House of Goths

Chapter 5

A full week since she'd fallen ill, Becky finally felt well enough to get out of bed. In fact, she woke up early enough to shower and get properly dressed for breakfast.

Sadly, though, she was also aware that feeling better also meant having to find a new place to live.

Imagine her relief when at the breakfast table, she was informed that she was welcome to remain at the House of Goths if she so desired.

Desire it, she most definitely did! So much so that she couldn't contain an exuberant squeal of joy that almost sent Crispin flying from the room.

"You won't regret this. I promise!" She followed up with a hug for both Dorian and Kell. Not wanting to push her luck, though, she simply smiled sweetly at a scowling Crispin.

"I already do," he said, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow before turning his attention back to the newspaper he pretended to read.

Ignoring his unsavoury comment, Becky took a sip of her delicious dark roast and picked up a flyer of her own to flip through. Baby steps, she told herself.

***

After breakfast, relieved she wouldn't have to move out, Becky excused herself and returned to her room. There, she did a private dance of joy. Finally, somewhere to belong! With people who, while a tad reluctant, at least, knew her by name. More than that, they'd looked after her while she was sick. Changed her sheets! Her clothes! Yikes!

So what if she had imposed herself on them? Becky was well aware of the fact that she had practically thrown herself on their doorstep like a stray kitten. But she had been desperate! There was no way she would have lasted much longer out here on her own.

Becky wasn't expecting much from them, really. Just a sense of companionship, a feeling of belonging. That would have to be enough for her to get through her first year away from home.

Feeling quite perky, Becky went ahead and unpacked her things. She did her best, given that she didn't have much storage room. Just a small creaky wooden chest of drawers, the tiniest of closets and a rickety old night table. It was a good thing she didn't have much to put away. Just some meagre items of clothing, her books, and art supplies.

Being single-handedly raised by her granny meant that there wasn't a lot of money for frivolous things.

She didn't have a lot of clothes, but what she did have was of good quality. Nothing fancy, but they had been purchased for her with the idea that such items were meant to last the duration of her years at university. She had four pairs of blue jeans, two pairs of black dress pants, a couple of skirts, blouses to match and a little black dress for special occasions, a pair of boots for the winter, a pair of modest black pumps, and of course, a pair of comfortable sneakers. She had a half a dozen short and long sleeved t-shirts in various colours, four sweaters for the cooler weather, two cardigans, two requisite hooded sweaters, three sets of pyjamas, some comfy sweats for lounging and two weeks worth of sensible cotton underwear, bras, and socks.

Becky managed to fit all her clothes in the closet and drawers. The bottom drawer, she had reserved for her books and art supplies. Crouching down, she pulled it open. She was surprised to discover that it wasn't empty. In fact, there were a couple of black t-shirts, some balled up socks, a questionable girlie magazine, an old music magazine with a scary looking dude on the cover, a discarded pewter skull ring, and several pieces of similar jewellery.

Odd... perhaps one of the guys had already claimed this drawer. She really hoped it wasn't Kelley. She didn't like to think of him in possession of that trashy magazine.

Then again, what did she really know about Kelley? Only that he'd been kind to her so far. So what if he liked to look at pictures of naked women? Why should it bother her so much?