Chapter Eleven: "I'm Like A Chihuahua: Cute But Will Rip Your Eyes Out If I Want To."
HE NEVER CAME BACK.
I should have known this to begin with. He's an cocky ass, and it's a known fact that after the first encounter with someone, it's the last as well. Usually one look at me and people ran off.
I'm not hard on the eyesâor at least that's what I'm told.
In all honesty, to the general population, I'd be considered cute but not hot. I guess to deserve that 'hot' title I'd need to lose more weight and make more efforts regarding the beauty and fashion category, but one, I am too broke to even buy myself a chocolate bar from the dollar store since all my money is still American and my parents suspended my debit card, and two, I couldn't apply lipstick without smudging it over the crease of my lips for the life of me.
Not even for a million bucks.
Do you think I can manipulate the clerk with two nickels, a dime, a piece of gum and my breasts?
No?
Me either.
I'd never do that, anyway. I'm way too self-cautious with myself as it is, and flashing someone myâbarely thereâchest would just make it worse. Plus, that's just disgusting in all the wrong ways possible.
It's now around two in the morning, and I'm still tossing and turning; like I have been for the past four hours. My phone didn't help with anything since my friends would probably already be sleeping since it was a school night. Though, Justin may still be awake, given that it's only 11:00 p.m at home.
I reach over my too-big bed and grab my iPhone 6 off it. Punching in Justin's number, it rings about five times before his voice echoes through my speaker.
"JâMan here! If you got my voicemail, either I don't like you, or I'm sleeping. Depending on which one it is, you may or not get a phone call back! Leave a message. Beeeeeep."
I smile as I hear his voicemail and frown. I hang up without leaving a message, knowing he'll probably call me in the morning when he wakes up, or when he has a few minutes to spare. I sigh, and heave myself up off my bed. The sleeping pills I taken right after Landon left hadn't worked like I wanted, so when I thought I could finally get a decent night's sleep after suffering three weeks of insomnia at the prison, the joke's on me because I guess I still suffer from it.
I don't bother throwing on anything but a cardigan to keep me from getting cold. It's quite warm up here, but I just assumed it was because of the insulation. I noticed that my room is a lot warmer than it is once you reach my door, so I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.
I scratch my head with a yawn and stumble down the stairs, my eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness downstairs. I try my best to quieten my steps as I pass the first set of bedrooms, and I mentally high-five myself when I go unnoticed, since I usually sound like a herd of elephants running away from predators.
Going down the last pair of stairs, I gasp and mentally prepare my funeral as my socks slip off the wood and my whole body starts crashing down to the landing. Loudly, might I add.
I bite my lip so hard, I can literally feel the blood drawing and flowing down my throat as I try my best to hold in my screams. My arm and hip start hurting painfully, and it hurts to the point that I'm crying silently.
Note to self: don't wear socks on hardwood flooring at 2 a.m when it's dark and you don't know where you're going.
I feel like punching a wall once I glance down at my body, seeing my white cast split into two on the floor, and I can see how badly bruised and swollen my arm is. I cuss to myself in remembrance that I don't have any way of transportation to get to a hospital, and that I'm too young to even drive by myself anyways, even though I do it anyway.
Six more months until you can apply for your G2, Brooklyn. Six more months.
I try my best to stand up without using half my body, since the guaranteed bruise on my thigh is on the same side as my broken arm.
I don't notice the lights turn on until someone touches me and says, "Here, let me help."
I cuss in my head at how I probably woken up the whole house and ruined everyone's night. If I woke up one person, who's to think I didn't wake up the rest?
I wince and hiss as my thigh starts stinging badly once I stand fully. I bite my lip once more and spin around to see none other than Landon.
Wait.
I glance up at the boy in front of me, and I sigh. It's too dark for me to see who it is. Landon or Liam gives me worried eyes and a smirk as he stares at my hunched figure, and I tremble a bit. However, when he sees my face and how bad I am in pain, the smirk drops. He frowns as he brushes my broken arm the slightest, and that's when my pain-o-meter goes from a 5 to a soaring 100. I'm about to let out a scream when his hands cover my mouth and he keeps them there until I shut upâwhich a good five minutes after.
