The next morning I was able to get up and move. I was still a little dizzy, but I was mobile. Tanya was mostly mobile again too, so we hobbled as a team up to the mess hall. We managed to get there, grab our food, and find a seat just moments before the rest of our cabin showed up. The Drone… what did Otto call it? Vespa? Well, anyway, the drone took the score sheet and the activities for tomorrow over to Brittany.
While Brittany was stuck with looking that over, the other girls rushed the table to see how we were. Otto buzzed his way over to get a better look as well, but he hung out a bit above everyone. Brittany finally got the girls going on getting food and getting seats, and then sat down in front of Tanya and I and stole a piece of my bacon. I didn’t complain, and I didn’t have the nerve to bring up last night.
“How did you guys sleep last night?” she asked, her face drawn and tired.
Tanya frowned, “Hello, I’m trans, calling me a guy is not cool.”
I shrugged, “They had me on some impressive painkillers. You know, the kind that makes people trip balls and pass out. I thought I had woke up at one point, but I’m not certain if that was real or a dream. You know, the usual.”
I saw Tanya smile and start to open her mouth, so I knocked her ankle, which hit her injured leg, and she shut her mouth and said something about wishing she had some more of those painkillers.
“So you didn’t hear anything last night? Nothing out of the ordinary?” Brittany asked, looking a little like she was afraid.
I tilted my head, “I mean I thought I heard a voice, but nothing it said made sense. I figured it was an auditory hallucination, plus I couldn’t move my body, so it might have been a case of sleep paralysis and my mind playing tricks on me.”
At that point, Kim popped over and sat herself as close to under my arm as she could get without actually lifting the appendage. She pulled my tray away from me and started cutting up my food into bite sized pieces. She then put one on my fork and held it up for me to bite.
“Can’t let you strain yourself, don’t want you to collapse. You need your strength, so eat up.” She said, looking at me and smiling brightly.
I snuck a sideways glance at Brittany and saw a very sour look on her face, but directed at Kim… so maybe last night was real? Should I talk about it? Do I dare mention it in case it gets worse?
I looked back, “Kim, I can feed myself. You girls need your strength more than I do, I’m not participating in the events… oh, crap, that’s right.”
I turned to look at Brittany, “The events today. Who-“
“Already taken care of.” Brittany said, snagging a sausage from my tray, earning a look of irritation from Kim.
Dominiqu sat down next to Brittany, “I’m handling the shooting again today. Daddy took me fairly often, so I’m excited to have a chance to rub the boys faces in my skills again.”
“And Taylor is covering the swimming. I know Tanya was originally our plan, but with what happened yesterday…” Brittany followed up.
I nodded, letting out the breath I had been holding. “So tomorrow-“
A fork full of food was shoved in my mouth before I could finish asking my question.
“Team events. Councillor and camper teams. One is a relay, one is a scavenger hunt. With the fact that the drones do most things, it’s not like we can track footprints, so I guess anyone can be paired off in the scavenger hunt.” Brittany said, sliding me the paper.
The scores were updated under the event too, but I only cared about the top four.
Daily Standing
Silver Sparrow 55pts
Chrome Cassowary 10pts
Platinum Puffins 10pts
Wolframite Wryneck 6pts
Bronze Bullfinch 0pts
Gold Guan 0pts
Hauyne Hummingbirds 0pts
Iridium Ibis 0pts
Osmium Owls 0pts
I guess I was wrong about a few things… or my math was off. We had 10 yesterday, won 2 events worth 10 points, took second in one event worth 5 points, and we had another 10 on top of that from… I guess getting in to the mess hall early? So the girls got here first at dinner last night too?
“When did everyone get in here last night around dinner?” I asked.
“We were third arriving last night, but we wanted to be first in the morning. Why?” Jasmine said, taking a seat next to Tanya.
I thought it over, “We get an extra 10 points for showing up first at breakfast then… that’s how we will keep our lead I guess.”
Kim and Brittany looked at me, confused.
“I don’t know how great I’ll be tomorrow. I know I’m no good at a relay, running isn’t something I do regularly.” I started.
Kim made a coughing noise, “You could have fooled me. You keep running away from me.”
“Anyway,” I said, “I’m still not in top condition cognitively, so I’ll be relying on my partner heavily for the scavenger hunt.”
Kim wrapped her arms around me tightly, “I love hearing you say you’ll be relying on me. It makes me all warm and tingly.”
“WILL YOU GIVE IT A REST!” Brittany shouted, slamming her hands on the table.
Everyone looked at her, shock and confusion on most of their faces. Brittany herself realized what she had done and looked like she had been slapped in the face. She jumped up and rushed out the door, I tried to stand up and follow, but I was hit with a wave of dizziness and plummeted to the floor.
Nobody was certain about who to be more worried about, and they all were still frozen by the strangeness of the situation. I fought my way back up and started hobbling after her, determined to get to the bottom of things. I heard Kim start to get up behind me, but Tanya said something to stop her.
I got out the door and passed the other cabins on their way to the mess hall, everyone looked at me like I was crazy… well, everyone except the jock cabin, and they looked amazed to see me up at all.
Getting back to the Sparrow cabin was hard enough, but the stairs up were almost impossible without a railing. I was dizzy, winded, and I had no sense of balance. I guess it really was too soon to be out of the infirmary, but I didn’t care. I forced myself to stand up, opened the door, and fell forward when I tried to walk in.
“Ow…” I said, vocalizing the spinning headache and lack of balance that caused me to end up flat on my face.
“Wh-why…” I heard a sniffling coming closer. “Why did you follow me?”
