Ryleah: Talks

    I'm in some state of half-consciousness in the backseat of Lily's Neon, Jess upfront with her and Erin in the back with me. Somehow it ended up that we're all staying at Lily's tonight. I happened to mention I don't feel like being alone for a few reasons, and then suddenly we're all piling into Lily's car after she and I got off work. Jess and Erin had hung around the club, near the bar with me, while waiting; the latter having seemed rather out of place with her bookish tendencies. Poor thing.
    Briefly a face framed by black hair with blue eyes swims up from the back of my mind, chills going down my spine. I keep seeing that guy in the club whenever I have a shift, and at random other places, too. I don't know why, but I've got a bad feeling. Which is why I don't want to be alone tonight. Anis may be like some guardian angel for all I know, watching from afar, which isn't as creepy as it sounds, but still. Sure I can protect myself and all that, but if he's from... I'd rather not think along those lines.
    The car jerks to a stop, causing me to snap forward, awake suddenly. "Damn it Lily! Learn to not give me whiplash!," I call, glaring at the back of her head. She only smiles back to me, perfect smile and all, through the rearview mirror. Maybe I'm snappy and tired, but that's because of what I had to do before serving drinks tonight. Quickly the images and sounds of earlier in the day run through my mind. Bright flashes, Shouts, Slipping through a skylight. Picking a lock. Slipping inside, burning some files. Reading mine. Keeping some. Slipping back through the skylight as the shouts got nearer to me. Having to set someone's pants on fire, so they didn't grab me. And fleeing with some others, the files hidden in my coat.
    "C'mon, we're here sleepyhead," Erin whispers to me, tugging on my sleeve with a small smile. She's a sweet girl, in college for...engineering or medical something. I don't remember, she's just smart, and looks it. Whereas Lily is curvy and blonde and basically what could be plastered on every dirty magazine ever, Erin is that usual, mildly socially awkward girl. Her skin is a mix between Filipino and white, I think, and her hair is wavy and black, purple rimmed glasses forever perched on her nose. She's going places. Why she's friends with Lily...well, I can only assume Erin has a bit of a wild side buried under there someplace.
    She and I step out of the car, Jess and Lily already outside and chatting. Now, Jess is different in looks form all of us; tall, athletic, and dark skinned. She has black hair pretty much always tied into a pony-tail, and light brown eyes. Her eyes probably the only similarity that connects any of us physically, and, even then, her eyes only faintly match Erin's deep brown ones. Lily is blue-eyed and I'm the special honey-eyed one. Basically it's like a bunch of people were thrown into a bag, and all of us just ended up pulled out at the same time. Our appearances only give hint to the personality differences.
    All four of us head up to the building and the elevator, the three talking about something or other I only nod and grunt at, my mind most certainly elsewhere. I keep wanting to text him, see if he wants to meet up, but...I don't know. I could, alternatively, jsut drop by, but with my luck he'd be entangled with god knows who. I shiver at the mental image in my head.
    Once the elevator dings and the doors glide open, we all step out and go down to Lily's room, but I make a quick stop to feed and stroke Charcoal, before joining them. Of course soon as I walk in, I realized I should've grabbed something to sleep in, but by that point a shirt is being pelted at me. "Always forgetful. I blame your southern blood," Lily teases, her New Yorker accent thick. Erin, Lily, and even Jess who has a British accent of all things, claim I 'speak' southern. So what if I say 'y'all' form time to time? I haven't been in the south since a long while.
    I only roll my eyes and walk over to the bed to strip down and pull the shirt on that, for me, is large. Lily isn't overweight, she's jsut curvy and definitely bigger than I am. Erin's in the same boat, and Jess almost is, except she's really tall. "Remind me why I agreed to this?"
    "Because," Jess says, dropping onto the red covered bed. "you worry about some guy stalking you and want our awesome protection."
     "I have a gun, hun, a stalker isn't any worry of mine," I point out, gesturing to the gun I just set on the bed after changing.
     "And I have pepper spray, just incase. Not sure I could use a gun," Erin pipes in.
     "Help to have at least one lesson from...ah, someone," I murmur, sighing and taking the gun up to go stick it in one of Lily's drawers, wrinkling my nose at the contents of the first one. "I do not wanna know what kinda guys you bring home, Lily," I call to her as she puts something int eh microwave and I stick my gun into he second, much less disturbing drawer.
    She laughs. "The fun ones! Got to have someone to warm my bed at night, and if they've got some kinks, well," she shrugs a shoulder, the smell and sound of popcorn filling the apartment. "I can only do my best to oblige. And, hey, it's not always guys," she adds quickly, smirking a bit.
     The three of us sitting on the bed roll our eyes collectively, "Not into orgies or women," we say, laughing briefly at the unison of it.
    "Missing out," she singsongs, prancing over to set the bowl down before going to look about for something to drink, I assume.
     "You know, you never did tell us why you think he's stalking you. Hell, not even where you're from really, Ry. What's up with that?," Jess asks randomly, pulling one of the fluffy pink pillows to her chest. Erin tilts her head, looking to me curiously, and Lily comes over with three beer bottles and one bottle of water, for Erin. It's not that she has class in the morning, which she doesn't, she just doesn't drink.
    I squirm a bit at the eyes on me, take a handful of popcorn, shove it in my mouth, grab one of the bottles, open it, drink. "'Cause I see him everywhere, don't know why. And I told you, I grew up down in Florida. My mother died and...I've been moving about since."
    Lily shakes her head, "Don't even try that game. Come on, tell us about where you were before here. Like...friends? Boyfriend? Children, for all I know?" Her questions are nosy, but I can see the concern in her eyes. She happened to have been just coming home when I had left Anis's that night and...well, I never went into detail about stuff, but she could tell I was hurting because of some things I said.
    The other two look to me interestedly and I sigh. "Not really. A friend, yea, but," I shrug a shoulder, "That's 'bout it. I told you that before, maybe not details, but only 'cause....not important."
    I look down to my lap, not wanting to say anything further, but I can feel their eyes on me. Maybe they only want to know because they want to get closer to me, be actual friends, but...maybe I'm just trying to close myself in, or am too secretive with some things. Well, no, that's wrong. I told Anis quite a bit, but...that was different, I think.
    "There's something in your eyes when you talk about before, Ryleah," Erin whispers, "There's something...unresolved. But maybe someday there'll be a resolution, like there is in every book. Maybe someday you'll get what you want....since you seem to not get it that often. You said your mother died, and that you did not like her, but...you did to want her dead. Then the after...if you were in the system, I guess you never really found a loving family. And then you find friends only, but someday you'll find what you want. Everyone finds it sooner or later; love." She blinks, shakes her head, then drinks some water as if nothing happened. I slowly look up to her, frowning in thought. Sometimes I wonder if Erin is more...mutant than human, but it's hard to tell. I haven't told any of them about what I can do yet, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I did. But what she did say...it struck me somehow. I don't like being struck by words.
    After that, the night goes on. Laughing, watching TV, talking, even playing M.A.S.H somehow. Of course we all end up sleeping, all of us shoving up against each other to fit on the bed, which works halfways okay, but I stay awake, as exhauasted as I am, as two snore and one only breathes in the rhythm of sleep. Since I'm on the edge, I turn a bit to grab my pants and fish out my phone, sending a quick text to someone. I might regret this, but...hey, talking to someone who might be able to help me make sense of some things would be nice. I just have to hope I don't make a big fool of myself.