Of Thieves And Do Gooders

It didn’t take long to get through dinner, and I was shoving Hayden the entire time, trying to get him up out of his seat, but he was much heavier than me, and mostly muscle, so I had little impact. Who would have thought Hayden had a shy bone in him? Finally, just as Laura and her group of friends that had adopted her began to get up from their table.

“Dude. She’s getting up. This is your last chance,” I prompted quickly, jabbing Hayden’s side harshly with my bony finger.

Hayden’s shoulders stiffened and he hunched over his last bit of mashed potatoes and jabbed at it with his fork, apparently attempting to become invisible. I didn’t want to be the one to tell him that he wasn’t “one with his potatoes”.

I rolled my eyes and gave Leon a look that clearly stated: “Help me get his ass up” and I grabbed one of his arms while Leon grabbed the other and we hauled him out of his seat. Noticing the commotion, Laura’s group paused for a moment then walked more slowly as Leon and I fought to keep control of Hayden’s arms.

“Would you stop?” Hayden whispered fiercely to me, giving up on trying to pull free from Leon’s iron grip.

“No. Don’t worry, I’ll help you out here. Now, just cooperate,” I whispered back just as fiercely and towed him toward Laura’s group of friends with the assistance of Leon and Damion following as back up. I plastered a fake smile on my face. “Hello ladies,” I stated calmly, only glancing at Damion and Leon for the slight reassurance that I wasn’t alone in my mission. “Would you, you, you and you mind joining me over here for a moment?” I asked politely, keeping my voice as low as possible for my guy-like appearance.

The girls looked practically ecstatic that I had called their attention, but there were also the thoughtful ones who kept glancing between a nervous looking Hayden and a blushing Laura. There was a mixture of answers as the four girls followed me, Damion and Leon away from Hayden and Laura, ranging from “okay” to “sure”.

“Okay. Here’s the game plan,” I said once we were out of earshot and I had succeeded in pulling everyone into a huddle. “I am distracting you girls so that Hayden can ask Laura to the Etiquette Ball.” The girls groaned in sudden realization, “I know, I know, poor you, ‘Heavenly Hayden’, has made up his mind, and there are plenty of other guys at the school. So. How’re they doin’?” I asked Damion when I saw him looking back at the two.

“Not too good.” Damion rolled his eyes, “Hayden looks like he’s completely off topic.” He leaned to the side a little to hear the current conversation. “Oh, crap. He’s panicking. He’s telling his ‘bar story’.” Leon groaned and I looked at the two, wondering silently what the “bar story” was.

“And that’s bad?” I asked, Leon and Damion nodded in unison. “Alright. You girls wanna help me, Damion and Leon out with our buddy?” I asked politely, raising a curious eyebrow.

There was a moment of hesitation and then they all muttered confirmation at the same time.

“Okay, so, how good are you girls at snapping?” I smiled at the confusion on their faces.

“We can snap,” A girl told me like I was an idiot.

“Fine Miss Prissybritches,” I said, applying my best lisp to my voice, putting one hand on my hip and flapping a wrist at her. “Then I’m going to assume you can snap anything I tell you to?”

The girl looked thoroughly offended at my display, but her friends giggled at my performance. Another one of them nodded excitedly. “Yeah, for sure,” she confirmed.

“Damion, Leon. How are you two at a cappella?” I grinned at the raised eyebrows of the two.

_____________________________________________

Hayden’s Point Of View

Damn Raven. Damn her to the fiery pits of some sort of blistering unbearable hell! Did she really expect me to just come out and ask Laura to the Etiquette Ball? I would sound like a jackass! I may not know much about girls, but she doesn’t know much about guys either.

I swallowed hard and scratched the back of my head, staring intently at my feet, “So. Um…Do you have any…? I mean, uh…what’d you do during the free weekend?” I asked, kicking myself when I realized how stupid I must have sounded. Urg. Stupid stuttering.

Laura smiled--God she had a great smile--and laced her fingers together in front of her then said, “Nothing much. Just, you know, hanging out with Jess and Liz. We stayed at the school on Saturday, but headed into town on Sunday.”

I nodded my head absently…wait…What the hell did she just say? Ah…shit…something about a lizard? No. Liz? Yeah, Liz, that was a person. Someone she hung out with, right? “Oh. Cool,” I said, hoping that I had had an appropriate response. Damn it I was so fucking nervous I wasn’t listening! This is Raven’s fault. Completely.

