Mako's Message: Gah. I thought for sure this was going to be a monster of chapter, but it only made it to "second longest chapter" by a mere 300 or so words.
Anyway, a thanks goes out to Vanathor. His review reminded me of this idea that I'd completely forgotten about. And honestly, if I didn't use it now it would start to be less and less relevant and if I didn't do this I honestly don't know what I would have. Hope you all enjoy it.
I've saved Dave's life twice.
First when he was two seconds away from pissing himself at the prospect of being filled with a few dozen knife sized holes in Rasuls drug den, and again in the warehouse.
Dave repaid me for the first time by showing up in a jetpack armed with mini-guns before I had a rocket shot up my ass. He repaid the second one by using the rocket launcher from the first time to turn D'Amico into bit sized chunks for the city rats who turned him into rat poo which in my opinion is a slight upgrade. After that we were even.
Now I owe him my life.
Maybe.
I lucked out yesterday morning when I woke up to find that Marcus was already gone. With a whole day between me getting this fucking bruise on my face and meeting Marcus I'd have all sorts of things to explain it away with and less reason for him to think it happened while I was out with Dave.
I did however run into Angela. She was not happy to see the bruise, in fact she freaked the fuck out about it. I had to spend a good ten minutes trying to calm her down and convince her there was no need to involve the school nurse. I made up some bullshit about a can falling off a shelf and she thankfully bought it.
I was worried she was going to ask if Marcus was hitting me for a minute there.
Anyway, she told me she had a way to hide the bruise and I should meet her at lunch. I didn't know what to do about it, not without making it worse that is (What? I've never had to hide injuries before.), so I eagerly awaited the lunch bell. Up until then I had to deal with a bunch of fucking retards staring at me like I'd grown another head and every teacher asking me if I was okay.
When it was finally lunchtime I went looking for Dave to see how well he was doing and tell him that I wouldn't be running the playground with him. Fortunately Angela got to me first. She pulled me over to a table were Jessi was waiting for us. She was sitting there with a bunch of make-up sitting out in front of her.
I realized too late what was going on.
I tried to run but Angela had a firm grip on my arm. Before I could decide how far I was willing to go to escape this torture Jessi had come up and grabbed my other arm. Together they steered me to the table leaving me only two choices: accept my fate or break their noses.
So I sat at the table while Jessi put crap on my face and Angela explained what she was doing and how to do it myself. I wasn't really into the idea of using make-up(I'd prefer to not look like a whore, thanks.), but I could certainly see the value in it in this case. If I could have done this myself that morning my day would have gone a whole lot better. So after they'd both decided that they couldn't do a better job they used a pocket mirror to show me their handy work and, holy shit on a stick, I couldn't see the bruise. Hell, if I hadn't spent more than a second looking I wouldn't have even been able to tell I was wearing make-up.
All I could do at that point was hand the mirror back and say "You're good."
Jessi smiled, said, "Thank you," and gave me the compact, "For touch ups."
That was when I excused myself and went to look for Dave to see what he thought. Lunch was almost over so I figured he was probably with Katie somewhere but I didn't really care. I didn't really expect him to be there but the first place I looked was the playground. Of course he wasn't there so I decided to walk around the school to the picnic tables and see if he was there. On the way I decided to check my make-up to see how it held up in sunlight and after that I don't remember a shit-ridden thing until I woke up in this fucking hospital.
So what I'm told happened is one of the cunt-rags I'd fucked up on my first day had recently gotten his casts off, and while suffering through the broken bones he completely earned for picking on a cute little defenseless 7th grader (That's what he thought he was doing so that's what he gets credit for doing.), he sat there planning revenge and fantasizing about doing horrible things to me instead of rethinking the choices he'd made that got him there. This obviously makes him the stupider of the two because his twat-waffle compatriot saw the light of reason and decided to stop being a douche. Or maybe I just gave him bed-shitting nightmares. Either way he passed on his comrade-in-douche-baggerys plan to ambush and beat me.
The thing that really pisses me off about this is that I could have, and would have, made him regret THAT choice as well if the little shit-eater hadn't lucked out and knocked me unconscious with the first swing of his pipe.
So while I was unconscious he continued to beat me and who knows if he would have stopped if Dave hadn't shown up and beaten the unholy fuck out of him.
I'm actually really lucky for a few reasons. The first is that after the first blow to the head he decided to pass on beating me with the pipe in favor of kicking and stomping me. The second is that if I had told Dave I wouldn't be running with him he wouldn't have been looking for me and it's very possible no one would have noticed I was missing until after the end of lunch bell rang. I'm also lucky his friend wasn't with him, and to be brutally honest I'm lucky his first swing didn't kill me.
Anyway.
The first thing I saw when I woke up was Dave. The second was Katie. Fucking Katie. I can't even explain why her presence pissed me off, but just seeing her sitting there hanging on to Dave's arm just made me want to punch her in the face. It pisses me off even more that I can't explain why I don't like her. Even if she doesn't like me she's still been nothing but nice to me, if condescending at times. But she just….. I don't know. She seems fake? Maybe? I mean, she's pretty and smart, and she volunteers at homeless shelters and clinics and she's just so perfect she drives me nuts and she's always RIGHT THERE. Anytime I hang out with Dave at school or at the comic store she's there. Yes, she watches us when we run the playground. Yes she even has her own comics now that she likes to read so she'll show up at Atomic Comics ON HER OWN if something stops her from coming in with Dave. The only time I get to just hang out with him is when we have our nights out and it just never feels like it's enough. He's the only person I can really be myself around. No masquerade. No expectations. Just me.
Marcus was there of course. I just wasn't looking in his direction when I woke up.
He was of course relieved that I woke up, and was going to press all kinds of charges, but I had a feeling that he was going to somehow turn this into something he can use to try and make me more normal. Most parents would spring for self defense classes for their little girl after something like this, but he's probably going to flip out even more now if he catches me training too much. His definition of "too much" is probably lower now too. Guess we're going to have to be even more careful about hiding what we do on our nights out.
Dave though. Wow. From everything I've been told about what happened he went fucking berserk when he found me. I don't know what he did exactly but I gather I'm not the only one lucky to be alive. He's probably going to be suspended if not expelled for it though. Hopefully Marcus can pull some strings to keep any criminal charges at bay. I'd hate for him to have to go to jail over me. Honestly, I don't know if I could handle it because sometimes it feels like he's the only thing keeping me sane.
Anyway, Dave went with me to the hospital. Apparently he told them he was my brother so he could ride in the ambulance. Marcus was here about fifteen seconds after they called him and Katie came after school got out. I think she was here more for Dave than me but who knows. And my phone was full of messages from Angela and Jessi. Jessi's last one made me laugh: "Somebody pick up this god damned phone and tell me what's going on! :-O "
I woke up shortly before visiting hours were over though, so Dave and Katie left, Marcus must have exhausted himself with worry because he fell asleep soon after he was sure I was as okay as I could be without being discharged, and I didn't find my phone until after Angela and Jessi went to sleep, and to top it off Dave left his jacket, with his phone in it, here. What all that means is that I've had fuck all to do except watch shitty late night television (this Craig Ferguson guy is hilarious though), write, and draw. I've got a page filled up with pictures of Red Mist dieing in horrible and hilarious ways.
Well, at least I don't need to worry about hiding the bruise on my jaw anymore.
