Sugarpill

17- Terrible Things

Terrible Things

              I was glad the bell rang…it was lunchtime, and I was already tired of the eyes staring at my bruises. I gathered my books, and walked down the hall. There stood Billings, looking to me. “What is up, Hollister? I see you have bruises to match mine. We are brethren now,”

               I hung my head, for a minute, then looked up to Billings. “Rory, I’m sorry I lashed out at you like that. I shouldn’t have. I was worried about some personal business, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’m not apologizing so that you won’t pursue your actions against me…you have every right to do so,”

                Billings looked at me, as if I were trying to deceive him. He then noticed that my look was that of sincerity. “Fuck it. I’m done with Capers and Thommerson anyway,”

                Billings walked away. I walked to my quarters, putting away my books. Capers looked at me. “What the hell? Did Billings do that to you? I’m on him, esse!”

                “No Billings didn’t do this,” I said. “Let it go, Capers. I am not in the mood…can we talk about something else besides my face?”

                 “Like what?”

                 “Like did you and Sydnee go out this past weekend?” I asked. Capers got up from his bed. “Come to lunch with me, and you’ll find out,”

                  I gave Capers a keen look through slimmered eyes. It was obvious, that it was a ploy to get me to eat with them at lunch, which was something I wasn’t feelin. But if I didn’t eat lunch, I would be perusing the snack machines in the Rec Lounge between classes until dinner. I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Fine…let’s do this,”

                  I looked in the mirror. I still had the stitches above my brow, where my head was busted open by Dre and his other homeboy, I had a bruise on my left cheek, my split lip was healing quite nicely, but I also had a bruise on my lower right, near my jaw line…my ribs were also still sore, but not as bad as they felt on Monday. I sighed in dismay…my face looked like I was the victim of some back alley street thug who went by the moniker of “Bumpy Knuckles”. I looked to Capers, who was standing there waiting. He raised his arms.

                   I reluctantly followed him to the Mess Hall…while grabbing my lunch, I could feel eyes staring at me. It bothered me a little, but there was no turning back because I was here. Capers and I sat at the table with Franchesca and Sydnee.

                   “What happened to you?” asked Franchesca.

                   “I was building a treehouse, and the whole thing fell out of this really high tree,” I lied.

                   “You need to be careful. Trees don’t like you,” she said, as we all laughed. Sydnee smiled. “Welcome back, Mitchell…how is that sister of yours?”

                   “She’s doin okay,” I said, in a flash of positivity. “She has a fractured rib, but she’s becoming herself again…no- she’s better than herself. She split up with Riley, and she’s now talking with Dupree,”

                    Sydnee’s mouth dropped open. “WHA-?! Dupree Dupree? Weed smoking Dupree? She’s talking with him?”

                    “SHHHHH!” we all hissed.

                    “Sydnee, you of all people should know, Dupree has had a crush on Meridian since high school…and she liked him, just as much- they were just too chicken shit to admit how they felt about each other, until now,” I explained.