Page 5 of Degradation
But what the hell do I know? I thought lots of things that have turned out to be rubbish...bullshit.
Maybe Stoke was right. Maybe I am safer in The Heath. Maybe John and my mom were right to put me in there and leave me.
‘Hey, it’s okay.’ Mich takes a step toward me, and I take two backward down the hall, my eyes darting from Mich’s face to Travis’.
‘It’s okay,’ Mich says again, his hands coming up like in the movies to show me he’s unarmed.
‘Call Lu,’ he mutters to Travis who rolls his eyes.
Even I can tell that the second boy is annoyed.
‘Fine,’ he mutters, taking out his phone, and then he raises it up as if to take a picture of me.
I flinch away.
‘Nope,’ Mich says, putting his hand in front of the lens. ‘Don’t you fucking dare.’
‘It’s only to send to Lu,’ he says with wide-eyed innocence.
‘Bull. I know you Trav. Just call Lu.’
I lean against the wall and close my eyes.
They’re calling Lu.
They’re calling Lu.
‘It’s just going to voicemail. Her phone’s probably dead.’
Shit.
‘Daisy.’
I open my eyes and focus on Mich.
‘We can’t get in touch with Lu,’ he says very clearly, gesturing at her door. ‘But you shouldn’t stay out here like this. You don’t want to pass out in the hallway, okay? It’s dangerous. Come inside and you can wait for her with us, okay? We’ll figure this out.’
They think I’ve been drinking. Does it still count if it was forced down my throat?
I shake my head, but I limp forward and enter their room. The walls are a tired yellowish color and there are two single beds on opposite sides of the wall with a clear line of ownership between one side of the dorm and the other. Mich’s is tidy for the most part whereas Travis hasstuffpretty much all over the place.
Mich points to a bed and I sit down, grateful to be off my injured foot.
‘Why are we bothering doing this?’ Travis mutters from across the room where he’s sitting in front of his computer, his face bathed in blue light from the screen.
‘What?’ Mich asks.
‘She’s just an inebriated sorority ho who got separated from the herd. I thought we were going to Jordan's to start the campaign, not babysitting some dumb, drunk chick.’
I open my mouth to tell him I’m not drunk, but all that comes out is a soft groan that makes him sneer in my general direction.
‘Ignore him,’ Mich says to me and turns to his friend. ‘You’re just sore because she killed you in battle the other day and Keith called you out in front of everyone when you were trying to pretend it didn’t happen.’
Travis snorts loudly. ‘Shedidn’tkill me. I tripped!’
‘Whatever, man.’ Mich rolls his eyes. ‘Either way, I wasn’t raised to just leave disoriented girls alone when they could get hurt.’
Travis makes a derisive sound. ‘Seriously? Whatever happened to her tonight, she brought it on herself.’
