Nora held out her phone so he could have a good look and replied, “This!”
His eyes widened immediately, and his lips curled into a snarl as well. He looked away from her cellphone to his and back again, wondering if they had played some form of trick on him. Naomi got up from her sleeping spot immediately to arm herself with her cellphone as well.
“It cannot be possible”, Darren muttered in disbelief.
Naomi shot him a bewildered and somewhat castigating look. “Did you spike out drinks?”
“Weed cannot make us sleep for an entire day, Naomi”, Nora cut through, even while she wanted to believe Daren wouldn’t do something of such.
Yet, there was no reasonable explanation as to why their time showed they were a day ahead after sleeping in on a Saturday night. The fact the watches were synced at Monday and with the exact time as that on the wall with its little digital calendar underneath the arms, brought nothing but absolute concern to their hearts.
“Did you have anything to do with this?” Nora turned to the one culprit capable of trying to play such a silly joke.
Daren looked lost, wearing his brows as low as possible and without the mischievous grin spread across his face. He looked from Naomi to Nora and back again, almost as if he wished Naomi would take his side. Nora could see he knew her friend had a thin for him, but that was going to be a subject for later.
“Is this some kind of pranks from you?” Naomi asked.
He yelled in response. ‘No! I was asleep just like you guys were and what will I gain from altering the clocks and calendar dates on your phones?”
It sounded childish and somewhat silly, but it definitely wasn’t beneath him, so she wasn’t about trusting him on it.
“Let’s just see what’s going on outside before we beat up your ass for your silly jokes”, Nora shot him a stern look.
She watched him frown, before covering himself with his duvet once again. She walked to the door, waited to listen for footsteps from her flat mates, before slowly unlocking the door and peering her head outside.
“I’ll be damned”, Nora whispered before turning back.
Naomi got to her feet and blinked intermittently while she awaited her friend’s words.
“We slept for an entire day”, Nora noted.
Naomi gasped, turned to look at Daren who hurriedly shoved off the duvet from his head.
“Shit!” he mumbled. “I seriously did not spike your meals or even take that much weed to oversleep”.
Surprisingly, Nora believed him, but in doing so, it left her with the debacle of what had happened and how they could have slept for an entire day without knowing.
“How sure are you?” Naomi asked for proof.
Nora nodded her head, sighed tenderly, and slowly opened the front door to crouch low and pick up something those in the room could not make light of. She turned around and held the object she had retrieved out, displaying a currently delivered newspaper with the day clearly printed out as “Monday” on the top right corner of its front page, while it bore the accurate date their phones carried.
“I slept for a whole day!” Naomi gasped. “My mom is so going to fucking kill me!”
She looked around the room for her things, and began stuffing them into her bag without care for the order. Daren and Nora watched on without uttering a word as the paranoid looking lady finally got through and rushed over to wrap her arms around Daren, before planting a peck on his cheek.
She walked over to meet with Nora as well, before wrapping her arms rightly around her. “Thanks for the sleepover… sorry about Daren”.
She pulled away slowly with a wink, before dashing to the door and exiting immediately. The air felt odd for the next few seconds, before Nora cast her gaze on Daren, who smirked back at her and winked.
“You need to leave too”, she muttered in warning.
“Why?” he shrugged and asked. “Don’t tell me you have some big mummy commitment issues too”.
Nora rubbed her temple softly and tried to nude off the headache she could feel was beginning to settle in.
“You have your last paper today, remember?” she replied.
Daren gasped, rolled out of the couch and to the ground, before hurrying back up on his feet.
“Shit! Why didn’t you mention that all along!?” he spoke in frightened tone.
Nora shrugged, smiled and fell into her bed. He hurried across the room to collect his shoes, before yanking his bag off of the couch and hurrying out of the room. His exam was due for twelve and getting there late would only compound his issues in ways he wouldn’t be able to handle.
“We’d meet later tonight!” he cried atop his voice before disappearing down the hallway.
She waved her hand and tucked her face into the pillow, hoping some degree of normalcy would return into her day and world in general. She closed her eyes, tossed around in her bed until she found herself the most soothing position with her pillow, before the loud thud on her door startled her and caused her to spring back into an upright position.
Nora motioned to speak but remained silent, while her lips trembled, and her eyes remained fixated on the door. The loud thud returned and in even louder manner, before an eerie silence followed. Something was on the other side of her door and from the shadow it cast which stretched into the room and stopped just a few feet from the table.
She felt her throat stiffen while she pondered on whether or not to speak and ask of who was at her door.
“Miss Nora Kareem!” a masculine tone called out from the other side.
Nora sighed in relief.
“I have a delivery for you”, the voice spoke again.
She hurried out of bed, feeling excited to get her package. Bare feet and jubilant, she yanked open the door to the
