I don’t know if it’s because of the soap or because I’ve stayed away from them and had went to the bathroompractically every half hour, but I’m safe enough for the next two weeks.
I’m about to turn off the water when the door to the bathroom opens and in comes giggling. My body freezes involuntarily before I force myself to relax.
“Oh!” she gasps in a breathless voice. “Someone’s in here, Cal – “
“Shhh,” he whispers. A male with whoever the girl is, both absolute shit at being quiet. “Let’s see if you can be quieter than you were earlier.”
She giggles and I roll my eyes. I have no idea who either of them are, and I don’t care. Once they enter one of the shower stalls I’m out of here. Instead of turning the shower off right away, I peak out of the curtain to grab my towel from the bench sitting right outside.
Kissing sounds and rustling start up but it sounds no different to the brothel so I really don’t care. Whoever he is though has his back to me as I snatch my towel and stand as far away from the spray to dry off. No way am I turning off the water until they are in a stall so I’ll do what I can to get dressed here. At least with no hot water there’s no steam or humidity.
Breathless gasps and mumbling and slurping sounds accompany the water raining down in my stall. I peek out again, using the curtain to cover up as much as I can to grab my clothes now. But this time the guy has the girl on top of the counter by the sinks with her legs wrapped around his waist.
And now that they’re in clear light I can see dirty blond hair and golden eyes. Eyes that immediately lock on mine through the mirror.
The girl, someone with long black hair and fair skin, has her lips on the side of his neck. She hasn’t noticed me as his eyes widen and I flinch back into my stall. And stupid me because I didn’t grab my clothes and all I have here is a towel not large enough to cover the entirety of my body.
There’s more rustling and then, “Get out.”
Deep, dark, demanding. The girl squeaks but for some reason doesn’t say anything and a moment later the door opens and closes.
Now the only sound is the shower and fucking hell my luck must only last in increments because how is this even possible.
“Mavyn. . . “ he drawls. His tone neutral so I have no idea what he’s feeling but he sounds closer to my stall now. “Are you going to turn off the shower and come out?”
Almost six weeks and I haven’t even looked at him. He hasn’t spoken a word to me since the gym incident. Neither has Thorne and stupidly I thought I would be able to get through the rest of this year easily. I thought I would be able to finish at least this fucking year quietly.
Invisible.
Ordinary.
Forgotten.
“Mavyn – “
“My clothes are out there and you’re standing right in front of my stall,” I interrupt. Hopefully he is more of a gentleman and will leave.
“Then grab them and change in the stall. I need to say something to you and I want to do it face to face.”
A shiver rolls up my spine. In order to do that I’d have to stick my hand out and there’s enough light to easily see the scars on my arm. It’s not that big of deal, I hadn’t cared before about people seeing them or not. But it’s how they treat me afterward. The looks, the pity, the remorse. They see the scars and think I’m fragile.
I had to yell at Rosemary once to stop treating me like that. She wouldn’t let me do anything for months when she found out about them.
God damnit. Today has started off so good too and now wariness is creeping in. Everything had been going so good. I’ve kept up with my classes, I’ve been working, I’ve been feeding myself properly, I’ve started working out again.
“You’ll see my arm if you keep staring at the stall,” I sigh. I don’t know why I care so much about it all anyway. I doubt people would care if the so called vampire had scars at all. It’s not like I don’t already get stares and whispers and whatnot.
“I already know you have scars on your arm, Mavyn. But I’m not leaving, I need to speak to you.”
“You can’t just wait outside?” I try. To which I’m greeted by silence. I don’t have the energy for this shit.
Wrapping the towel around myself tighter, I turn the water off and grab the shower curtain before cracking it open and reaching one of my arms out. I have to stretch the whole thing out to get where my clothes are on the bench and faster than I was prepared for burning wraps around my forearm and my back is pressed against a wall.
Golden eyes lit up with threads of white are all I see as they stare at the arm gripped in their hand.
“Thorne said – “ he doesn’t finish as his eyes follow my arm up to my shoulder and then the part of my chest the towel can’t cover. The arm he’s holding onto feels like it’s consumed with fire as I ram the back of my head into the wall and pinch my eyes shut.
Pain.
