Days slipped away, and I just let them go. I was worried about class, but I was tired and my bruises had turned technicolor, and the last thing I wanted to do was be the centre of attention. It was better - Justin had convinced me - to do some home study and get back to class when I was better, and Monica had had some time to let things blow over.
The week slipped away. I fell into a regular routine - up late with Micheal and Justin and Eve, sleep until noon, argue over bathroom rights, cook, clean, study, do it all again. It felt...good. Real, somehow, in away that dorm life didn't, exactly.
The following Monday, when I got up and made breakfast, I had to make it for two: Justin was awake, looking grumpy and groggy. He silently grabbed the bacon and fried some up while I did the eggs; there wasn't any banter, as there had been between him and Eve a couple of mornings back. I tried a little conversation, but he wasn't in the mood. He just grunted replies. I waited until he was done with breakfast - which included a cup of coffee, brewed in the tiny little coffee maker in the corner of the counter - before I asked, "What are you doing up so early?"
Justin leant his chair back on two legs, balancing as he chewed. "Ask Micheal"
Can't exactly do that..."You doing something for him?" I asked.
"Yeah" He thumped his chair back down and brushed his hand over his hair, which still looked like a mess. "Don't expect me to dress up or anything" he said.
"What?" I asked.
"What you see is what you get" I just looked at him, frowning, trying to figure out what he was saying. "I'm taking you to class. You were going back today, right?"
"You're kidding." I said flatly. He shrugged. "You're kidding. I'm not some six year old who needs her big brother to walk her to school! No way, Justin!"
"Micheal thinks you should have an escort. Brandon was pretty pissed. He could find a way to take it out on you, even if he can't do it himself. He's got plenty of people who'd kick your ass on his say so" Justin's eyes slid away from mine. "Like Monica"
Oh, crap. "Monica belongs to Brandon?" I asked.
"The whole Morrell family does, as far as I know. He's their own personal badass. So" he rubbed his hands together. "What exciting classes do we have today?" He asks me.
"You can't go to class with me!" I whine.
"Hey, you're welcome to knock me out and stop me, but until you do, I'm you're date for the day. So. What classes?" He smiles at me.
"Calculus II, physics of sound, chemistry III, Chem Lab, and biochemistry" I told him.
"Holy crap. You really are smart. Right. I'll take some comics or something. Maybe my iPod" he says.
I kept glaring at him. It didn't seem to do any good - if anything, it made him more cheerful.
"I always wanted to be a big man on campus," Justin said. "Guess this is my chance.
"I'm dead" I moaned, and rested my forehead on my hands.
"Not yet. And that's kind of the point" he sang at me.
I was afraid Justin would make a big deal out of it, but he didn't. He even combed his hair, which turned out to make him look totally hot in ways that I was afraid to notice. Especially if I had to spend the whole day with him. He'd picked a plain white shirt and his best pair of blue jeans, which were still out at the knees and frayed at the hems. And plain black vans. "In case we have to do any retreating," he said. "Plus, kicking somebody when you're wearing flip flops, hurts"
"But you're not kicking, anybody," I said quickly. "Right?"
"Nobody who doesn't deserve it" he said. "What else do I need to fit in?"
"Backpack" I found my spare - I'd brought two - and tossed it to him. He stuck in some paperbacks, a psp, and his iPod and headphones, then raided the cabinets for twinkies and bottled water. "We're not exactly going to the wilderness, Justin. You don't have to take everything. There are vending machines"
"Yeah? I didn't see any lunch in that schedule. You'll thank me later" he winks at me.
In fact, I did feel better with Justin loping along beside me; he was watching the shadows, the dark alleys, the empty buildings. Watching everything. Even though he'd packed the iPod, he wasn't listening to it. I missed mine, all of a sudden, and wondered if Monica had it.
We made it to campus without incident, and we were halfway across it, heading for my first class, when I suddenly thought of something and came to a full stop. Justin kept going for a couple of paces, then looked back.
