“Right,” Kell scoffed sarcastically. “In your dreams, perhaps.”
“Anyway, she can’t stay!” Crispin snapped, indignantly tossing his long dark tresses over his shoulder. “First thing in the morning, she’s out.”
Both Dorian and Kell shot him a curious look. “What’s with you, man? She’s just one small girl.”
“That alone is reason enough!” spat the irate Goth before disappearing into his room.
“Good grief, he can be such an ass,” Kell said, staring after him.
“That may be the case, but he does have a point,” Dorian said with a sigh. “We did agree that we would have an equal say on the matter of who moves in.”
“I know that,” Kell said, tossing his head back in despair. “In the morning, I’ll talk to her. For now, I think we should all just get some sleep.”
Chapter 2
No way, not possible! Crispin tossed his jacket off onto the floor in a huff. There was no way that girl was staying here. How dare she assume such a thing? This was the House of Goths. No mundanes allowed!
He had finally found a place where he could be himself. There was no way he would give that up. What had she been thinking, coming all this way in the dark, dragging that huge suitcase, falling asleep on a strange porch?
Was she not the same girl from the diner the other day? The one who’d shot off after one look in his direction, as if he were the devil himself?
What did she know anyway? Crispin studied his gaunt reflection in the mirror. He tossed his long sable black hair back, squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest. So what if he wasn’t what society deemed an attractive man. Plenty of girls found him pleasing to the eye. Goth girls anyway.
***
Well, this could be interesting, living with a girl in our midst. Dorian smiled, taking off his shirt and posing in front of his mirror in the privacy of his room. He gave his floppy mohawk a shake, winking at his reflection. One thing for sure, it would mean no more running around in his underwear. Although if she wanted to run around in her underwear, well…
***
Kell had just drifted off to sleep when a scream tore through the house. What the deuce! Grabbing for his discarded sweatpants, he shot out of his room.
“What’s happened?” he asked before it became plainly obvious.
There in the hallway stood both Crispin and Dorian. Both were semi-dressed like himself, wearing only pyjama bottoms, looking quite freaked out. Cowering in the corner in front of them, completely petrified was the girl from the front porch.
“Damn it, what are you two up to?” Kell scoffed, pushing past them, moving towards the terrified girl.
“Nothing!” Crispin responded indignantly. “I merely got up to take a piss. How was I supposed to know that she was in there?”
“He’s right, Kell. It’s not his fault,” Dorian said, backing up his distraught friend.
“See, this is exactly why she cannot stay here!” Crispin said with his chin up defiantly.
“For God’s sake! Can’t you see you’re scaring her?” Kell spat, shaking his head. “Now back off and leave her to me.” Taking pity on the diminutive girl, he knelt down slowly by her side. “What’s wrong with you two? It’s not like you’ve never been around women.”
“Like you’re some kind of expert!” Crispin snarked.
“Hey… you’re all right, love,” Kell said, ignoring Crispin’s remark. “It’s Becky right?”
Becky’s heart raced in her chest. Imagine her shock, having woken up in a strange bed, not knowing how she had gotten there. When she had gathered up the courage to investigate her situation, she realized that she needed to pee before she could do anything else. She managed to stumble her way in the dark and find the bathroom.
She had just finished taking care of business when the door was abruptly flung open to reveal to her one of the oddest looking creatures she had ever seen.
***
“What the… fuck!” he gasped, just as shocked as she.
Literally jumping off the toilet and staring wide-eyed at the ghostly apparition, Becky let out a blood-curdling scream. Reacting purely on instinct, she bolted. Using all of her might, she pushed by him, consequently crashing into a second wraith-like creature.
Though judging from the force of the impact into a solid mass of muscle and bone, she came quickly to the conclusion that these apparitions were not ghosts at all, but two very real men.
“Holy shit, Crispin, what did you do to her?” In reaction, Dorian caught her by the shoulders, but when she screamed again, he instantly let her go.
“Me? Nothing! Aw, fuck, here he comes.”
In the terrifying moments that followed, all kinds of scenarios raced through Becky’s imagination. That she had been drugged, kidnapped and taken as a sex slave was the most vivid in the forefront of her mind.
No, it couldn’t happen like this. She would end up another statistic of frat house violence. The saddest part would be that no one would notice her missing from her dorm. No one would care to look for her. Not until it was too late. How many unanswered calls from Granny would it take for the poor old lady to realize something was wrong? Oh, the guilt. Poor Granny would be devastated. She would blame herself.
Then a third looming figure appeared. She was doomed. She could never outrun them all. Overwhelmed, Becky fell to the floor and cowered into the corner, frozen with fear.
“Hey… you’re okay,” Kell said, attempting to reach her, if only to remove her hands from her face.
“Nooo…!” Becky screamed, swatting him away. He backed off immediately, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Uh huh, nice to see you haven’t lost the touch, Kell.” Crispin chuckled over his shoulder.
