SEVENS

BLACKMAIL?

I lashed out. Despite seeming to be full of lead my arms and legs came up to protect me. My right foot connected with flesh and I heard a groan and a thump. I was up and scrambling to the corner of my bed before my eyes even started to adjust to the dark. My hands shook and scrambled for something to use as a weapon.

He'll hurt you for that. Hurt you worse.

"Good one Lexi." Said a voice in the dark.

I blinked once. The voice soon found a face and it wasn't Mark. I blinked again and Raf's face in the dark was enough to finish waking me up. My brows furrowed in confusion and I slowly inched to the edge of my bed to look to the floor. Jean was slumped against one of the dressers clutching his side.

Though my mind was still struggling to both calm its adrenaline fueled craze and wake itself up I had enough sense left to decide not to involve myself in anything that either of them had intended on inviting me to when they woke me up. I fell back to the bed and turned over.
Raf didn't get the message though and placed a hand on my shoulder. I felt myself tense. The hand was lifted and I thought he would maybe leave me alone, finally.

"Get up and dressed in the next five minutes and I'll pay you five hundred. Three minutes and I'll give you six. Don't get up and I'll be talking to Jack about it."

I was awake now. I rolled off the bed and stumbled through the dark to find my shoes. I slid them on and held out my hand in Raf's direction.

"I want seven."

"Six. You'll have a chance for more later."

"Seven and I won't go back to bed. You never said anything about not going back to sleep."

I could practically feel him roll his eyes though I couldn't see more than his silhouette. He began looking for his wallet in the messy part of the room that was his. Jean finally had gathered his breath and was swearing artfully.

"Why the fuck did you do that?"

"Fuck you thats why." I snapped back.

"You're such an ungrateful bitch. We pulled a lot of strings to get you on this team you know! The least you could do is go along with what we say." Jean pulled himself off the floor and looked ready to storm to where I stood near the door.

"That doesn't fucking mean you can't give me my space." I was taking a few steps forward now too.

Raf stepped between us. "You two princesses need to stop yelling before you wake up the whole school."

"I'm not a princess." Jean said.

"Fuck you." I replied.

"Be a gentleman Lexi." Raf said pushing past me and grabbing his own shoes.

We were still sitting in the dark and I suspected that was intentional. Whatever Raf and Jean were waking me up for was definitely against school rules.

"I'm trying to be." I was confused. Was this some sort of test to see if I would refuse to do anything against the rules. We were only coming up on the first weekend of the semester. They could still kick me out and find someone new without too much backlash.

"The swearing is a bit ungentlemanly." Raf said. He was now slowly unlocking the door and pulling it wide. His shoes were in his hands and he had a bag on his back.

"Fuck you."

"Take off your shoes." I sighed and slid my shoes off. Jean also had his sneakers—tied by the laces—hanging from his hand.

"I thought we were supposed to be gentlemen." I whispered. But I was only answered by both Raf and Jean holding their fingers to their lips to silence me.