"This should help" Bastion said quietly, passing me the ice pack he had just retrieved from the walk in freezer. He took a seat opposite me at the gleaming marble counter, running his hands through the dirty blond locks.
Pulling open the blanket I pushed the packet to the slowly swelling red mark, hissing a little as the ice stung. Bastion's face drooped even more into guilt as he bit his lip, glaring angrily at the mark he had caused. Did he just gulp?.
"I'd say don't worry, that its not your fault.. but it is" I forced out a goofy laugh, pulling the blanket around me again, suddenly very conscious that I was half naked. He said nothing but just shook his head.
"Well you didn't mean it – I hope" I said with false seriousness. His green eyes widened and he opened his mouth to protest. I laughed again, even though doing so caused more aching ripples up my side. "I know you didn't. Although I don't really see why you done what you did. I assume that was some sort of effect of your powers"
He only glared down at his reflection in the pristine counter top for a few seconds before looking up. "Annabell pushes my buttons. She really knows how to get me so wound up I.. I do stupid things" came his gruff reply. And he did look as if his buttons had been pushed, a vein was popping in his clenched jaw, and his fists were white knuckled tight.
I didn't say anything at first but just viewed him. I could tell how furious he was, but I could also sense the regret. I chose my next words carefully. "I take it you mean her remarks about.. about Chicago?" I was going to say the words 'when you were homeless', but I didn't want to send him off again. Once again I received a curt nod.
"You should be used to it by now.. you two are wind up merchants, you obviously know exactly what to say to get each other doing 'stupid things'" I sarcastically signed quotation marks around the last two words. I thought I saw the corners of his mouth lift into a smile. But then he sighed and ruffled his hair again.
He gazed over at me, his eyes widening again. They were like big pools of swamp green, and for a few seconds I could have sworn I was transfixed in his stare. "Max, I am so.. so, so sorry. Like you said, I never meant for you to get hit by that. I feel like a grade A douche" his voice was scarily sincere. In the day I had known him, he had maintained a too-cool-for-you, bad boy vibe. But now he was completely different, it was like talking to an actual person, not a cliché book character. "I should have just walked away, or let it slide over my head. Like you said, I should be used to that sniping little.. girl by now" he muttered. He seemed to be getting even angrier talking about her. I felt myself gulp this time.
"Look, accidents happen. I should have pushed her out the way or whatever, it was a bit stupid to throw myself in front of her. I'm no hero!" I said, forcing out another laugh. I was determined to draw him away from the seething anger that was etched all over his face and body language. "You've just gotta' learn know when to leave her to it, be the bigger.. mutant, and walk off. You'll end up ruining your big bad man mirage otherwise" I said with a wink. God, what was I doing?.
But it got a small smile. Job done. "Its no mirage" he said mysteriously, sitting up and leaning back in the stool. He still hadn't put his shirt back on, and the way the kitchen lights hit his bare chest showed every bit of definition. I noticed he had his nipple pierced to, a black stud. And I could see the way his chest hair kind of grew out like bird's wings and... Oh god.. I was staring again!. As predicted, my face grew hot and red, and I coughed loudly and made a show of re-adjusting the ice pack.
The glint in Bastion's eyes told me he had seen me staring, and the sly smile told me had enjoyed it. I quickly averted my eyes from even looking at him, and became suddenly very interested in the fridge magnets. A niggling sensation told me he was still staring me out. "So.. your powers. What exactly are they?" I said with a slightly weak voice, trying desperately trying to break the silence.
He leaned forwards now, and I felt myself lean back. I couldn't be too close, otherwise I'd end up a stuttering mess again. He noticed that too, because another grin appeared. "Well, I told you you'd have to wait until our first Danger Room session, and I'm fraid' you'll still have to wait" he said with his own wink.
I was relieved to roll my eyes then. "Oh pur-lease, I think taking an injury from them qualifies me some sort of sneak peak" I flashed the big red mark to punctuate my point.
Shaking his head, he replied. "Nope, good things come to those wait"
"Oh geeze, after that little glimpse I just can't wait for next time" I said with a sarcastic drawl. He said nothing but leaned a little closer. I nervously laughed and rambled my brains for more conversation. "What exactly is the Danger Room?"
"Its pretty cool... you could call it a stimulation and a gym workout in one. Just a seriously hard gym workout. I doubt you'll last long, you're not exactly Mr Macho" he barked a laugh and pinched my thin arms. I narrowed my eyes.
"You'd be surprised. I'd rather not be a body-bag full of meat anyways" Bastion chuckled, and then continued to stare. What was with that? Was he just weird and enjoyed staring people out?.
After a few more moments of silence, Bastion spoke up. "You know Max... you haven't asked"
"Asked?" I was generally confused.
"About Chicago. About what Annabell said" he seemed to have to force out her name a little. It was then I noticed how he had changed again. His voice was gruff and his sentences were short. The Bastion I had known until he had decided to smash with a super charged volleyball was back.
