Friends Against The World (Book 1): Bite Me

by Walters, Geneva

  “Have fun braiding Lee’s hair.” I tell Xavier, who’s mouth corner turns upward.

  “And he has so much nail polish! We are going to talk about boys and do stupid quizzes and play RuneScape!” He said flamboyantly, clapping his hands together.

  “Sounds like our old sleepovers.” Violet comments as she walks past, not even questioning what she just heard.

  I kiss him and catch up with her, leaving him walking over to where Lee was. She starts to laugh the moment I catch up to her and I give her a strange look.

  “I was kidding. We used to watch anime and youtubers, just said it to make you come question me.” She gives me a sly smile, and I laugh.

  “Well it worked. I am off to grab my clothes for a shower. Want to come so we can be stereotypical women who can’t go without a partner?”

  I agree to come, us splitting up to grab our pajamas and head back to the showers. Laughter echoes around the steam filled room as we swap stupid memories, Quiyl and Avyanna coming to bath as well. We all finish, still chortling, leaving the change room to go back to our rooms. Idris is leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs and stands to attention when we walked up the stairs. Violet shoos him back to their room with protests, insisting on a girl’s night while walking us all into my room. She locks the door and instructs us to text all the women in the building to come hang for an hour.

  A fist raps against the door moments later and we open to see Phoenix, Bella, Sonji, and Lynx. We let them in, laughing at Idris’s glare from where he is sitting beside Anthony, who looks bored and used to this. Lynx kicks the door shut behind her and we all settle down to the floor, some putting blankets or pillows down first to sit on. I stand quickly, with a ‘one moment’ gesture. My backpack is under the desk, and I drag it out. I find three bottles of nail polish and pick the black one. It lands with a soft thump on the pillow that’s in the middle of the circle, and Violet dissolves into laughter.

  “Now then, shall we hang for the hour ladies? I know Lynx and Sonji have next watch so it’s the only constraint we have.” I settle back down on the corner of Xavier and I’s mattress, and Violet picks up the polish.

  “Lets all paint our right ring fingernail black, in testament to the strength and courage we have found with each other after the black end of the earth came.” She paints hers, and I nod, chewing on my lip rings as I wait for my turn.

  “Sounds like a great idea, I am in.” Quiyl agrees, many saying the same thing.

  “We are so glad to have found you guys.” Bella says, her arm thrown behind Phoenix’s back.

  “It really is no problem. We will take all hands-on deck at this point; just glad you guys wanted to help and stay. We are glad you are safe.” I declare, passing the polish bottle to my right, Quiyl accepting it.

  “It’s amazing that even after it all seemed bleak you guys showed up and saved our asses. We were struggling as is then like fates collided you walked in those front doors.” Lynx mentions, her hand squeezing Sonji’s. “After all, we have many more memories to make, my scientist love.”

  Sonji’s face goes bright red, and in a show of rare emotion, kisses Lynx lightly on the lips, both their eyes closing as they share their love. She pulls back, and Lynx blushes, pulling her hand in front of her face to hide her blush. Sonji pulls back with a satisfied sigh and we collectively ‘aww’, her pale cheeks staining bright red.

  “You two, are the cutest fucking couple I have ever seen.” Phoenix tells them, clasping both hands and resting her chin on where her hands meet.

  “Goals.” Violet says simply, and Lynx snorts, covering her nose with an angry glare at us, daring us to laugh.

  “Adorable.” Sonji crooned.

  “Now that we have thoroughly embarrassed one couple, let’s all talk about our love lives!” I ask, and some groan while others chime in their agreement. “Who was your first kiss, I will start. Liam, New Years when I was thirteen. It was awkward and still a treasured memory until now.”

  “Sonji.” Lynx admits, encouraging another round of ‘aww’.

  “Lee.” Violet admits, and Bella looks to her with a raised eyebrow.

  “Please do not tell me everyone in this group, basically exchanged exes?”

  “I mean, it all worked out?” I offhandedly say, and Phoenix facepalmed.

