5Jaymini ran her hand over the small cut in her palm, wincing slightly at the pain achieved from the act. "Does it hurt?" Andrew asked, taking her hand in his.
Looking back down at it, she sighed, shaking her head. "Nawh, not that much. I don't think I can keep this up. One whole week-one whole week!" She repeated her words, stressing them harder as she pulled her hand back to her side.
"Aw, it's not that bad," Andrew said, looking down at his own incision in the heart of his palm.
"Yes it is," Jaymini turned to Andrew, her black hair falling over her round shoulder. "It's not going to work. You know that, and I know that." Andrew paused, shrugging his shoulders slowly.
"No, probably not, but doesn't it make you seem interesting?"
Jaymini sighed, picking up the still wrapped burger in her lap. "Interesting? What are you talkin' about?" She ripped the paper off, biting down hard into the sandwich.
"You know, when someone asks you where the cut comes from, what do you say?" Jaymini swallowed the small sample of burger, staring at Andrew intently.
"You're crazy."
"No, listen; someone asked me where mine came from and I said I was trying to call forth a spirit to kill him in his sleep," Andrew's loud laugh filled the small compacted space of the car the two sat in. "Dumb bitch actually believed me."
Jaymini snickered, taking another bite of the grilled dead cow. "Yeah, you can create some scares with it, but I'm not that type," she reached out for her cup in the cup holder, looking out the window at the passing students. They trudged along the sidewalk outside, dragging their feet and backpacks, obvious still in need of sleep. "Got damn it's early," she sighed, sipping the liquid in her cup through it's straw. "Hopefully all I need is two more days of this help in the morning, and then I'm alright," she turned to Andrew, sitting in his seat sullenly. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothin'." he looked out the window, blinking slowly.
Jaymini frowned, finishing up her burger before sipping on her drink again. "Alright, well, how many more days do you need?"
"Not many, I'm understanding some shit better, so I'll probably hook up with a kid from class and get some extra help from them."
Jaymini nodded, looking out at the world outside. "Well, let's go." She turned the ignition to the car, revving it gently before she stepped on the gas, driving off the campus.
~(*)~(*)~
"Now pass it around," Angel instructed, handing the bowl of recently drawn blood around, her left hand lay on her knee, palm up with the blood slowly seeping out the wound. She handed the small kitchen knife to Jaymini, who took it with a slight look of disgust on her face. Holding the knife firmly in her right hand, she held it over the healing scab on her left hand, putting the point of the knife down on it softly. She grimaced, letting out a small whine of pain as she pressed down hard, reopening her cut. Forcing the knife's point down, she dragged it down the small cut in her hand, a tear sliding down the soft curve of her cheek as she did so. She held her hand over the bowl, watching the thick blood fall down her arm. "Hold it there for a minute," Angel said again, watching on silently as the rest of her friends were.
Jaymini sniffed, flipping her hair slightly as she passed the bowl onto Andrew, who took the utensils with the same carefulness. "I swear to God this is the last time, Angel," Jaymini mumbled, staring down at her sliced hand, watching her blood bubble up on her palm.
"Okay, if nothing happens now, then I'll just drop it," Angel whispered back, motioning Andrew to pass the bowl and knife onto Greg, and then he to Danielle. "C'mon everybody, dip your hands in the blood and help me draw the star," Angel smiled, becoming eager as anticipation raced through her veins. Everyone dipped the fingers of their left palm into the small pool of blood created in the depression of the bowl. The blood clawed at their fingers, sticking to the tips as their hands pulled away slightly, only to be moved along the ground in a slow rhythmic way.
First, the diagonals of the stars, then the points, this being the part that held the most of their blood. Then the circle; it was a small thin line, barely visible as their small supply of blood began to meet it's end. Angel ran her fingers around the inside of the bowl, drawing them across the bare flesh of her arms to make more similar symbols of the star and it's infamous markings. Jaymini glanced at Danielle uncertainly, then to Greg whom held the same look of confusion as she.
"Alright, now the chant," Angel began reciting the words she had committed to memory, them being slurred and thick with a seemingly imaginary accent she had picked up only for this occasion.
