Tales from the Intermediate (gxg)

Chapter 17

They slept through the sun. They slept through the complimentary breakfast downstairs. They slept until noon, when a loud knock on their locked door jolted them both awake, still wrapped around each other.

"Open the damn door!" They heard Dani yell from outside, and Farren grudged out of bed, her hair all messed up from sleeping so hard. Charlie sat up and rubbed her eyes, noticing even in her brief moments of sleep how cute Farren looked, all sleepy and disheveled.

Farren looked through the peephole just to be sure Dani hadn't been taken hostage and used as bait to lure them out and then unlocked and opened the door. Dani burst right in, Matt following behind, and looked between the two of them suspiciously.

"What?" Charlie asked, sharing a confused look with Matt.

"Nothing," Dani quipped. "You two slept awfully late." She looked back at Farren and noticed a long brown strand of hair on the blonde's shoulder. Farren was confused as Dani reached to her shoulder and picked it off, holding it up in the air and inspecting it. It was obviously Charlie's hair, and Dani clenched her jaw before throwing it to the ground. "You missed breakfast. Thought you were goners."

She plopped down on the bed where Farren had just been sleeping, pulling the covers off Charlie and grabbing her leg.

"Ow!" Charlie exclaimed as Dani rolled up her pants and looked at the bandaged wound, seeing that the bandage was fresh.

"Did you wrap it last night?" Dani asked.

"I did," Farren said casually, going over to the coffee maker to make her a morning cup.

Dani dropped Charlie's leg on the bed and stared at the blonde furiously. If she found out that Farren had laid even a finger on Charlie, she would be making coffee out of Farren's flesh.

Snapping back to Charlie, who looked confused and slightly scared, Dani suddenly grabbed at Charlie's neck.

"What the fuck!" Charlie exclaimed, trying to wiggle away from Dani as she aggressively moved her brown hair away from her neck and inspected it for hickeys. Charlie swatted at Dani until she finally got off her, looking at her bewilderedly. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Nothing. I'm hungry," Dani snipped, standing up. "We should go get lunch."

Farren and Charlie shared confused glances as Matt stood there awkwardly, knowing that Dani was trying to figure out if something had happened between them.

"I saw a pizza place a couple blocks from here when we drove by last night," Matt said, trying to clear the air. "Does everyone want pizza?"

"Sounds fucking delicious," Dani hissed, staring Farren down as she walked out of the room, expecting everyone to follow. Farren had to neglect her coffee that wasn't done yet, helping Charlie get out of bed since her leg was stiff from sleeping still for so many hours.

The pizza place was warm and cozy with brick walls and red leather booths. They ordered two large pizzas to share, since Matt would probably eat an entire one by himself.

As Farren picked the pepperoni off her pizza, claiming she didn't like how greasy it was, Dani aggressively chewed and stared at her the entire time, shaking heaping amounts of crushed red pepper onto her slice before every bite.

Charlie looked at Matt and gave him a look that silently asked why Dani was being so weird, but he just shrugged and started on his fifth slice.

Farren glanced around the filled restaurant. There were so many people—normal people who were just simply getting pizza for lunch. They weren't running for their lives. They weren't suspicious of everyone who was around them. She wished she could feel that way again, but she never really felt normal even before. She may not have walked around with fear, but she had worn a heavy guilt around her neck since high school. She always wished to feel light, to feel normal.