Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

44. twin size mattress

it's no big surprise you turned out this way
when they close their eyes and prayed you would change
― the front bottoms

[trigger warning(s): emetophobia/throwing up, r*ko]

♦

MARA WOULD NEVER UNDERSTAND how Allison could curl her hair and put on a full face of makeup in the amount of time it took her roommates to get dressed.

She'd also never understand why.

"It's just going to get ruined in the rain again," Dan commented as she, Renee, and Mara watched Allison gather her things from their spot by the door.

"Not if I have anything to do about it," Allison grumbled, snatching a second raincoat from her bedroom to go with the one she already had on. "I'm suing the fucking umbrella company—this is all their fault."

"It's just a bit of rain," Renee said, as serene as ever. Mara was pretty sure Renee could be in the middle of a typhoon and still find something good to say about it.

"It's a nuisance," Allison huffed.

"Are you gonna sue the weather next?" Dan teased.

"The weather channel, maybe," Allison said. "They didn't say anything about a goddamn hurricane."

Mara slung her backpack over her shoulder and double-checked that it was zipped up all the way. The last thing she wanted was for her sketchbook to get soaked from the downpour.

Mara and her roommates rode with Matt to the stadium together, arriving just a bit after Andrew's lot. In the short walks from dorm to car and car to stadium, all but Allison got soaked, though she was still the loudest in her complaints. Wymack tolerated their rowdy arrival with his usual lack of patience and herded them down the hall to pack their gear.

They took the team bus to the airport because it was cheaper to leave one car in the garage than three. Mara heard Wymack muttering about feeling like a goddamn field trip chaperone as he hurried the team and their things into the airport.

They made it through check-in and security in good time and set off down the terminal in search of their gate. They were almost at the end, past the restrooms and a dozen shops. A cafe was halfway down, and the smell of coffee and warm pastries was almost enough to distract them. Wymack kept them in line with rude language and half-hearted threats.

The Vixens had beaten them to the airport and were camped out at the gate. The Foxes scattered at Wymack's okay, half of them to look out the window and the rest to dump their carry-ons on whatever empty chairs they could find.

Half the team and a handful of Vixens went to the café. Mara got a hot tea to cure the chill the cold rain had left her with and some kind of chocolate pastry Laurel recommended. None of them counted on how slow the line would be, so by the time they all made it back to their gate, the flight was boarding.

Neither Mara nor Aaron were stupid enough to try to sit together, so Mara took an aisle seat next to Laurel and Katelyn, the former of whom immediately got out her sketchbook to show Mara her sketches for their upcoming illustration assignment.

By the time they landed in Atlanta, Mara and Laurel had finished their assignment and Katelyn had provided feedback that consisted entirely of compliments.

They killed the one-hour layover in Atlanta wandering around the airport. They grabbed snacks before Laurel and Katelyn got distracted at a book kiosk and spent the remaining time detailing the events of the Twilight series for Mara who'd (predictably) never heard of it. They'd only made it to Edward's departure in book two before Katelyn looked at her watch and they high-tailed it back to their gate.