Kell? Had she just heard him right? Suddenly, she remembered. She had dragged her suitcase all the way here, earlier that afternoon. She had knocked on the door but no one was home. She couldn’t possibly go back to the dorm. Life was unbearable there. Too tired to think, she had slumped onto the couch on the porch for a much-needed rest. She must have fallen asleep.
“Turn the lights on, would you?” Kell barked in frustration. “She probably doesn’t know where she is.”
“Right, that must be it,” Dorian said, flicking the light switch.
“Becky, Rebecca?” Kell repeated, using his most non-threatening voice.
“Kelley?” She sheepishly brushed her dishevelled hair from her face, wiped away at her tears and looked up at him. “It’s you.” She breathed a ragged sigh of relief. Her large liquid green eyes darted furtively over his shoulder at Crispin and Dorian. She recognized them now. They were Kelley’s friends from the diner the other day. They must live here too. Of course, suddenly it all made sense. They were housemates.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said with relief, realizing that she had finally come around.
“Kelley…” she repeated just to be sure.
“Yes, he’s Kelley, I’m Crispin and this is Dorian,” Crispin spat mockingly. “You are?”
“I said back off, didn’t I?” Kell growled.
Startling slightly at the venom in Crispin’s voice, Becky took comfort in the fact that Kelley was crouched before her, the wide breadth of his long legs cradling her, his broad shoulders shielding her from the daggers in Crispin’s eyes.
“B-Becky,” she stammered, taking them all in best she could in the dimly-lit hallway. Aside from the scowl, Crispin was strikingly handsome if not a tad feminine in appearance. He had long wavy black hair similar to Kell’s, but he wasn’t quite as tall or solidly built. He was more willowy and slender in stature but very attractive nevertheless. Dorian was something else altogether. He was quite muscular but without unnecessary bulk of a body builder. His head was shaved on both sides and he had a big messy mohawk of sorts, inky black, of course. He was covered in an array of tattoos and had a few interesting piercings here and there. He had angular features, boyish, and rugged. He was quite handsome in his own way.
“You okay now?” Dorian asked, peeking in over Kelley’s shoulder. “We didn’t mean to scare you. Mind you, I think you gave us quite the fright? Isn’t that right, Crispin?”
“Right… some nerve,” Crispin bit out. “Suddenly a guy can’t even take a piss in peace. Why exactly are you here, Becky?”
Kell sighed, resting his chin in his hand, his elbow on his bent knee. “Perhaps we should all just go back to bed, and deal with this in the morning.”
“I knocked… but no one answered,” she started to explain as Kell helped her up.
“We weren’t expecting you,” he simply said, leading her back into her room. Curious, Crispin and Dorian followed, standing in the doorway.
“I texted you earlier,” she said breathily, obviously still shaken by her ordeal. Why she so easily complied with Kell’s ministrations, she didn’t know. As it was, Becky hardly knew Kell, let alone his roommates. Somehow, though, she felt she could trust him.
“Only inquiring about the room,” Kell explained, gently encouraging her to sit down on the edge of the mattress. “Not who you were or that you were coming over.”
“Yes, and we had plans,” Crispin piped in. “Matters to attend to. We don’t normally sit around on a Friday night waiting for odd little waifs to show up on our doorstep.”
“S-sorry,” she whispered. “I… had nowhere else to go.”
“Surely, you could go back to where you came from,” Crispin insisted. “This isn’t a refuge for little mundane girls like you.”
Becky flinched at the unflattering phrase, mundane girl. Was that how she appeared to the outside world? Dull, tiresome, uninteresting. Was that why she’d been avoided like the plague?
“Holy shit, Crisp, quit being such a dick,” Dorian said with a frown.
“All right enough!” Kell growled over his shoulder. “Leave us.”
“Fine… but just so you know, this is complete bull shit!” Crispin spat out before walking off and slamming his bedroom door.
Dorian took a deep breath and sighed, shrugging apologetically at Becky. “He doesn’t mean it. He’s just a dick sometimes.”
“Goodnight, Dorian,” Kell insisted, standing to his intimidating full height, hands on his hips.
“Yes… well, goodnight.”
Suddenly, it was just the two of them in the room. “Sorry,” Becky said, nervously chewing her bottom lip.
At the sound of the quiver of uncertainty in her voice, Kell let out a heavy sigh. Relaxing his menacing stance, Kell turned his attention to the small girl. Yes, she was indeed small in every sense of the word, and she was merely a young girl. Hardly a woman yet or, at least, that’s how she appeared to him at that moment. How someone so little could cause such angst, he did not know. More than that, why she stirred in him such odd feelings of protectiveness and tenderness, he couldn’t explain. Normally girls like her avoided him like he was death incarnate. This one, on the other hand, seemed inexplicably drawn to him.
Ever since that fateful day when he had literally crashed into her, he had noticed her following him, casting furtive glances in his direction. Now she had shown up on his doorstep like an abandoned puppy. Could she have developed a crush? No, not possible, not this girl, not with a guy like him. No way… Anyway, it didn’t matter. He would set her good and straight soon enough.
