(12) Situation
I swallowed the sour taste that was rising in my throat. I coughed and looked away out the only window in our room. She couldn't read my mind! That was impossible. Maybe she was tricking me? An attempt to try to get me to reveal the truth about the Cullens. My stomach lurched thinking about them nobody could save me.
"You're funny." I recovered quickly and she was still staring at me with her gray eyes. Her eyes did not flicker when I responded. It was like staring into a cold, empty stone.
"Possibly." She whispered and tugged on her blue sweater. She laughed. "Well, I definitely cannot read minds. Imagine though how convenient it would be if I could? I would leave this place in a heartbeat. So why do you think that guy is a vampire?" She propped herself on her bed and dangled her legs in the air.
"Umm, how did you know that?" I was careful not to say too much when I could endanger her life with what I knew.
"I read your file." She stated matter of factly before she cupped her chin in her hands.
"How did you get my file?" I questioned and was grateful for having Charlie's knack of interrogating a suspect. I was good at treating Lily like a criminal even if she didn't know it. Plus, I was mad at her for knowing anything about me.
"Well, technically I didn't get it. Myra did. She's another girl that lives here. She is a master at breaking and entering almost never gets caught. Except when she got busted for stealing money from her parents. That's why she's here." Lily pursed her lips. "So you didn't answer the question why the fantastical illusion about this guy?"
"I was bored and I have an active imagination. I made it up. My parents threw a fit and still put me in here." I attempted to sound nonchalant but I suspected it sounded lame. Lily studied me for a minute. Her staring was unnerving me.
"That doesn't make sense. It's okay if you don't want to tell me the truth. I'll figure it out eventually." The way she said it made it sound like a challenge. I didn't want her poking around in my personal stuff. I needed to get rid of her suspicions.
"Okay, I'll tell you a secret." I leaned in and her eyes got very round. She leaned forward and hopped from the bed.
"I will not breathe a word of this to anyone." She swore and I saw just how young she really was fourteen maybe fifteen years old. So young to spend her teen years locked in a psych ward.
This was good. If she felt that we shared a bond then I could keep her away from the truth. Now what do I say? "I had a bad relationship. The guy I dated was not good for me. It ended and I didn't take the break-up that well. I guess I wanted to make him a bad guy. I wrote in my private journal and my Dad found it." Lily was staring at me not breathing a word. I mixed reality with a story I remembered from an Oprah show.
"Then what happened? Did he hit you?" Lily breathed and she closed her eyes possibly remembering a painful incident.
"No worse." I paused letting the intensity build. "He promised never to see me again. To destroy our love with his absence and leave me forever." I gulped after I said the last sentence feeling the pain all over again.
"What did you do?" Lily was rigid and her eyes were tearing.
"I let him go." I shrugged my shoulders. "I wrote about my pain but it was taken the wrong way. Of course he's not a vampire. That was my nickname for him because he used to go to bed so late. I would tell him he reminded me of a vampire." I studied Lily to make sure she got the point.
She bit her lip. "I use to call my ex-boyfriend the Hulk because he was so big and had a really bad temper." She bounced back onto her bed. "One night he got so mad at me that he threw me into the wall. I was unconscious for a long time. When I woke up he slapped me for making him so mad." She put her head against the pillow. "Men!"
I paused from putting my jeans in the small white dresser and stared at her. "He hit you?"
"Oh yeah, lots." She smiled up at the ceiling. "Until one day I got so tired of him hitting me that I picked up a fork and stabbed his arm. He was not happy."
I felt my mouth hanging open. "Did he find you?"
"Not yet. I came home and told my parents about what happened and they sent me here. They don't want to deal with me. So they use this place to put me while they go off touring the world." Lily smiled again and I looked at her earnest face. I didn't understand how someone so tiny and young could have experienced the horror she did.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." I put the shirts in the top drawer and shut it.
"No worries. It's six o'clock dinner." Lily hopped from the bed and waited for me at the door. "You can meet the other girls."