“What about you? Did you hang out with Raymond?” she asked shyly, her face turned slightly pink.

…Raymond? What’d she care if I hung out with Raymond or not? I bit my bottom lip to keep from swearing. She had the hots for Raymond? He wasn’t even really a he! So why was I already getting jealous? There was no reason for it, it’s not like Raven’s a lesbian, so…Or is she? It doesn’t matter, I told myself firmly, even if she was a lesbian, Laura wasn’t a lesbian, right? Right. Problem solved.

So, stop being jealous you jackass.

I turned my attention back to Laura and away from my inward battle with myself. “Yeah. We hung out a little, Dame and Lee were there too, we showed her--”

No you idiothim! You showedhim around!

“im, herim,” I cleared my throat like a total idiot, “Him around, we showed him around town,” I corrected a little nervously.

Jesus, you dumbass.

“Oh, I see. Sounds cool, did you--” Laura stopped mid-sentence, staring at something behind me.

What the--? Snapping?

I turned quickly to face whoever was snapping, and I felt my eyebrows shoot into the air. There was a group of people advancing on me, Laura’s four friends in the back snapping at the same exact time, while Leon and Damion were doing some weird version of a cappella that I didn‘t quite recognize. Raven was in front of the two, doing some weird slide movements before she finally started singing.

“It’s the time, of the season. When the love runs hi-gh,” Raven was singing in an incredibly low voice and I couldn’t help but cover my face in embarrassment. What the hell were they doing? Time of the Season? Seriously? That was so lame!

Laura giggled and I looked over to her, a little shocked at first, then I realized what Raven was doing. She was looking like a bigger idiot than me, now was my chance!

“Ahem. Um, Laura?” I called her attention and she looked away from some more of Raven’s weird dance moves, I smiled, just because she was smiling, “Will you accompany me to the Etiquette Ball?” I asked formally, the Headmaster had had us repeat the words about ten times a day, I had plenty of witnesses to prove I had said the damn words.

Laura looked a little surprised that that was what the singing was leading up to, but she stole a glance at the group of people, who were still snapping, singing and drawing attention away from us. “Yes. Of course. Oh…I mean, I would be delighted to accompany you.” Laura nodded with a smile--she seriously has an amazing smile--and then curtsied, even though she wasn’t wearing a dress.

Damn it, I had forgotten the bow, oh well might as well sneak it in now. I bowed as gracefully as possible and then said a quick goodbye to Laura before plowing into Raven and catching her in a headlock. “I could kill you right now.” I thought that over a minute as she struggled uselessly in my grip. “Or kiss you, I’m not sure which one yet.”

“You ruined my song!” she protested, dropping the fork she had been using as a fitting microphone.

I laughed. God she was weird. “Sorry. You can do bad karaoke some other time. Now come on, let’s get out of here, I think I’ve had enough attention.” And so has she, I thought absently. I let go of her and she punched my arm, I could tell she was trying, but it was still a pretty weak hit. I only laughed harder.

_____________________________________________

Raven’s Point Of View

“Well? Did you ask her?” Leon demanded once we were in the hallway.

“Yeah, you better have, or I will seriously kill you. I didn’t have these two do a bad impression of a cappella just so I could do a bad version of Time of the Season,” I pointed out, walking ahead of Hayden and backpedaling so that I could watch him while I walked. “I don’t do that kind of stuff for shits and giggles,” I added, although I might have actually done that to amuse myself, that was pretty fun, despite the fact that I looked like an idiot.

Hayden rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I asked her. She said yes.”

I laughed and punched his shoulder playfully, then had to dodge out of the way while Leon picked Hayden up in a bear hug, Damion on the other hand assaulted his shoulder, with more than one playful punch. Undoubtedly his “playful” punches were more like real punches that his testosterone told him were harmless as kittens.

Unless they were radioactive kittens. Those things probably weren’t harmless to the environment, and they would most likely be more aggressive than normal kittens.

“See? Wasn’t so bad now was it?” I prompted with a grin, he was totally blowing the whole situation out of proportion.

“Seriously, Raymond looked like a bigger idiot than you. And the Headmaster was still eating dinner, so you probably got some points for style,” Leon added happily, walking next to Hayden again, while Damion was on his other side and I was next to Damion.

“I looked like the idiot? You and Damion were the one’s doing a crappy job of a cappella,” I retorted with a snort. Pfft, like I was the idiot, I was a genius for coming up with the plan, he was the idiot. That’s right, I just won that argument in my head.

