Second Lanark

Confrontation - Part 18

The next day, we awoke to a sharp knock on our door. As my bed was the closest and I was the lightest sleeper, I pushed my hair off my face and stumbled out of bed, over to the door. I took a look through the peephole to make sure I wasn't going to be showing yet another amazing side of myself to Rob. I wasn't sure I was ready to show him hungover with dragon breath just yet. On the other side of the door stood Mishti, the residential don for our floor.

I unlocked the door and cracked it open.

Mishti, pert and petite with short cropped dark hair and skin the colour of milk chocolate was a little sprite of a thing. I'd never seen her anything but happy and friendly. She didn't look so happy now.

She tried to peer around me into the room, but I knew with the room darkening shades down and no lights on, the room was pretty much pitch black.

"What's up, Mishti?" I asked, blocking her view of the room with my body.

She hesitated and then said, "Some of the other girls on the floor have come to me with some concerns. I was hoping to speak to you, Lark and Patricia this afternoon. When would be a convenient time for us to meet in my suite?"

My heart sank into my stomach. And so it begins. I'd been down this road before. I had a feeling the concerns expressed had to do with Jill.

"Lark and Tricia are still sleeping. Maybe in an hour? I can wake them up," I suggested.

"I think that would be a good idea. I'd like to get this resolved as quickly as possible," Mishti said, taking a step back from the door.

"Sure. Yeah. That sounds good," I said.

I closed the door on her, moved so the back of my knees hit the bed and then I flopped down. 

"Guys?!" I called out to Lark and Tricia.

Lark moaned from the floor. "I feel like shit."

"Well, I think we're all about to feel a bit worse. Mishti was just here and we have to meet with her in her room in an hour."

"Why?" Tricia asked from underneath her covers.

"She said some of the other girls on the floor had 'expressed concerns'." I air quoted the last part, even though neither of them was looking at me.

"Freaking Jill," Lark grumbled as she turned over on the floor.

I wasn't sure what to say back to that. There was a part of me that actually thought it's 'Freaking Lark' that was the problem. She didn't seem capable of compromising or backing down with anything in regards to their room. Should Jill have been doing whatever she was doing with Tom without letting Lark know the room would be busy? Probably not. But, Lark had severely overreacted.

Tricia threw off her covers and started moving around the room, gathering her stuff to shower. She knocked on the bathroom door that joined the two rooms. When there was no response, she pulled it open and went in without a word.

"Are you just going to lie there, Lark?" I asked.

"Yeah, until either the room stops spinning or Tricia comes back out of the bathroom – whichever comes first. I feel terrible," Lark said.

I laid on the bed and considered who might have complained about us on the floor. Were the concerns from other girls really just from Jill or had we done so much at this point that other people on the floor had taken note? It wasn't just Lark that Mishti wanted to see and I had a hard time believing that Jill would throw Tricia under the bus. Me? Probably. But, not Tricia.

Tricia flew back out of the bathroom in just a towel and said to Lark, "Get up and get dressed. We need to figure out what the hell is going on."

Lark sat up and grabbed her ripped pants off the floor. She stumbled through the bathroom and back to her room. I heard her knock on the adjoining door to her room, but I didn't hear a response. I wondered if Jill was in Tom's room instead.