"Monica" I said. "Monica's going to be hanging around. She usually is. She'll see you"
"I know" Justin said, hitching his backpack to a more comfortable spot. "Let's go!"
"But- Monica!" I whisper.
He just looked at me, and started walking. I stayed where I was. "Hey! You're supposed to be with me, not leaving me!" I shout after him.
"Monica's my business," he said. "Drop it" He waited for me, and I reluctantly caught up. "She doesn't mess with us, I won't mess with her. How's that?" Justin asks me.
Wishful thinking, to my mind. If Monica really had gotten it for Justin, even a year or two ago, and gone far enough to kill his sister, I couldn't imagine any situation where Justin just walked away. Justin wasn't a walking away kind of guy.
The square concrete courtyard between the architecture building and the math sciences building was packed with students crossing between classes. Now that I knew what to look for, I couldn't help but notice how many of them had bracelets - leather, metal, even braided cloth - with symbols on them. And how many students didn't.
The ones who wore symbols were the shiny, confident ones. Sorority girls. Frat guys. Athletes. Popular kids. The loners, the sideliners, the dull and average and strange...they were the ones who weren't protected. They were the cattle.
Justin was scanning the crowd. I kept walking quickly toward the math building; I knew for a fact that Monica wouldn't be caught dead in a place that geeky. The only problem was that the third building on the quad was the business administration building, where Monica liked to spend her time hanging out, looking for rich boys.
I was on the steps leading up to the math building when I heard Justin stop behind me. He was staring off into the Quad, and as I turned, I saw Monica, surrounded by a clique of admirers, staring right back at him. The two of them might as well of been alone. It was the kind of look people in love exchanged, or people who were about to kill each other.
"Son of a bitch" Justin breathed. He sounded shaken.
"Come on" I said, and grabbed his elbow. I was afraid he wouldn't let me pull him on, but he did, as if his kind were somewhere else. When he finally glanced at me, his eyes were dark and hard.
"Not here" I said. "She won't come in" I assured him.
"Why not?" He asked.
"It would embarrass her" I shrugged. He nodded slowly, as if that made sense to him, and followed me to class.
I had a hard time keeping my mind on the droning lecture, which was familiar anyway, and I'd read far ahead of where the professor was teaching...but mostly, I kept thinking about Justin, sitting motionless next to me, hands on the desk, staring blankly into space. He wasn't even listening to his iPod. I could sense the tenseness in his body, like he was waiting for the chance to hit something. I knew this was a bad idea.
It was an hour and a half lecture with a fifteen minute break in the middle; when Justin got up and walked out, I hastily followed him. He went up to the Glass doors and looked out over the Quad.
"She's gone" he said, without looking at me. "Quit worrying about me. I'm okay"
"She- Eve said she burnt your house" No reply. "And- your sister-?"
"I couldn't get her out" Justin said. "She was twelve, and I couldn't get her out of the house. That was my job. Watch out for her" he sighed.
He still didn't look at me. I couldn't think of anything to say. After a while, he walked away, into the boys bathroom; and I dashed into the girls waiting impatiently for the line to clear, and came back out to find him nowhere in sight.
When I went back to the lecture hall he was sitting right where he'd been, this time with his iPod earbuds in place. I didn't say anything. Neither did he. It was the longest lecture, and the least enjoyable.
Psychics was in the same building; if Monica was waiting out in the wilting sun on the Quad; she'd be getting a really good tan. Justin sat like a statue, if a statue wore headphones and radiated angry coiled tension that made hair stand up on people's arms. I felt like I was sitting next to an unexploded bomb, and given all of the psychics I'd had, I understood exactly what that meant.
Psychics crawled slowly by. Justin broke out water and twinkies, and shared. Chemistry was in the next building, but I made sure that we went out of the side entrance, not through he quad. No sign of Monica. I suffered through another hour and a half of chemistry and tension. Justin gradually unwound to the point that my nerves didn't jangle like sleigh bells every time he moved, and ended up playing on his pap through most of the class.
