as well as the inside. And I needed to scrub my skin clean of who I was. Or who I wasn’t.
I picked up a loofa and did just that. I scrubbed and scrubbed as my skin burned and steam billowed all around the room, but I couldn't get clean. I'd never get clean.
I felt almost as hot as I had in that shower as beads of sweat trailed down my back and plastered my rainbow coloured hair to my neck.
Was the sun shining up there? Or was the sky as dark as it was down here? The lack of light was pressing in on my eyes so hard that I couldn't remember if they were open or closed anymore.
I was going to die down here.
All alone.
Poor little dead girl. I guessed fate had finally caught up to me at last.
I tried to bend my leg and reach for the straps on my stilettos for the millionth time, but my knee hit the door of the safe which had been pushed almost fully closed by the falling rubble and I couldn't raise my foot any higher.
I was all alone in the dark. Fuck, why was that so terrifying now when I'd been living that way for so long before this moment? Alone and forgotten were my standard settings. They had been for so long. But they weren't once.
"I saw her stealing from the cafe down in town," Rosie's nasally voice called to me and I rolled over in my stupid bunk bed and frowned as Mary Beth replied.
"When was this?" she demanded in a tone which told me I'd be punished if she found me.
"Earlier today," Rosie said and I slipped out of bed on silent feet, creeping to the door. I'd been about to go to sleep, but there was no fucking way I was hanging around here to get in trouble thanks to Rosie's big fat mouth. Gah, I hated that stupid twat. "I didn't want to have to tell you, but-"
I didn't have time to waste so I pulled a pair of shorts on, kicked on my combat boots, grabbed my battered skateboard and pocketed my cell, but the stupid thing had died on me and I hadn't gotten the chance to charge it yet. I only paused for two seconds to toss a glass of water onto the centre of Rosie's bed beneath her comforter. My other two roommates averted their eyes, knowing it was best to keep out of any drama around here and I was out the door and down the hall by the time Mary Beth's booming voice called for me to get my ass downstairs.
That would be a fuck no.
I shoved open the door to the boys' room and Clive cursed as he fought to cover up his pasty body with his hands. He had boxers on so I didn't know why the hell he even gave a shit, but I also had no time for that.
"Jellybeans?" I asked Jake, confirming the price this freedom would cost me as he shifted upright in his bed and shoved his window open for me.
"Always. And if you can grab me a can of Dr Pepper I'll even convince Rosie to tell Mary Beth she got confused and it wasn't you who stole anything after all."
"Fuck yes," I agreed, not wanting the details on how he’d manage that because I was pretty sure it had something to do with him making out with her and the idea of that was too gross for words. "But in the meantime, I'm getting the hell outa here." I hopped out of the window, ignoring Clive the clinger as he called out for me to wait while he got dressed so that he could tag along. I was gonna have to punch his stupid face again soon if he didn't stop with that shit. He kept lurking around outside the bathroom whenever any of the girls were showering too and I was getting seriously sick of his crap. We weren’t friends. Never had been, never would be.
I scrambled along the narrow sliver of roof outside the window then made my way to the ground, dropped my skateboard, and kicked off the asphalt at speed.
The sun was setting and I glanced up at the sky, kicking hard to move faster as I approached the house at the end of the street where Axel lived. The Harlequin gangbanger gave me the fucking creeps and I worked hard to avoid him whenever I