Ink Me Insane (Book One)

Three

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Classes from free period to lunch, which was horrible because neither Cassie nor Danny were in her lunch period, followed by more school which Rene slept through barely waking up enough to shuffle to the next classroom. Finally dinner time rolled around, thankfully no group meetings or one on ones with Miss Rachel today.  

            "Oh my God, why didn't you tell me!" Cassie's voice shrieked at Rene as she sat down and started slapping her.

            "Knock it off Cassie. What did I even do?"

            "You know the new hot guy. You talked with him and ran with him. Do you just hate me or something? I thought we were supposed to be best friends..."

            Danny leaned over from his seat and covered Cassie's mouth with a hand. "So I hear you've had an interesting day," He inquired with a raised eyebrow.

            Rene shrugged while poking at her food.  Interesting was a matter of opinion. She had a day that started in the pit, involved running with another psycho, floating through class, and was wrapping up talking to her equally crazy friends. Interesting was relative particularly to someone who's mind was flexible.

            "Ouch, dang it Cass that hurt," Danny muttered while cradling his hand fresh, red teeth marks evident.

            "Then don't put your gross, disgusting hand over my mouth while I'm talking." She turned her body to been more head on with Rene, "Now back to the matter at hand, about this guy..."       

            Rene sighed and pushed her tray out of the way so she could rest on her hand. "It's nothing, we ran, he annoyed me, and then we stopped running. End of story."

            "But he's so hot," Cassie practically swooned while fanning herself with her hand.

            Rene rolled her eyes and pulled into herself. Yes, Michael was attractive, but that mattered very little. He was annoying and had a wicked attitude of a prankster. His sly smile gave her chills of distrust and something else she would rather not dwell on. Rene was pulled out of her mind by a hushing of the cafeteria. She glanced up to see Kristy sauntering through the crowd with Michael at her side nodding along to something Rene had no doubt was well, stupid. At least that was settled, Rene thought with a sigh as she turned back to table, Michael was definitely someone to be avoided. Too bad Michael didn't agree.

            He waved his hand energetically before whispering something in Kristy's ear and jogging over. It really was the makings of a disaster; however, she couldn't help but feel some satisfaction from the death glare Kristy was now shooting her.  "Well, hello running buddy, long time no see." Michael said with that damn sly grin of his.

            "I'm sorry do I know you?" Rene questioned giving him a lazy glance.

            "Rene! Don't. Be. Rude." Cassie horrified, hit her again punctuating each word.

            Rene rubbed her arm muttering under her breath. Michael simply raised an eyebrow before sitting down next to her, which earned him a glare. "So who are your friends?" he inquired.

            "It doesn't matter, you were just leaving," Cassie's gasp caused her to pause, "Fine, the pink hair is Cassie and the boy is Danny. Have fun."

            Michael grinned and shook hands with the both of them. Practically causing Cassie to faint in the process. "Nice to meet you, though I must admit I'm surprised the ice queen here even has friends."

            Danny snorted spitting out his water while Cassie covered her mouth trying to suppress giggles. "Haha very funny, Rene the ice queen, the girl with no feelings, the robot. Well screw you Mr. Sunshine." Rene growled.

            "Mr. Sunshine?"

            "Yes because you act like the world is so perfect and right out of the movies. I'm surprised you haven't started singing yet. If that's what you want there's a spot right over their next to the princess." Rene gestured towards Kristy's table while holding Michael's eyes daring him.

            He threw up his hands in mock surrender. "Cool it firecracker. Just having some fun."

            "Yea, well you have a screwed up aspect of what is fun."

            "I beg to disagree this is hysterical," Danny grinned while holding back some obvious laughter. "We should definitely have him around more often."

            With a glare Rene stood up while flipping Danny the bird, which of course, only served to increase his laughter causing him to almost fall off the bench. Rene headed towards the garbage and out the door when a firm hand planted on her shoulder. "Forgetting something?" a gruff voice inquired.

            Rene sighed, before holding out her hand for the pills. With the guard's nod of satisfaction she fled the cafeteria to her room. A small 12 by 8 room, the white cement walls greeted her. The bunk bed she shared with Cassie was unkempt not that the thin blanket really would take much to make in the morning. Rene carefully wandered over to the small adjoining bathroom and shut the door. Leaning against it, she let out a sign before spitting the pills into her hand and flushing them. She quickly changed out of her "uniform" of a black t-shirt and sweats and into blue ones that had be deemed pajamas by the asylum. The same every day. The same clothing, the same food, the same feeling of slowly unraveling. It was like drowning even though you could see everyone else breathing. She often wondered if it would be easier to let go. If anyone would even care.

            "Well that was very rude." Cassie's chipper voice echoed in the enclosed area.

            Rene opened the door and leaned against the frame taking in the small girl. "Why does it matter? It seemed like Kristy has already dung her claws into him." Rene said, she moved into the room and laid down on the bottom bunk.

            "Only 1 hour until lights out." A robotic voice boomed through the building.

            Cassie sighed as she went into the bathroom to change leaving the door cracked so she could continue her tirade.  "You know Michael seems like a really nice guy. He was just being friendly but there you go and shut everyone out again. How you have any friends at all is a miracle to me. You are so lucky that I was assigned as your roommate. Anyone else would have given up on you a long time ago."

            Rene stared at a spring slightly poking out from the bottom of Cassie's mattress. "That's not luck, I'm pretty sure it's karma for something I did."

            Cassie stuck her head out the door and gave made a face before continuing her nightly routine of face washing and teeth brushing. Cassie was one of the few students who still cared enough in the asylum to keep wearing makeup. It took her an hour to get ready in the morning all just to be washed down the drain at night. An effort in futility in Rene's opinion.

            Cassie came out and climbed up to the top bunk. Her weight giving the mattress a slight sag and causing the spring to push through more. "Rene you know that I love you right? You're my best friend, I just wish sometimes you would see the good in you that I see?" Cassie whispered quietly.

            Rene didn't say anything, just continued staring at the spring. Long past the evening of Cassie's breathing and the automatic shut off of all the lights. A good person? How could she ever be a good person when her own mother didn't want her? When countless people had deemed her unlovable until she landed here. Despite all that, she was glad Cassie believed enough in her to stick around. The sound of someone else's breathing made her feel grounded. Less like demons were creeping up on her. As she rolled over to face the wall, her thoughts drifted to where they often went at night. Was she insane? At the beginning of her stay she was adamant that she was not, but now. The longer she was here the more she felt unbalanced. As sleep's cold embrace pulled her under, she heard a deep voice breathe, "It is almost time fledgling."