  “My first was this dude named Nick, turned out to be really weird.” Avyanna mused, leaving a lot of unanswered questions.

  “Lee.” Quiyl mumbles, and Lynx cat-calls.

  “You mean to tell me Lee took two people’s first kiss? Damn.”

  “Mine was a man named Sam. Bella totally made out with a nerd named Shawn. It was really funny, turned out to be a cool dude.” Phoenix comments, and Bella nodded.

  The nail polish was left in front of me and I place it on the desk, watching the light reflect off my nail. I sigh sadly, remembering the fun days of my step-mom and Dad painting our nails, my step-mom doing mine and hers, and my Dad painting his toes. Claimed to love it, wearing sandals to show them off. Violet grabs a water-bottle and throws it in the middle, a playful gleam in her eyes.

  “Let’s be totally 2010 and play spin the bottle. Up to you to kiss wherever you want, would recommend to the committed people to stick to not lips.”

  We snicker and agree, pulling the pillow out to give it a smooth surface. Violet spins first, it lands on me as everyone jokes. She turns and plants one on my cheek, gesturing for me to go next. I flick the neck of it and it spins twice before stopping on Sonji. I lean forward and kiss her forehead, winking and Lynx who play hisses. Avyanna goes next, giving a kiss to Lynx’s hand.

  Come Phoenix’s turn she spins it hard, it clatters against the floor before slowing on Bella, whose eyes go wide. Phoenix’s eyes harden in determination, and places either hand on Bella’s cheeks. Her mouth opens slightly at this, her eyes blown wide. Phoenix leans in at a torturous pace and seals her lips to Bella, their eyes falling shut in contentment. They continue to kiss for a while, finally stopping after Lynx gets up to pull them apart good-naturedly.

  “I was waiting for you to make a move, but you never did, so now I guess I did.” She flirts, and Bella still appears to be stunned. “So, you can talk my ear off for many hours and now you are speechless because of one kiss?”

  The room echoes with laughter, Bella mumbling a retort to herself and Phoenix who smirks as she rejoins the circle, nodding to the next person. We pass the rest of the time laughing, the game soon forgotten as we tell stories and act like our age for once. When Violet’s phone goes off indicating the end of the hour we grumbled good-naturedly. Everyone did their part in clearing out my room, Violet being the last out of the door. I wave to her as the door closes, and then flop back onto my mattress. I groaned as I realized that I did not check the board for what times I needed to be on watch.

  Chapter 55

  The door creaks as I push it open, moving the short distance to the board to check. I pull my phone out and enter in an alarm for myself, another early morning watch at six but this time with Liam. A bit surprised at the pairing, I set the alarm.

  The door creaks shut behind me when I kick it closed and I fall into bed, sitting up to tuck the covers around me, then falling back and tucking my arm under my head beneath the pillow. My stuffed toy I have had since I was four is sitting on the ground off my side, so I pick him up and cuddle him. I close my eyes and attempt to quiet my mind, playing music gently off my phone to help me sleep.

  I toss and turn for a while, eventually sitting up to notice the time being a half an hour after I went to bed. The blankets rustle as I drag myself from bed, throwing a t-shirt on over my tank top and just leaving on my pajama shorts. The hall is quiet as I walk along it, deciding to explore the upper floors to help put myself to sleep. My steps echo through the deserted stairway as I climb to the top floor, not surprised to see no one else up here.

  The moonlight shines through the large windows at the edge of the hall and I sit down, looking out at the v
iew. We could see up to the road from here, and the stars twinkled serenely upon the torn landscape. I play with the mala beads I have looped around my neck, attempting to meditate. My mind refuses to calm so I find a blanket on the upper floor and spread it in front of the window, sinking into a cross-legged pose with my mala beads now in my hands. I count them with my breaths and let my mind calm down.

  The peaceful state of my mind causes me to lose track of time, and as I meditate I sink to the floor, curling up and finally finding sleep on the blanket.

