YAY! Chapter 5 is up! SO, I hope this chapter isn't too boring like the other ones. It has Howard in it! So read, REVIEW, and favorite!
The next morning, Dakota climbed out of bed and got ready extra early, despite how exhausted she was from getting no sleep. She groggily walked through the clutter to her bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like major crap. Her mid-length black hair was greasier than she had ever seen it before, her small, brown eyes were blood shot and had dark rings around them from lack of sleep, and her teeth weren't looking too great either. Of course, what do you expect from someone who hasn't slept or showered in a week? She grimaced at her reflection and decided it was about time to get cleaned up.
Still half asleep, she put on her plain white swimsuit that contrasted with her Native American skin tone, and threw on her usual tomboy attire, basketball shorts, a random T-Shirt, and a pair of sneakers that were a little bit too small. But that was normal; everyone got dressed in what they could find. You were lucky if it remotely fit you. She quickly attempted to rake her fingers through her frizzy, knotted hair but gave up after her fingers got stuck in a particularly big knot.
She grabbed a towel off the floor and dragged herself down San Pablo Avenue to the beach. As soon as she felt the squishy sand between her toes she collapsed on her towel and started panting and wheezing as if she had just run a marathon, when in reality it was only a couple of blocks away. She took a quick breather and then stripped off her clothes to reveal her bathing suit and plunged into the salty water. The cool water felt good on her skin, even though it wasn't as cold as she would have liked, it gave her a new found burst of energy. She finished washing up hurriedly and walked back out into the sticky California air. Her skin felt salty and dry and her hair was probably really frizzy, but it was definitely better than before. She quickly redressed before anyone could see her in her swim suit and wrapped the towel around her hair. She was kind of self-conscious about her body now, well if you could even call it a body. She was scarily thin and you could see all of her ribs poking out.
Dakota decided that she should go get "the stuff" while she still had any energy left at all and then go find something to eat. She walked down the streets with a new found skip in her step with the thought that she might actually get some sleep tonight. She walked up to the doorstep and hesitated for a moment. What if it's that Orc guy that answers the door? And he's drunk again? She shook her head as if to get rid of the thoughts and knocked. She could hear heavy footsteps walk across the hall as the door opened. In the doorway stood a boy that wasn't much taller than herself. He was dark skinned and had dark brown eyes.
The boy raised his thick eyebrows at her and she was at a loss for words. What if this isn't even the right place? She inwardly scowled at herself for being so stupid and then asked, "Umm… Are you the guy? I mean… Is this? You know, the place?"
He just laughed and replied with a wink, "Place? Yeah, this is the place if you're looking for the stuff that's not exactly PG-13, if you know what I mean." She just nodded and the boy said, "Well anyways, C'mon the stuff's in the back." She immediately recognized the voice as the one she had heard the day before.
Dakota nodded again and stepped inside of the doorway. The inside was definitely not as neat as the outside, but it was still not nearly as bad as her own abode. They walked past what she guessed was the living room that had beer cans strewn everywhere and all of the furniture was either already broken or on the verge of breaking, they looked as if a boulder had been sat on them. Then she remembered Orc. "Duh!" she exclaimed and slapped her palm to her forehead. The boy looked at her quizzically and she felt her cheeks burn red. She wasn't used to being around people anymore. "Oh… Umm, sorry. I was just, umm… sorry"
The boy laughed again and said, "Well you sure are sorry a lot aren't you?"
"Uhh, yeah. Sorry."
They walked in an awkward silence for the rest of the short distance to the back door and she heard a sound coming from the backyard. It wasn't the loud BANG sound from before; it sounded more like talking and a whole lot of clattering. The boy didn't seem to notice so she dismissed it. They went to the back yard, where the beer can infestation continued. The noise was coming from a large shed. She could now hear what they were saying.
"Dude, I think I just heard the door open. What if it's Orc? He'll beat the shit out of us! We've got to go!" Someone said in a hushed whisper from the shed. Dakota didn't get why she could hear them if they were whispering, though.
"Calm down. You're just being paranoid! Grab that bag of weed over there, will ya?" Another kid replied in the same tone. How could she hear them?
"Can you hear that?" Dakota whispered to the boy next to her.
"Hear what?" the dark skinned boy replied.
"The people talking in the shed. Can you hear them?"
The boy looked at her like she was crazy, but she knew what she heard.
"C'mon! Let's go see!" she said as she grabbed the boy's hand and practically dragged him across the yard. It was kind of hard with him resisting and she was already weak as it is, so they were only halfway to the shed when two boys appeared out of the door with ski masks covering their faces,and they were carrying bottles of what looked like beer and small plastic baggies that she was all too familiar with.
As soon as the two boys saw them they bolted for the fence with the stuff they had just stolen. Dakota and the other boy raced after them, she used to be fast but she was too weak to run for that long. The other boy managed to catch up with them as they were hopping the fence and knocked out a couple of baggies from the slower boy's hand, but it wasn't much.
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" the boy yelled at the air. "I will get you back for those! You hear me? Orc will take you down, man!" he yelled another string of profanities and they went to go assess the damage.