"Holy shit. Okay, come on," He whispers, pulling me along towards the living room. I look at him as he gently pulls me along, seeing that he's shirtless and in grey lounge pants. My eyes widen at how toned his body is, and I burn holes when I watch his muscles flex as he drags me. This guy, he has the body of a damned Sex God, and I am trying so hard not to drool right now.
No, scratch that. I would most definitely been drooling if it weren't for the fact that I'm silently balling my eyes out embarrassedly as a hot boy forces me to the front door.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Front door? Where the heck is this guy taking me?
Oh no. He's going to take me out to the woods to kill me. It's the perfect set: middle of nowhere, people aren't for miles, and everyone is sleeping. The girl is already injured and can't defend herself as well as she could if she was completely fine.
"Wâwhere are you taking me?" I whisper worriedly.
"To the hospital. Where else would I be taking you?" He asks, stopping for a moment to turn around and stare at me curiously.
"To slaughter me on the mountains." I reply in a 'duh' tone to try and lighten up the mood. After all, I did probably wake him from his slumber, and that's something everyone takes seriously and doesn't joke around about.
"You're funny, Blue." He grins.
It's Landon.
Landon shakes his head childishly and grabs out a set of keys from his pocket. Why he just majestically has keys in his pocket at 2:00 a.m is beyond me. I let him drag me outside where the wind is soft and the air is muggy. It's hot out, but cool enough where you can wear shorts comfortably without being too hot or too cold. It's when the light illuminating off the side of the barn that I remember he's driving me to the hospital shirtless.
"Don't you want to put a shirt on?" I ask him as we head to a truck and he opens the door and helps me in.
He smirks, closing the door and walking around to the other side. I grab hold of the seat belt and buckle it in; holding the strap like a stress ball. As much as I'm holding in a lot of my pain, I'm still crying, just without the very ugly sobbing. Landon pops out from the other side and hops in, turning on the engine; it revving to life before he speeds out of the long driveway onto the abandoned road.
"Why? Are my abs too much of a distraction for you?" He asks smugly after he catches me staring again. A blush rises to my cheeks and I tug on the seat belt more as the pain in my arm starts drastically increasing.
My breaths become short, and I'm stomping my feet against the floor of the truck, my head in between my legs as I curl up as best I can to help relieve the pain that isn't going to go away. I tune out Landon's worried voice as I let out sobs and scream in my mouth to do anything to make this pain go away.
Any time now my adrenaline can kick in.
Any time now.
I feel an arm rubbing circles on my back, its owner saying comforting words, though I'm not paying attention enough to understand what they are.
After hours of drivingâover exaggeratedly, of courseâ we finally arrive at the hospital. By now, I have calmed down enough to not want to scream my head off, but the pain-o-meter is definitely above 8. My hip doesn't hurt anymoreâthough that must be because my fucking arm is out-hurting it. Landon rushes but gently leads me inside, where he doesn't even bother waiting, and strolls up to the triage desk.
Whoever knew that an ass could be so nice?
I smile slightly, but frown when I remember the scenario I'm in, and conclude that I can argue in my head about Landon's constant mood swings.
"She needs to see a doctor, like now." He demands, but he mutters a 'sorry' once he sees who he spoke harshly to. "I didn't know it was you, Roberta."
The old woman with grey hair and green eyes behind the desk watches me, giving me a sympathetic smile. She gestures towards the door, and Landon leads us inside where he sits me down on a chair and he stands. The woman turns to me sadly, and I glance around the waiting room to see that actually, nobody is actually in here.
"S'all right, child." She turns to me. "Got a health card on you?" She asks.
I repetitively shake my head, the pain in my arm making me shake.
"She just arrived 'bout earlier this afternoon. She isn't from 'round here." Landon tells her.
"This the girl your mama was talking about?" Roberta asks.
"Um, I don't know, probably." Landon shrugs. "Anyway, can you just hurry this up, please?"
