Page 5 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

“You don’t lock your doors around here?”

He turns and gives me a dead-eyed stare. “Why, you got something to hide?”

I groan quietly as I enter the room.

It looks more like a prison cell than a bedroom.

Even the room’s only small window is meshed with a steel frame as if to stop its occupants from jumping out.

Two narrow cots against opposite walls. What’s left of the space is crowded out by a double-door closet and a desk with a set of drawers on each side of the gap where a rickety wood chair slides in.

Jasper points at one of the beds. “That’s mine.”

“You sure?” I mumble to myself. The beds look identical. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d told me no one lived in this room.

“That’s yours,” he says, pointing at the left-hand closet door. “Stay out of my side.”

“Why? You got something to hide?”

He turns angry eyes on me, and I bite down on my lip.

It’s been a long day.

Hell, it’s been a long ass couple of weeks.

My duffel bag and backpack thump to the floor. I’m glad I don’t have more clothes, because I doubt even half my stuff is going to fit in my closet space.

This place reeks of mothballs and stale air but if I can open the window that might help.

The window is sealed shut.

Jasper grabs something out of his drawer. “I got class,” he says, and walks out.

I rush over to the door and poke my head into the hall. “Hey!”

My voice booms back at me. Jasper swings around, but he doesn’t stop walking.

“Where do I go?”

“Dunno.” Jasper shrugs. “They only told me to show you the room!” he yells back before disappearing around the corner.

“Good God,” I mutter sourly as I step back into the room.

I stare out the doorway, and shiver when a damp breeze slips inside.

“Surprised no one gets pneumonia.” I mutter as I shove the door closed.

I let out another sigh and sink down gingerly onto the corner of my bed.

It groans theatrically under my weight.

I roll my eyes.

This is what happens when the only thing going through your head for weeks at a time is,I hate my life,shortly followed by,what else could possibly go wrong?

I challenged God, and he didn’t hold any punches.

Chapter 2

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