"Well.. its not really my business is it. I can tell how much it.. stirs you, and I don't think I can cope with another red mark. Its your past, your baggage. Its not my place to ask" I said shrugging.
Bastion raised his eyebrows in agreement. "Thats very caring of you. Everyone else swarms me with questions as soon as they hear a whisper. Its nice for someone to finally not really care about that stuff" and as he finished his sentence, he reached out and rested his slightly rough hands onto my arm. I felt goosebumps erupt and I would have bet any money I'd have a stupid gawp plastered over my face. Oh no! Play it cool Max.. cool.
"So to throw people off that, you act like a bit of a dick?" I asked. He smiled, and stood up, taking his hand off my arm. He didn't answer but made his way to the kitchen door, before turning back.
"You know Max, throwing yourself in front of that really was a stupid idea"
"You think?" I shot back.
"We wouldn't want that pretty little body of your's getting ruined" he gave me another wink before leaving, and I was pretty sure he'd have a smug grin on his face.
Despite no one else being there, I could still feel my cheeks erupt into red. I pressed the icepack to my head, muttering under my breath about being stupid. Talk about a memorable first day.. it was surreal to think I'd been here just over nine hours – it felt like I had been her for months and months. Already I had embarrassed myself countless times in front of the one guy I had actually found attractive, and I couldn't work him out. I resounded that it was well past time for bed as my side pounded and scooped up my shirt, returned the ice pack and attempted to remember which door was mine.
I crept into the dim room, lit only by Charlie's lamp. Charlie himself was sparko in his bed, his legs hanging out a stupid angle, and he was snoring his head off. I changed into my night clothes and clambered into the bed. It felt so warm and cosy, like I'd been sleeping in it for a long time already. With a smile, I leaned across and switched out his light.
I awoke to two very irritating things the next morning. The first was a dull ache on my side – I realised I had slept on it and as I became more awake, so did the pain. It was now more of a throbbing sensation, but it was conveniently thumping in time with the ache in my head. And that came from the second annoying thing. Charlie's ridiculous cheesy, ear cringing techno music. I groaned as I sat up, looking around bleary eyed. Charlie came in from the en suite and grinned.
"Glad to see you're still alive. You feeling sore?" he asked, towel drying his hair roughly and pulling on a fresh shirt. I simply grunted in response and yawned.
"Whats with this music?" I asked gruffly, sitting up properly with a hiss of pain.
"Don't tell me you don't like it! Its incredible.. just what you need! A loud baseline to drag you out of that bed and get you ready for today's activities" he said with that slightly goofy smile. I felt my eyebrows raise as he turned to style his hair in the wall length mirror.
"Activities? They don't exist on Sundays" I said simply, scratching my messy hair. I decided that the music was far too loud, and leaned across to turn the volume control on Charlie's stupidly large stereo system down a little.
Charlie laughed at what I had said and rolled his eyes. "You sound as bad as Reya! But they do exist on Sundays at the Institute. In fact they exist everyday, and Xavier drilled it into me before you arrived that I make sure I get you to a few a day in your first week" Charlie sounded as if he was trying to make it sound like a chore, but I picked too much eagerness for that to be true "He wants to get you 'properly integrated'. He does it with everyone, after the first week whether you carry on is up to you. So chop chop, get in the shower!" Charlie's dirty and smelly towel being chucked into my face quickly chided me into the en suite.
The shower turned out to be a bit of relief for the now large purple and red bruise plastered across my ribs. I alternated between cold and hot to stretch and relieve the muscle, and as I quickly got changed I realised I could bend down a bit now. Charlie waited as I properly done my hair, so that everyone could see what it supposed to look like. He tutted and rolled his eyes at the time I took, but admitted it looked good.
As we made our way down the grand staircase to find some breakfast, I couldn't help but look out for the messy blond hair and large build of Bastion. But he was nowhere to be seen, and I didn't want to alert my interest in him by asking what floor his room actually was stationed. I resigned to the fact he hadn't got up yet. Smart boy.
"Annabell is probably going to be going on and on about last night" Charlie said under his breath as we entered the kitchen. I grabbed a plate and placed some bacon and eggs onto it – Charlie however began to pile his plate with three of everything. And then proceeded to drown it in ketchup. I felt myself grimace.
"Bastion seemed pretty... pissed off, excuse my french" I said. We found some seats near the ones we had yesterday, Charlie knew one of the boys sat opposite us. He introduced me to the lanky looking Samuel, who hit me as a stereotypical nerd. I felt bad, being the way I was, I hated stereotyping. But the lank, slightly greasy curtained hair, tacky blue glasses and braces screamed comic con obsessed. He seemed nice enough, but shy.
"Well, can you blame him?. Like I said, he is seriously touchy about his past. I wasn't aware Annabell knew that much though.. she shouldn't have said those things" I nodded in agreement as I popped some bacon into my mouth.
"He seemed better when he got me some ice and stuff though, we ended up managing to change the subject. He left with more snide comments and rudeness" I laughed. Charlie choked a little on the huge forkful he had just swallowed.