Jaymini glanced at Andrew, frowning slightly as she saw him close his eyes, participating with the rest of the group at they recited the words prepared by their friend. She looked around the room in the near darkness, the faces of her friends only visible by the flames of the ten candles situated throughout the large room. Furniture had been moved to the side to perform this act on the hard wood floor of the flat. A surge of pain ran throughout her body, causing her to turn towards its source: Andrew. He pulled his hand back from having pinched her bare flesh hard, mouthing words to her, glaring at her hard before he closed his eyes, joining the others with their chant.
Jaymini scowled, closing her eyes slowly, starting in on the deep chat. "Un moi tes pout deux suit uni. Un moi tes pout deux suit uni..." their words continued on, slurred together as they had been instructed by Angel into the dead of the darkness around them. Seconds passed, and then minutes, then an hour.
Angel dropped her hands, sighing loudly as she sat up from her doubled position. "Alright guys, I think we can stop. This isn't working," she sighed, obviously distressed about her defeat.
"Oh it's okay," Danielle said, picking up on her gloomy voice. She stood, walking over to her side with Greg at her heels.
"Yeah well," Jaymini stood up quickly, holding her blood caked hand in her right palm while she walked towards the bathroom, her socks gliding gently over the glossy wood, "this was fun, too bad it didn't work." Pushing the bathroom's door open, she walked in, flipping on the light with her good hand while she proceeded to turn on the water, calculating its heat with the tip of her fingers.
"Jeez, Jaymini, you can at least show some type of concern." Jaymini looked up, seeing Andrew standing in back of her, closing the door slowly.
She sighed heavily, turning back to the sink as she placed her hand under the running water slowly. "I'm sorry, but I just don't believe in this type of shit, and neither should she."
Andrew joined her at the sink, placing his hand under the running water as well. "She told me she didn't believe in it, that it was just research for her report. You know, some people might be interested to know about Satanism."
"Yeah well, I'm not," Jaymini kept her answers short, grabbing the green bar of soap to run over her hands. "I think she's just going a bit far with it. I mean, I understand that she needs some liable research and whatnot, but conducting séances and shit just to see what will happen?" Jaymini swept the bar of soap over her cut madly, wincing slightly. "That just doesn't seem right. She's getting too happy about this kind of crap."
Andrew shrugged his shoulders, taking the soap into his hands. "So she can't get happy about learning something new about a religion? Jesus Jaymini, just give her a break-."
"She does have a break, Andrew," Jaymini pressed her lips together hard. "All I'm saying is that I really don't think this is just for her essay anymore. Most people just get the bare minimum and do their shit with that, but her? Oh no, she has to go buy their Bible and read some of their books. That just doesn't seem right." Jaymini turned around, taking the towel handing on the rack to dab at her sore hand.
Moving in front of the sink, Andrew continued to rinse his hands off, watching Jaymini through the mirror. "She did that?"
"Of course," Jaymini turned around, walking back over to the counter, both of her hands carefully dried. "Why? Is that not what she told you?"
"Well." Andrew shrugged, moving to dry his hands as well, "she didn't tell me all of that, but she I think I do recall her mentioning something like reading into it more than using just the sites off the internet."
Jaymini sighed heavily, hopping up onto the sink's counter while she watched Andrew. "If you ask me, I think she's gone mad. You should have heard her the other day. She came up to me all excited about how she found out who created it, some man named Anton Szandor LaVey, some shit like that. She's like 'Oh I found out that he was born in Chicago and then moved to California around April or May,'" Jaymini mimicked Angel's voice, stopping as she shook her head in disgust.
Turning around, Andrew walked back to the sink, leaning against Jaymini's knees. "So she's finding out a bit about the man and his life, I don't see anything wrong with that."
"Well I do, it just doesn't seem right. She's been walking around with this stupid little pad of hers in the library, jotting down shit and whatnot, making observations and comparisons and shit," Jaymini sighed heavily again, sliding off the counter. "Oh, now listen to this. She said something like these Satanist people having rules and shit they have to "adhere" by," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. "They're so stupid. I remember one being some shit like do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food," she looked at Andrew, the air about her being sardonic. "Now tell me that isn't some stupid shit."
