Chapter 5: Double life

When you get to university you realize that it was not what you thought when you were little, I used to play with my friends and even with children that I didn't even know, as I was growing up I also longed to be older to go to a university.

Maybe because it had the image of the typical university that movies sell you, with a very good atmosphere. But when you are in reality you realize that it was better to stay at the age of a child. As I grew older, there were also many things that would not happen again, maybe that's why I was a bit quiet, but after all, I liked the way it was.

Portland was a prestigious university where there were many students from different social as well as intellectual positions. It was a university with a colonial structure, which when you first arrived you could see how colossal it was, so much so that it gave the appearance of a castle.

When you walked through the main gate, you came across a lobby full of trophies from the many competitions that the different teams from the university had won and many titles of which the name of Max Stuart stood out. You went deeper and observed the huge corridors with classrooms on the sides, in the background were the soccer fields, tennis fields and swimming pools, cafeterias everywhere and many board games were appreciated. In short, it was a luxury university. I entered the classroom, I was a bit pensive.

Everything that was happening was affecting me psychologically and I was afraid of getting sick. I stood about six feet from the door, with student after student passing behind my back, at my sides to be exact. Immediately I felt a grip on my hip, I reacted in the same way as when your skin is pricked; it was Jinni.

"Where are you going to sit?"

I wanted new changes in me, so sitting in the back was not an option.

"I'll sit in the front row by the window," I replied. I walked to the desk, took my bag and put it on the floor next to me. The others were talking about how they had been on vacation all this time while I just waited for the teacher to arrive. Jinni sat in the middle of the classroom, she liked being in the group of boys who were popular and giving her opinion on the topic that was being discussed.

I turned my head sideways, the classroom was somewhat empty, I think it's normal for these things to happen. It is the second week of school and not everyone attends. Especially Max’s death. At that the professor arrived, a rather tall man, with properly fitted black pants, very polished brown shoes, a sash with zigzag engravings, his pink and white striped shirt, oval glasses, and a steely watch; he carried a leather briefcase in his right hand. He went to the desk, opened it, and took out a blank sheet of paper, closed the briefcase and placed it on the desk.

He goes to the board and with a marker he writes his name "Martín Myers" and his mail next to it.

"Good morning, young people, I'm your art teacher; As you can see, my name and email are reflected here in case you need help with the activities that we will carry out during the class. I want you to trust me as I also want to be your friend." He smiled at us. "On the sheet I have I want you to write down your full name and the way I can reach you, either your phone number or email. So you — he points to me — the girl in the front row — says.

I reacted and pointed to my chest in a mute questioning if it was me he was referring to.

"Yeah you; What, by the way, what's your name? "he asked me. I was somewhat surprised, I went back to see my classmates because I did not want to make a fool of myself when answering something as simple as my name, I noticed that everyone was watching me so I clarified my voice a little before answering.

"Nisha." My lower lip twitched.

"What a beautiful name you have," he complimented. I released my breath and was relieved not to hear a laugh in the classroom, at least that one came out well. "Nisha will turn the page to the one behind her and so on," he explained.

I took the sheet and wrote my name in italics adding my number, at the time the professor had introduced himself I did not find him an unpleasant guy. It was good to change the role of the hated teacher in the class. Time passed and I heard the ticking of the clock hand on the wall when suddenly the recess bell rang, I put my things away and took my bag to go eat a little.

Jinni was coming behind the group in the background, when she came to where she asked:

"Would you like to go try the food in the new cafeteria by the football field? They say they specialize in Chinese food."

I smiled sideways, raised an eyebrow and while wondering: Chinese food? I understand that they eat all kinds of animals and I don't want to risk my stomach health. "Jinni, are you sure that food won't hurt us?"

"Oh, Nish! don't be an extremist, it's just food and that's it —he huffed and then rolled his eyes.

"If you say so that's fine, but first of all I want to see the menu, okay?"

She nodded. We got ready to go to the new cafeteria that Jinni said, we were walking in the corridor and you could see the different classes that were being taught at that time, we went through a classroom where something like an orchestra practicing was heard, at that moment I I stopped for a bit to listen, but it didn't look good since everything was closed.

I went to the window and looked at one end, you could see something; it was actually an orchestra practicing. Jinni surely realized that I had stopped so she returned to me.

"What are you doing? I was talking to myself, Nisha! "She reproaches me.

"Shh shut up," I make a sign to her for she watch. She approaches the window, surprised. "What do you think?"I wanted to know.

"It just surprises me that Davis belongs to the orchestra, I thought he was only dedicated to sports," he replied.

"You shouldn't be surprised, usually these upper-class boys are taught everything from a young age to be able to be versatile."

"Anyway, let's walk because later we won't have much time to eat." She Take my hand and start walking a little quickly, Jinni always had the energy to do everything. We got to the cafeteria: it was full. We were watching where we would sit because the tables were already occupied, but in the distance there was one. I touched Jinni's shoulder, saying:

"There's a table over there, let's walk quickly before they occupy it." We walked around and put our bags on the seats waiting for the waiter to arrive to give us the menu. As I had imagined, on the menu were a variety of exotic meats, but there was also routine food. "I'll have pasta," I let him know.

"I want soup," she chose.

"Something to drink?" Asked the waiter.

"I prefer water," I answered.

"Bring me some tea."

We waited for our cymbals to be brought in, but in the meantime I remembered that Jinni hadn't been to Max's funeral and I had also noticed that you could tell how thin she was. So I asked him again:

"How is your mother's health?"

