Refuge

Chapter 15: We've All Got Our Demons

Here you go: a pre-written, only slightly editied, Chapter 15. I think it makes Alex look a bit vunerable. I like it. It was hard to write but I'm glad it's over and done with. Not sure what the next chapter will bring, but I'll beging working on it immediantly. 

Hope you like it :)

-A

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“What’s going on with you two?” Hallie asks at lunch, later the next day. 

I look up from my ham and cheese sandwich that Miss Abby made me this morning. I swallow a fairly large bite. “What do you mean?”

Hallie chews thoughtfully on her salad. She points her fork between me and her brother, who’s sitting a couple seats down from us, engrossed in his own conversation with Luke and Dom. He’s laughing at something one of those two idiots said, but catches my eye.

I stick my tongue out at him, making him smirk. I mouth the words you look stupid to him, making him laugh. Dom and Luke glance at each other with their mouth’s open. Then he mouths the words, You love me, across the table. I laugh and roll my eyes, shaking my head, before turning back to Hallie. 

“See!” Hallie exclaims, pointing at me. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” 

“I have no idea what you are getting at,” I say calmly. 

Hallie snorts. “Yeah. And I’m a walrus who is totally blind to my best friend and brother.”

I set my fork down. “Hallie, you are deranged.” I notice another figure making her way towards our table. “Don’t you think so, Britt?” 

Brittany grumbles a response and slams her tray down next to mine. “I’m not thinking about anything besides the fact that I hate whoever invented the popularity system. I’m back all of one day, one day, and that blonde bimbo has already managed to piss me off!” 

I try to hold back a fit of laughter as I say, “What did Tess do now?” 

Britt fixes her furious gaze across the cafeteria at, I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say, Tess. “She freaking cut me in the lunch line because she said she was,” she then says in a horrible imitation of Tess’ voice, “Superior to everyone else!” She growls and slams her fist on the table. “I seriously want to kill her.”

Hallie laughs and flicks some of her salad at Britt, trying to lighten the mood. “How did you go from being all lovey-dovey and worried about your grandparents to looking like you’ll kill the next person who crosses your path?” 

Britt sighs and shoves her tray out of the way and sets her head down in her arms on the table. “I don’t even know. That little snitch brings out the worst in me.”

“How are your grandparents, anyways?” I ask, trying to take her mind off a certain blonde nemesis. 

Britt gives me a look but concedes. “They’re okay. It really was my grandma that needed the help, so my dad’s going to stay with them for a bit and help out my grandpa.”

I swallow another bite of my sandwich. “So are you going to go stay at your mom’s or is your dad letting you stay at the house by yourself?” Britt’s parents are divorced and from what I understand, they hate each other. 

“Neither,” Britt says, shrugging. “My older brother’s taking a break from college so he’s coming to stay with me and Carter.” 

I nod. Carter’s her younger brother. The other brother, I haven’t heard of before. “Well, if the boys get to be too much, you’re welcome to come hang out with me and Hal.” I wince and glance over at Hallie. “Um, I mean, if that’s okay with you...?”