Mom, who's that girl you walked in with?
Day three and Sigrid knocked on Todd and Neil's door with a small cup of tea. She had been drawing in the darkness for the past three nights to finish the drawing Mrs. Dalton had requested but alas, she burnt her wires and needed a break. She knocked on the door in an attempt to be as quiet as possible without waking up the golden retriever at the end of the hall. Todd slowly opened the door and pulled her inside when he realized she was still in her nightwear. He got one of his sweaters off the clothing rack and gave it to her quickly, looking away. She gave him the approval to turn around once she had zipped it up.
"Is Neil still up?" she whispered as she looked at the bed, which looked like it was occupied in the darkness. Todd shook his head, "He left to go to the bathroom. What brought you here?"
She looked down at her cup, still steaming and burning her hand slightly. She took a slow sip before smacking her lips happily. "I didn't know who else to bother, I tried to wake up Knox but he sleeps like a hibernating bear. I haven't quite talked to Meeks or Pitts. And Charlie...well it's obvious that he finds me annoying so I didn't bother."
He hummed in confusion and then sat down on his bed, he covered himself with his blanket so she wouldn't see him in his pajamas. It caused her to smile slightly, "How about we both change and take a little stroll outside? If Neil comes around in the next five minutes he could come with us, the more the merrier."
"It's freezing outside, you're going to have to go back and change."
"Or I could just wear one of these," she looked through the small closet and pulled out uniform pants. "Sure, it'll fit a tad big but we could avoid getting caught by exiting through the window."
"You and Knox don't have a window?"
"No," she answered before turning when she heard the front door squeak open. She flashed a smile at Neil, who was squinting because his sleep was winning him over, he didn't even notice the girl in the night gown and walked past her to go back to bed. "Go back to sleep, Anderson," he mumbled as he turned himself over and groaned at how cold his pillow was. Sigird waited until Neil was lightly snoring to continue talking.
"So are we going to be mischievous and take a stroll around Hellton?" She held the pants over her legs with a playful smile on her face.
He hummed with uncertainty, "I don't know, Hall, it's really dark outside and we could get demerits for getting caught outside. I don't want Nolan calling my parents."
"Oh come on," she whispered her whine. "Carpe Diem. Live a little, besides we all know your dad would probably be happy to know that you sneaked out with a girl. All men are like that, I'm bored and you need good points. I'm assuming if your parents took you out of your old school to send you to Hellton."
He rolled his eyes, "My dad isn't," then he stopped himself to think about the fight they had last summer. Sigrid noticed his face twist into a mixture of anger and despondency. "Never mind."
"What? What happened?" her eyebrows furrowed as she sat on his bed hesitantly just in case he didn't want her to sit down. "Did I say something out of line?"
He looked at her from the corner of his eye, shaking his head unconvincingly. She picked up on the slight details, "Maybe I should just let you stay here, you're right it's too cold to walk outside. I'll find something else to do."
He watched her, biting his tongue to stop himself from saying something he might regret. She stood up, unzipping her sweater while overthinking what it was that she said. Neil opened his eyes once he heard the rumbling and gaped when he noticed Todd looking at her, he was hoisted on his elbows.
"Holy shit," he whispered to himself before closing his eyes and huddling up in case something was going to happen. Next thing he knew Todd laughed and shifted around to find his shoes. "Fine, half an hour but we need to be quiet," he murmured and asked her to zip the sweater with his finger. She sighed in relief and opened the window to climb outside. "Bring something warm, Anderson."
He laughed through his nose and got another sweater. He climbed out the window as well and closed it behind him. "Outside?" Neil hissed as he took the blanket off of himself. He got out of bed and hesitantly looked out the window. He watched as Sigrid ran off with Todd holding her hand, they both nearly tumbled on a piece of moist grass but then laughed loudly as they continued to run to the woods.
