Pure Poison

Chapter Four

He walked in between James and Patrick as Arc walked in front of them. Neo kept his head down and he counted how many steps they took per concrete slab. He heard the music start to get louder as well as people's voices. Loud. They waited in line before they swiped their ID and received their fair bracelet. Neo smiled while he looked at his bracelet.

"So, Neo, where do you wanna start?" James said while he looked around. He felt bad for what occurred earlier, but he knew he could not intervene. Neo shrugged and decided to walk over to the bottle toss. All four waited until it was their turn. They all tossed the rings, and the only one that got a ring on a bottle was Neo. He smiled softly as he was handed a stuffed animal. He bent down and shoved the animal into his backpack. He stood back up and quickly walked away from the game. As he stood up, his wallet fell out of his back pocket. Patrick picked it up and planned on giving it back to Neo once they were all going to head back to the dorm. They kept going around to each game and cheered when one of them won. After an hour, they had played almost all the games and now it was down to them going to the food booths, student-based booths, or the rides. Neo tried numerous times to walk away, but the students around him blocked him. He wanted to go back to the dorm. He did not like large crowds.

He watched the three men head over to carnival food booths and he took this as his opportunity to run. He looked for an exit and briskly walked towards it. He knew if he could get far away enough, he would be able to get back to the dorms unharmed. He arrived at the exit and broke his bracelet off and headed back to the dorm. Every few minutes he would look behind himself to see if any of the three men were following him. He did not see them. Thank God. Once at the dorm, he placed his backpack on his desk and then he placed the stuffed animals he won into the dirty hamper. He removed his shoes and socks and then headed to the bathroom. He pulled his hoodie off and gasped at his neck. There was a bruise where Arc grabbed him. He swore Arc only grabbed him by his collar, but his neck had finger outlines. Is this why my throat feels like it is on fire? It looked like Arc choked him. He rubbed his neck while he was getting upset. He felt a tear slide down his cheek, then two, then three, and soon he was crying while he held onto the counter and let his head fall. He kept crying while he put his hoodie back on. He used his sleeve to wipe his face before he walked out of the bathroom and back to his bed. He turned off all the lights before he climbed his ladder and wrapped himself in his blankets. He plugged his phone in and laid it on the top of his closet. He turned to face the wall as he curled up and just wanted to be left alone.

He did not know how long he had been alone for, but he was cherishing it. He felt his throat tighten each time he tried to breathe. He could not stop the tears that were now soaking through his pillow. His sniffles echoed throughout the room. He did not know how long he cried for, but he did fall asleep soon after.

The dorm door beeped before it was opened. Arc walked in and closed the door. He slipped off his shoes and turned on his desk light. He did not hear anything within the dorm. He walked closer to Neo's area and saw a dome in the bed. He knew either Neo was sleeping, listening to music, or wanted space, and he was going to give it to him. He grabbed his controller and walked over to James and Patrick's room.

He stepped inside the room and walked over to the couch. He sat and worked on getting his controller to connect to the Xbox. Once it was connected, he rested it on the table and walked over to the snacks.

"Was he in his bed?" Patrick asked while he was changing into something more comfortable.

"Yeah, he had the lights off and was in his bed. He was probably taking a nap." Arc said before he went back to the couch with chips in his hand. He pulled out his phone and began to scroll.

"Once he is awake, I want to bring him over here and you and he talk Arc. You probably scared him. You told us that he is not even connected to a tribe, so he doesn't know how most people act when it comes to alphas and the alphas family." Patrick sat next to Arc. Arc rolled his eyes and started to scroll through the games that were available for them to play. Arc knew that Patrick was right, but he did not want to admit it.