Page 11 of Heart of a Killer

My curiosity gets the best of me. I can’t help it sometimes. “But I really do.”

She is hysterical with laughter. “Okay, okay. So, rumor is she covered the penis in wax to preserve it, to ya know?” Her eyebrows move up and down.

“Ugh, yuck!”

“I told you.” Brie shrugs. “You didn’t want to know.” She goes on to list other people and what their stories are. Analyzing people must be the only thing she does here. I don’t know, but maybe it helps to pass the time. I can’t tell if she is only a bitch sometimes, or if that is just her personality. The longer you’re around her, the more you get this comfortable friendship, like when she calls you “bitch” as a term of endearment.

“What about them?” I point to the couple sitting to the right of the cafeteria.

The girl sits almost in a catatonic state with long brown strands hanging down in her face. The guy stares at her with a joker smile.

“Oh, that’s Journee and Benji. They’re a little off. Journee doesn’t say much. I tried to talk to her when I first got here, but she wouldn’t talk to me. And Benji...” Brie’s body shudders. “He makes me uneasy.”

“How so?”

“I can’t describe it. It’s not the hysterical laughter that bothers me, though that does scare the other patients. It’s something much deeper. I dunno. Anyways, then there’s—”

She continues to tell me about everyone here when Alex walks in. His head is held high like the big man on campus. Where did sad, shy Alex go? Or controlling disciplinarian run off too? Could he not remember me? I cannot help but stare at him while my chest and neck catch fire.

When Brie pulls me out of my trance, I try to cover my face with my hands. “Oh, you have the hots for him, don’t you?” All I can do is shrug because I don’t know what I feel for him. It’s so hard to explain. He messed me up way more than I already was. But at the same time, he makes me rethink my morals and question my sexuality. I want to forgive him for all the bad things he has done so that I can have him hold me and tell me everything will be okay again.

Turning my attention back to Brie, I ask, “Do you know him?” I’m curious what he is doing here since she seems to be the source of everyone’s story.

“Oh yeah, that’s my friend Leland. He got here about three weeks ago. I’ve been here the longest out of all the patients except for Journee and Benji. They were here before me. I ran into him like you ran into me, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. He’s a lot of fun, but he’s a real player. I think the nurses here have the hots for him or something.”

Interesting, he’s not going by Alex. Is this all a game to him? Leland, Leland, Leland, the name plays on a loop in my brain. I’m tracing it in my mind over and over again, committing it to memory. I seriously have to catch myself from saying his name out loud. I know one thing: two can play this game, buddy.

“Why do you say that?”

“Why do I say what?”

“That the nurses have the hots for him.”

She giggles. “Oh, you should watch how they trip over themselves when he walks into a room. It’s hilarious.”

His eyes catch mine, and he smiles that devilish grin that has my pussy clenching at the memory of his mouth between my legs. My hand reflexively goes to my neck where the rope burn used to be. Breaking eye contact, I turn back to Brie and urge her to fill me in on more of the patients. I need the distraction from Alex’s eyes on me.Leland!

Brie is deep in conversation when a voice interrupts us. “Are you going to eat that?” It’s small and sheepish, but before I can get down in my emotions that it isn’t Alex coming over, Brie is jumping down the poor girl’s throat.

“Yes, she plans on eating that, Patricia. Go get your popsicle sticks out of the trash.”

The girl scampers away quickly with tears in her eyes, and I can’t help but wonder what that was all about. Not long after that, my nightmare—dream?—does come true when Leland sits down in front of us.

“Hey, Brie. Picking up new strays again, I see.”

“Shut your pie hole before I get Gertrude’s old crusty dick and help you shut it.” Brie’s off-putting demeanor is back in full effect. He must’ve struck a chord with her. She’s hot in a mean girl way. That’s never been my type, but her confidence attracts me. Maybe it’s because that’s what I lack at times—the confidence.

“Only if it comes with your lips wrapped around mine,” Leland retorts sarcastically with a slight chuckle. They seem to understand each other with their natural banter. I feel a strong urge to be a part of their friend group. This could be great for me, since Leland apparently doesn’t know what I did.

“Whatever.” Brie throws her ice cream cup at Leland’s head, and he catches it before it hits him right in the nose. “This is Skylar. Skylar, Leland.”

“Hey,” I say sheepishly.

“Yeah, I met you outside of Dr. Benjamin’s office. What are you in for?”

When I don’t answer him, Brie pipes up, “She’s in here for depression, clearly.” She seems annoyed by his intrusiveness, as if she doesn’t also do the same thing. “I was just filling her in on everyone here. Why don’t you tell her what you’re in here for?”

What are we doing? Sharing our trauma stories? I can’t help but think of prison or hell because that’s where I should be. He only looks at me and shrugs. “I don’t remember.”

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