The Hall Speaks #fallsemester

PLAID PALS

#Alana

As Sage and Ethan headed toward the door, Alana broke away from her conversation with Owen and Shandi to catch Sage.

"Sage, hey... can we talk for a minute?" she asked politely.

Sage nodded. "I'll meet you in the car," he said, looking at Ethan.

Considering Sage didn't like it when people beat around the bush, Alana figured she'd get straight to the point. "I meant to bring it up earlier, but the other night when I was on duty and you came in looking disoriented, what happened? Because I know you didn't fall off your motorcycle that morning."

Suddenly Sage's face turned serious. "Nothing... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lied but—look, seriously, I'm fine," he said, staring at Alana, his expression unreadable. His eyes shifted, glancing quickly at Shandi and Owen who were still chatting away. "You can go back to them now."

A bit shocked, Alana's mouth fell open slightly as she searched for a legitimate follow up question, but he turned around and headed out before she could find one.

Ever since she rejected Sage, he'd been less than friendly with her. It was a troubling situation. She missed his friendship, but figured Sage just needed more time to remember that too.

With a heavy expression, Alana walked up to Owen.

"Is everything all right?" asked Owen, putting his hand on Alana's shoulder.

She smiled halfheartedly, avoiding the question. "I'm going to head back with Shandi; she is my date, after all. We can't exactly show up to the Ball separately, that would be lame," Alana added jokingly.

They were the last three staff members to leave, and they said their goodbyes to Landon and his family. Owen went straight to the Drag Ball while Alana and Shandi rode back to the hall together. With Lizzie's house being just 10 minutes from campus, they made it back to the hall early.

"I'm going to my room, just give me a call when you're ready and I'll meet you in the lobby," said Alana as she entered the elevator.

"Okie dokie!"

#Shandi

Shandi went upstairs to her room and started going through her less-than tidy-closet. As she pondered what to wear, she wished she had gone shopping earlier; a new dress was better than the old ones she was rummaging through. She couldn't decide between the spaghetti strapped multi-colored dress or her black gown.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Her door shook violently.

Startled by the loud banging, she jumped, dropping the black gown she was holding. Immediately Shandi thought it was the police; the knocking reminded her of a cop show.

She answered the door only to find Jared's frantic eyes staring back at her. She felt something was terribly wrong.

"What is it Jared?" Shandi asked in a steady voice, though her heart had already began to beat irregularly.

"It's Levi... he is talking crazy. I'm not sure what he is going to do, he's been drinking or is high or something. He might hurt himself, he's not right..." he said, much too quickly for Shandi to catch every word; however, she did comprehend one thing.

"Hurt himself... is he talking about..." She didn't want to say the word, but forced it out. "Suicide?"

"Yes... you need to come and talk to him."

Shandi took a deep breath, trying to remember to breathe normal, which at the moment seemed impossible. "Okay."

As she ran down the hall, she called the professional staff on call, and Jeanine answered. "Hello?"