can hang out. I could invite girls for staying at night. The possibilities were endless.

  My happi
ness was cut short as a face flashed and tears welled up in my eyes.

  "Do our parents know?"I asked blinking back the tears.

  "Not yet." he responded calmly

  Without asking their permission how can he even think of taking such a decision. Had he forgotten everything? Even the twenty page list. The first point of it was- Ashley is not allowed outside of our gate unless my parents or Sam is accompanying me.

  "They will never agree to this, Sammy. Have you forgotten the rules?" I questioned

  "I am aware of that. I want you to have a life." he mumbled almost instantly. Like he was prepared for them.

  Mumbling an answer was sure way of telling me that he is lying.

  "Why are you lying to me?"

  He uttered with a deep sigh "Tintin, why would I lie to you. You are my sweet little sis."he brought his hands towards me and hugged me in the sitting position. "I always wanted you to have a normal life. I wish I could have done something for you. Right now is the only chance you will ever get of having a normal life. Our parents are not here and by the time they will come back, I will make sure that they will not be able to withdraw you from the school."

  "Are you certain?"I asked ignoring the questions that were forming in my mind.

  "Yes, I am sure I will be able to convince both of them." he replied confidently

  Just the thought of school made me happy. I hugged my brother tightly and murmured "Thankyou. You have no idea how much this means to me."

  "I know tintin. I know." he responded

  He further added "One more thing I want to say. The crowd at this school is not good. You will need a boyfriend."

  "Why do I need a boy friend?"I asked

  "Sometimes boys tease girls. There should be someone there to protect you from those boys. That is why, I want you to have a boyfriend at all times when you are at School." he replied.

  "Who will want to be my boy friend? I don't know anyone." I informed truthfully.

  Sammy smiled for the first time, he didn’t look tired anymore.

  It was as if this conversation had gone exactly the way he wanted "Alex will be your boyfriend, tintin. He will take care of you."

  I had completely forgotten that we were not the only ones in the room. I looked around and saw Alex standing in one corner of the room and Zach was nowhere to be seen.

  It no longer mattered who was present here and who wasn't. What mattered was the fact that I was going to attend school for real.

  hYBrID XI

  "Can I ask you one question, Sammy?" I launched a question at Sammy who was multi-tasking. He was sitting in front of the laptop. With his right hand he was gulping coffee down his throat and his left hand was busy in texting someone. He wasn't even looking at his cell while texting. It seemed like he had memorised the keypad of his mobile. His eyes were focused on laptop moving from left to right across the screen.

  After breakfast Sammy got a call from someone and he excused himself and went outside. After 20 minutes he came inside and I followed him to his room as I had nothing to do there. I had finished talking to Lily, who had arrived an hour ago.

  Now, I was sitting on his bed, while Lily, had cleaned his room and left.

  "Hmmm" he responded unenthusiastically.

  "Sammy?" I said imploringly.

  I wanted his full attention for this. So much had changed in the past few years. Last time when I came here, he was busy most of the time. Our conversation hardly ever exceeded 10 sentences at a time.

  I get that he is busy, but he should take out some time for his sister also. But, This time I will make sure he stays here until he starts talking the way siblings do.

  He looked up, while his left hand closed the cover of the laptop "Yes, tintin? You have my full attention."

  Yay! finally!

  His phone beeped. He quickly read it and added "I am informing you in advance that I have to go somewhere at half past 11."

  There goes my yay!.

  "Sammy, What are you going through in the laptop. Is the company in crisis?"I asked.

  I knew almost nothing about the company in which my brother was working. I was not even sure whether he and Dad were working in the same company. From what I had gathered over the years was that dad was involved in a huge project which required him to travel all over the world.

  A trace of smile played across Sammy's lips. He shook his head in a no."Dad has sent me some information, which I have to verify and send it back to him. There is nothing for you to worry about."

  His answer raised several questions in my mind "What data is this? Are you involved with dad in his current project? From where will you verify this? If you are unable to verify, then who will do it?"

  "This data is about the money spent by various people at various places all across the world. Referring to your second question. Yes, I am involved with dad on his current project. I know a lot of people across our continent. So I will check only the data corresponding to them. Lastly, If I am unable to verify it, then Zach will help me." he replied calmly.

  No one can be better than my brother. "He will help you how?"

  Sammy mulled over my question for several seconds. "Zach knows a lot about everyone in this continent. He has eidetic memory. He is really good at lot of things. His only weakness is that he is short tempered." Besides the empty look that he had reserved especially for me. I had also noticed that here he was masking it with a permanent scowl on his face.

  Or may be I imagined it.

  But I have to agree that he gets angry pretty fast. "I agree with you brother. He gave me bath ju-"

  Sammy cut me off in between and his eyes looked thunderous as he asked "He did what?"

  "He gave me bath just to prove that one can finish bathing in 10 minutes. He didn’t even let me shed my clothes. My hair has also become dry and rough, which is a constant reminder of the agony it went through. He really is a Jerk. But there is no point in recalling it now. What's done is done." I recited unhappily.

  Punish him brother. My heart went all giddy at this thought.

  My answer seemed to have a calming effect on him. "It sounds like him. You shouldn't have talked back to him. One more thing, you are not going to let him touch you." he ordered little raspingly.

  "I didn't give him my permission to touch me."I replied in a defensive tone.

  "He won't do that again. I will talk to him." he toned down his tone.

  "Okay." I responded happily.

  This was not the first time he did something of this sort. When I was with Simon, then also he picked me up and dumped me in the seat. I think this is his favorite past time activity- Pick up and dump young girls.

  "Can I get back to my work. It seems that your questions are over?" he asked in a teasing tone

  "Not yet. Dad trusts him so much that he sent him to pick me up?" I probed

  "Yes." he answered.

  That's it."Why?"

  His face grew sad "His parents and our parents were best friends during school. They died last year. Dad thought it was his responsibility to look after his friend's son. He arrived here two months ago."

  This is the reason why Zach didn't reply? Had I known, that his parents are not alive, I would have never raised that question. I only asked because I wanted to know the basis of the faith that my parents have in him. They only trusted me, with Simon, that too because there were guards and scanner at the gate. My parents clearly had trust issues.

  Why has Simon not called me yet?

  If I will start school here when will I meet Simon.

  "Sammy, when will I get to see Simon?"

  His face tensed and his body stilled.

  "Sammy, Are you okay?" I enquired

  Before he could respond, his phone started ringing.

  "Hello" he greeted quiescently.

  Pause

  "We have already decided on that. It will be functional from Monday." he replied again

  Pause

  His demeanor changed as his face got red.
"It doesn't matter who all are with you, we are not going to deviate from our plan."

  Pause

  "Give the phone back to Alex." he roared and his face got redder and redder.

  Pause

  He took several deep, shuddering breaths. His shoulders relaxed a little but his face became irritated "I will be there in five minutes. Hold them off till then."