I woke up to the sound of a familiar voice telling all of the girls that we had to get out of bed. It was Sophie, I could tell. I didn't want to get out of bed but I forced my eye lids to open and me to get up. She stood up and stretched. A yawn left my mouth without me even knowing it and I walked to the bathroom to get ready before we had to go down to breakfast.
I showered quickly and put on my dark blue bathrobe. I combed out my blonde hair, brushed my teeth and then left the bathroom to find clothes to wear. Normally, if I was at home, I would've put on some make-up then but not here. There was no make-up at Horizon so I'm stuck wearing none. At least I don't break out in pimples or anything. In my opinion, my face actually isn't that bad.
I went over to my clothes and grabbed underwear, a simple black T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. I didn't really like the jeans that I picked out for I thought they made my butt look huge but Scott liked them so I thought I'd be a nice girlfriend and wear them. I would've worn a shirt I knew he would like, too but he likes me in blue shirts and I didn't want to be wearing blue on blue.
I got dressed quickly, without showing any body parts that I didn't want scene. Years of getting naked and getting dressed on the streets kind of made me an expert at changing clothes and not showing any extra skin. Well, there's one perk from being on the street. There aren't many so if I can think of one, I'm happy.
I lay down on my bed, waiting for the rest of the girls to be done so we could leave. Well, actually, I wasn't waiting for the rest of the girls. Me and Daisy were waiting for Juliet, she always took so long getting ready. It was, like, she always needed to take 30 minute showers. How can a shower last that long? You get in, wash your body, wash and condition your hair and you get out. But, no, with Juliet she has to sit there for an extra 20 minutes doing nothing.
I lifted my head from my pillow and saw a wet spot from where my hair was. My hair needs to dry faster! I grabbed my still damp towel and started to wrap it around my hair but half way through me wrapping the towel around my hair, Juliet voice came into the air.
"Okay, I'm done." She said.
I sighed. She always had bad timing. Once I have something to do, she's ready. I wear, she does that on purpose.
I stood up and walked out of the dorm. We walked into the kitchen and looked over at the table all the Cliffhangers usually sit at and saw all the guys there eating already. They always get there earlier for we always have to wait for Juliet. It's not that we're commanded to wait for her but here there's this little saying that Peter invented so we were more like a family, "if one's down, we're all down". That saying can also go "if one's extremely slow, we're all extremely late". Why can't it ever go the other way around? Why can't it go "if everyone's ready than the one needs to learn how to pick up the pace and move their ass"? Eh, I don't make up the rules, I just have to follow them.
We grabbed our food and walked to the table. I noticed Scott watching me as I walked and smiling. I grinned and walked around the table so he could get to see my butt and that I was wearing his favorite jeans before I finally took my seat next to him. I loved teasing him. It was always so fun. And easy.
At breakfast we all kind of had a normal routine. Juliet gave her sausage and bacon to Auggie, Daisy took Ezra's hashbrowns and gave her bacon to him, David got Daisy's sausage and Scott got mine, sometimes I would give Scott my bacon too but today I didn't. I wanted my bacon today. Especially because it didn't seem to taste like rubber. The breakfast actually tasted kind of good. The food tasting good here is a rare luxury so none of us wasted it.
"So I hear we have to a new kid today." David said.
"We get new kids here almost every day." Ezra said.
"I mean in our group."
"Oh."
"Anyone know anything about 'em?" Auggie asked.
"No. I just heard we have a new Cliffhanger. He came in this morning." David said.
"How do you know these things?" I asked. David always seemed to know things before the rest of us, it's like he's a spy or something.
"I have my ways." He responded.
"How very cryptic of you."
"What can I say? I don't want to give away my secrets."
I rolled my eyes and looked at Scott. He seemed to be very interested in his bacon but not in eating it, he was just poking it with his fork. I blinked a couple of times and tried to make sense of why he's been so quiet today but gave up when I couldn't think of anything.
"What's up?" I asked him.
Me saying something seemed to break him out of whatever train of thought he had at the time and he jumped slightly. I gave him a weird look. I think I made it look more like worry than confusion though. He looked at me and smiled.
"Relax, Shelby. You don't have to worry. I'm just thinking about some stuff." He responded as he lifted his hand and cupped my face. I leaned into his hand and let out a gentle sigh.
"Are you sure I don't have to worry?" I asked, looking into his beautiful blue eyes.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
That was enough for me. I shut up and dropped the conversation. If he wanted to talk to me about something than he would come to me but until then, I wasn't going to push.
"Hey, you guys, before you go to History today I want you all in the lodge to meet a student that's going to be in the Cliffhangers with you guys." Peter said.
Wait. When did he get here? Did I miss something? He must have come right after I got lost in Scott's eyes and smile. That tended to happen to me a lot lately.
We all nodded.
"I told we had a new student." David said with a smirk.
I swear, he's so strange. Okay, so, we had to go to the lodge after breakfast. No problem. That's where we always went before we went to our first class anyways for we had about half an hour before we had to be in class.
I took a last bite of bacon and a last drink of orange juice and stood up to into the lodge. Everyone else was done eating so they all stood up to go, too. Scott grabbed my hand as we walked but he stayed a little bit behind me for some reason. Was he looking at my butt or something? Well, he does like it in these jeans so he might be. Who knows? Why do I care? It's not like it's something he hasn't done before.
I sat down in one of the many chairs that were waiting for us so we could meet the new student. Scott sat down next to me, still holding onto my hand, and Daisy sat on the other side of me. I didn't really pay attention to where everyone else sat as long as I knew who was sitting next to me.
