The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 4, Continued, Again

Crap, crap crap crap crap crap, if my arm was broken, I was dead. In the bathroom I went to the biggest stall and took Aiden's hoodie off. The arm wasn't broken, the harness had come undone during the fight, so I reclipped it and checked the tightness on the straps. Once my hoodie was back on I left and went to the stairwell to wait for next period, which should have been coming at any minute. I sat on the stairs with my head against the wall and my headphones at full volume, when kids came running through the stairs I would go up to my next class. I felt like I was going to pass out, probably because I hadn't slept in four weeks. My eyelids were so heavy that I couldn't keep them open and I fell asleep.

It was dark when I opened my eyes and the disgusting aroma of mold lingered in the air. Gradually, it got brighter, but I wasn't sitting on the stairs anymore. Nova. A gun, loaded and cocked. Tears streamed down her face. I ran at the person holding the gun, I had to save Nova. The moment I made contact with the would-be murderer though, time froze and seemed to restart. Now I was standing in front of Nova, and I was holding the loaded gun. "No!" I screamed even as my finger squeezed the trigger. I looked at the gun that I just fired then at Nova. I cocked the gun again and put the barrel to my temple. "I'm sorry." I whispered to Nova's corpse as I pulled the trigger for the last time.

But not really. Because dreams aren’t real. Right?

My ears rang with the remnants of my mind shooting a gun very close to my ear and I was being shaken by the shoulders. Blinking my eyes open, I saw that I was back in the stairwell. Gideon was standing on the steps in front of me, looking very concerned.
"Are you okay?" He asked me. "You look like you were crying." I swiped at my face, drying the tears and nodded. Then I looked at the time on my phone. Class started fifteen minutes ago. Gideon was talking again, but I didn’t have time to listen to him. I ignored him and took the stairs two at a time to get to class. Ugh, where was I gonna get a late slip. Gideon waved a piece of paper in front of me and I took it. A fully filled out late slip, and completely fake. I checked how I looked in my phone camera before opening the door to the classroom and placing the late slip on the teachers desk. Seventh period math, Gideon was in this class too and sat right in front of me, Caleb sat beside me. They both tried to talk to me about different things the whole class.
"Where were you Em? What the Hell happened during lunch?" Caleb asked.
"Piss off Caleb. I'm really not in the mood to deal with your stupidity." I said, avoiding the questions.
"Madelyn? Right?" Gideon asked, turning to face us. "Why does he call you Em?"
"First letter of Madelyn is M, right?" I answered rudely.
"Geez, you're in a mood." Caleb said, and he was right.
"Okay Maddie. Can I call you Maddie?" Gideon asked.
"Do you have a death wish?" I glared at him.
"Okay then, can I call you Lyn?" I was partners with him one time, and now he thinks we’re friends. If I wasn’t in such a bad mood I probably wouldn’t mind as much, but I was, so I did.
"I don't see why you can't just call me by my name but aye that's an acceptable nickname. Why are you still talking to me? If you don't need something then shut it please."
"What happened on the stairs? You looked-" Gideon started. Why did he have to be on the stairs? Why did he have to see me?
I cut him off, "Nothing. I'm fine." Why does he even care?
"You're a really terrible liar."
"Why does everyone say that? I literally convinced a geographer that Germany didn't exist once. I'm a great liar. But I'm not lying about this, I'm fine and nothing happened."
"What happened in the hallway?" Caleb asked.
"See what you've done?" I asked Gideon, before turning to Caleb, "Mura stopann tú ag caint faoi láthair déanfaidh mé níos mó ná tú a chur sa chos." (If you don't stop talking right now I'll do more than stab you in the leg.) I hissed at him.
"What did you say?" Gideon asked.
"I don't know. Em, what did you say?” Caleb cocked his head to the side and smiled in the annoying way he did when he asked stupid questions.
"I'm surrounded by idiots. I said if you don't stop talking I'm gonna do more than stab you in the leg." Oh, how I long for the days when I didn’t have to deal with Caleb terrorizing me.
"She stabbed you in the leg?"
"Yeah, she stabbed me. She's completely crazy, that's why I like her." I dug my pencil into the stab wound on his leg. Caleb clenched his jaw and tapped his pencil using morse code to say something very inappropriate and tick me off. He knew he wasn’t allowed to actually hurt me. So this was the next best thing. We stared each other down until he finally gave in and put his pencil down. "Stop talking Caleb." I told him, "And for that matter, you stop talking too and pay attention." Gideon turned back around and Caleb sulked, I took out my notebook and started to draw Nova but my hand drew something else.