They led him into the triangle-shaped lounge. All of the plastic covers over the fluorescent tube lights in the ceiling were transparent red. The light they gave off was so dim Will had to work to see people’s faces. He felt as if they were all at the bottom of a glass of red wine. Sluts lounged in well-preserved, plushy love seats and cushioned chairs that populated the space. Any of them could have been Lucy in the deep red of the room.
Seven angry girls, all with pale skin and dark lips and thin eyebrows that slanted down toward the bridges of their noses, followed him as he walked. He passed pretty girls who seemed dead inside. Some of the girls had dates, guys interspersed in the group. Will peered at the dudes. Some ignored him, others casually tried to hide their faces, and then there were the ones that scowled at him until he continued walking past their girl, then they went back to not caring. A skinny girl with a red bob growled at him like she wanted to kill him. A Slut with black lipstick and a train track of gold safety pins pierced through her left eyebrow screwed up her face at Will and flipped him off. He didn’t let any of it shake him. He was a man on a mission.
“Will?”
There she was, in the red, lying on her side on a sofa, her body twisted away from Will. He had to squint. She was wearing a shirt that was hardly a shirt. It draped too loosely on her, threatening to show too much. She wore a pair of sweat shorts that stubbornly refused to cover the bottom of her butt.
That kid, Bart, was lying next to her. He had his stupid arm around her, and she looked cozy as hell all nestled into his side, except for her face, which was stiff with shock. She sat up and straightened her shirt. Bart kept his hold on her.
“What are you doing here?” Lucy said.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?” Will said.
Lucy looked to Bart, concerned. “I’m kinda in the middle of something.”
Will wanted to explode.
“Please, I really need to talk to you.”
Lucy opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Will stayed patient.
“Will… what else is there to say?”
“I love you.”
Lucy stared at Will. Bart started laughing.
Will ignored Bart and pushed on. “Listen, we had a string of really shitty luck and it ended badly, and that sucks. But I want to take care of you and I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back in my life.”
Through the heavy red light, he saw a hopeful little smile bloom on her face for just a second. And then she looked at the other Sluts around her and dropped it.
“Oh god,” Bart said. “That was so lame.”
“Fuck you, Nerd.”
Bart laughed again, harder than before. It was the most annoying laugh Will had ever heard.
“Will, I think you should leave,” Lucy said.
“Lucy, it’s me,” Will said, and he touched her arm.
As soon as he touched her, Sluts converged on him. In a few simple, strong moves, they ripped Will’s hand free of Lucy and wrenched his arms behind his back. He strained and twisted against their grip.
“Get off me,” he said through gritted teeth.
They pulled Will away from Lucy. She stood, but didn’t stop them. She didn’t care.
The Sluts lifted him off of his feet and carried him like they were going to use him for a battering ram. He would have screamed if they hadn’t brought their knives to his throat so quickly.
They carried him out of the lounge, through the cafeteria, and sure enough, opened the door with his head. They threw him out into the hall. His weapons were tossed out after him. He landed on the floor, next to a pile of trash bags that leaked a puddle of red onto the floor.
30
“I GOTTA GO TO THE BATHROOM,” GATES SAID to Will, in a hallway near Freak territory.
That sounded great by Will. Will could use a break from the guy, even a short one. He’d been hanging with Gates nonstop since Lucy shut him down. He was exhausted, and Gates was beginning to grate on his nerves.
“Go for it,” Will said. “I think there’s a bathroom up there to the right.”
Gates paused.
“Actually, you want to come?”
Will stared in disbelief. Gates wasn’t kidding. It never ended.
“No, I’m good,” Will said.
Gates frowned. “Are you sure?”
“I’m good. I already went.”
“I don’t remember you going.”
“Well… I did,” Will said.
Gates narrowed his eyes at him.
“What,” Will said. “You don’t believe me?”
Gates pursed his lips, and stared at Will until the awkwardness was painful. Will prayed for him to leave.
“Yeah, okay,” he said. “Maybe I just didn’t notice or—yeah, you know what? I’ll go later. Let’s keep looking for it.”
Will sighed, and the two of them continued their search, poking their heads into classrooms that they had no business looking into. Will carried a six-pack of canned beer in one hand and an extension cord lasso in the other. Gates held a spear made from a whittled wooden flagpole.
“This is where that Freak girl said she saw it?” Gates asked.
Will nodded. “Yep. Second floor. Near room 213.”
“Soo-ey,” Gates yelled. “Soo-ey! Here, piggy piggy.”
Will stood in silence, watching Gates as he snorted like a pig. He didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry. Gates could be super fun, but Will just couldn’t keep up anymore. Nobody could.
Will tossed his empty and cracked another beer. He’d already thrown up once that night, but he’d kept drinking. Gates was easier to take when Will was drunk, and so was the crushing pain of missing Lucy.
“When’s the last time you saw the hog anyway?” Will said.
“I don’t know,” Gates said. “The party?”
“Which one?” Will said, but he didn’t really care.
“The first one, buddy. The best one, our pizza party. Come on!”
“Oh, yeah,” Will said. There was no hiding the boredom in his voice.
“What the hell’s the matter with you?”
Will shrugged.
“Please tell me you’re not still obsessing about Lucy, man. She’s ruining your life. I told you to keep away from her, didn’t I? How many times are you gonna let her treat you like dirt?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Will said.
“Well, I do. This is my life too. And she’s ruining it ’cause if you’re in a bad place, then that brings me down.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m fine,” Gates mimicked Will with a slack jaw and a dead voice.
“What are we gonna do when we find this thing?” Will said, trying to shift gears back to the hog.
“I just want it back,” Gates said with a twinge of annoyance. “It belongs to me. It’s my pet. Why should somebody else get it?”
“Because you let it go in the first place.”
“Hey,” Gates said and bashed his spear into the nearest locker for effect. “If you were gonna be like this, then why’d you come along?”
Will had the urge to tell Gates off, but Gates was acting so odd that he felt a twinge of fear as to what would happen if he did.
“Did you hear that?” Gates said, his annoyance morphing into excitement.
“Nope.”
“Listen.”
Will tuned into the silence, and then he did hear something. It was faint like the distant sound of someone scraping ice off a driveway, but deeper, darker, wetter.
Gates eyes went wide, and for a moment, Will felt a tickle of a thrill.
“Let’s go,” Gates said, hushed, and snuck forward.
They crept up on a darkened classroom. Will and Gates planted themselves on either side of the doorway and peered inside. Just from the stink, Will had a feeling this was a Freak dumping ground. One room to pile up all the nastiness and trash from two floors of turf until the Skaters got around to hauling it all to the dump. They’d gotten lax on their garbage business lately.