TMNT: We don't play The Game
Chapter 11: Damage control
I didn't sleep at all for the next few nights, it wasn't exactly a full-blown teenage angst issue, I'd pushed passed all that after being seventeen years old, in fact, this was the least amount of sleep I'd had in a while, Freddy noticed of course, he never asked me why I didn't sleep for almost a week, probably because I left him in an alley completely drunk, his only company a few unconscious syndicates wrapped in chains, shoved into a corner.
No thoughts of the Nightwatcher ever entered my mind while awake, but there was a psychological vibration inside my head for the duration of my insomnia, it was so annoying, like when you're sound asleep, then your neighbours car alarm goes off at three in the morning, you're laid in your bed clenching the sheets in frustrating and waiting for the owner of the vehicle to wake up and end the insufferable electronic moaning, which is gnawing at your eardrums.
It was like that.
I skipped band practice a couple of times that week too, my interest in social obligations deteriorated slightly, I didn't see Mark or Ebony as often, but I lived with Freddy and he actually began to worry, he got into a bad habit of making me dinner without asking if I wanted anything, then he would leave outside my bedroom door, knock three times then run away back to the living room, the first time he made the effort to do this, I stepped out of my bedroom onto a pineapple and bacon pizza, after which I threw a hideous fit, I hit Freddy with a slice of the pizza and the rest ended up on the street outside my window, that was only night I didn't eat anything.
It was only a few nights into the week that I decided to shower, I stood in front of the full length mirror in the bathroom in my underwear, staring at my reflection, the lack of sleep had caused my skin to break out into a fit of acne, and it didn't spare any part of my body; my face, my torso, my legs, and I couldn't see properly, but I'm pretty sure my back too.
My dark brunette hair was flat and greasy, the layers had separated and had become tangled together, my fringe hung limply over my left eye, my eyes were a completely different story, they used to be a pale ice blue, but now they seemed to be a dull grey, lifeless and listless my own eyes seemed to just stare back at me, registering nothing, I actually had bags underneath my eyes, I wasn't old enough for that, I undressed completely and turned on the shower.
I cleaned up, y'know, I shaved my legs and pits, I viciously scrubbed my face, legs and everywhere else, rinse, lather, repeat and all that, after wards, I ended up sat beneath the lukewarm stream of water, carving a bar of soap with my fingernails, mindlessly staring into space.
"Adrienne!" That was... weird... of course it was, the longest I've gone without talking to anyone is when I'm asleep, this had been a whole week. "Adrienne!"
"What?!" There was a silent pause between voices, I turned round and stopped running the water, I heard the faint slamming of cupboards and the creaking of old furniture being pushed across the hardwood floor.
"Ebony and Mark are here! ... You want Pizza?" Human contact?
"Okay!"
