The Birch House

Chapter Two

Evie's P.O.V.

Sydney was right about the quack shack being the logical first stop; I got my ankle wrapped, an ice pack, and some frowns over the forming bruises. Nothing broken, but I was going to be black-and-blue for days. The doctor asked some pro forma questions about boyfriends and stuff, but since I could truthfully say that no, my boyfriend hadn't beaten me up, he just shrugged and told me to watch my step.

He wrote me an excuse note, too, and gave me some painkillers and told me to go home.

No way was I going back to the dorm. Truth was, I didn't have much in the room - some books, a few photos of home, some posters... I hadn't even had a chance to call it home, and for whatever reason, I'd never really felt safe there. It had always felt like... a warehouse. A warehouse for kids who were, one way or another, going to leave.

I limped over to the Quad, which was a big empty concrete space with some rickety old benches and picnic tables, cornered on all sides by squat, unappealing buildings that mostly just looked like boxes with windows. Architecture-students projects, probably. I heard a rumour that one of them had fallen down a few years back, but then, I'd also heard rumours about a janitor getting beheaded in the chem lab and haunting the building, and zombies roaming the grounds after dark, so I wasn't putting too much stock in it.

It was mid-afternoon already, and not a lot of students were hanging around the Quad, with its lack of shade - great design, considering that the weather was still hovering up in the high nineties in September. I picked up a campus paper from the stand, carefully took a seat on the blazing-hot bench, and opened it to the 'Housing' section. Dorm rooms were out of the question; Saints Hall and Devils Hall were the only two that took in girls under twenty. She wasn't old enough to qualify for the co-ed dorms. Stupid rules were probably written when girls wore hoops-skirts, I thought, and skipped the dorm listing until I got to OFF CAMPUS. Not that I was really allowed to be living off campus; Mum and Dad would have a total freak-out over it, no question. But... if it was between Millie and parental freakage, I'd take the latter. After all, the important thing was to get myself someplace where I felt safe, where I could study.

Right?

I dug in my backpack, found my phone, and checked for signal. It was kind of lame in Mystic, truthfully, out in the middle of the prairie, in the middle of Texas, which was about as middle of nowhere as it was possible to get unless you wanted to got to Mongolia or something. Two bars. Not great, bit it'd do.

I started dialling numbers. The first person told me that they'd already found somebody, and hung up before I could even say, 'Thanks.' The second one sounded like a weird old guy. The third one was a weird old lady. The fourth one... well, the fourth one was just plain weird.p

The fifth listing down read,
THREE ROOMMATES SEEKING FOURTH, huge old house, privacy assured, reasonable rent and utilities.

Which... OK, I wasn't sure that I could afford 'reasonable' - I was more looking for 'dirt cheap' - but at least it sounded less weird than the others. Three roommates. That meant three more people who'd maybe take up for me if Millie and company came sniffing around... or at least take up for the house. Hmmmmmm.

I called, and got an answering machine with a mellow-sounding, young-sounding male voice. 'Hello, you've reached the Birch House. If you're looking for Alex, he sleeps days. If you're looking for Chase, good luck with that, 'cause we never where the hell he is' - distant laughter for at least two people - 'and if you're looking for Alyssa, you'll probably get her on her mobile or at the shop. But hey. Leave a message. And if you're looking to audition for the room, come on by. It's 617 West Lot Drive.' A totally different voice, a female one lightened by giggles like bubbles in soda, said, 'Yeah, just look for the mansion.' And then a third voice, male again. 'Gone with the Wind meets The Munsters.' More laughter, and a beep.