“Right, and you looked completely normal with your dance moves,” Damion scoffed, and I rolled my eyes.

“You’re just jealous.”

“Sure, sure. That’s what it is,” Damion retorted, rolling his eyes too. “Oh, Raymond, I meant to ask you, who are you taking to the Ball?” His attitude changed completely to something more excited, intrigued and maybe a little cynical.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I haven’t been here too long, so I don’t really know anyone to ask.” I said plainly, which was truthful enough. I really didn’t want to find someone to take, if I could skip it I would.

“If you put it off you’re going to get someone annoying.” Leon pointed out, “Like…like…Tracy!” He snapped his fingers, pointing at me like it was something to dread.

“Tracy?” I asked skeptically. How the hell did they expect me to know who that was?

“No. Bad idea,” Hayden spat, looking at me quickly with some sort of warning in his eyes. Unless it was a verbal warning, I had no idea what the hell he was trying to tell me. The weird thing about me and eyeballs was that we didn’t exactly communicate well. They didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Blinklish, or whatever weird language eyeballs spoke.

“What? Worried about poor little Raymond’s virginity?” Leon laughed and my eyes widened.

“Yes. Yes I am worried about ‘poor little Raymond’s’ virginity!” I retorted, lifting my chin defiantly into the air. “I’m not looking for a one night stand, thanks though.” I had gathered enough information from his last sentence to assume. I had already made my bets in my head that Tracy was the school slut (hooker or whore whichever you prefer), it seemed every school had one, even a school for thieves.

There was a pause and I stopped to see Leon and Damion staring at me with their eyebrows raised. “What?” I demanded, stomping my foot and locking my leg.

Hayden looked like he was embarrassed for me, but I soon realized that was because I had taken up a girl stance, Damion and Leon on the other hand continued to look surprised. I adjusted myself so that I was in a more manly stance and then demanded again, “What? What’s so shocking?”

“You’ve never done it?” Leon sounded completely appalled and Damion only shook his head, looking like he was going to start tsking. “done it”? What the hell? Were they jumping out of an episode of That 70s Show?

What? Was that weird for a guy? Or was it only weird by their standards? At a loss for words I stood there with my mouth hanging open, unsure of how to respond. I could tell the truth, which would probably lead to Damion and Leon arranging for me to meet a hooker at the nearest dingy, damp hotel in China Town. Or, alternatively, I could try to play it off and lie. But I had already sold myself out the moment I said “virginity”. Crap, I had screwed myself over.

“I…erm…No. I haven’t. And don’t go orderin’ me a hooker or I will kill you. I’ve got a knife and don’t think that I won’t use it, ‘cause I will,” I warned, hoping Damion and Leon really weren’t that pushy. Pfft, and like I really had a knife.

Damion laughed. “Jeez, don’t worry about it Raymond, we’re just messin’ with you.” I glared at him, then at Leon who was now grinning. “You should’ve seen the look on your face, for a minute there I thought you were gonna start lying.”

I glared between him and Leon then I looked at Hayden who quickly looked somewhere else, avoiding my gaze altogether. I, however, blushed redder than a tomato and tried to act normal, but I failed when Leon and Damion took playful jabs at me. “Shut up, both of you. Do you wanna tell me about your sex lives?” I demanded, walking again, not caring whether or not they followed.

They did and they changed the subject easily, losing interest in bothering me. Instead they bothered each other on who they were going to ask to the Etiquette Ball, from what I understood, Damion was thinking of asking some girl named Emily and Leon was still undecided. While they talked animatedly about that, Hayden walked next to me, grinning absently. “Shut up,” I said in a low growl, stuffing my hands into my pockets. The one person who knew I was a girl also knew I was a virgin, I wasn’t sure whether it was something I wanted him to know or not. Although my instincts instantly said “no”.

“I didn’t say anything. But, just so you know, you’re still beet red.” He threw a smirk in my direction and I scowled at the ground.

“That’s why I said shut up, then I wouldn’t have to say it now. But, just for good measure: shut up,” I replied, trying to think of something else rather than my embarrassing moment. Sex was not something I liked to talk about, especially not with guys. Once at my old high school--before I dropped out--a guy that helped teach women self-defense mentioned something about guys thinking about sex eighty-five percent of the time. I didn’t know how true the statistics were, but I wasn’t willing to find out either.