Brittany helped me get to a seat in the meeting area, her nose a bright crimson and her eyes pink. The tears were there, but being held back by willpower alone. She moved behind me and checked the bandage on my head, gently pushing her fingers into the skin on the back of my head.
“Ow…” I said again, a little more tensely, as she found the wound again.
She moved back to my front, “At least the cuts aren’t open again.”
“Physically…” I muttered, just loud enough for her to hear.
She backed up and rubbed her forearm, “So you did hear me last night, huh…”
I gave her a thumbs up, the concern that nodding would knock me out was very real right now.
“And I imagine you’re feeling pretty repulsed by the whole thing…” she said, looking down and slumping into a chair across from me.
I gave her a thumbs down.
“What does that even mean?” She asked, laughing at the simplicity of my answer.
I inhaled and held my breath for a moment. “I don’t know what to feel about it. I didn’t know you were even remotely interested in me. I didn’t know that you were the reason Chelsea stopped the kid back in the day. Chelsea avoids talking about it, you don’t mention it, and I try to avoid thinking about it.”
“Would it have changed anything if I had said something?” Brittany asked, the sound of defeat and resignation painting her words with sadness.
I exhaled and inhaled again, trying to stop the room from spinning. “If you had mentioned the day things happened, no. Had you said something about your feelings for me, maybe? I don’t know. Right now I’m still not even certain what’s going on around me.”
“You mean Kim?” Brittany asked, the venom in her voice stung.
I managed to get the room to stop spinning by the fourth or fifth inhale. “I mean everything. Kim, the other girls, the sudden bursts of self confidence that I’ve had recently… none of it makes sense. I acted on impulse yesterday, riding the high that came with the girls talking me up, and I kind of liked it… up until it got me nailed in the head and mildly concussed.”
“You know, Kim is the one who told me you were upset on the ride over. When I came and found you, I didn’t know what to tell you… I had thought she was picking on you when I saw you run to find somewhere to hide, but she found me and asked me to smooth things over for her. She said she accidentally touched a nerve and that you just shut down on her after. She wanted me to tell you that she was sorry, that she wanted to get to know you because she thought you were interesting… and I ignored all of that because I thought it would get me closer to your good graces.” Brittany admitted, a tinge of shame in her voice.
I looked over at her, uncertain how to respond.
“And then she slapped Michael when he was picking on you, and I felt like it was elementary all over again… someone stronger than me fighting for you, and I couldn’t do anything. And when he started hitting you in the mess hall, I froze… but Kim jumped in and started beating the snot out of him, and I just watched you curled up on the floor… She keeps jumping in where I should be, and I can’t… I can’t find the strength to do the same. I want you, but I can’t even keep you safe.” Brittany started crying, her nails digging into her palms, red droplets falling on her knees.
“I close my eyes and see her stealing you away from me, but then I have to remind myself that I never had you to begin with. You’ve always been after Chelsea, and she only stuck around with us because she was new to the area, and then Michael said those things yesterday. I saw you just die inside, and I wanted to hurt him so much. But what brought you out of that funk wasn’t me stepping forward to defend you, but the others flaunting how easy it was for them to get physical with you. And then you kissed Tanya in front of everyone, and it hurt to watch. I wanted you to take me in your arms and kiss me like that. And to hear you kissed Dominiqu after I left was like you stabbed me in the heart.
“And then to find out that you got hurt, and I wasn’t there to help, I ached. But instead of rushing to the infirmary, I acted like I had to control the group, and that blonde bitch ran off to stay by your side until you woke up. I wanted to be there, I wanted to hold your hand and be the first face you saw when you woke up, but I lied to myself and said I needed to be there with the girls to maintain order. And then when Otto and Kim came back, telling me you had woken up, I hurt again. I waited until the lights went out before I snuck to your bedside, afraid of anyone seeing me… because… because I know you’re afraid of what people would say. You’ve always made an effort to stay away from Chelsea and I at school, acting like somehow you being around would harm our reputation…
“And then, that bimbo tried feeding you this morning, and I just… I couldn’t take it anymore. She’s brave, she knows she wants you, she’s willing to fight for you in ways I never could… She took your first kiss in front of me, she acts like a fool to get you to notice her, and she desperately wants to get into your pants. A part of me envies her, and another hates her… I hate to imagine her winning, her taking your first time, her convincing you that she’s the one for you. Maybe I want to take you, maybe I want to share our firsts… but I see her stupid face laughing at me whenever I try to muster the courage to make a move.” Brittany finished, her whole body shaking with a mix of emotions I couldn’t fathom.
“Could you help me over to my bunk?” I asked, trying to stand.
Brittany nodded and got herself under my arm, helping me heave myself to the bunk, and then I made my move. As she tried to unload me, I pulled her down with me. We fell, her body atop my own, and her face mere inches from mine. The smell of her hair, the closeness of her skin, it was all so enticing. So when she went in for the kiss, I didn’t fight it.
I didn’t stop her hands from roving over my chest, or her passion as she broke the kiss and started kissing my jaw, and I didn’t think I could have stopped her from finding her place atop me. What happened next was a blur; partly because my glasses went missing at some point, and partly because I still was feeling the after effects of that concussion. I remember finding my glasses again and realizing neither of us were dressed, and then we went to take showers. Separate showers. Hormones are powerful, and as much as round two might have been an idea, I didn’t think I would be able to keep standing if we tried anything.
Stepping out, I was greeted by Tanya sitting in the meeting room.
“Well, well. It looks like someone finally got the hint.”
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