“Listen, I’m not really sure what this is all about… but I’m going to go out on a limb here and take a guess,” he said, crouching down in front of her, looking into her heart-shaped face. “Becky this… situation…” He gestured between the two of them. “This can’t… I mean… well… it just won’t happen.”
“Kelley, please… don’t turn me away,” she squeaked, her face crumpling into a trembly mess of quivering lips and watery eyes. There was no way she could go back to that dorm. She would much rather stay here. At least here, someone knew her name. Even if it was this frightening looking fellow with blood-red streaked hair. If this didn’t work out, she would simply give up college and move back home with her grandmother. Although that wasn’t even an option anymore, since Granny had sold the old house and moved into the retirement home. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Oh, no… don’t do that.” He winced, realizing that his presumptuous assumption had been way off. Perhaps this was just about her wanting a place to live. “Don’t cry.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. If there was one thing he couldn’t handle, it was watching women cry, especially this particular little lady. “All right, tell you what, get some sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning.”
“Why can’t I just stay here?” she asked with an uncontrollable shiver. “I won’t be any trouble, I promise…”
“Love, if it were only up to me, I’d have no problem with you staying here.” He paused, giving his head a quick shake. “Now get some sleep,” he said with an authoritative voice. He got up quick before he did something they would both regret. Something, like picking her up and carrying her into his room, holding her to his chest and soothing her to sleep. Why that image crept into his mind’s eye, he couldn’t say. She just seemed so needy, so vulnerable. It should irk him, but instead, it called to him.
Becky watched him walk away, leaving her alone in the womb-like room. She had just started to lie back on the mattress, only to shoot up again when he returned, carrying in his arms, a quilt. “Here, you might need this,” he said, dumping it unceremoniously on the bed. Then without another word, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
Realizing that she was still fully clothed in blue jeans and a bulky sweater, she resolved to put on her comfy pyjamas. Quietly padding across the creaky floor, she crouched down by her suitcase and snapped it open. She undressed quickly and put on her favourite PJs. Tired and worn out, Becky spread the quilt over herself and tucked it up under her chin.
This was her last refuge, she thought with a heavy sigh. She would simply have to convince the Goths to let her stay. At least, Kelley didn’t seem too opposed to the idea, unless he was just being polite. The other two, well, Crispin anyway, he seemed quite hostile towards her. Still, she would take it. Anything was better than living in obscurity.
Ever since the first day she met Kelley, she had been inexplicably drawn to him. Obviously, they had nothing in common, but he had been the only person thus far to show her the least bit of kindness, friendliness. He hadn’t been indifferent to her like everyone else.
She had wanted to get to know him better, possibly become friends with him but she hadn’t been able to get up the nerve. During class, she’d had plenty of opportunities to strike up a conversation but just couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth without choking on her words. He, on the other hand, always had a nice smile for her.
The other day when she had been walking by the local diner where a lot of college students liked to hang out, she had seen them. The three of them. They were seated at their usual booth at the back, near the window, looking ever so unapproachable. They were mostly avoided by the general population, probably because of the way they dressed. Yet they looked so at home with each other, so comfortable in their strange little cluster. She wanted that. That closeness, that kind of intimacy, to be part of it. To belong.
She had noticed them almost daily on her way past the popular diner. It was the kind of place where a lot of the more interesting members of the student population gathered for lunch. It was a hangout for the artistic and poetic types that Becky admired so much but was too self-conscious to approach. It was definitely not a place for her. While Becky was artistic, she was neither cool nor popular. Even though one out of three was better than nothing, she wouldn’t dare go in there. For starters, she would have nowhere to sit. No one would care enough to invite her to join them.
Sadly, thus far, she had taken her
paper bag lunch breaks in the nearby park bench with only the birds and the odd squirrel for company. That was all right, though. She didn’t mind it so much. She liked the park and the little animals but it did worry her that the weather would soon turn colder. It was nearly October and she had been lucky so far. Of course, there was the college cafeteria to consider but she tried that already and it was no better than the diner with everyone divided up into their snug little clusters.
Inwardly, Becky wished she could join the Goths for lunch, sit cozily in their corner, share their booth, discuss important matters of the day or whatever Goths liked to talk about.
She wasn’t delusional, though. She realized it could never happen. They were three of the most extreme looking Goths she’d ever seen. She was just a plain, ordinary girl. What could she possibly have in common with three such interesting characters? Why would they want anything to do with her?
On that particular day, though, as she walked past the diner, something inside of her finally snapped. It was raining quite heavily and the thought of sitting out on that lonely park bench eating a soggy sandwich was unbearable. Taking a giant leap of faith, Becky found herself walking into the diner.
Surely, Kell would recognize her from class. Inwardly, she hoped he might glance in her direction, and maybe even wave her over. Unfortunately, Kell’s back was to her. He would never see her from that angle.
She stood in the doorway for what felt like the longest three minutes of her life. All the other booths were taken up with neat little cliques, groups of three and four. In that moment, a most unsettling question formed in her mind. How was it possible she could feel like the whole world was staring at her, standing there like a friendless ninny, when no one even gave her a passing glance?
House of Goths Page 2
