I jump from a dream that I can’t quite remember. I hide the dog in my bag- pets aren’t allowed- and open the door. It’s the landlord.
“What do you want, Randy.” I say while rubbing my eyes.
“I want you out. You have five minutes.”
"It's only been three days. You say I would have fourteen."
"I need the room." He replies bluntly.
“Well goodie.” I turn to grab my bag, purposely covering Randy’s sight of it as I shove Rogue back in. I put my blanket in after, making sure not to suffocate the dog, and zip it up. I slip on my shoes and saunter out the front door, still a little hazy from waking so abruptly.
“Jesus, Randy. You should ease up a bit. Maybe remove that stick from your butt? I think it would majorly improve your attitude.” I look back to see Randy’s face stunned, his jaw practically on the ground. I smirk, but that falls off my face shortly as I see his hands close into fists. Only then do my survival instincts kick in.
I run.
He’s not far behind me. I sprint down the hall and I turn a left into the lobby. I’m lucky I’m such a fast runner and he’s such a slow one. Quickly his breathing begins to louden and he slows. I push through the smudged glass door and dash to the crosswalk. As soon as there’s an opening in cars, I make a run for it and, fortunately, make it to the other side without being flattened by oncoming traffic. I make it to the alley and glance quickly behind me. He’s stuck at the crosswalk. The grin returns to my face as I spot my skateboard.
My skateboard!
I left it when I went to find the boy. I go to grab it and hop on. This way I can go two times as fast and not get as tired.
I head to the corner store, as it’s the only place I can think of that I might be able to hide in.
Once I get there, Ash smiles.
“Back so soon? You know you can’t get enough of this striking hunk-a-hunk-a.” He pulls a totally staged smile and flexes his non-existent biceps. He seems to be over the events of yesterday, or most likely pretending to be.
“Yeah, yeah. Shut up. Did you think of that all morning?”
“Maybe. Listen I wanna-” Before he can say anything, I drop my bag gently to the ground and shove it against the wall of the inside. I grab him and hide us behind the beanbag, covering us with the blanket that was wadded up on it. When I’m sure we’re decently covered, I settle beside Ash and realize I’m only a few inches away from his face. He freezes, and I jerk backward, banging my head against the concrete wall.
“Are you okay?” He grasps the back of my hair and I stare at him. Suddenly, I’m the frozen one.
“Oh I’m- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” he sighs, “So, what’s up.” I’m thankful for the change of subject.
“Um… Right. So my landlord is kind of chasing me down and I don’t think he’s very happy.”
“Jesus,” he laughs, “What did you do?”
“I just spoke my mind. I don’t know why he got so mad.” I look down and twiddle my thumbs.
“Dude, I have to hear this. What did you say?” He leans in and puts his elbow on his knee, propping up his chin.
“I just told him to remove the stick from his butt. I thought it was pretty funny but-”
“You said what?” He smiles and his eyes open wide.
“I said-”
“I heard what you said, idiot. You are so in trouble. Have you seen your landlord? He’s like the fat Hulk!” He laughs so hard he snorts and that makes a grin inch across my face.
“Ah, the lady smiles. Finally.” He looks down and starts ripping up a strip of paper. “So, guessing you don’t wanna talk about the… incident.”
“Which part.” I glance up and see he’s dropped the shredded paper and has fixed his eyes onto mine.
“All of it. Let's start with why you were covered in blood?” There’s worry in his voice, but he still sounds kind. I realize I never told him what really happened, and he never pressured me to.
“Right. Well the other day I met this guy.” I swallow. Why is it so hard to talk about it? I had intentionally avoided any thought of the boy, and I'd been so preoccupied with other matters that I didn't have the energy to cope.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve replaced me?” He says jokingly, but part of him I can see is really hoping that isn’t what happened.
“Are you stupid? No. He was like twelve, idiot. Well I think he was my cousin. And he died.” I pause to look up at his reaction. I can’t tell anything from his gaze. “Someone, I don’t know who, stabbed him and it killed him. I think they took his bread or something like that. I don’t know.” My voice cracks and he flinches, showing sympathy with the arch of his eyebrows.
“Wow. I'm sorry.” He lifts my head with his forefinger, and I have to think about breathing in slowly to calm my heart rate.
What is wrong with you? Calm down.
I slap his arm away.
“Um, okay?” He looks uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry. You tried to tell me something before but I stopped you, right?” I desperately try to pretend like nothing happened. He plays along.
“Oh. I was just gonna tell you that-” He gets cut off with a yell. Not a normal yell- a yell of anger. The yell of Randy, my landlord.
Uh oh.
I look at Ash with big eyes and slap my hand over his mouth. I remove them once he’s stopped talking and mouth shut up. I bend down and scoot closer to him, trying to make it look like nobody is here. I’m practically in his lap when I look up and see him looking directly at me. He blinks and I can see he’s plastered against the wall, obviously very uncomfortable this close to me. I back up a little, but only an inch.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Randy growls. I can hear the stomps of his feet. “You know, you really hurt my feelings back there. Just come out, we can talk about this.” He laughs and I know he doesn't just want to talk. I hear his footing slow.
What is he doing?
I have no time to react because as soon as I feel the beanbag start to move and hear Ash yell out, I go blind.
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