Ditching Greek | editing

08| Desperate Times

"We're going to need outside help," Hazel announced, making no sense to me at what she meant. "You're not going to like this." 

"I doubt whoever you contact can fix this?" I sighed, patting the bandage. "Let's be logical here. It's not like someone can magically make this vanish overnight."

In that moment, Hazel and Monica shared a look at one another. They held each other's gaze, mouths shut and eyes wider than ever as something bigger than me connected between the both of them. It was as if Monica knew exactly what she was about to say when she blurted, "Hazel, you've gone insane."

Hazel scolded her, "You don't know the whole plan!"

"With the way you're smirking, I can only assume what it is and that....." Monica trailed off. She cleared her throat and met her eyes with mine, looking at me almost like she had just remembered I was in the room still, then she turned back to Hazel.

Monica shook her head. "We can't do it."

"Yes we can," she countered. "Your pride is just stopping you."

"Which means we can't," she snapped. "I'm not getting myself into whatever mess you have in mind."

"Give us a sec, Nabella." Hazel said, dragging out Monica from the doorway and shut the bathroom door behind the both of them.

Now that's strange, I thought to myself, titling my head at the door they had just ran out of. I wondered what they were was up to and what kind of idiotic idea Hazel had conjure up this time around.

Facing the mirror again, I ran my index finger around the bandage. In my head, I tried to imagine what my sister would say after she saw it. Most likely, she'd tell me: "I hope the other girl looks worse than you do," and say how cool it must have been to be in a college fight without classes even being in session yet.

Hazel's loud, cheery voice ripped me out of my thoughts. "How do you feel about someone coming over?"

I stood there speechless, a bit lost on what she was trying to say. "Uh, like....now?"

She nodded. 

Monica groaned.

"Don't you think right now is a bad idea, Hazel?" I walked around them and into the hallway, making my way back to the living room. "Erica is coming. And so is my sister, and my dad." I crashed into the couch, elevated my feet to the coffee table and picked up the remote. "People can't come over. And if they do, they couldn't stay long."

"Well unless you want the wicked bitch from the west to bug you about that gash," Monica started to say, "You're going to have to let us invite an off the hill members."

I sat up straight, utterly shocked at what I had heard come out of Monica's mouth. Had I heard her correctly? Monica absolutely hated O.T.H. members. Last night was a more than obvious display of how much she loathed that side of the campus. I knew Monica well enough that the only reason she'd disregard her dignity would be for something serious. It was only a gash we were talking about here, why were they getting so worked up about it? Multiple questions buzzed through my thoughts, but I decided to only ask one in the end.

"Do we really need to have a member here?" I whimpered.

Monica racked a hand through her curls and fell backwards onto the couch, "Er-we do need one. They're going to help make this better."

I shifted my body around in her direction, "Why does it seem like you guys already invited someone over?"

The sound of the door pounding answered my question. Unless my family had come early, one of the members they were mentioning before was already here. But whoever it was, they had come here at lightning speed. I honestly couldn't have been in the restroom longer than seven minutes.

Monica rose from her seat and walked to the front door, shoulders stiff and back straight.

Her voice muffled slightly as she guided the guest through the hallway connected to the living room. Their long dark shadows casted against the walls they neared. My eyes darted up to the person coming up from behind her. My heart leaped, and not in the good way, at the sight of Clyde looming from behind Monica. To my surprise, there was more than one person invited to our apartment. Gideon, for some reason, had tagged along. I turned to Monica to see if she cared or not at his presence. Her jaw was set and her hands were balled up; from the looks of things, she didn't know Clyde was bringing a friend.

I sprung to my feet and darted to the room. Despite the fact that a lot of people had seen me look like a mess today, I couldn't help the urge to get the hell out of the living room and into the safety of my room. If I couldn't get myself to look entirely decent, then I might as well try to look semi-decent-with or without the gash across my face.

"Where should we set up?" a hush voice asked. It was Gideon.

"You," Monica boomed, "Don't touch anything unless you want to be castrated. Right here. Right now."

Someone chuckled. "He needs to be here, Monica. I'm not a macallin--"

He said the word for teacher, using a foreign language only my grandmother spoke. 

"Shh," Monica hissed.

"She...she doesn't know yet?" Gideon asked, but it didn't seem like a question at all. He laughed. "Of course you didn't tell her. Why am I even surprised? You can never trust a on the hill member to do the important work."

"We will tell her," another voice snickered, most likely Hazel. "In due time."

"Tick, tock, time is running out. You're lucky she hasn't hurt any one yet."

"Shut it, or I'll cut with the cat and mouse and kill you myself." Monica barked.

"Just as dramatic as I remember you," Gideon chimed. "College hasn't changed you much, huh?"

"Just as pathetic as I remembered, too. Cheating on me with my sister hasn't changed you much, either, huh?" I could mentally imagine Monica crossing her arms over her chest right about now, giving him a head to toe look.

My phone buzzing caught my attention away from the bickering. I pulled it out from my back pocket and opened the screen. I had gotten a new text message from Sarah.

Sarah: Hide the drugs. We'll be there in forty minutes.

That instantly brought me back to my senses. As much as I would've loved to listen to this argument unfold even more, I knew someone had to break it up before my family walked in on this drama. Hazel was probably too entertained to think to even stop it and Clyde was just chuckling along the entire thing, maybe even encouraging for all I knew.

I sifted through my clothes quickly and brought out a nice pair of jeans and a sky blue blouse that flowed like the waves on a lake whenever I walked. Once I was dressed, I stepped outside my room, closing the door behind me, and reentered the living room.

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