"My mom is fine, she actually brought me to college," she says, putting her lips in a single line. What she said seemed strange to me, since yesterday her mother was sick and she was already doing activities today, but I didn't want to question her, so I kept that to myself.

"Good for her and for you. I have felt a little strange about what happened with Max —I commented—I was not close friends with him, but when I entered college and looked at the trophies he had won with the team, it seemed incredible to me that he had made that decision.  What do you think?"

"Well... I think the same as everyone, right? He Killed himself and that's it, "he replied curtly. I noticed how Jinni had changed her mood when I asked her that, also I could see that her left foot did not stop moving up and down. Jinni was not like that.

"He also left a letter, it is said that there he explained why he made that decision, wouldn't you like to find out what that letter could say?" I asked her that other question. Jinni's anxiety was visible to the surface with the questions he was asking her and I did not understand why she was acting that way, if she has always been characterized by being cheerful.

"Come on Nisha, stop talking about Max and stuff, and he can rest in peace so that you can come and take the role of a detective," she replied rudely.

"Hey, I was just commenting on the things I was wondering about and how are you one of the few people I have as a friend, I wanted to tell you," I excused myself. I felt ugly how she had spoken to me, to be honest she had never spoken to me like that.

"I'm sorry, Nish, I shouldn't have answered you that way, will you forgive me?" Jinni looked tired, it showed in her expressions. So that's why I didn't put so much mind on her tone of voice.

"Sure, we've been through so much together, haven't we?" I smiled at her without grudges. Although sometimes I think that people took advantage of the certain humility that I could have.

Jinni got up from her seat and gave me a hug.

"Friends forever?"

Laughs a little. It's that Loren, she and I had that phrase since we were little: Friends forever. The three of us had made a pact never to part. But that had happened when we were barely ten years old. I took her from her hands. I heard vibrations coming from Jinni's bag, I assumed it was her cell phone.

"I think they're calling you."

She opens her bag, takes her cell phone, but doesn't answer right away. She watches him and then slowly slides her gaze to me. "It's mom," she smiles, narrowing her eyes. "Excuse me, Nisha, I'll have to answer."

"Sure, go and take your time."

The cutlery rattled on the other tables, I heard laughter in certain groups. I saw the waiter come avoiding colliding with the other people and in his hand he was carrying a tray with our dishes.

"Miss, have a good time." He puts the plate in front of me.

"Thank you," I smiled at him, "But... what about the drinks?" I asked graciously.

"Oh! Excuse me, I forgot. "He smiled nervously. "What happens is that it's my first day working here and I feel a little nervous."

"It's not a problem. Time passed and she looked at Jinni still on her call, pacing back and forth within the same boundary. I thought about going to tell her that the food was going to get cold, I got up and walked slowly towards where Jinni was, my feet were comfortable with the padded grass that the garden had. Jinni found herself leaning against the trunk of a tree, with her back to me and as I got closer she understood more than what she was talking about on the cell phone, but the sun also did its thing because from the position I was in, my shadow I was ahead of my body so Jinni turned around and when she saw me close she hung up and asked me:

"What are you doing here, Nisha? You were supposed to wait for me at the table."

"Yes, but what happens is that our plates have already arrived and I thought I would tell you to go eat, the food was getting cold" I pointed behind me towards the table. Now I noticed that Jinni was a bit annoyed for having gone to warn her, which I didn't find anything wrong with doing. The truth is that I was more confused than in the beginning. She just gave me a hug and now she’s mad at me. Maybe Jinni is bipolar, I thought.

"Nisha, I'll leave you, my mother wants us to go to a family reunion, she will come by me shortly so I'm sorry, if you like you can pack the food that I left, take this money to pay for it" She stretched out her hand to give me money , but I refused.

"No, thanks. I will pay. Just be careful"maybe she noticed my bewilderment on my face. That is to say, she was not to endure Jinni's bipolarity. Despite being my friend, she wouldn't let her temper take out on me. No one has had a good morning since yesterday, she and many more must be dismayed by Max but that is no excuse. I just wanted to be nice to her because I had seen her bad since morning.

"Okay." We headed to the table, she took her things and left. As soon as Jinni left I also took my bag, I left some money equivalent to the 2 dishes and the drinks, because I had accidentally heard Jinni say something that caught my attention on that call, something like: "I told you that I don't want any loose ends in this matter. " I walked at a distance from Jinni so that she would not realize that I was following her, I reached the main gate but Jinni had lost sight of me.

I was annoyed with myself for being a fool for having lost sight of her, until I spotted her climbing the steps at the exit. I ran stealthily to hide behind a public phone and a few minutes later a sports car with tinted windows parked in front of Jinni, this in turn sees something suspicious everywhere. She sure doesn't want me to see her, I thought. Well, that was not her mother's car as she had said.

Why would Jinni lie to me? Because her behavior is not the same, who would be in that car if it was not her mother? As she asked me those questions, my confidence was fading towards Jinni because she and I have known each other since kindergarten, well, I believed that until now because from what I just witnessed this girl has something hidden.

I looked at the cell phone and noticed that I was fifteen minutes late with my next class, I hurried back to the classroom because I knew what awaited me: to enter when everyone was already seated at their desks and then wait for the typical question from the teacher: why was you come late? So I was aware of what would happen, but I knew it would only be a moment and then it would pass.