Chapter 18

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After dinner, Scarlett and I headed back to our room.

I was upset after what had happened earlier in the day. Dane must have been too, for he didn't show up to dinner, and it was just Scarlett and I sitting at the table.

"Where is Dane?" Scarlett wondered.

"No clue," I shrugged, with barely enough energy in my mind to tell a good lie. "Wish I knew."

I assumed that Scarlett could see that I was visibly upset, and assume that Dane and I had another fight. I didn't want to tell her about it. It would be embarrassing to tell her about how desperate he said he thought I was, how needy.

I had thought about what he said and if it had any truth to it. My worst fear had been confirmed. I had felt the desperation in my voice, and in all of my movements, but I prayed to God that nobody could see. Of course, Dane, of all people, had seen right through me.

Even though I didn't want Scarlett and I to talk about what had happened with Dane, I was still a little offended that she didn't even ask. I was clearly in a bad mood from something. My eyes were tired and lackluster, my voice soft and sullen. Even my responses to her questions were noticeably out of character, consisting of multiple 'sure's' and 'I guess's'.

As we walked up to our room and she blabbed on about her day, it became wildly clear to me that she didn't care at all about me. I was clearly upset, and she was ranting about aiming class. I thought about the times that she had seemed upset; I asked her if she was OK and we talked about what was wrong for hours. She didn't seem to care at all about how I was feeling.

I opened the door and she barged in loudly, cutting me off. I was growing more and more irritated by the second, at her carelessness, at her idiocy.

"I call taking a bath first," she said, walking into the bathroom. I scowled under my breath. I thought we had agreed that I was the one who would be able to take my shower first; she took longer showers and would use up all of the hot water.

"Whatever," I said bitterly. She didn't seem to notice my tone, as I had learned in the past hour, she wasn't very observant.

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2 hours later, she still hadn't gotten out of the bath. I didn't even know that it was possible to wash one's body for so long. It was already 11, and I had to meet Dane in 15 minutes. He was going to tell me whatever had put him on edge earlier today. This was urgent.

I had planned to take a shower first, but seeing as my roommate was hogging the tub, that didn't look likely. I was about to leave the room when a thought crossed my mind.

The longer that Scarlett waited for me to return to the room, the more suspicious she would be. But what if she wasn't awake?

Although my mind cautioned me not to, I lifted up my mattress and reached under for a tranquilizer dart. I wasn't going to shoot her, but I needed to make sure that she would fall asleep quicker.

I unscrewed one of the darts and poured a little bit of the liquid into the water on her bedside. The next time she took a sip, she would fall fast asleep, not leaving her awake to wonder where I was. I was being stupid, but I couldn't risk anything. It was easy to forget that my sisters' lives were still on the line.

I stuffed the dart back under my mattress and I snuck out of the room.

The dark hallway was empty and quiet. Everybody was in their rooms still probably sleeping. I wondered if anyone had a worse roommate than I did, and if they did, what could their roommate possibly do that was worse than mine?

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