Freaks

21 • two a.m.

❝all she wanted was for someone to look at her
and see the person she hid so well❞
ａｔｔｉｃｕｓ

___

   ＳＮＥＡＫＩＮＧ back into Cole's room is harder than I'd expected.

Willow and Markus keep me occupied all day and by evening, there are too many people wandering about the basement for me to even think of attempting it. It left me with only one option: going out after curfew.

On weekends, lights out at the Dauntley Academy is at 11pm. We aren't necessarily expected to be asleep by that time, we just aren't supposed to leave our floors after then or else...

Well, considering I've never really had the need or desire to sneak out beforehand, I'm not really sure what 'or else' is supposed to mean. I know I'll have to find out sooner or later, so I try to reason with myself that 'sooner' may as well be now.

Luckily for me, Cass chooses tonight to fall asleep long before the clock strikes midnight. With bated breath, I gently pull my covers off me and slip out the room as quietly as I can in order to not wake her up.

Just when I think the coast is clear, I hear three voices coming from the mini lounge area that divided the second year male dorms from the girls' side. Like a deer caught in headlights, I freeze and turn to hide round the corner.

"You can't keep dating all the boys in this place, Jess," one of the voices says. "There aren't that many here in the first place."

"Yeah," another voice agrees, "at this rate, you'll run out."

"I know..." a third voice, presumably 'Jess' sighs. "I just can't help it. It's all the abs. They're my weakness."

One of the other girls snorts in amusement.

My eyebrows furrow. They are having... girl talk???

Now???

Inwardly, I groan. They didn't sound like they'd be leaving anytime soon.

"What are you going to do, then?" The first girl asks her friend.

"I don't know... Grayson says he wants to get back together but I'm not so sure... But, hey, at least there's always the one in the basement. Apparently he's hot."

The mere mention of one of Cole's many monikers only heightens my desire to leave. I rack my head for alternative solutions to my dilemma as the girls continue to talk.

"According to who?" comes the reply to the previous statement. "No one's seen him, have they?"

"Liu's cousin is part of staff. He tells her stuff."

"Right..." the other girl replies disbelievingly, stretching the vowel.

Suddenly, I recall Cass talking about an emergency elevator she sometimes took to get away from the busy crowd around the main one. (In these cases, Willow is known to simply just teleport herself to wherever she wishes.) If I remembered correctly, it should be closer to me than the main one near the girls. As silently as I came, I shuffle back into the shadows and retreat to find the elevator.