Sandra woke up to the musty smell of the room, suffocating her. Blinking her eyes in the harsh darkness, all she could see was a muscular outline of a body slowly fluttering up and down. Devin. She sat straight up, her head hitting the sloped ceiling.
"Ow. . ." Muttering to herself, she pulled of the sticky, stained blankets, getting another rush of air washing over her. Climbing out of the bed, she felt around, holding her arms out like a shield. She made her way down the wall, finally reaching the rough texture of the curtains. She ripped them open, blinded with light. Seeing how it was no longer dark, she rushed over to her mom to jiggle her awake.
"Mom. . . Get up." Muttering under her breath, she finally got her mother up. Her mom rubbed her dreary eyes lazily, looking at her phone just to see it was already seven o'clock. Just like Sandra she jumped up, lucky to be under the part of the ceiling that wasn't hazariously sloping down. She managed to pull herself out of bed, trying to get ready for the day.
Sandra went straight over to Devin, checking to see if he was alright. "Mom, I think Devin should probably stay here for the day. He still doesn't look well enough to go to school."
Still not fully awake, her mother slumped back onto the bed, not having the willpower to get up. "Of course. I'll stay here with him and you can go to school."
Sandra internally did a face palm, her mother not realizing that she missed a very important detail. "Mom, you need to drive me to school. There is no bus here, remember?"
"Can't you just stay here with us? I really don't want to get up. Last night was long."
"Come on mom, I can't miss school just because you're tired." And with that, she grabbed a hold of her mother's arm, pulling her up onto her feet.
*****
After she finally managed to get her mother up and moving, it seemed as though she waited hours for her mother to perfect her makeup, tie up her hair while making sure here were no lumps, brush her teeth for three minutes longer than a normal human being, get a bag of doritos from the vending machine for breakfast and munch on them as slowly as she could manage, and finally, finally get dressed.
"Mom, why are you doing any of this? Aren't you coming straight back here after?" There was no reply from her, but a tint of rose colored pink that flushed up to her cheeks.
They finally got in the car, with Sandra now going to miss two classes instead of one. They hobbled down the road, sitting in silence. There was still a little crusty blood on the seat even with Sandra's attempt of shielding the fabric from exposure to Devin, but luckily it wasn't much. The car had a strong stench of beer, the trademark of her father.
They got to the school, the parking lot full with no parking place in sight. Sandra's mom pulled right up to the front, getting as close to the office as she could. Sandra hopped out, hoping she could at least get in the school.
*****
When third hour ended, she headed to the cafeteria, passing Maxon. "Hi, how you doing?" She happily exclaimed.
"Oh. Fine," as if bored, he said as little as possible.
"Ok, well, what did you do last night?"
"Hey, listen, I have to go with my friends, see you later alright?" Brushing her off, he headed in the other direction.
"O. . . k?" Too late she replied, Maxon was already gone.
She went back to strolling to the cafeteria, sad to eat alone. She struggled to get through the crowd, being bumped into and bounced around all over. Finally, she was almost to the cafeteria, almost.
Shoved from behind, she fell face first into the floor, feeling a sharp pain in her lip, and not a moment later, a sharp kick in her leg. She heard giggling behind her that trailed over near her head, and looking up she saw Ella, Emily, and more of her old friends.
"Not so tough now are we? Without your little boyfriends, you are nothing!" Ella said, gaining more giggles around her. As they walked away, she stared at them. The only person around her that gave her any recognition was Bella. Giving a quick glance at her that resembled pity, she set off to trail behind Ella.
She stood up, wiping the blood that was now trailing down her chin, almost dripping to the floor. All around her she could hear muttering, people exclaiming how gross she was. Looking at the bright side, she figured she could go to the office, not having to deal with the pain of eating alone.
*****
The rest of the day was uneventful, and she was soon picked up by her mother. Hobbling back down the road, they soon arrived at the hotel.
"We should really look for another place to buy." Her mother said, smiling back at her through the mirror rear view mirror.
"Wait, you mean we are actually leaving him?" She replied in shock. Then, her face broke out into a ginormous beaming smile. "You don't know how long I've waited for you to say that! I am so proud of you mom!"
They chatted the rest of the way, happy to finally be rid of the giant jerk that had always terrorized their home. They new it would be hard to find a new place and it would take a while to sort out the legal issues, but they were happy to finally be on the right track. Walking into the building, they headed straight up the rickety elevator to go check on how Devin was doing. Sandra's mother said he was looking much healthier and less puke-green than this morning, but Sandra was still anxious.
They walked into the room, it looking much friendlier with the light streaming down through the window, but Sandra was only eyes for Devin. There he was, sitting on the bed and reading a book without a care in the world. Hearing the door squeal open, he looked up, a goofy smirk on his face. Sandra was so overjoyed that he was finally up and healthy again. Running over, she gave him a tight hug, squeezing him until he couldn't breathe.
"Ok, Ok. Missed you too Sandra," he managed to squeeze out. She let him go, bouncing down on bed.
"So, what did you do all day?" Sitting next to him, hands millimeters apart, she questioned him, her face blushing rose.
"You know, sat around, found a T.V. in the lobby and watched that, ate stale chips, the usual." He said, a joking tone outlining his words.
"Oh! Speaking of food, I'll go get some for us!" Sandra's mom peeped up in between them. Then she opened the almost unhinged door, heading down to the lobby where the vending machine was.
With her gone, Sandra didn't feel held back. She bounced up for a second, pecking Devin's cheek, blushing as she realized how soft it was, like velvet. She glanced over to him, her face lit up, but the answer she got in response was not was she expected.
His face was a fuming red, a hurt expression on his face, as if he didn't know her. "Um. . . I don't do that anymore. Please, don't." Sheing her crestfallen face, her eyes hidden under her hair, he continued with a mutter under his breath, no compassion in his voice. "Sorry."
She glanced up in a flash, quickly darting her eyes back down. Unconsciously, she played with her hair for a short moment in response to the awkward wall that just came between them. "Oh, it's fine. It's my fault anyway, I just thought it was okay. I'm the one who should be sorry."
Saving them for more awkwardness, her mother walked in, making them both pounce up from the bed to meet her. She gave them a questioning look in response to this unusual action, something most people only do if they did something they weren't supposed to. "Wow, you guys sure love stale, crumbly snacks from the vending machine! Did I miss anything?"
Sandra answered, wasting no time to cover up that she just got rejected by her own boyfriend. She plastered a fake smile onto her face, not wanting to show how she really felt right at that moment. "Nope! We were just talking about school! Thanks for all the snacks, mom!"
Grabbing half of the tower mounting in Sandra's mother's arms, Devin and Sandra flopped down on opposite beds, still uncomfortable with each other. That left her mom, who sat down in between them blocking each other from view, making Sandra want to squeeze her to death in a big bear hug.
Having nothing to do, they each got to work on something. Sandra's mother, on her phone, sucked into the multiple emails she got from work. Devin, pulling out a book he found in the lobby to disguise how deep in thought he was, which left Sandra, pretending to do homework, when really she was doing anything but. She tried to hold herself back, but gave up, having no will power. She peeked around her mom, wishing Devin would notice her, maybe even smile. She sat there, wishing it was like old times when her relationship wasn't so complicated. Finally, getting no response, she sunk back and leaned into the wall to dream about the future.
The minutes turned to hours, the sun slowly drifting to sleep and the moon forcing itself awake. Still, they sat there, surrounded by eachother but forever alone.