Ink Me Insane (Book One)

Six

Rene lay in her bed staring up. She had precious few moments alone before dinner. The voices had now helped her twice today. Voices, she wasn't sure if it was worse now that she had two voices talking to her. One versus two, was it really that big a difference? Plus the voices were being useful. Still it was unnerving. It teetered her mind in an unfavorable direction in the game of tug and pull she seemed to plan with sanity. Things were not looking good. Rene huffed as she rolled to face the wall. Even more unsettling was the case of the disappearing tattoo. Tattoos were supposed to be permeant without painful laser surgery, she knew from several tried and failed attempts by a very determined foster parent. A mystery the even the great Sherlock Holmes couldn't solve. A mystery for another day.

Rene's feet slapped the ground with each pump of her legs early the next morning. The fence seemed to be buzzing louder than normal today. The joys of free period. She tried to ignore everything from the previous day as she dug in and started running faster. Perhaps if she ran fast enough she could fly away from this place. She closed her eyes as she tried to force herself to believe it with each pounding step. Running with closed eyes is not a good idea believe it or not. Rene's rhythm was cut off abruptly when she slammed into something solid and fell. She pried her eyes open to gaze up at a wavy dark blob that shaped into Michael and his sly smirk after a moment. She groaned while rubbing her head. "Hey I had heard you fell for me but don't you think this is a bit excessive and perhaps too literal?" Michael asked while reaching out a hand to help her up.

"Oh look, if it's not my knight in shining arm. More like a freaking brick wall, gez that hurt." Rene replied sarcastically as she stood up purposely ignoring his hand.

Michael shrugged as he continued grinning giving a slight nod of his head to acknowledge the knight comment. "So about this whole liking me thing..."

Rene cut him off giving him a glare, "I don't like you. It was a lie to get Miss Rachael and Scarlet off my back. All of which is your fault anyway telling me I had new ink." Shoving a finger in his chest to emphasis her point, "which means you better not tell anyone. You rat me out and you're dead."

Michael blinked at her carefully for a few moments before barking out a laugh. "Seriously this whole thing was just a lie to avoid telling them about your ink. I'm not sure whether or not to be insulted. I mean come on. Is it that hard to believe that you may like me, even a little." He gave her a grin as he gestured at himself.

"Not On Your Life."

"Princess there are girls who would fling themselves at me let's be honest. Like you said I'm built like a brick wall." He said with a wink.

Rene's face turned red as she tried to focus on her breathing to calm the heat but the air seemed to only feed it. Michael smirked as she sputtered out nonsense retrying to think of a rebuttal. "I didn't mean...it's just... that's not fair. You know I didn't mean it like that."

Michael put his hands behind his head, "Not sure I do Princess." He leaned forward so his face was close to Rene's making her shutter involuntarily, "by the way you look so cute when you blush."

The fist flew before Rene could think properly. She was too upset but her hand was caught inches from his face. Michael's face became eerily calm as he gaze roamed between her fist clutched within his own and her stunned face. Embarrassed Rene quickly dropped her hand before making a move to shove by him. Michael reached out and grabbed her wrist stopping her from leaving. "You know Rene it doesn't have to been like this." his voice was quiet and sad.

Rene turned angrily at him. "Like what?"

"This," he said with almost a helpless shrug the grin long gone, "You don't have to shut everyone out. You don't have to be the ice queen."