The Lunatics 2: Push Tumble & Fall

Saturday 9:05 p.m.

Six Times Four.

"What's the matter? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said and threw my backpack on the floor.

"You know DeaDorian is just worried about you. You know that, right?" said Loxi.

"He's worried about controlling me."

"Like that's even remotely possible." Loxi paraded her marked-up body around our room. Her tattoos were a combination of blues and reds and yellows, and they stood out like a 1952 colored movie. She pulled out the vanity chair to sit in front of the mirror.

"It's Saturday night," said Loxi. "And I need to get the hell," she paused to comb her blond hair back before running her fingers through it to make it messy again, "out of this house."

"What do you think?" She asked holding up a blue lipstick.

"I thought it was your turn to watch Trashcan Guy. It was your pledge," I said.

"Pledge is a big word with a lot of responsibility and boredom attached to it," Loxi twisted open the lipstick. "He's asleep now, and he's not going to wake up for another ten hours." She spoke while sliding the lipstick tube on her mouth. "It's the weekend. We should go out."

"I don't feel like it," I said.

"You need to make up with DeaDorian," said Loxi.

"Why? He's the one that should apologize," I said.

"Do you want to be on his wrong side?" she asked.

"I've never been much for threats," I said. "What is he going to do? Send me away?"

"You need a clan," said Loxi.

"You make it sound so suffocating," I said.

"You need to be with your own," said Loxi. "Everyone needs people My-my."

A statement I didn't agree with. Loneliness didn't care if I was with people, or with my kind at Laurels, or roaming the streets aimlessly and without direction in the world. Loneliness would show up unannounced and uninvited, to a crowd, to a house, or under a bridge; it didn't discriminate.

I exhaled. "Being around DeaDorian is the last thing I want to do right now."

"Which probably means it's the exact thing you need to do." Loxi stood up and disappeared into the closet. "We are your family now My-my," Loxi yelled from inside the closet. "The sooner you accept that, the happier you will be."

I pulled out the 4x6 glossy that Jonathan had stuffed in my back pocket. "They're playing tonight at the RedEye." I fell on my bed stomach first. The smell of fabric softener jumped off the covers and onto my face.

"Who?" Loxi popped her head out of the closet.

"Thirteen-Seven." I frisbeed the glossy over to Loxi, and she let it fly right on by. It landed on the floor next to her feet.

"He's not bad to look at," she said looking at the guy on the glossy.

I climbed under the covers.

"What are you doing? Get out from under there."

"No," I said. "I need more sleep."

But much like me, Loxi was deaf to anything that contradicted her desires.

"What time are they on?" she asked.

"Midnight," I said.

"We have a whole three hours." Loxi stood by my bed. She had changed into low-waisted white jeans. The black heart tattoo that framed her belly button was visible.