Sophie walked in first, followed by Peter and...oh, God, it's him. I felt my body tense up and I squeezed Scott's hand. I felt my eyes grow hot with unshed tears and my whole body tightened. I had a horrible feeling in my stomach, one that I couldn't really describe but I knew what it was: Fear.
My other monster was here. Walt was my monster at home, Josh was my monster on the streets. No. This wasn't suppose to happen! Horizon is my safe place. I'm not suppose to have him in my safe place. I can't! I had no idea what to do. His file probably didn't say anything about what he liked to do to girls. What should I do? Should I tell Peter what Josh had done to me? Should I stay quiet and hope that he's stopped and doesn't do that anymore? Should I hide my face and hope that he doesn't recognize me? I didn't know anything right now and I didn't like it!
I looked down and tried to hide my face but when I risked a quick glance up, I saw him watching me and knew that he recognized me. After all, how couldn't he? After everything he did to me, he would have to remember.
"Okay. Everyone this is Josh. He's new here obviously so I want you all to make him feel welcome. Now how about you go around and introduce yourselves. Nothing big, just your names for starters. Daisy, why don't you start and we'll go clockwise." Sophie said.
Going clockwise meant that I was last. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing right now. I looked at Scott and saw him looking seriously at me. I think he noticed that I tensed when I saw Josh. Shit. What am I going to say to him about that? If I tell him the truth, he'll kill Josh but I'm not sure that's too bad of an idea.
Everyone went around saying there names. Scott said his and now it was my turn. What's the point in me saying my name? He knows it already. But no one knows that. Maybe if I pretend like nothing happened with him, he'll pretend like nothing happened with me. Knowing Josh, that wouldn't happen but it was worth a shot.
"My name's Shelby." I said simply. "Can we go to class now, Peter?"
"You want to go to class? God. You must really want to get out of here." Peter said with a smile.
"I'm bored of sitting here. At least in class there's something to do." I made up a stupid lie. I didn't care how dumb it sounded, if it got me away from him than it worked well enough for me.
"Sure, you guys can go. Wait. Anyone want to be Josh's first week buddy?"
No one raised there hands. None of us ever want to be first week buddies but I especially didn't want to be with Josh. Good thing Peter usually sticks with same sex buddies so they can go into the dorms with each other and everything. Oh, now I really didn't want Scott to have to be his first week buddy. If Josh noticed Scott and I were together than Josh would purposely piss Scott off and he was good at pissing people off.
"Scott, how about you?" Peter asked.
Scott shrugged. I don't think he cared either way.
I think Peter was be able to read minds or something. It always seems like he knew exactly what I was thinking and that he did the opposite of what I want just to get to me. It's probably not true but it's something to think about.
"Okay then Scott, you're going to be Josh's first week buddy." Peter said.
"Okay. Class now?" I asked again.
"Yeah. You guys get to class."
I let go of Scott's hand and rushed out of the lodge. I kept my pace just below a run as I sped to my first class. All of the Cliffhangers had it together so me rushing was pointless for I would still have to face them, most importantly Scott, later but for right now, I just needed to not deal with it.
I walked into class and saw that Jeff wasn't there yet. Plus for me. I closed the door behind and leaned against it. I let my body slide down the wood of the door and I closed my eyes slowly. I forced tears not to fall. I took in a deep breath and counted to 10 slowly, a little trick Sophie showed me to calm down, and I stood up. I walked over to my chair and took a seat. Everyone came into the room and took their seats like I'd done.
My eyes wondered the room as I half listened to Jeff talking about something that happen in Russia like 500 years ago. It's in the past so I wasn't going to bother listening when I had bigger things to worry about in the present.
My attention was brought back to the desk in front of me when I saw a folded piece of paper in front of me. I unfolded it silently so Jeff wouldn't noticed and read the note.
Shelby,
What's going on? I'm worried about you. Talk to me, please.
-Scott.
Great. I knew it was only a matter of time until he asked me about it but I didn't think it would be this soon. I guess I was really obvious in the lodge earlier. I sighed and picked up my pen. I wasn't sure what I should write. I knew I couldn't tell him the truth, not yet at least but I had to tell him something. I wrote back to Scott.
Scott,
You don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine. Really, there's nothing going on. I'll talk to you after class though.
-Shelby.
I passed the note back and watched Scott as he read it. He turned to me and nodded which meant that we would talk after class. Good. That gave me a whole half an hour to think about what I was going to say to him.
Class went by way to quickly. The one day I wanted it to go slow, it seemed like it ended so fast. The half an hour I thought I had was now gone and I still hadn't thought of anything to say to Scott. Before I could think of anything, Scott grabbed my hand as I walked out of the door. He gently pulled me to a random bench outside. He looked at me and I knew he was going to ask me what was wrong again but I stopped him.
"Nothing's wrong with me, Scott. Really." I said and tried to sound convicing.
"I saw how you tensed up when you saw that new guy. What's wrong?" He asked and sounded worried. Why was he worried?
"It's a long story," I said and sounded tired.
"We have time,"
"Maybe later. I have to go."
I stood up and left Scott at the bench. I walked to my next class and forced myself to concentrate on the Chemistry that was being showed to us.
My day went by slow and it ended with me seeing Josh as I walked to the dorm that night. He watched me as I walked and I knew that he saw me looking at him, too. I forced myself to look away from him and rushed into the dorm.
God! I hated that I was so afraid of him. I had so much fear of him yet in a strange way, I was entranced by him. I couldn't take my eyes off of him when I saw him and I had my mind on him all day. What was wrong with me?
(A/N)- A new story, obviously. I know I kind of rushed into this story but I wanted to get it going quickly. Please, everyone, let me know what you think of this story. I'd like to know what everyone thinks of this story idea and of my POV so please review. Thanks!