Smoke Fight Ride

Chapter 6

Once inside Kit makes for the wafting scent of semi warm pasta awaiting him on the marble kitchen counter.

"Nuh-uh, shoes mister." His mother reminds him after he wipes them hastily on the grey doormat which reads, 'Beware of the kids, they bite,' in red font.

Slipping off muddy sneakers he kicks them across the cream tiled floors reflecting the warm glow of light overhead.

In the kitchen an aqua splash back radiates under the yellow glimmer which he declines to acknowledge, scoffing down every last pasta shell and meatball stopping short of licking the bowl clean under his mothers observance.

"Did you not eat at school today?" She asks concerned, untying her ponytail partially wet hair falls to her collarbones, a clear dent where the band held it.

"I swear I did, I just love you're cooking so much and losing blood makes you hungry apparently." He adds this more or less to end her questioning. He knew she didn't buy a word but anything to prevent involvement of Principal Larson or the police.

"Thanks again, ma." Kit says using the shirt hem to wipe sauce from his mouth corners. He rushes past the living room up the stairs, jumping two steps at a time he meets the top landing with a thud halfway out of his blood soaked clothes, "Thank God for laundries."

After a fifteen minute shower of scrubbing stubborn hints of dried blood from his skin until it was red raw, he sits fresh and comfortable in the comfortable leather of his leisure chair.

Headphones on and playing an hours worth of alpha study waves, he procrastinates the homework assigned today that is due tomorrow to play dungeons and dragons online which Scarlett is most likely playing also.

If this was where his day ended it might have outweighed the events of the hours prior, but Kit's slice of hope is torn from him violently as his Game of Thrones Conquest app notifies him of an attack conducted upon his land compromising his army.

The battle report reveals the player responsible as Andrea Barclay who goes under the username 4ry4_00.

Great. Not only has she wiped away two hundred thousand troops that took him hours of dedication to gain, but she has literally begun a war.

*

No one wants to believe the persistent rumours that infect the hallways but sometimes their hard to ignore.

On Wednesday the twenty second, students whizz through the echo enhancing halls between classes, younger grades march at a brisk pace toward their next subject while seniors stroll slower than a sloth.

Why is he going to die you ask?

After Monday's stressful incident his nose and eyes had reduced in swelling however, the purple hues that colour his inner eyebag corners have intensified, mixed with a sickly yellow tinge.

Those concerned pupils who appeared willing to ease the situation yesterday made up for it by spreading ridiculous rumours regarding Billie's piece of work.

Disgusted faces avert Kit's gaze as he approaches but he's too deep in thought to notice. If he wasn't intimidated by Billie on Monday he sure is today. The constant pain paired with a throbbing headache turned majority of Tuesday into a fuzzy blur of moving pictures.

The only thing he managed to overhear all day was a zillion offhanded whispers surrounding Billie Wight.

"Word on the street is she was arrested in Australia for beating her boyfriend up within an inch of his life!"

"Well, I heard she got off attacking a police officer with knuckle dusters claiming it was self defence."

"Supposedly she donated a pint of her blood in exchange for the most expensive bottle of Johnny Walker money can find."

"Apparently she traded a kidney in exchange for a 4K television with two subwoofer speakers."

That was the word on everyone's lips, I heard... So get this... Did you know... Guess what I found out... If at least one of these rumours are remotely true, Kit's newfound confidence would flush down a toilet drain faster than you can say 'nose bleed'.

"Dude, get this, a reliable source of mine just spilled some bitter ass tea about Billie Wight--" Kit interrupts Jesse before he progresses into a most likely unrealistic story.

"Lemme guess, rumour has it that she is actually a notorious nighttime serial killers whose victims all bear the same initials etched deeply into their skin...?"

Jesse ceases chewing mid bite halfway through Kit's sentence, his eyes gradually widen as each word slips out, Adams apple bobbing nervously in his tense throat.

An unnerving silence follows which leads him to believe that rumour might exist. "Please tell me that wasn't what you were about to say?" He pleads more than asking subconsciously leaning forward on his seat in the cafeteria.

"Well..."