D e a n

f o u r

Effy's eyebrows frowned. "Depends on what?"

Dean said nothing after that and the two sat in silence as he skimmed through the book. After a while, Effy had to take off for supper. She let Dean keep the book and the two parted ways (unaware that, that would be the last time the two would see each other for a very long time.)

On her walk home, Effy was lost in her deep mind consuming thoughts. She was making her way down the sidewalk with her cold hands in her pockets, thinking about the sad possibility of losing one of her closest friends—her only friend when she heard a loud screeching sound and a crash.

Instantly she turned.

There was a black truck parked in the middle of the road in front of a toppled over, bent up bike. The horn was stuck on a long note. A few ways away, there was a man lying in the middle of the road.

Effy stared for a moment. Waiting for an adult to run out of one of the houses and do something—but nobody came.

With the horn still going, Effy hesitantly took a step forward. She could feel her heart race in her chest as she got closer and closer to the unconscious man. The moment she began seeing blood, her breathing quickened. Her chest rose and fell and her eyes widen. The man's skull was split and his shin bone poked out.

With every rushed breath she took from the scaring imagine before her, she began feeling more and more lightheaded. The sensation to faint at any moment growing until suddenly a woman rushed over and covered Effy's eyes as she pulled her away.

Effy shook the unwanted memory from her head. She rubbed her tired eyes after the words in the history book began to blur. Long sentences turning into fuzzy lines. She glanced at the library clock and found it was a quarter past seven. She rubbed her eyes once more. Pulled her phone out. And texted Dean asking him to pick her up.

With her lips puckered, Astrid blew out circled clouds of smoke. One after the other with a sound asleep Dean snoring away by her feet.

She laid in only her underwear and Deans oversized shirt hanging upside down over the edge of the foot of the bed. Smoking a joint she had rolled after Dean fucked her and passed out.

She heard a low vibrate come from Deans abandoned jeans. At first, she shrugged it away and blew another cloud of smoke. But when she heard it once again her curiosity peaked and got the best of her. She slid off the mattress to the floor, the joint held between her lips, as she pulled Deans phone out. Careful not to wake him.

When Effy's name appeared on the screen, Astrid smiled.

She wanted to message back something pathetically silly. (Something only she'd find actually humorous.) But she knew how Dean felt about people touching his things.

Deciding against it, she walked the phone over to a sleeping Dean and kicked the mattress. (He had no bed frame, only the mattress.) He groaned in his sleep but made no other movement. She waited a moment before kicking the mattress again.

"Hey," Astrid called out after another moment of silence. "Hey, Dean. Get up. Come on, you gotta get up. Effy needs you to pick her up."

Dean grumbled something tiredly.

Astrid shook his shoulder. The tip of her fingers barely brushing against his skin when suddenly he shot his hand out and shoved her away viciously with a heated glare. "I said fuck off!"

Astrid pressed her lips together. It was clear he was in one of his moods. She rolled her eyes and tossed his phone at him as she muttered under her breath, "whatever." She yanked his shirt off like it was drenched in acid. Quickly changing into her own clothes, she grabbed her bag and stormed off. Nearly hitting a drunk Jonah with the screen door on her way out.