Chapter 18- You Be Tails, I'll Be Sonic

I rolled my eyes, ‘You’re exactly like Eli, jeez. Hello, the world doesn’t revolve around Austin either!’ I smiled and shoved him. ‘Anyways… after y’all left we talked about something and then started heading towards school. But we ran into the Ghosts and.. Uh, yeah you’ll find out when you see Eli.’
He looked shocked, ‘Did they beat his a*s?’
‘It was 4:1 I didn’t think it was very fair.’
‘They didn’t hurt you did they,’ his eyes flashed.
I shook my head, ‘No, but they wouldn’t let us go until we agreed to join them.’
‘They gave you something in return, didn’t they? I know you‘re high,’ he beamed over at me and I laughed.
‘Jeez, do they have that on the clipboard to?’
He chuckled, ‘No, I can tell. Your eyes are still shiny as hell.’
‘Damn, still? That really was strong s**t,’ I mumbled to myself.
‘Anyways,’ he smiled.
‘Anyways, after that we decided not to go to school so we went home and smoked.’
‘How’d you get all your bruises?’ I hesitated. ‘It was your mom wasn’t it? I never really said anything about it but I see marks on you and Noah every now and then.’
I bit my lip to keep from saying what was on my mind, ‘Yeah, my mom beat me with a baseball bat and then left. That was when she found out that we were… smoking. After that, she locked me in my room, which is where my artwork came from,’ I held up my bandaged wrist.
He frowned, ‘You shouldn’t be proud of that.’
I ignored him and continued. ‘We found out awhile later that my mom had left and didn’t know if she was coming back. Then Raven came over and had dinner with us but the gang broke in and tied me to a chair and tried to basically kill me. But then the cops came and now I’m here.’
‘They were giving you the punishment for being late weren’t they?’
‘How do you know? Are you a member or something?’
‘Oh, no. Just Raven told me when they almost did it to her.’
‘Oh, yeah and now Raven is upset at me.’
He looked surprised, ‘You two? The sirens? Mad at each other?’
I laughed at the childhood name we had given each other. ‘Yeah, she’s mad at me for… cutting myself…’
‘Oh… well on a brighter note we’re almost there.’ He pointed down the hall at a door with a sign that said CENTERS on it. I giggled again and shoved him. ‘Well how about something better, at least you’re not going to be here on our date day.’
I blushed and looked down, I had forgot about my saying yes to that. ‘I can’t wait. That might be the highlight of my week.’ This time he was the one to smile and look away, he looked so cute in his black scrubs.
Right as we got up to the door and I was about to open it up Austin pulled my hand away. He gently pressed me up against the wall and whispered. ‘Alice, I really like you and I’m hoping I get the chance to prove to you that I’m not a man w***e like everyone says I am.’ He pulled away and looked down shyly.
Despite my heart beating a million miles per hour I spoke confidently. ‘I know you can be sweet when you want to. And I like you to, I’m willing to show you I’m not as deranged as that clipboard says I am.’ We both smiled at each other. I swooped up right in front of him and whispered in his ear. ‘But I would like a good time to,’ I teased and pulled away then said outloud, ‘I like your scrubs.’
He blushed a deep red and opened the door for me. I snickered, feeling accomplished and walked in. There was a desk a couple feet from the door on the right. Austin signed me in and gave the lady my clipboard. The lady said he could go and on his way out he passed by me and gave my hand a little squeeze and winked. When he left the lady got up and came around the desk. She was a short pudgy lady with glasses and bad taste in clothes. She gave me a once over and sneered. My b***h alarm went off as she led me down the hall to an empty white room.
‘Okay, this is the examination room.’ She let me take in what little scenery there was. A little table in the middle of the room with drawers under it. ‘Please, remove all of your clothes except your underwear and place them on the table. I will get you a pair of clothes from the drawers. You must remove all jewelry and accessories.’
I reluctantly did as I was told. She stared at me the whole time which I thought was awkward as hell. When I was done and trying to hide most of my body from her, she handed me a pair of bland white scrubs. ‘Why can’t I wear my bra?’
‘Some patients are known to take the wire out of the bra and turn it into a weapon used to harm themselves or others. Ma’am you need to take off the necklace.’
I clutched my necklace protectively and shook my head. ‘Please, my dad gave it to me before he left. It means the world to me.’
She didn’t take pity on me one bit. ‘Ma’am I’m sorry but you have to take it off. It’s protocol not to have any jewelry.’ After much arguing I finally gave it to her, feeling naked without it. ‘Now if you will follow me to your room.’ I trailed behind her without a word. When we got to my room she opened it and waited for me to walk in. When I did I glanced around the room and my heart dropped into my stomach. It was a dank room with a bed bolted to the floor on the right and a sink and toilet to the left.
‘Since it is after hours, you will have to wait until tomorrow for the psychiatrist to come. In the morning, you will wake up at 8 o’clock sharp. You will have a chance to get a shower and eat breakfast. At 10 o’clock you will talk to the psychiatrist. At 1 o’clock there’s lunch. At 2 o’clock we will put you under observation until we feel you are not a risk to yourself.’
‘Jeez,’ I mumbled under my breath.
‘After your evaluation you may be released.’
‘Okay, whatever.’ She started to walk out but I called out, ‘Hey, you got any food? I’m hungry.’
‘Not till tomorrow morning, goodnight Ms. Autumns.’ She shut and locked the door. I sighed and went to go sit on my bed but it felt like I just sat on a cardboard box. I grumbled and laid down, realizing there was no blanket or pillow. I curled into a ball and couldn’t sleep the whole night.