Counting Down

Chapter 6

Water drips from my hair pulling the red dye from my hair staining the shoulders of my white sleep shirt. I walk down the hall towards my dorm yawning as I go. The school day was long and it took a lot out of me today. As I get towards my dorm yelling echoes through the halls. Bakugo's yelling. His voice bounces off the walls and fills my ears. He sounds upset? Not quite angry but just upset and maybe stressed.

I get to my dorm's door hitting my keycard but once again it doesn't want to scan. I keep hitting it against the door handle hoping for it to scan but am met with a red screen and angry beep every time. I'm about to give up when the door behind me slams open and I slowly turn and Bakugo stands there dressed in his pajamas already and wearing a fluffy pair of slippers. He grips his phone tightly in his hands to the point his knuckles are white. Our eyes meet and his lashes are a bit wet and his eyes are rimmed with red as if he had been crying just seconds earlier.

"What are you staring at?" He says his voice rough.

"Nothing," I mumble as I go back to trying to get my keycard to work.

"What do you want, Shitty-hair?" he says as he leans against his doorframe.

"Honestly I just want to get into my room," I say with a slight laugh as I hold up my keycard. "I swear it hates more or something."

"Did you take the protective film of it?" Bakugo asks as he crosses his arms and his phone starts to buzz with a call but he just ignores it.

"Protective film?" I say as I look at the keycard and there is a small arrow with a 'peel here' sign next to it. "Oh."

I slowly peel it off revealing the shiny silver underneath with my name engraved into it. I press it against the handle of my door and it finally lights up green. I push open my door glad to finally get in with no struggle. I look behind me and Bakugo still stands there, his phone buzzing once more but he just peers into my room a bit.

"Wanna come in?" I ask as I move over a bit so he could enter if he wanted to.

"No," he says before walking into my room and I can't help but let out a laugh.

My dorm is still pretty plain but now it has some school work scattered about and books in piles instead of on the shelves and I'm not even gonna talk about the pile of dirty laundry that had been building in the corner. Mina has added a few things over the short time I've known her including a blanket, some hero figurines she thought i'd like and a string of lights. Bakugo walks around my room as he takes it all in and I just stand by my bed awaiting his blunt opinions that are yet to come.

"It's very red," he says as he stands by one of my shelves, not turning to talk to me directly.

"Yeah, I guess it is," I say with a slight nervous chuckle.

"You're a fan of Crimson Riot, huh?" he says as he turns around holding one of my figurines.

"Hey!" I say as I rush over grabbing it from his hand and putting it back on its stand on the shelf. "Don't touch those. Especially don't touch that one, it's a limited edition figurine from the series 3 set. There are like only ten made and I don't need you breaking mine."

"Jeez sorry," he says as he puts his hands up and his phone is buzzing once more and lit up with a call from his Mother.

"Aren't you gonna answer that?" I ask knowing I'd almost always answer my Ma's calls especially while staying at the dorms.

"Huh?" he says as he looks at his phone and declines the call. "Absolutly not. The old hag needs to stop calling."

"Family troubles?" I guess.