Learn to Spell, God!

Danni’s POV

After awhile the current is calling me
Lulling me, waving goodbye
I'm out here alone, oh God can you save me now?
Sinking my heart turns to stone
After awhile the current is calling me
Lulling me, waving goodbye
I'm out here alone, oh God can you save me now?
Sinking my heart turns to stone
Sinking my heart turns to stone

I heard the melody drifting through the bus, accompanied by someone singing along softly; this isn’t right, this is a betrayal. I glanced over at Sophie, expecting her to have some kind of adverse reaction; she didn’t. She was still sat there complacently, playing with Brian’s fingers. She had a look on her face, as if she was thinking deeply about something; probably about what those fingers could do to her.

The song kept playing. Sophie remained in the same state; was no one else finding this highly suspicious?

“Layla, can you turn that up, please?” Sophie called. We all turned to gawp at her.

“But…..what….HE RAPED YOU!” Brian exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s an awesome song. And, besides, haven’t you heard of ‘forgive and forget’?” Sophie pointed out.

“So? Are you just gonna ‘forgive and forget’ about Cheyenne Hospital?!” Brian asked her, sarcastically.

Sophie’s jaw dropped. She pushed herself off the couch and stormed out of the room to join Layla. It was suddenly impossible to hear yourself think; everyone started yelling various profanities at Brian.

“What the fuck did you say that for, Brian?! You know what that fucking did to her!” Zack yelled at him, his voice rising above everyone else’s.

“I don’t know, okay? I just don’t get how she can forgive and forget about something like that.”

“You of all people should know that Sophie isn’t like the rest of us, she has her own way of looking at things.” I pointed out to him.

“I’m not you! I can’t understand stuff like that, okay?”

“Brian, you may not be perfect but you’ve always been true to her. Get your fucking ass of that couch right now and go apologise!” Zack commanded.

“Did you just quote Crossroads at me?” Brian cocked an eyebrow.

“Fuck yeah!”

Brian let out a sigh before standing up. Cautiously, he walked over to the adjoining room and opened the door which Sophie had closed minutes before. As the door was closing, it was pushed open again and Layla walked out clutching her laptop.

“What the hell? First Sophie comes in looking like she’s gonna kill someone, then Brian comes in looking like a lost kid!” Layla exclaimed.

“Well, y’see…” I started, only to be cut off by Jimmy.

“What’s this about kids? I like kids!” The room exploded in laugher.

“Jimmy! What the fuck?!” Jenn exclaimed, mortified. “Are you a paedophile?”

“What? No! I just meant that I’d like to have kids one day.” He amended, quickly.

“Sure, Jim, whatever you say.” Zack said patronisingly.

“And Sophie’s broody.” Allanah chipped in, everyone turned to face her. “What? It’s true!”

Shaking her head, Layla made her way across the room to join us and sat down on Zack’s lap before her eyes were trained on her laptop again. His arms snaked around her waist before he started reading over her shoulder. The expression on his face quickly turned from amused to concerned to confused.

“What the fuck is that?” He exclaimed.

“A poem, obviously.” Layla rolled her eyes before winking at us. It suddenly clicked in my head what she was writing.

“I gathered that. But why?!” He sounded exasperated now.

“We get bored. And, besides, this is a re-write. The old version had left something to be desired.” She shrugged.

“A re-write?” Zack choked out.

“Yeah, re-write. There are other poems too.”

“Wait a minute, you said ‘we’.” Great observational powers there. We Pure Poison members were sat there smiling, knowing exactly what the poems were like.

“Well, duh. You think I’d write these by myself?”

“Yeah! Who did you write them with, then?”

“Richard.” Zacky almost had a heart attack as this one word left her mouth. “Trust issues, Zack, trust issues. Trust me. Please.”

“Oi, Vengeance! I wanna read this poem!” Jimmy yelled from across the room, snapping Zacky out of his trace.

“Oh, I’m sure you do, it’s exactly your kind of thing.” Pippa smirked.

“What’s it called?” Johnny piped up.

“This one? Sister was a nun. There’s also ‘brother had no penis’ and ‘grandma was a racist’.” Layla replied solemnly; the corner of her mouth twitching, as if willing to smile. Everyone else was laughing; except Zacky who had a look of concern for his fiancée on his face.

“I worry about you, I really do.” Zacky said.

“You should.” Layla patted his arm reassuringly.

“Women are strange.” Matt pointed out.

“How’d you figure that out, huh?” Pippa asked pointedly.

“I lived with women for a while.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, my mother was a woman.” More laughter.

The laughter halted when the door was flung open and Sophie and Brian re-joined us.

“What’s going on here, then?” Sophie asked.

“Poetry and idiocy.” Allanah replied seriously.

“Poetry? Ooooh! The poems!” Sophie clapped her hands like an excited child on Christmas day.

“Yeah. And Jimmy likes kids.” Johnny snorted. Oh, how elegant that man isn’t.