Hayden threw a comforting arm around my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, you handled it like any man would’ve,” he assured me, ruffling my hair and causing me to smirk, despite myself. I winced slightly, remembering my split lip and black eye very abruptly.
“Hey, how’s my eye look?” I asked, looking up at Hayden so that he could see it better.

He hesitated, looking at my black eye, then he frowned, “Not much better. It’s sort of puffy now…” There was a dark look in his eyes and I had a vague feeling that I knew what he was thinking.

“Don’t worry about it. You do anything and I’m gonna end up with more bruises, ‘cause I doubt I could beat you in a fight. But I’d try,” I joked, pulling out from under his arm. “Besides, starting a fight with Derek? What would that do? Well, other than make me look like a puss and give him more incentive to pick fights with me.”

“Still, I--” I interrupted him with random noises that he gave me a strange look for.

“Don’t even,” I warned, although I was flattered that he would start a fight for me. “Seriously, don’t worry about it, I’m fine and I pretty much started it anyway.” I shrugged.

Hayden stiffened and gave me a harsh look, looked like he was about to say something, then stopped himself. We were at our dorm room.

“Night Hayden, night Raymond,” Leon said with a big yawn, and then he disappeared into his own dorm room, soon followed by Damion.

We said our goodnights to Damion and Leon and then entered our own dorm room. I thought the conversation had been forgotten, considering Hayden had seemed completely fine when he said goodnight to the other two. And yet once the door was closed the harsh look on his face returned and he grabbed my shoulders holding me in front of him. “That fight was not your fault, it was stupid of you to even take all the blame for it. Derek started it, he threw the first punch, case closed.” He let go of my shoulders and walked further into the room, kicking off his shoes.

“Alright, I admit that one, I probably should’ve pinned the whole thing on Derek, but some punishment might teach me something right? I heard it builds character or something,” I commented with a wry smile.

A thought struck me quite suddenly and I groaned. “Ah, shit, I have library duty ‘til ten,” I announced and I hurriedly put my shoe back on my foot.

“What? I thought you only had it ‘til eight?” Hayden asked, settling in around his bed.

“Yeah, that was before I got stable duty too. Now I’ve got library duty from twelve ‘til four, then I switch over to stable duty from then ‘til eight, then I eat dinner, then I go back to library duty ‘til ten,” I repeated the schedule perfectly, I only needed to hear it once to memorize it. Silently, I fished two silver bells on separate strings out of my closet and tied them to my ankles.

“That’s a damn confusing schedule. How do you even get to go to classes if you work there ‘til four?” Hayden asked, now sitting on his bed, half-taking off his shirt, half-yawning.

I shrugged. “There’s at least an hour between Etiquette and World History, I work then, and then another hour between…um…Guile/Agility and Anatomy,” I said, making my way to the door. “Any other questions?”

“Yeah…What’s with the bells?” He pointed at my feet and I rolled my eyes.

“It’s for practice, you know, sneaking around? I’ll tell you about it later, it’s gonna be hard enough to sneak around with bells on my feet, let alone hurrying and sneaking. Night Hayden.” I flicked off the light on my way out and closed the door with a quiet whoosh.

From what I remembered from the map I had seen, the library was on the top floor. Perfect, now I got to walk up three flights of stairs. I tip-toed up the stairs, swearing quietly every time the bells around my ankles made a sound. I hadn’t quite perfected complete silence with miniature instruments tied to my ankles. But I was working on it.

None of the other students were up, I realized, which I was glad for, since I didn’t want to explain the bells forty times in one outing. So I made it to the double doors at the end of the top floor and stepped in quietly, swearing when I heard a bell, only to find that it was on top of the door. Hmm. A little weird for a school library to have a bell, but, whatever. Every other time I was in the library it was empty, so, I pretty much just sat around, occasionally picked up random books, read few pages and then moved on. Then I sat around some more. Library duty wasn’t so bad, just boring.

This time however, I hesitated, finding myself staring at Mr. Jager, who was sitting serenely at one of the square tables set up in the middle of the room. He smiled up at me when he caught me staring. “Welcome Raymond. Go ahead and take a seat. I figured this was a good a time as ever to go over some Algebra with you.”

I scowled and trudged over to the table, taking the seat across from Mr. Jager. “Fine. Lay it on me.” I grumbled pulling the open book in front of him, in front of me instead. I stared at it for a moment, then realized that it didn’t contain math problems. “Wait a minute…what book is this?” I asked, flipping open to the cover, but keeping my finger in the book as a page marker.

“Brisingr by Christopher Paolini,” Mr. Jager commented before I could read the title below the dragon’s picture.