The next morning, Todd hadn't shown up to the locker rooms to shower and Sigrid was combing her luscious brown hair in front of the mirror. Their conversation the night before consisted of a lot of worrisome questions, inquiries about each other, and the topic that Todd decided to tell her at the last minute. Three-thirty in the morning, hands held as they walked back to the school they were both unfamiliar to, Todd muttered:
"I'm gay."
At first, Sigrid was unsure of what she had heard but then she smiled and pulled him into a hug. She understood why he was so personally affected by the slight commentary on male society, and she felt bad but at that moment she just hugged him and thanked him for feeling comfortable enough to tell her. The rest of the walk, Todd mentioned that he had feelings toward a boy he had just met and he didn't know if he should pursue it because he was too insecure to deal with the rejection.
Sigrid didn't get a name but she tried to help as much as she could, before she knew it she was confessing about her past "boyfriend" and comparing him to a boy she didn't know the name of. Todd teased her relentlessly, she giggled even harder and couldn't help but blush. In a matter of hours, her and Todd had become the best of friends.
But now as she combed her hair, she couldn't help but curse him out for making their initial half-hour rendezvous over two hours long, she had the eyebags to prove it. Todd was still asleep by the time everyone was heading to the main room to have their breakfast, Knox kept on hurrying up his roommate because he didn't want to leave, she kept on falling asleep mid-strand.
"What's up with you? You didn't stay up another night drawing did you?" Knox took the comb from off her hands and combed the rest for her, she moaned in displeasure when he pulled her head back. "Because if you did I can't help you from getting another warning from Nolan. Third strike he actually calls your parents, I'm sure Mrs. Dalton wouldn't appreciate the call home."
"She's not my mom," she yawned in response.
"But she pays for your schooling and that's all that matters at the end of the day."
"She deals with worse by having Charlie as a son!"
"You might be right but he's her son," Knox flicked the back of her neck and then stood her up. "You're just a little rat she picked up from the side of the street. Now suck up your bad decisions, Sigr and get on up so we don't have to live off of orange juice and apple peels again."
He fixed her tie and then opened the door so she could walk out first, she squinted as the light immediately hit her eyes, she hissed slightly. "Has this hallway always been so bright?"
"It's much more gentle when you actually get a good-night's sleep."
"I swear, it was crazy! I didn't think little ol' Anderson would be confident enough to go out late at night, especially with a girl. But there I was, squinting my eyes to see what was in the darkness and he was hoisted on his elbows watching some girl take her top off!"
Neil wasn't big on gossip, in fact he hated it, but he was so heated up that he couldn't help but spill what he had seen.
"And he's still in bed? I'm sure they were going at it all night, lucky man that Anderson is," Charlie muttered as he took a sip of orange juice. "Luckier than me I know that for a fact. Luckier than Knox and he's got a girl in his room," just as he said it he noticed Knox and Sigrid at the end of the line grabbing a tray. Knox was more upbeat than usual and Sigrid looked like she had just gotten out of a car accident.
He furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he watched her look up at his friend with a tired pout, he angrily took a bite out of his toast. He was so caught up in the interaction that they
he didn't notice Todd sitting next to Neil. Todd looked at Neil for a couple seconds before clearing his throat, "What, did she stuff her bra or something? Why are you all looking at her like she's an alien?"
Neil flinched when he heard the boy he had just been gossiping about right next to him, he laughed nervously. "Morning Todd, what kept you in bed so late?"
"Nothing," Todd shrugged, offering any of the boys a peach. Charlie took it with a smirk. He started to open it from the top with his thumb to take the seed out and then used the pad of his fingers to make the whole deeper with an evil chuckle. "What are you doing?" Todd furrowed his eyebrows as he heard a strange noise coming from the yellowish fruit.
Sigrid sat down next to Charlie, Knox was at her other side and looking at Charlie judgmentally. "I think he's...stimulating it," she grinned before taking it and ripping it in half. "Really badly might I add, if that peach was a woman she'd be in a lot of pain." She showed the part that was dripping down onto her plate.
