The Roommate Rulebook

Rule 27

Rule 27 - not proofread, please ignore any mistakes, I'll fix them in the final edit. 

                Ash stirred in his sleep, his head rolling against my thigh. I watched as his eyes flickered open and my hand ran through his hair.

                "How long have I been asleep?" he asked. I offered a shrug and checked the clock in the hospital room.

                "About an hour," I told him and he sighed, sitting up to stretch. He blinked a couple of times before checking his dad.

                "Anything happened?" I gave him a sad look and shook my head.

                "No, sorry." He looked at the bed longingly and sighed. Our original plan was to scare the man awake. We had sat down on the sofa and started to explain everything that was happening, to see if he'd wake up with a high blood pressure or something.

                We'd worked out that this revenge motif wouldn't be possible unless Nate had something to be pissed about. Although, when I suggested that maybe the whole race was rigged, Ash got annoyed at me for accusing his father of such things. I shut up after that.

                "I thought that would work," he muttered. I patted his head and he grunted, cracking his back as he got up. "Come on," he told me. I looked up and frowned.

                "What?"

               

                "We need to go, I have a plan to leach out some information," he elaborated and started towards the door. I had no choice but to bolt after him, considering that I still didn't know my way around the hospital.

                Ash drove straight home at probably 10 miles above the speed limit with white knuckles.

                "Look, I know you're pissed," I started and Ash grunted, putting his foot on the brake. I shot forward in the seat and bounced backwards, almost winding me. I gagged when the seatbelt hit my neck and frowned.

                "You don't know how I'm feeling," he started and I raised an eyebrow.

                "Rule 27, don't start unnecessary arguments," I cut in. He gave me a sour look and tried again.

                "You don't know what it's like to have this hanging over your head," he said, looking straight out of the windscreen.

                "Yeah, I do," I replied but he scoffed.

                "I mean really know, Alex, not just empathising," he corrected.

                "I really know. Daniel was the son of the very powerful businessman. His dad owned a string of hotels, he was kind of like Paris Hilton. He had a following, he was quite popular down in Exeter. I got numerous death threats through the post, online and stuff for killing him," I said. Ash stiffened and bowed his head slightly.