“Oh! Sweetness!” I drew the book closer to me and opened the cover, reading the synopsis in the front cover. I had yet to buy the book, but I couldn’t wait to read it.

“Have you read the other two?” Mr. Jager wanted to know.

I grinned sheepishly up at him. “Eh. Not quite, I’m a little past half-way through Eldest.”

Before I could even blink, Mr. Jager slammed the front of the book shut and pulled it back toward him. “You can’t read that!” he stated, sounding appalled that I had even attempted to do so. I assumed he was referring to the synopsis.

I ran my hand over the fingers on my opposite hand, Jesus, he can slam a book shut if he wants, but maybe next time he could make sure my fingers were cleared of the wrath of a speeding book cover. “Why not?” I demanded, although I was starting not to care, since he was cradling the book protectively against his chest, I assumed I wasn’t borrowing his copy anytime soon anyway.

“Because! It’ll ruin the end of Eldest!” Mr. Jager said simply, tucking the book away in a bag on the back of his chair. “Now. Shall we start on Algebra?” he asked, pulling out a separate--less interesting--book, with cheesy math lines on it. Mr. Jager pushed this book in front of me and pointed to a group of problems which included the Pythagorean Theorem.

“Oh come on, isn’t this more like Geometry?” I asked, scowling at the triangles drawn on the page.

“Yep. But it’s required in Algebra too. Now. Get going.” Mr. Jager handed me a pencil and a blank piece of paper.

I groaned, but took the material and began writing out the problems and the answers I came to. At least Pythagorean Theorem was easy.

_____________________________________________

Two hours later and I could have kicked Mr. Jager, he became increasingly aware of how much Algebra I knew and began pushing me to harder things. He even gave me homework to add on to the homework I had started in class! How stupid is that? My brain was going to overload on only one subject.

I trudged back to my dorm room, tucking the bells away in my pocket and not caring whether or not they made sound. I yawned as I walked, thinking absently about how comfortable my bed was going to be when someone bumped into me, shoving me against a wall. That snapped me out of my reverie. I fought valiantly to get free but that only managed to persuade the guy to crack my head against the wall. Disoriented and dizzy, I resorted to cussing like a sailor, since I couldn’t even determine where my head was--on my shoulders or my hip?

Finally my assailant spoke, and I stopped cussing to hear him say quietly, “You’re kinda small for a guy aren’t you?” It was Derek’s voice, cold and filled with some sort of sick amusement.

“And you’re kinda dumb for a human, looks like we've both got flaws,” I shot back, my stomach lurching with dizziness when he cracked my head on the wall a second time. Any math I had learned that night might have been forgotten with every physical injury my head took.

“You’re a smartass, I don’t like smartasses,” Derek spoke in a low, deadly voice, which I wasn’t quite scared of, since I didn’t have a bone of common sense in me. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you new guy. Your life here at Shadowstep could be quite pleasant. Or it could involve a series of slow-healing injuries. Your choice.” Derek let me away from the wall and I did the stupidest thing my already pain ridden body could have ever done: I swung my fist and nailed him in the face.

Based on the impact, I had a feeling my attack hadn’t managed to do much damage. With a growl of annoyance and anger, I felt Derek’s fingers lock around my throat and he held me at arms length. “That was a stupid move Raymond,” he told me, but hell, I already knew that, and the fact that he was squeezing the oxygen out of me was only adding to my realized stupidity. He reeled back his fist and punched me in the face with such force that I skidded backwards and hit my shoulder against the wall.

I coughed and gasped for air, rubbing my shoulder absently and keeping my footing--just barely--so that I could glare at Derek from my position.

“Remember Raymond. You made your choice,” Derek spat angrily, and disappeared down the hallway and into the darkness.

I cussed the entire way back to my dorm room, mainly because of the pain in my shoulder and my pending black eye that would soon join my split lip, other black eye and the bruise under my other black eye. I was getting a good deal of injuries while I was staying at Shadowstep Academy. Last I checked, that wasn’t in the brochure.

I was almost sure I had a minor concussion, since the hallway kept spinning from time to time and when I walked I didn’t really remember it. It was like I was in a vague sort of dream that I couldn’t escape.

I trudged through the dorm room door and closed it as quietly as possible, hoping not to awaken Hayden. So far so good. I turned and stumbled my way to the bathroom, knocking over something that was loud when it hit the carpet and then knocked over a CD case stand, which crashed into the wall. I swore at myself, hurrying into the bathroom as Hayden jolted upward in his bed.

