SWEET CREATURE // Luke Patterson

- B&B -

Danielle trudged wearily into her room after a long day at school, the weight of her bag adding an unnecessary strain on her shoulders. Her long day had consisted of endless lessons and tedious assignments which seemed to be taking the piss at this point, and all she wanted to do was collapse into her bed and forget about the world for a little while.

As she pushed open the door to her room, her exhaustion melted away, replaced by a surge of apprehension. She expected to find the room empty playing off the events of the previous night as nothing more than a bizarre dream. But to her dismay, the three ghost boys who had seemed to be plaguing her mind all day were scattered across her room making themselves quite at home.

Due to only living in this room for a few days, it was pretty bare. She had unpacked the majority of her belongings, despite the lingering fact she could be getting kicked out soon, having a couple frames and posters dotted around. Angela and Lewis had given her a room which had already been moderately decorated, containing a new paint job along with decent white draws and bed sheets.

In care, a box and bag contained the entirety of a kid's life. These could be of any shapes or sizes depending on how much of their past they wanted to remember. Danielles box was pretty small compared to most, leaving most of her belongings to reside within her suitcase of clothes and junk she had picked up over the years.

Reggie had clearly taken a liking to Angelas pics of bedding as he spread starfish out on her comforter with his eyes closed in content as if he had never had the pleasure of lying on a bed in his life. Alex found himself trying to grab onto one of the only framed photos in the room leaving Luke to hang over her desk flipping through her private items which was inevitably what made her make the boys aware of her presence, dropping her bag to the floor cutting through the silence.

"What are you guys doing in my room? And how long have you been here for?" she said accusingly making all the boys spin in her direction knowing they had been caught red handed.

"Uh... well not long." Alex began to stutter while looking towards his friends in need of help despite knowing there was little they could say to make what they were doing okay. Taking in the unimpressed look Danielle was shooting them was making it pretty clear how much shit they were in for.

"We were uh.... we were looking for the kitchen?" Luke said, even unsure of his own words as his hands froze over her array of notebooks scattered on her desk. Reggie points towards Luke's direction trying to cover their backs, making her shoot him an incredulous look as if asking if he was being serious.

"Does it look like I was born yesterday? I'm not stupid and this is just fucking creepy." Danielle says making herself shiver at the thought of this becoming a regular thing. She can't have three boys turning up whenever they feel like it as if this was some sort of vacation stay.

"This isn't a B&B so get off my bed please." She points in Reggies direction which sets him off to immediately jump off the bed fixing any wrinkles he may have caused on the fabric.

"Hey Danielle?" glancing away from Reggie still trying to amend any traces of him being here, she sees Luke raise his hands as if he was in class making her sigh.

"You don't have to raise your hand" exhausted already knowing that the constant questions had already started again like the previous night had never existed. she gave him her attention, gesturing for him to continue.

"What's the deal with all the notebooks?" he points to the unusual mound of lined notepads placed in several piles on her desk making her tense up slightly. She wasn't surprised he had spotted them as they were pretty much the only thing out in her room, but she didn't particularly feel like sharing them with a group of boys she had just met.