Once upon a story

Chapter Thirteen

“I can’t go to dinner like this” I say signalling to my bedraggled appearance

“Fine, I’ll go find you some spare clothes before you can get your own. Skirt or Jeans?”

“Jeans” Toff disappears out of my room and I take my time to look again at the work we had done. Just these licks of paint have really given the room a new dimension and I felt much more comfortable between these four walls now. After five minutes or so Toff returns with his arms filled with clothes and places them on my mattress. He then leaves the room to let me change; most of the clothes he found will be much too big for me. I pull out a pair of dark blue jeans and a huge dull green t-shirt. I leave the room to fine Toff waiting beside my door.

“Is there anywhere I could shower?” I ask him

“Yeah, follow me” Toff leads me to what can only be described as a bathroom block. “So it works like this, each room is numbered and you use the small section of this block with your bathroom number. You are number 134 so that means you are right down the back there.”

I follow his directions and make my way to section 134. As I close the door behind me I can see that this room hasn’t been used in a very long while, it is spotlessly clean and the soaps positioned on the counters haven’t been opened. There is a lock which I pull firmly shut before journeying into the little room. Sink, toilet, shower, just the normal things. I catch sight of myself in the mirror above the sink and cringe. I look hideous, big bags are evident under my dull eyes and my skin looks deathly pale. There are clear clumps of paint in my hair and the painting T-shirt Toff gave me to wear just drowns out my body. I pull off my clothes with difficulty before stepping into the shower, the initially cold water makes me jump but it soon warms up. Soon enough I am under a glorious tumble of water that cleans away my cares of the last few days. I reach for the shampoo and clean my hair, this takes the longest time and I use up more that I would do normally. The conditioner smells like vanilla like the shampoo and after a while my hair becomes much more presentable. Next I take the time to scrub my body of the scum it has been covered in and when I turn the water off I looked much more alive. I step from the shower and dry myself with the towels hanging beside the door before getting into the large clothes I brought with me. Although the underwear fitted fine I had to roll the trousers up at the bottom and do the same with the t-shirt sleeves however I liked the large top look so I wasn’t complaining. There were bits of medicine and makeup in the cupboard under the sink but I ignored it all to pull out the brush and comb for my hair. It took me a while to finally get the tangles from my locks and by then my hair was almost dry. Checking in the mirror I saw that although I looked better the glow of my eyes were dull and my skin was still too pale.

I met Toff outside my room and he smiled as he saw me walk back down. I dumped my clothes and towels inside my wardrobe before following Toff downstairs.

“I need to tell you some things about the people here” he suddenly said and I indicated for him to continue. “Firstly there is a weird hierocracy that you are yet to be part off and everyone here has an odd sense of humour that you will not understand or be used to. If you just stay beside me the whole time we may make it out in one piece.” I agree to what he says and we continued downstairs until we reach the ground floor, it is very crowded and lots of people stop to talk to Toff but I just keep my eyes firmly on my feet. I recognise the pity in some of their voices if Toff mentions me but I do not react. Finally we make our way into a large dining area; there are loads of circular tables seating at least eight people positioned around the room. I search out for people I know and recognise a few from school but no one that I had ever spoken to. I see Cem sitting with two others on a table far away from the door and begin to head over to them.

Toff loses his hold on my hand and I turn back once to see him searching the room for where I could have got to. I kind of feel sorry for leaving him until he is invited to a large crowd of people whom welcome him quickly, although he tries to save a seat the table is almost over flowing so he loses it.