The Dollhouse

Part 9

Chapter 9

GET HOME NOW.

I get the text from my dad. It's late that night. It's almost 1 am and he's freaking out. I want to respond. I want to go home, but my dad wouldn't understand. How would he understand that I've been beaten down at school. How would he understand what was happening to me?

"Are you feeling OK?" Kordell asks me, "What can I get you? Please let me know what I can get you."

"You've done enough with letting me stay here. You can get the door."

Kordell has a nice house and both of his parents were pilots so they were never home. He offered to let me stay with him after he found me crawled up in the locker room after school bleeding out after getting jumped by Micah and Braden.

When he leaves to go get the door I cuddle up in the guest bedroom that he has me staying in. I look down at my phone again. I want to text my dad but I can't. I just can't.

"He's in here," Kordell states.

The others arrive. Marisol, Richard, Candy and Thorn follow Kordell in there. The way they look at me is as though I was dying of cancer or something.

"Oh my god," Richard states, "Who did this to you?"

Kordell is pissed, "Micah and Braden."

They all look so sad for me. I hate feeling this way. I feeling like some sort of victim. I was tired being a victim. Everyone looks so sad except for Thorn. I can't really read his expression. He crosses his arms and doesn't really say anything in his 'too-cool' sort of way. He just stares at me.

"It looks worse than it is," Candice states, "The swelling will go down tomorrow. I'll come over and we'll put some makeup on you. It'll be back to normal. I promise."

"I don't care how I look right now..." I state, "I'm mad."

"You deserve to be. I'm going to fight both of them in school tomorrow ON SIGHT," Kordell responds.

"No violence," Thorn states.

"No violence?" Kordell asks him, "You see what they did to him? You see what the FUCK they did to him?"

"You seem a little too concerned," Thorn states.

Thorn calling Kordell out in the way he does makes him calm down. I watch Kordell shoot Candice a glance. He's probably hoping she didn't catch any sort of implications. I look over at Candice as well. Luckily she is too busy studying my face to feel any sort of way about Kordell's epic concern over my well being. Maybe she also didn't notice the big hole in the wall that he punched about 30 minutes ago practicing to bash Braden's face in.

"This is war," Candice states touching my face.

"Are you sure it was Braden and Micah? This doesn't seem like them," Thorn states.

I can't believe Thorn is questioning this right now.

"This was them."

"I'm just saying this isn't the Dollhouse M.O," he states, "They are desperate. The competition of handsome people in the school who aren't kissing their ass may be getting to them. They are acting out of character."

"It's nothing out of character about this..."

We all turn when we notice it's Marisol who says something. She's been in the back of the room staring at my face silently this entire time. She hasn't said anything. I watch how she looks over at my face and you can see this shadow all over her. Something is bothering her. Something big.