"What's the problem?" She asks, typing some keys on her computer keyboard.
"Dammit. Ugh, I don't exactly know. I just heard her stumble down our stairs like half an hour ago, so I don't know what the hell she did. She broke her arm, though, but not from the fall."
"Iâ" I breathe out, "IâI fell," a few more deep breaths. "I landed on my hip and bad arm, and IâI don't know. . . I guess from the impact. . . my cast split." Each break in explaining, is a sharp intake of air flowing into my body through gritted teeth.
"Okay." She nods politely, typing away. "I'm sorry to make you wait, but I just need you to take a seat for a few minutes."
Landon nods, thanking her before helping me out. He walks us over to a row of seats, and sits down with me on a double seater. He sighs, getting comfortable, and I just notice that he threw a sweater over his head. His sweater has a huge bee with hockey gear on, and the word 'STING' underneath it.
"Who are those?" I ask, gesturing to his sweater.
"This?" He asks, pointing to the bee. I nod. "They're the Sarnia Sting. It's a hockey league down south."
"Like, Florida south?" I ask.
"No, like, Ontario south. Wellâit's actually southwestern Ontario, if we're being specific."
"Is that far?"
"Well, we live in the north, and that city is in the south. Given that we're near the provincial border, I'd say that yes, we're pretty far. Maybe like, I don't know, no more twenty hours, anyway."
"Wow." I breathe. But then I scrunch up my eyebrows. "What's a provincial border?"
Landon looks shockedâto say the least. "You don't know anything about Canada, do you?" He says, more so a statement than an actual question.
I shrug and look at him with determined eyes. "I know that y'all love hockey and maple syrup." I try to grin, but it comes out more of a small tug on my lips. "And that you're mean as fuck," I add under my breath.
Landon chuckles, but doesn't say anything. We remain in a comfortable silence, and I try to hold my shit together as the throbbing in my arm continues, but for some reason doesn't feel as bad as it did two minutes ago.
Guilt washes over me in huge waves, and I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I peek at Landon through the corner of my eye, and the guilt grows bigger when I see he's resting with his eyes closed.
"I'm sorry," I mutter, even though there's a fifty-fifty chance that he can't even hear me. What if he dozed off already? Then I'm going to feel like complete shit in a few hours, since it's a school night and I'm not to start until next week, and it's only Monday, I'd hate for Landon to have to wake up in four hours to get ready for school.
I nearly jump out of my skin when he replies. "Why? You didn't do anything, Blue."
I let the nickname slide. "I woke you up," I mumble, "On a school night, too."
I look over at him guiltily, but he just simply pats my leg. "Don't worry about it. I was going to ditch anyway."
"Why do I have a feeling you're just saying that to make me feel better?"
"Because I am," He admits with a laugh. "But seriously, don't worry about it. I'd probably end up having to come home anyway, so it doesn't really matter."
"What do you mean?" I ask curiously.
"When do you start?" He asks, interrupting me and ignoring the question.
I look at him confusedly, stroking my bad arm carefully. It's beat up pretty bad, but I don't see any bone sticking out, so hopefully I didn't re-break it. "Um, next Monday, why?"
"Cool, cool." He grins.
I start to argue, when Landon's name is suddenly called out. He turns his attention to the voice, and we see a blonde with her hair in a ponytail wearing pink scrubs. He gestures for me to come, and I hesitantly stand up. He gives me a reassuring look, and she leads us behind the closed doors. "The room at the end of the hall on your left."
Landon nods, giving her a smirk before heading to where she directed us. We enter the room, and a nurse comes in a few minutes later. "What seems to be up?"
"I need a new cast," I tell her without stammering.
"What happened?"
"I split it?"
"How, is what I meant."
"Oh. Ugh, I fell down the stairs and landed on it." I answer shyly.
"Okay." She nods. "So, we're going to go in and get you in for another x-ray just to make sure you didn't break it or anything else again, then we'll set you up and head you home." She then smiles flirtatiously at Landon. "Hey Landon."