  My alarm blares in my ear and I blink the sleep from my eyes, noticing the time. I get up and stretch, taking a moment to enjoy the view of the sunrise. I tuck the blanket in an empty locker and loop the mala beads around my wrist. I descend the stairs to hear shouting and continue downwards faster. As the door opens another shout happens, a form tackles me. I look down and recognize Violet's hair, and she grabs on tight.

  "What happened?" I ask, and she looks up to me with tears in her eyes.

  "When I went to wake you, you weren't there and when no one had saw you all night we got concerned something might have happened." She mumbles, pressing her face back into my shoulder.

  "I'm sorry. I seem to have caught a bout of insomnia, so I went to the top floor and meditated until I past out. I meant to come down before falling asleep, but it didn't happen." I explain to the frantic faces near me now, gently rubbing Vi's shoulders with one hand.

  "It's okay, just tension is still running high, so everyone went a bit overboard. Let's just catch a few more hours sleep, okay, my love?" Idris askes, drawing Violet into his arms from mine.

  Liam walks up to me smirking and we watched Quiyl, Avyanna and Anthony retreat to their rooms with yawns.

  "Way to give everyone a heart attack." He says sarcastically, and I begin to walk to my room to grab my knife and change. "Anyways, I will meet you downstairs at the front.

  I change quickly, grabbing a new t-shirt and some jeans, strapping my knife to my thigh. Noticing our pile of dirty clothes is getting taller than the bags with clean on it, I wonder what we are going to do about laundry. Today might be a day to explore the basement and some of the unused rooms some more or steal a set from a nearby home. Or multiple.

  Chapter 56

  As I walk downstairs I admire the sun glinting off the dew on the grass, before sitting down on the bench beside Liam, who is sharpening his knife. "I had a thought this morning."

  I hold my hand up to cut off his sharp retort. "Do you know if the school has washing machines for clothes? Otherwise, we are going to have a serious problem with no clean clothes."

  Liam's face turned to one of thought, then he disappeared into the office. He dragged out the school floor plan and laid it across the bench. We observe it silently for a few moments before he places his finger on the map, near a room in the basement.

  "This one just says emergency laundry room, maybe?" I move over to where he is pointing an see what he is talking about.

  "Damn, that’s a small room. Okay, so its down the corridor with the old freezer storage. Maybe today we should go explore it?"

  He nods, and then rolls the plans back up. "After our watch and maybe before breakfast. I believe Avyanna and Anthony are on next watch, so we will just wait for them."

  "How was your night? You must enjoy having a whole classroom to yourself." I ask conversationally, and Liam smirks.

  "It's nice but lonely. All these couples around me make me want to have a significant other, y'know? I was hoping that Bella or Phoenix might be attracted to me, a desperate hope, I know." He explains, more vulnerable than we have discussed in a while.

  My mind flashes back to last night and I sigh. "No, they are definitely more interested in other...things."

  "What?"

  "Not my story to tell."

  "I respect that." He looks forlorn, and I squish beside him on the bench, throwing an arm over his shoulder.

  "Look, dude. Just because there isn't anyone now doesn't mean there won't be. Who knows, maybe while we are in town today some beautiful woman will walk out of a house, covered in gore and duel wielding swords. She will take one look at you, claim you, and you will live forever happily practicing fighting moves on each other." I gesture, his face perking up as I paint the story for him.

  "Thanks Eva, I appreciate the talk." He smiles, and I squeeze his knee lightly.

  "For any of my friends I will do my best to help you any way I can. Let me know if you ever need to talk and I will paint pictures of your badass soulmate who can wipe the floor with you." I wink at him and he laughs deeply this time, throwing his head back.

  We pass the watch joking around, our laughter attracting looks as Bella and Phoenix rose to make breakfast. They walked past holding hands, and I smile at them. Bella blushes but Phoenix looks proud of herself. Liam gives a thumbs up, leaning closer to me and speaking softly.

  "I know what you mean now."

  I just nod, and then my eyes catch a glimpse of Anthony before he walks through the door and we both stand.

  "All is quiet chief, before we run to relieve the back-watch team we want to check something out." I explain, and Anthony nods his head for me to continue. "Well I realized last night we do not really have access to laundry machines. We searched on the school plans to see, and in the same hall as the old freezer there is a tiny room named 'emergency laundry room'."