In fact, he was positively cheerful during Chem Lab, interested in the experiment and asking so many questions that the teaching assistant, who'd never had come to my table before, wandered over and stared at Justin as if trying to figure out what he was doing there.
"Hey, man" Justin said, and stuck out his hand. "Justin Bieber. I'm- what's the word I'm looking for? Auditing. Auditing the class. With my friend here. Anastasia" he smiled.
"Oh" said the TA, whose name I had never learnt. "Right. Okay, then. Just- following along"
Justin gave him a thumbs up and a goofy grin. "Hey" he said in an undertone, leaning closer to me. "Any of this stuff blow up?" He asks me.
"What? Um...yeah, if you do it wrong, I guess" I shrug.
"I'm thinking about practical applications. Bombs. Things like that" he says.
"Justin!" He really was distracting. And he smelt good. Guy good, which was different from girl good, darker, spicier, a smell that made me go all fluttery inside. Oh come on, it's Justin. I told myself. That didn't help, especially when he shot me that crooked smile and a look that probably would kill most girls at ten feet. He's a slacker. And he's - not that smart.
Maybe he was, though. Just in different places then I was. It was a new idea to me, but I kind of liked it. I slapped his hand when he reached for the re-agents, and concentrated on the details of the experiment.
I was concentrating so hard, in fact, and Justin had gotten so engrossed in watching what I was doing, that neither of of us heard footsteps behind us. The first I knew about it was the searing, burning sensation down the right side of my back.
I dropped the beaker I was holding and screamed - couldn't help it, because god, that hurt - and Justin whirled around and grabbed somebody by the collar who was backing away.
Gina, the Monickette. She snarled and slapped at him, but he didn't let go; I was there, gasping in pain trying to twist to see what was happening on my back, I could see it was taking everything Justin had not to deck his prisoner there and then. The TA came rushing over and other students started realising there was something wrong, or at least more interesting than lab work; I slipped off the stool and stood at the table and tried to look at what was happening to my back, because it hurt. I smelt something horrible.
"Oh my god!" The Ta blurted. He grabbed the bottle of water out of Justin's backpack, opening it, and dumped the contents over my back, then dashed to a cupboard on the side and came back with a box of baking soda. I heard it sizzle when it hit my back, and nearly passed out.
"Here. Sit. Sit down. You, call an ambulance. Go!" I heard him shout. As I sank down breathlessly again on another, lower stool, the TA grabbed a pair of scissors and cut my shirt up the back, and folded it aside. He cut my bra strap too, and I just barely had the presence of mind to grab hold of it before the whole thing slid down my arms. I tried not to cry. The burn was easing up a bit as the baking soda did its work.
I looked up and saw that Justin still had a hold of Gina. He twisted her arm behind her back and made her let go of the beaker; what remained of the acid she'd splashed on me was still in the Glass, looking as innocent as water.
"It was an accident!" She yelled, and stood on her tiptoes as Justin twisted harder. "I tripped! I'm sorry! Look, I didn't mean-"
"We're not working with H2SO4 today" the TA said grimly. "You've got no reason to be walking around with it. Anastasia? Anastasia, how bad is the pain?"
"I-it's okay. I'm okay" I said, though truthfully I had no idea if I was or not. I felt light headed, sick and cold. Shock, probably. And embarrassment, because god, I was half naked in front of the entire Chem Lab, and Justin. "Can I put something on?"
"No, you can't let anything touch that. The burns through several layers of skin. It'll need treatment, and antibiotics. You just sit still" The TA turned to Justin and Gina, and levelled a finger at her. "You, you're talking to the campus police about this. I will not tolerate this kind of attack in my classroom. I don't care who your friends are!"
So he knew her. Or at least he knew enough. Justin was whispering something into Gina's ear, something too low for me to hear, but it couldn't be good, by the expression of her face.
"Sir?" I asked faintly. "Sir, can I have a make up on the lab work and-" And I passed out before I finished saying, and I'm sorry for the mess.