Richard Cameron choked on his own spit, the other boys stared at her in shock as she bit the peach and gave the other half to Charlie, she looked at the peach with the same evil intention as him. It made him clench in fear.
She grabbed his hand, "Maybe you should try rubbing circles instead of straight lines. It's much more effective," his pads were on the peach, led by her hand as she guided him on his pattern. Just as Charlie looked at her in shock, she took her hand away and smirked, "But then again you're in a private school and no girls would actually like you with that personality of yours."
Todd kicked her under the table and she laughed at his tactic, he signaled her to meet her somewhere else with his eyes, "But I haven't had breakfast yet."
He kicked her again and she hissed, backing her feet into a corner and murmuring. "Have fun with your peach," she ruffled Charlie's hair as she stood up. "Remember, circles not lines. And go slower...as for your slick attempt to jab at Todd, I'm pretty sure he doesn't puncture anybody."
She started running when Todd got mad and ran after her. "What? I thought I was helping!" She laughed loudly as she swerved out of the room.
"I guess we found out who the secret girl was," Neil said bitterly under his breath.
"Maybe you should ask Todd just to make sure, you shouldn't assume," Knox suggested, jokingly because he knew Sigrid was just the type of girl to joke about 'taboo' subjects. They had a similar type of humor.
It was silent for a couple minutes before Charlie looked over at the peach on Sigrid's tray. He looked down at his own peach which certainly was....wet? Knox looked at him from the corner of his eye, he took the peach and bit into it, "You know, she's right. You were being kind of aggressive."
"It's a peach!"
"Yeah, and the peach looked terrified of you."
"Like you know any better," he stood up, grabbing his plate, Sigrid's, and Todd's to discard. "I'll see you guys in first class, I need to go do something real quick."
"Like get Sig back from Todd or ask her to demonstrate the peach scene all over again?" Knox elbowed Meeks playfully while he said it. The boys snickered.
"No bozo," Knox got smacked upside the head with a tray, Knox grabbed the back of his head with a groan and then turned around with the meanest glare he could muster. "Like get you a girlfriend so you could stop bothering me about that."
Charlie walked back into the hallways after throwing the trays away. Part of him didn't want to believe the joke that Sigrid had made but it was undeniable how red Todd got as they walked away and how they were both tired from the night before. He continued to walk, ignoring the chains rattling of his insecurities and doubts, and made it to Sigrid and Knox's front door. It was shut, when he tried to open it it was locked. He looked down at his hand on the doorknob and sighed in defeat.
He decided to knock.
Sigrid opened the door, with an umbrella in hand in case it was Todd who had fooled her into believing that he wasn't going to surprise attack her. She sighed in relief when she realized it was only Charlie but then went back to feeling the annoyance she experienced just looking at his face. "What do you want?"
"Is it true?" he replied just as bluntly. She rolled her eyes and attempted to close the door, he put his hand up to the door to stop in from closing. She groaned in annoyance as he repeated, "Sigrid, is it true?"
There was an unknown desperation behind his words that captivated her, she looked into his brown eyes longingly and then looked away while coughing awkwardly. The bell rang which meant it was time from class.
"Obviously, it's not true, Charlie."
He took his hand off the door, still looking at her in curiosity. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, any girl would be honored to be a peach," she replied, sarcastic but she didn't let her emotions submerge into her words.
He shook his head and then rubbed the back of his neck with a laugh. People were starting to head to class, it was harder for him to stay where he was because people were pushing past him. Todd walked past them just to see if her door was open, to get her to clear up the situation and make sure everyone knew that there was nothing going on about him. He went back to the table to clear things up but Neil was so bothered he threw away the rest of his food and headed to class. He saw them talking and his anger disintegrated.
"Well would you look at that," he whispered to himself before walking even faster and going in the middle of them. Sigrid laughed when she realized it was Todd, Charlie gave a steady glare before looking at her and softening his expression.
"Can I walk you to class?"