"Hey Lucille." Landon smirks. "Been a while."
"It has," She winks, "We should catch up soon; like old times."
"Eh, we'll see." Landon replies, and Lucille winks again before heading out, leading me to radiation.
"So, how do you know Landon?" I ask her as we stroll through the deserted halls.
She doesn't look back at me as her hair swishes perfectly behind her. "We've hooked up a few times. Give or take." She says smugly.
"Oh." Is all I can manage to get out of my mouth.
"How do you know him?" She suddenly asks, though politely as she may have forced itâhopefullyâit snapped out of her mouth like a bark. "Did you sleep with him, too? I'm just telling you now, honey, that Landon can't keep a girl longer than a month, so don't get your hopes up."
"I never slept with Landon." I snort. "I never will."
"I doubt it. He's yummy."
I shrug. "Maybe. But just because I said that doesn't mean I want him."
"Oh please!" She exclaims. "You'll want one of them sooner or later. Anyway, how do you know him?"
I decide to ignore her. "Um, I'm his new roommate." I say. Not exactly false, but what does she need to know? She's just a side hoe for him anyways; what does she care?
"Roommate?" She scoffs, "He lives with his parents and brothers, sweetie, check your sources again."
I snicker under my breath, "I didn't move from another country to be wrong about knowing who I'm living with, sweetie. My sources are correct, thank you very much."
I'm not usually this snappy, but like I have said before and to other people: prison does shit to you, and you learn a few things. Some of those things aren't all too delightful, but hey, what can you do about living in peace in a house full of criminals?
Peace just simply doesn't exist without a price or trade up.
Plus, I've just gotten beaten and fell down a damn flight of stairs ¾ sleeping and split my cast. I have a good reason to be mad and pissy.
I'm like a Chihuahua: cute, but I'll rip your eyes out if I want to. And hers? Oh, goodness, her eyes are like doggie bones to me right now.
"He won't go for a girl like yourself," Lucille speaks up. "He likes his girls curvy. Not to mention, an animal in bed. He wants girls who know what they're doing; not the clueless ones."
"What are you talking about?" I ask with raised eyebrows. Whatever it is she's leading on or hinting towards, it's losing me. I have no idea where that idea popped into that slutty mind of hers, but being a hospital staff member, I'm sure conversations like this aren't supposed to be happening. If she's hinting on that she's calling me fat and of Landon's un-interest, then that's harassment and I would delightfully report her if it meant that I'd never have to see her again.
Not to mention, that calling me overweight or beyond anything else regarding my body, would be a pretty good way to provoke me.
"Landon doesn't like you," She says simply. "He doesn't go for the geeks. He goes for the popular and pretty ones."
That stings a bit. Even though Landon is definitely hot and has a sweet personality as far as I known him, it stings knowing that even if he did like me, or if I even liked him, that I wouldn't be a considerable option since I don't fit in his social group.
Though what social group he's apart of, I have no idea since I haven't been to his school, I have a pretty good guess it's the populars since Lucile is incredibly pretty.
"I don't care if Landon doesn't like me," I point out truthfully, "I don't even like him so I don't know why you're trying to pull my strings when you aren't going to get a reaction out of me."
"Don't lie to yourself, Brooklyn." She giggles, "You're going to fall in love one day. Whether that be with Landon or one of his brothers, that's totally your choice, but you'll love one of them one day, and it'll hurt so much, it'll kill you."
Okay, I get it, Landon is gorgeous no doubt, but this is the second time someone has said that. Even though it came from Landon himself and one of his toys, it still pricks at my brain cells on why they seem so determined that it's a guarantee that I'll fall for any of them. Two of them are pricks, I know that from the dinner and what happened upstairs in my room when Liam showed, but who's to say the other two aren't the same? Landon is a pretty cool aside from his stupid sexual remarks, Liam is a flirtatious dick, and Louis is a brat. The other two I haven't fully got a good glimpse at or even met, so who knows, they could be another Louis, another Liam, or, they could be real annoying angels like Landon.
I guess I'll find out tomorrow.