"Are you being serious? Did you not get woken up by his shouting last night?" He said after gulping down his drink.
I frowned. "What shouting? When?" I said, putting down my fork. I had slept straight through the night, obviously exhausted from the hoo haa of yesterday.
"Well, at about half one this morning I could hear him shouting - really shouting at someone. Whoever was shouting back got kinda got shouted down. He was seriously going for them. At first I thought it was some sort of serious problem, like a fight breaking out or an intruder. So I got up and went into the hallway, cos his room is four up from ours" despite the revelation news, I made sure I took a mental note of the last part. "He came storming out his room and walked straight past me when I asked if everything was okay. Went screeching downstairs, and I guess the door slamming was him going out"
I digested the information. In the few hours I'd known him, Bastion now had certainly created a hot headed reputation. There was one thing I didn't understand though. "But.. who was he shouting at?"
Charlie opened his mouth to reply and suddenly coughed loudly. I followed his gaze to see Annabell. But her slightly wavy hair was a tangled mess, she was dressed in her pyjamas still and her eyes were red and puffy. She simply looked at Charlie with those dazzling eyes, obviously quite aware what we had been talking about. She slouched down and began to poke at her food.
Charlie gave me a look and continued to stuff his face. I decided to use the awkward silence to see if Annabell was okay – I could only assume she was who Bastion was shouting at last night. "Annabell.. you okay? You look a bit.. tired" I said, choosing my last word carefully. God knows how she would react to any comments about her appearance being that tired and looking that upset.
For a second she didn't say anything, just poked at the food on her plate. Then she lifted her head and shrugged. "Long night" she murmured in such a quiet, defeated voice I had to strain to hear it.
"Oh..." I replied, feeling awkward. I glanced at Charlie, but he was too busy scoffing down the pile of grease that was his breakfast. I couldn't work out whether it was purposeful to keep out of the awkward atmosphere or if he was generally enjoying it that much.
A few more moments of awkward silence except for small talk between Charlie and Samuel, who had come to sit with us. He could quite obviously detect the air of stillness over the three of us and also resigned to focusing on his food.
"Watch it Reya!" came a annoyed shout from the entrance to the dining room. We all savored the distraction and turned to look, except Annabell who was now just sitting still with her hands on her lap. One of the oldest students I had noticed since being at the Institute for a whopping total of one night was shaking his head and giving glaring looks to Reya as he picked his breakfast up from the floor.
Reya however, was blissfully unaware. In fact, she looked a little unaware of anything. The only word to describe her then would have been half asleep, but without the half part. Her hair resembled a disgruntled troll, sticking out everywhere and anywhere, and her eyes were pretty much closed, with a slither of brown between the lids. She even still wore her pink pyjamas covered in day glo green flowers. Jesus.
In response to the boy she simply turned on the spot and regarded him with a mask of confusion. He waved his hand in front of her face and she simply yawned and made her way to our spot, swaying as she did.
"Errm.. is Reya on drugs?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"I hope not. Reya's just pretty big on her sleep.. I mean, really big. If she doesn't get her precious ten hours, she either gets seriously grouchy, or seriously zombie. The last one you can see first hand" Charlie nodded as Reya fell into the seat next to Annabell. She was still sat in silence staring at her hands.
"Morning Reya!" Samuel chirped in happily – the big grin instantly told me he had a little crush on her. I hoped he was fourteen too.
She simply yawned again and scratched her head, her eyes still not properly open. Samuel looked a little put out, turning back to his breakfast.
"You not eating?" Charlie asked.
"Do I look like I wanna eat? I'm not even awake yet!" she snapped, sounding surprisingly more grown up. Everyone except Annabell raised there eyebrows in surprise and another awkward silence fell across the group.
Reya sat in silence for a while, yawning some more and rubbing her eyes. Once they were fully open and she hadn't almost broken her jaw with another yawn, she turned to Annabell.
"Thanks for last night Annabell... its not like I said I wanted to sleep in or anything" she barked, louder than needed. Annabell seemed to flinch.
"Sorry" she mumbled.
"What?"
"I SAID SORRY!" Annabell suddenly screeched so loudly that everyone in near proximity jumped – poor Samuel almost fell off the bench.
As she stood up, Annabell's powers activated as tears streamed down her face. Her solid black eyes were wet, and her hair and skin resembled the northern lights. "I said I'm god damn sorry! Okay Reya? Maybe if you weren't acting like a five year old all the time, you might actually understand a mature situation and get why I was up crying all night!" she yelled, slamming her hand down onto the table to punctuate her point. The wood splintered under her slam – that must have been the super strength, I told myself gulping.
Before anyone could console her, she turned on her heel and ran – for the second time, I noted – in tears. Reya sat with her mouth agape for a second before frowning in anger. "Drama queen!" she hissed, stomping off with a plate for food. I simply looked at Charlie, his face also blank.
"Whoa.. no one told me there were some serious issues in this group" I said simply.