  Liam rolls out the basement floor plan and points, which Anthony looks at as well. "I don't see why not, if you make it back in five that should be fine. I'll watch the front and Avyanna, if she doesn't mind, will go tell James and Lynx what’s going on."

  "No problem let us know!" She calls after us as we walk towards the back stairwell, the only one that descends to the basement.

  Chapter 58

  Liam and I flip the lights on in the dark basement corridor, flipping on a flashlight Liam picked up from the office. I fold the plans to carry them easier and we walk past the old freezer to the door shut tight at the end of the hall. The light is dim near the end, so Liam moves the light up and down the door, highlighting the cracking yellow paint. There is no sign or window on the door, so we push it open, the hinges screaming in protest after no use.

  The beam catches the shiny side of an appliance, and I cheer internally. The dust clouds around us as we disturb the room that looks like it hasn't been touched in years. Liam flicks the light switch and a flash of light happens, then immediately goes dark.

  "Well, that settles that." Liam glared at the offending light fixture. "I bet this room has not been cleaned in at least a year. That bulb is bad, not to mention the black marks around the fixture? I am not turning it back on again until we make sure it won't randomly burst into flame."

  I grab the flashlight and shine it over the machines lining the wall, the layer of dust dulling the shine. There are five washers against the one wall and three dryers stacked along the back wall. I press one of the buttons on the washer and it sings a tune, it lights up, before I make sure to turn it off.

  "How about that, they still work." I comment, and Liam nods.

  "I want to check behind them at some point, make sure the fixtures look okay. But that can be for later, maybe I will bring Xavier down here at some point today and we will get them working and take apart that fixture." He explains, and I quirk my eyebrow at the mention of Xavier's name, which Liam notices. "Your boy really likes learning how things work, he has a lot of expierence in just random things, he used to take apart old appliances for fun."

  "Learn something new everyday. Well let’s go back upstairs, everyone is pretty much awake, so I doubt we will need to take our watch shift but let’s see." I say, and we walk back to the stairs.

  As we push open the door we hear someone rushing down the hall, and Idris comes into view. "Geneva, Lee woke up and its bad. He tore open his stitches in the night and Xavier has been working to stabilize him for about an hour now, but he isn't conscious."

  I take off running after he fi
nishes talking, tossing the flashlight back at Liam while rushing to the nurse’s center. The door slams and I catch a glimpse of my boyfriend’s face, and it is pinched in worry. I wash my hands and grab gloves, noticing the rags of soaked red near Lee. Sonji rushes in shortly afterwards.

  "What do you need me to do?" I come up beside Xavier, and he starts, then takes my hand while pressing his other to Lee's wound.

  "We need your blood again, but while that is happening I need someone to help me expand this wound to make sure there aren't any organs damaged. When we removed the bullet, I did a quick check, but obviously at this point it is something else." He explains, and Sonji begins to lay out some surgical tools we found in the nurse’s office. "Where the wound is I am assuming maybe it grazed the spleen, at which point we really only have access to cauterize the wound. Lee has been unconscious for about an hour now, but if he starts to wake I need you to give him something to knock him out again. Sonji can help you with that."

  She hands me a syringe already filled, and nods to Xavier. "I can expand the wound if you want to check what it might be, we are going to have to be quick as he cannot stand to lose anymore blood. Where the wound is located it might be his spleen, at which point we could remove, or we could cauterize."

  "Geneva, get a blood transfusion line set up then find a Bunsen burner and something long and metal." He says while Sonji is gloving up.

  I poke my head out the door and see Liam holding Quiyl. He pats her back and moves closer to me, and I drop my voice to a whisper. "Can you please get a Bunsen burner and something long and metal, preferably not sharp. We need to be able to burn something shut with it.”

  Idris steps up without a word and takes a crying Quiyl in his arms as she rushes off, tears tracking down his cheek. I gesture for Lynx to come with me and Violet takes Idris’s other hand, joining the hug.