I stared blankly at the letter in my hands, not really knowing what to think. I guess I was glad that they were finally getting a divorce, but what if my dad got custody over me? Oh, jeez. I'd probably kill myself.
Squid came in a short while later nursing a split lip and bruised cheek. "Thanks for the backup, D-Tent," he muttered and went to his cot.
"Hey, we had your back when you were yelling at Skittles," X-Ray defended them.
"Yeah, but then you confused us when you suddenly dived after Loner," Magnet added.
A short while later the boys left to go eat, but I remained in the tent with Squid. "I was fine," I said. "You didn't have to interfere."
Squid looked up at me. "He hit you. I wasn't just going to stand by and let him get away with it."
"I meant with Skittles," I explained. "I was handling it myself. Plus Lisp was there with me."
"And you trust Lisp?"
"Yeah."
The silence that followed wasn't awkward, but it made me wonder what Squid was thinking about. I pushed myself up and walked over to his cot, the letter still in hand. I pushed his legs over and sat on the edge.
"What's that?" he asked nodding to the letter.
I sighed and read it to him. "This could mean something bad or good. Well, kind of good anyways."
"How so?"
"If my dad gets custody over me I'll be living in hell for the rest of my teenage life, but if my mom wins then it won't be that bad."
"I see." Squid dabbed at his lip with the wet cloth he was holding. "My mom's an alcoholic. I think she's the reason why my dad left. If I had the chance I'd probably leave to."
"Why didn't you? Before you came here?"
"I wanted to, believe me. As I got older and thought about it, the idea seemed to get stupider and stupider though. I guess I was starting to develop common sense," he chuckled dryly. "I had no money on me, so I knew more than likely I would starve to death on the streets. I wouldn't have any place to stay."
"Couldn't you stay at a friend's place?" I never stayed at one of my friend's place because my jerk of a dad wouldn't allow it. I couldn't even spend the weekend over someone's house.
"I would have but none of my friends' parents really like me."
"Oh," was all I said.
"I'm not bothered by it. They have good reasons not to like me."
I looked at Squid. I would have kissed him but didn't want to hurt his lip, so instead I kissed him on the cheek. "Obviously they don't know you that well." Standing up, I held out my hand for Squid to take. "Ready to eat?"
"I suppose." He grabbed my hand and pulled himself up, leaving the wet cloth on his cot. When I started to lead the way, he pulled me back and placed a soft kiss on my lips. "Now I'm ready."
***
Over the week, my bruise faded but wasn't completely gone. It still hurt to put pressure on it. Squid's bruise had faded some too, but his lip still looked bad. I stayed away from Loner, not even glancing his way. To hell with trying to make a conversation with that dude if he was going to act like that. I haven't seen much of Lisp either. I had the feeling he was avoiding me on purpose.
I was, in fact, trying my best to avoid Caveman and Zero, not that I talked much to Zero anyway. The boys were getting more pissed everyday with the agreement Caveman made with Zero, about teaching him to read if the other helped dig the hole. Caveman already had a couple short arguments with the boys about how he wasn't using Zero as a slave. I knew one of the boys would take the thing too far, but I figured it was going to be X-Ray, Armpit, or even Squid....Not Zigzag.
Dr. P pulled up in Mr. Sir's truck to deliver lunch. I put down my shovel and walked over to the line.
"Where's your whip, Caveman?" I overheard Armpit say as he passed Caveman's hole. "Don't want your slave to be slackin' off."
"It's not slavery," Caveman said. "It's called agreement."
While I waited my turn in line, I saw Squid sneak some graham crackers and give some to Zigzag. I watched as Zigzag headed straight for Caveman, who was sitting by his hole eating an apple.
"Hello, Melina!" Dr. P said cheerfully. I ignored him and continued to watch Zigzag and Caveman. He followed my gaze and realized what was going on when they started pushing each other. He went over to them when Caveman tripped in his own small hole from one of Zigzag's pushes and, instead of breaking them up like I thought he would, he told Caveman to teach Zigzag a lesson.
What kind of counselor is he? I thought to myself, grabbing an apple and more graham crackers than we were allowed to have.
The two really got into it when Caveman decided to fight back. Despite Dr. P's shouts to stop, Caveman and Zigzag were rolling in the dirt throwing punches at each other. Zigzag slammed his fist into Caveman's head and Caveman fell to the ground. My heart started beating hard when Caveman just lay there motionless. I dropped the food in my hand and went over to him. I knelt down beside him and in my peripheral view I saw Zero jump on Zigzag's back and start choking him.
"Stanley, are you alright?" I asked, my voice laced with worry. I shook his shoulder and sighed in relief when he lifted his head slightly. Armpit's shouts made me look up and I could see Zigzag on the ground getting choked by Zero. Armpit was trying to wrestle Zero's arms apart when a loud bang made everyone jump and stop what they were doing.
"Now I said that's enough!" Dr. P shouted. "When I say to end something, I mean end it!"
I didn't think I've seen Dr. P this angry before. It was quite a sight. As I helped Caveman up, Zero came over to see if he was okay. All of us were ordered to go back to digging. While I dug, I overheard Dr. P talking to the warden over the walkie-talkie.
This won't be good.
A/N: Sorry for the long update. I made an updating schedule so i should be updating this story every thursday. If i dont then you can yell at me and call me lazy for not following the awesome schedule that i made. haha so R&R! :)