I flicked on the light and squinted at the brightness, allowing my eyes to adjust, I looked into the mirror. I groaned at my appearance, my split lip was swollen and a purple-ish color, while my black eye was already puffy and a red-ish purple color and the bruise below my black eye was still a black-ish purple and my pending black eye was just a little red. I couldn’t wait to see what my newest black eye would look like in the morning. I examined my head carefully, to make sure I wasn’t bleeding randomly, of course for a concussion my head didn’t necessarily have to bleed.

There was a soft knock at the bathroom door and I looked at the crack on the bottom of the door, light filtered in and I distorted my face in annoyance. Great so the light in the room was on, the better for Hayden to see my newest battle wounds. “What?” I whispered quietly, making sure that it was hard even for Hayden to hear me.

“You alright?” Hayden asked in the same low whisper.

“Yeah. Fine,” I replied running cold water and running a washcloth under it before dabbing a my split lip, I winced at the slight stinging, but felt better.

“You sure? You sound kinda…I don’t know…slow,” Hayden said uncertainly.

Did I really? It felt like I was answering his questions at a normal speed. “Yeah. I’m sure.” I set the washcloth aside, deciding that he wasn’t going to go away until I came out. “Just a little…” I couldn’t find the right word, “I don’t know…” I bit my bottom lip and winced when my split lip pulsed, “Tired. Yeah. Tired,” I said more to myself than to him.

“Well, are you gonna come out? Or just stay in there?” he asked, which told me he really wasn’t going to go anywhere until I came out. Great.

“I’m comin’,” I muttered, turning off the bathroom light before I actually opened the door. “There? See, I’m fine,” I said firmly, although I could tell from Hayden’s frown that he noticed the new black eye that I was housing. I could only hope that I was answering more promptly, since I felt like I was answering too quickly.

“Derek,” Hayden said in a growl, starting to turn toward the door.

But I grabbed his forearm and kept him from going by putting all of my weight into pulling him back. “Hayden, don’t. I’m dealing with it,” I told him, trying to make my voice upbeat, but Hayden only turned to glare at me.

“You can’t fight for shit Raven. If Derek can’t learn to leave you alone, I’ll just teach him the hard way,” he said, tugging his arm away from me, but I just sidestepped so that I was between him and the door. “Move,” Hayden ordered icily.

“No,” I replied defiantly, trying to keep my position, but the room began to spin again and it got darker. At first I had thought when I went to lean against the wall that I had flicked off the light switch. However, when the blinding light in the room came flooding into my eyes, I realized that I had simply blacked out. Great, I’m sure that was putting Hayden’s mind at ease.

“Raven!” Hayden’s face appeared above me as I was pulling myself off of the ground.

I leaned my back against the wall and waved him off. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a little dizzy. Damn room keeps moving…” I muttered, covering my eyes to keep the light out of them.

“Hey, we gotta get you to a hospital, or just the school nurse, somewhere where they can--”

I cut his sentence off with my own words, “No, no. I’m good. I just need some sleep.” I used the wall as support and managed to get to my feet, then began to hobble my way to my bed.

Hayden caught my arm and stopped me, slung my arm over his shoulders and helped me to my bed. I free fell onto the soft comforter and moaned with relief, I could have fallen asleep at that exact moment if I didn’t know Hayden was sitting on my bed next to me. “See? Fine. Just need sleep,” I said tiredly, rolling over so that my legs weren’t hanging over the side of the bed. I yawned and added with a glance near the bathroom door, “Sorry. I knocked over your CD’s.” I gestured to the fallen furniture with a lazy wave of my hand, my eyes already drifting shut.

Hayden shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll talk about this tomorrow, got it?”

I nodded sleepily. “Sure, sure, talk about CD’s tomorrow,” I confirmed, feeling myself drifting off into sleep.

“No, no, no.” Hayden shook me awake and I tried to glare at him, but I was pretty sure my facial expression didn’t change. “We’ll talk about you and Derek tomorrow. Promise?” he asked, shaking me again when my eyes began to drift shut.

“What? Yeah, sure, whatever, I promise,” I grumbled, shaking his hand off of my shoulder. “Now will you turn off that goddamn light?” I got on my hands and knees and crawled under my blankets, not bothering to turn around so that my head wasn’t at the foot of the bed.

“Alright.” Hayden got off of my bed and I was instantly asleep.