SPRINGBOUND SUMMER COUR

PLAYING (AND FAILING) AS THE BAD GUY

It took him a moment to really put all of the surroundings into perspective, but once he realized that Ninten was no longer in the other bed, Lloyd immediately got up onto his feet, his socks making him slip a bit on the wooden floorboards for a moment. He grabbed onto the bag he had left and slung it over his shoulder, put the hotel key on his belt loop, and sat there for a while, thinking about where Ninten could've possibly gone.

"O-of course he would ditch someone as weak as me. It's best if one does that anyway..I l-let people down after all. No! Lloyd, pull yourself together and get outta the gutter, like y-you said! Only you yourself can't deal with this situation alone, he's bound to turn up!", Lloyd hopped onto his feet

With a newfound confidence, he strode forwards towards the door, before losing his balance and slipping, falling right onto the floorboards with an obnoxiously loud bang. He shakily got up onto his knees, rubbing at his nose, which had sprung a leak and was dripping blood onto the floor. He heard some footsteps up the stairs and ending outside his room.

"Hello? Is everything okay there?", Came the voice of the bellhop.

"Everything is fine, I just fell, uhm..can y-you perhaps bring a towel? Only one. It's n-not that bad..", He responded.

He heard footsteps go back down the hallway. He put a hand on his nose, and took it away, looking at the bloody palm that was caused by it. He rubbed it away on the sleeve of his dress shirt, and coughed, getting back up on his feet and remembering to take smaller strides instead. He shakily opened the door, looking at the bellhop with a very nervous expression that he hoped they couldn't notice.

"Thank you..y-you can go now."

He basically slammed the door and immediately sank down with a groan of dejection, pulling his legs up to his chest and sitting there for a moment as he rubbed at the nosebleed with the towel. He made sure to clean his hands too before he got up and changed clothes, because wearing a bloody school uniform was a very bad idea.

He changed into a red sweater he found in the closet, presumably left by previous tenants, and brown pants. He kept his sneakers as he put his black bookbag back on and walked out of the room and into the hallway, his nose still bleeding. It took a lot of courage to even walk down the stairs and into the lobby.

"Sir, are you okay? You have a bit of a..you know..right there.", the girl at the front desk asked.

Lloyd watched as she shakily pointed to her nose. He huffed once he knew what she was talking about.

"Fell. I just fell. You should...you should really make the floorboards less slippery..i b-busted my nose and got hurt because of it.", Lloyd responded.

The brown haired girl only went 'oooooh' before nodding in response, as she began to spin the dial on the black phone that was on the edge of the counter. Lloyd rubbed his nose again with his sleeve, thankfully the blood wasn't that visible on his red sweater sleeve, and shakily took his first steps out into Merrysville in an attempt to find Ninten.

Though immediately, Lloyd ran to the alleyway as a few residents strode by, sinking down behind a trash can with a shaky sigh, his hands grabbing at his pants for a moment. After a small moment of silence and calming down, he got back up and strode over to the sidewalk, watching the residents walk by.

"You can do this. Just keep your head down.", Lloyd uttered.

With a grimace, he threw his head downwards as he began to walk down the sidewalk, watching as the nosebleed made a small trail behind him and sometimes even falling on his yellow socks and making them dotted with orange. He grasped at his sweater as he walked, huffing anxiously as he looked around with his head up for the first time.