Page 27 of Resist Me

Chapter 10

West

“Hello darkness, my old friend,” I sang softly as I stared at my closet door. My room was dark save for the moonlight filtering in through the blinds. It cast strange shapes along the walls that seemed to threaten me.

A car passed by, its headlights illuminating the room more fully for a moment. Every time I got close to falling asleep, that happened. If it wasn’t the light, it was the upstairs neighbors. I didn’t know why they needed to walk around so much at night, but apparently, they did. Maybe they had the tiniest bladder imaginable. Whatever the case, I was annoyed.

One would think that living in the dorm would get me accustomed to noise and other distractions at night. It was surprisingly quiet there, though. The walls weren’t as thin and security passed through every once in a while. Even the more problematic students generally weren’t dumb enough to risk losing their housing.

The first night, I was exhausted enough that it hadn’t been that difficult to fall asleep. I’d woken up a few times but managed to knock out again. Yesterday, I got a couple hours, which left me in apretty bad spot for class. Tonight, even if I fell asleep now, I would only get three.

I wondered if Kai and Sen were having as much trouble. Probably not. If I had someone to snuggle up with, I’d no doubt sleep a lot better. Maybe I needed to get one of those body pillows. An anime girl one might be weird, but it was my room, so the haters could just keep hating.

Maybe I could find a giant football pillow. Or a football player.

That thought made me roll onto my back. The ugly texture on the ceiling gave my eyes something to focus on while I delved deeper into my head. Me and Kai used to sleep together sometimes. Just sleep. There was nothing weird about it, but a man-shaped pillow was a bit much.

I wondered if there was a salamander pillow. For some reason, that sounded really cool.

Something moved on the ceiling, forcing me back to a salamander-less reality. It was too dark to tell if I’d actually seen anything at all. It could’ve been a figment of my imagination. It was pretty overactive on the best of days.

No, there was a spot that was definitely darker than the rest. I was torn between staying completely still and running out of the room. It could be a demon. Or a spider. A demon spider. I wasn’t an arachnophobe, but I didn’t want the thing rappelling down from the ceiling directly into my mouth.

Headlights illuminated the room just in time for me to see the fat, brown, ugly monster directly above my head. As if on cue or startled by the light, it detached from the ceiling. The scream that tore from my throat was not fitting for a six foot five quarterback with abs of steel, but I would not apologize. Anybody would make that sound if a roach came hurtling toward their face.

I’d never contemplated death so much as I did the moment it hit my forehead with a solid thud. I sat up so quickly that I didn’t know which direction I flung it in with the motion. My legs got tangled in the blankets, making me fall out of the bed onto the floor. I kicked and shoved at them, twisted and screamed some more.

Finally, I freed myself from my prison and scrambled to my feet. I flung the door open and collided with a bare, solid chest. Kai grabbed my shoulders and spun me, slamming me against the wall.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

“It tried to face suck me,” I gasped, pointing into the room.

He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. If he’d been through that trauma, he’d be a little crazed too.

Sen came stumbling out of their room, bleary eyed and confused. “What’s happening?”

“There’s a face sucker in West’s room,” Kai said.

“What? West, are you high?”

“No,” I growled, pulling away from Kai. “A roach fell on my goddamn face and I don’t know where it is now. And since I don’t have a big, strong man to cuddle with, I’m obviously not getting any more sleep tonight.”

I marched over to my dresser and grabbed some clothes, being mindful of every step I took. Having another gut-tastrophe on my hands- or foot- was not on my agenda for the day.

“Where are you going?” Kai asked. He stepped into my path as I made my way toward the bathroom.

“Gym.”

“It’s three in the morning.”

“That makes sense. It’s the devil’s hour and he sent his evil minion to drag me down to hell.”

“That’s dramatic.”

When I pushed past him, he made a frustrated sound and followed me. He caught the door before I could close it.

“You need to sleep. You have classes.”

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