Page 46 of In This Iron Ground
Damien lay on Hakan’s bed. He felt like an overstuffed suitcase. He concentrated on not bursting apart.
“Good day?” Hakan asked.
“Yeah,” Damien responded softly. “The best.”
**********
Life turned normal.
Yes, there were werewolves and nightmares and the ebb and flow of anxiety. But there were also routines and friends and growing up. Damien was almost part of a family. Not quite, but almost.
After Damien’s fifteenth birthday, Koko started hanging out with Olive and Damien at school.
“I can’t believe you like that character,” Olive scoffed, taking a drag of her cigarette. They were ensconced below the school bleachers, enjoying the spring air warmed by the nearing summer.
“She’s badass!” Koko protested.
“She’s a straight-up douchebag.”
“You’rea straight-up douchebag.”
“No arguments there, but it doesn’t change the fact the she’s one too. You’re in love with a douchebag.”
“I amnotin love with—”
“Hey!” A man’s voice cut through Koko’s denial. The three of them turned to see one of the teachers approaching the bleachers.
“Shit,” Olive said, throwing her cigarette on the ground. She stumbled to her feet and bolted, Koko following close behind.
Damien was rooted to the ground.
He watched the angry teacher bend below the stands and come towards Damien like it was happening to someone else.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m—”
“Is that a cigarette?” the teacher asked.
Damien remained silent as the teacher bent to inspect the offending object. The cigarette burned with incriminatory wisps of smoke.
The teacher turned to Damien, grabbing his arm. “Come on,” he said, pulling Damien up.
Damien followed.
It had been a while since he had gotten in trouble. Not since the McKenzies.
Everything was blank and still inside him.
They had only walked for a few second before Olive ran towards them with a halting, “Hey!”The teacher stopped walking, pulling Damien to a stop.
“Olive,” the teacher said in a tone filled with a sarcastic,What a surprise.
“Yeah. Me. Damien’s got nothing to do with it. It was my cigarette,” she said. A protest lumped inside Damien’s throat.
“He was there, wasn’t he?” the teacher replied.
Olive scowled. “So?”