I walked to the door and grabbed my jacket. It was chilly in the house and I felt my nerves tingling. I walked down the hallway behind Lily and saw the paintings hanging one by one. Some of the paintings were of a sailboat, meadow, ballerinas, and the ocean. The kitchen was at the back of the house with a wooden table in the center of the room. Two girls waited at the front of the table and Lily motioned for me to sit next to her.
I slid in and sat on the bench. A table setting was in front of me. Connie brought the food to the table and sat at the head. A pot of soup and chicken sandwiches were in front of us.
"Ladies, dig in." Connie gestured at the food and the skinny girl at the end grabbed a sandwich.
I took a sandwich and filled my bowl with soup. Lily put a tiny amount of soup in her bowl.
"Lily?" Connie gave her a disapproving look.
"What?" Lily answered innocently.
"Remember the deal." Connie said.
"Of course. I just forgot." Lily picked up the ladle and put some more soup in her bowl. She broke half a sandwich and put it on her plate.
"Thank you." Connie replied and served herself.
"Hi my name is Myra." The skinny girl at the end of the table said. The thief who stole my file I told myself. She had stringy black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a jumpsuit with a teddy bear on the front.
I nibbled on the sandwich. "Bella."
"This is Joey." She pointed to the girl sitting beside her who looked like she was nine. The little girl did not speak and mutely ate her dinner. She had light brown hair pulled up into a ponytail and blue eyes. Her shirt had a faded strawberry shortcake and she wore a jean skirt.
"She's shy." Myra laughed and plucked another sandwich from the table.
"How do you eat so much?" Lily commented but her voice had a hint of disgust.
"Jealous?" Myra mocked and shoved the sandwich into her mouth. "Mmm, so delicious."
"You're gross." Lily sighed and put a spoonful of soup into her mouth.
"Myra stop it!" Connie pointed her finger at her and Myra plopped the sandwich back on her plate.
Joey ate her meal in silence and so did I. I liked Joey she reminded me of Angela. I tried to remember to smile at her once in a while. She returned my smile shyly.
After dinner, we cleaned our plates and went back to our rooms. Lily listened to her Ipod and I read my book. Connie poked her head in our room. "Time to go to bed." She closed the door and Lily tossed her Ipod by her bed.
I glanced at the small clock above the door. "We go to bed at nine-thirty?" I asked outraged and Lily shrugged into her pajamas.
"Uh-huh." She took her toothbrush and went to the bathroom.
I changed while she was in the bathroom and waited for my turn to wash up in the restroom. Lily sauntered back into the room. "You don't snore do you?" She put her stuff back into her dresser.
"No, do you?" I walked to the door.
"No." Lily climbed into the bed and fluffed up her pillow. I stared at her plain white bed sheets. I had flowers on mine. I wonder if she brought those in from home? "Don't forget to turn out the light. Roomie, good night." Lily smiled and turned towards the wall.
I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I stared at my reflection and silently told myself it was only for a month. I took a deep breath and ran my hands through my hair. It was knotted so I finger combed the strands.
I turned out the lights in the room and got into bed. Lily was breathing deeply and I tried to close my eyes. My eyes were heavy and eventually I drifted off to sleep. Edward appeared in my dream. The meadow was gone and the dream shifted. Edward was sitting across from me at school and I studied his face. The beautiful angles of his features and the tiny curve of his nose I traced with my finger. He was perfect better than I remembered him. I felt the cold texture of his skin so lifelike that I curled my fingers into his cheekbone. He smiled with his honey eyes and brought my fingers to his mouth. He kissed my knuckles and put his cheek against mine. The hand I was clutching suddenly turned to ash and Edward was gone. A flame of red hair replaced Edward's face and a massively strong hand wrapped around my throat. She stared at me with her ruby eyes and snarled.
The scream woke me up. Lily was sitting up in her bed staring at me. Her eyes were wide with terror and she was shivering.
She wrapped her arms around her body and shook her head. "Who's Victoria? Why are you so scared, Bella?" Her eyes probed mine and I struggled to find the right words to explain.