Starry Eyed

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

The black of my eyelids became burning orange, and I woke to sunlight streaming through the window. A fairytale awakening. I must have forgotten to close the curtains the night before, I was so exhausted, but at least I slept well.

I slowly sat up in bed, stretching my legs and wriggling out from under the duvet. When I looked over at the Ken doll's bed, it was empty, an unmade, deserted mess. I grinned to myself. I wondered if he knew he'd failed to exploit me.

These days, I slept in a beanie. It was autumn and it was still hot and the days were long, but I did what I need to do to hide my secret hairstyle. That Facebook post hurt me, because it was shared several times before Star and Audrey hacked it, but I would rather have had twenty people know than the entire student body.

My arm stretched out to the dresser, my fingers searching for my phone. I fired it up and the glowing screen offered me a million apps for my free use; the Facebook icon dared me to check it, to prove my own success. And so I did. It was blissfully clear, and yet again I basked in the glory of having that awful post removed.

Folding the blankets back, I slowly slipped out of bed and stood up to my full height. I staggered to the toilet and turned the shower on, to wash away the sleep, to wake me up for real.

As I peeled my beanie off, I noticed a cigarette abandoned beside the sink, its butt a crispy charred black that was eaten by the flames long ago. Or maybe not that long ago; an empty packet of smokes was lying alone in the otherwise deserted trash can.

"Clean up after yourself for once, Ken," I muttered to myself. It was slowly starting to show that James was someone who seemed tidy enough, but was actually a bit of a slob. When I say that, I mean he didn't get much stuff out at once, so he seemed like a reasonably neat guy. But then as he tore more and more out of his drawers and such, his disgusting tendencies appeared, in piles of unwashed clothes and neglected stationery. I tossed the cigarette into the bin and planned to empty it later on.

I stripped quickly and slipped into the shower, where the warm water hit me in bullets. It was summer rain, peeling away the sleep in my eyes, the sweaty film on my skin. I scrubbed away at it with the slippery yellow bar of soap, feeling cleaner at once. I went to wash my hair with my normal shampoo, but as a stupid, middle-finger jeer at James for leaving smokes lying around, I grabbed his shampoo instead.

Love you so much, Kenny. I squeezed out an enormous swirl of his fancy white shampoo onto my palm. I rubbed it all in and washed my hair quickly, and then picked the bottle back up to test how much was in it. There was about half a bottle left, but I was sure he would have more packed away somewhere. Never mind; this stuff must have been worth a fortune. He may have been wealthy, but a wasted bottle would certainly hurt his pocket.

A stream of creamy white shampoo came squirting out of James' precious little bottle. I watched it come blasting out in a river, making foamy clouds on the white tiles until it all sluggishly dripped down the silver drain. When I gave it another squeeze, the bottle was empty. My job here is done.

I switched off the shower and dried myself off briskly before wrapping the towel around my body and walking back into the dorm. Still, it was beautifully deserted, my own quiet little paradise. If I wanted a slice of silence I could have had it right then. But I wasn't looking for peace. I wanted to find Star, to laugh with her about our Facebook success, to tell her how relieved I was.

I was dressed and ready to go in a matter of minutes. Soon, I walked the many halls of the school, halls I had finally started learning how to navigate. The classes here were difficult, but having a mental map in your head was the real challenge. One hundred corridors existed here, simply to upset the minds of freshmen and Lucas alike.