"Well if that's what the religion goes by." Andrew mumbled, attempting feebly to justify Angel.
"No, that's not the point, it's what she's making of all this that's scaring me," Jaymini crossed her arms as she stood erect against the sink, staring at the wall ahead of her.
"And that would be what?" Andrew moved over to her side, their arms brushed together lightly but neither of them moved away.
"Nothing really, it just seems to me like she making up reasons why being a Satanist has its benefits. Like getting vengeance instead of turning the other cheek, or Satan representing indulgence instead of abstinence."
"What about this stuff?"
"Nothing, she's just saying that Satanism is more like the religion for man in general. Then she went even further and said, why be a Christian and spend your whole life making mistakes, only to pray to a man that you're supposedly not worthy of to have him forgive you of them, only so you can come back later and do it again. She's like, with Satanism, it's not like that, you're yourself and only yourself. If you make mistakes, does it matter? No, because it's okay to make them, and all this other shit," Jaymini frowned, looking down at the cut in her palm. "And now this. What did she say she was trying to do? Get in touch with something? She wouldn't even tell us-." She stopped as Andrew placed his arm around her, patting her back slowly.
"What?" He looked at her, innocence in his eyes, "I can't just pat your back?" He smiled as he saw the corners of Jaymini's mouth twitch up.
"Yeah sure, whatever," she sighed, looking forward again.
"Listen, I think you need to just give it a rest, I what if she didn't tell us what she was doing, I'm sure she's responsible enough not to do anything stupid," Andrew ran his hand down Jaymini's back, bringing it back up in a circular motion. Leaning into his chest, Jaymini closed her eyes, sighing deeply.
"That feels good," she moaned again, lifting her head up slightly. She stared into his hazel eyes, blinking softly before she laid her head back on her shoulder, soaking up the silence. "You like me, don't you?" She asked finally, lifting her head back up to his. She grinned as she saw him fail to answer. Pulling back, she laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder to lie on top of her chest. "Ah, it's okay," she leaned into him again, inhaling his scent of freshly washed clothes, "I won't tell anybody."
Andrew smiled slightly, "Good, 'cause Greg thinks you're a dyke."
Jaymini laughed, nestling closer to him. "Everyone thinks I'm a dyke," she said playfully. They sighed, leaning back into each other subconsciously. "Hey," she looked back up at him slowly, waiting for their eyes to meet.
"Yeah?"
"How come you never told me before?" She frowned, watching him as he struggled for an answer, finally resulting in him just shrugging his shoulders.
"I dunno." he glanced at her, then down to the ground. "I didn't really think you'd like someone like me," he remained finding his interest among the ground, biting his bottom lip gently. "Plus, you did kinda' tell me you were a lesbian, maybe that had something to do with it?"
Jaymini chuckled, pulling away from him slightly. "Yeah, I suppose." She shrugged after pondering moments to herself. "Well it doesn't really matter now, does it?"
"What do you mean?"
She shrugged again, looking towards him. "I've always had a bit of a crush on you...take that piece of information and do whatever you want with it," she then crossed her arms, looking straight ahead.
Andrew paused, leaning against the bathroom's counter, thinking quietly to himself. "Well, I would like to go out with you.I mean, it's pretty obvious."
"Hey," there was a knock on the door, "You two still in there?"
Jaymini and Andrew looked towards the door as the sound of Danielle's voice entered their ears. "Yeah," they both answered, uncertainly.
"What do you want?" Jaymini asked? "We're still washing our hands."
"Yeah," Andrew grinned, having thrown in his two cents.
"Yeah whatever, listen, I'm leaving now to go to the store and Greg's in the room, make sure he doesn't smoke anything in there okay? You know how I don't like the smell of that stuff," she paused, waiting for an answer. "Hello?"
"We're here, just drying our hands. Um, sure, alright, what's Angel doing?"
"I donno, don't ask me. Something weird. I'm gonna go okay? Make sure he doesn't smoke in my bed."
"Is she gone?" Andrew asked, leaning towards the door slowly.
"I think, listen," Jaymini paused, straining her ears, "I think that's her car," she moved closer to Andrew. "Sssooo," she grinned, laughing lightly, "where were we?"