ASUNDER (I) : tmr newt

55: I'm Sarcasm

55 Michelle

"So you made all up with David?" Gally grunts, his face contorted into a frown as he puts some of the extra wood away for storage for the night.

"I don't shucking report to you Gally," I spit, throwing the planks I'm holding between my hands back on the ground.

"You kind of do, I'm your Keeper." He retorts back, and I just roll my eyes.

He needs me more than I need him. Tomorrow we drywall, and then finally we should be done that room. Construction will be halted for two days for the room to sit, and hopefully not collapse, so he especially needs me on his side tomorrow morning if he wants to get Alby off his back.

"Doesn't matter," I tell him. "I'm not your shucking servant."

He takes the wood that I dropped on the ground, shoving it into the storage. Not caring about the mess he makes, he knocks things off of shelves which shatter against the hard ground. The sun has long since set, and he doesn't care about anything except finally eating dinner. Gally always leaves a disaster and expects other people to clean up the wreckage in his wake.

"How is it going with Dawn?"

"Mind your own business, and shuckin' wait," I snap back, crossing my arms over my chest. It isn't going particularly well with Dawn, mainly because I haven't tried. She won't say who hit her, and I'm not going to ask.

It doesn't particularly matter to me anyway. If she isn't going to rat, why would I?

"I take it not well," I can hear the smirk in his voice.

"Slim it."

He listens to me for once, shutting the door to Storage, leaning against it.

"She means trouble anyway," he stares at the dirt on his knuckles, as if I am less important.

Why do I always stand here and let him talk to me like this? We are partners; which doesn't mean he gets to shucking walk all over me. The word partners is they part of our arrangement.

"Since when do you give a shuck about what I do?"

"Since you've become such a slinthead." He tells me, finally looking up. "David talks about you all the time, you know. People are going to start thinking you both are breaking Alby's rule-"

"We aren't." Although he liked me, I didn't. I don't.

"That's why you hang out with him outside building," Gally mocks me, and it only makes my blood boil. "You don't even talk to me outside of building, and I'm your shucking Keeper."

"I could hit you so easily right now," I take a step closer to Gally until our chests are pressed up against each others, and we are both heaving. The collective energy of the Glade has risen from simmering to boiling over and over again. I am fire and flame, and if Gally thinks he can talk about Dave like he's going to hurt me then he has another thing coming. I'm not Dawn. I'm not going to get hit by a boy and be unable to take care of myself. Nor am I a stupid little girl who doesn't know any better. I know just fine that Dave isn't going to hurt me, and I'll be damned if I am forced to listen to Gally bossing me around like I'm some shucking slinthead.

"Then do it, huh?" He presses himself further against me, until my back meets the hard door to the storage unit. "If you want to hit me, then do it."