Over My Head by Charles de Lint

Author:Charles de Lint [de Lint, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780920623183
Publisher: Triskell Press
Published: 2013-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Marina

I'm still trying to figure out how to get Julie out of the way so that I can deal with Erik when Erik starts shuffling down the hall toward us. I step in front of Julie so that he has to come at me first. But he doesn't attack. I don't think he was ever a threat. As he gets closer I can see that the crazy look in his eyes isn't I'm-going-to-kill-you crazy, but scared crazy.

"Look," he says. "I'm sorry—okay? Tell the guy I came and said I was sorry. Tell him to just leave me alone now."

The guy? What guy?

Then I remember Des telling me about what he and Josh were up to last night. How Cory went into Erik's house …

"What happened to you?" I say

"I—I …"

God, he's a mess. And when was the last time Erik was at a loss for words?

Julie touches my back of my arm.

"You're not actually talking to him, are you?" she asks.

"Look at him," I say. "He's not going to hurt anybody."

"Who cares? It's Erik Gess. Whatever happened to him, he deserved it."

But I shake my head. "We need to get him out of the hall before someone sees him."

Erik's just standing there, staring off into space while we're talking. Ignoring Julie's advice, I grab his shoulder and steer him toward the door of the girls' restroom. Erik doesn't offer any resistance.

"Make sure no one comes in," I tell Julie.

"Again, why?" she says.

Because I want to find out what he knows about Wildlings, but how am I supposed to say that without starting a whole new round of questions I don't want to answer?

"I just want to find out what happened to him," I say.

"This makes no sense at all," Julie tells me, but she holds up a hand before I can say anything. "It's cool. I'll keep a lookout. Just be quick about it."

I open the door and give Erik a little push. He walks in docilely enough. Julie slips in behind us and stays by the door. I give Erik another push toward the sinks.

"Let's get you cleaned up," I tell him.

I wet some paper towels and wipe his face and arms while he just stands there. He's got bruises and little cuts all over his arms. He looks like he's been out mountain-climbing or something, and the mountain won.

"Can I borrow your hairbrush?" I ask Julie.

"Seriously? You want me to get Gess-cooties on my brush?"

"I don't have one with me."

Julie makes a so-grossed-out face, but digs her brush out of her backpack and tosses it over.

"I'm going to have to get that sterilized now," she mutters. "Maybe I should buy a new one."

I tune her out and concentrate on dealing with Erik's bed hair. There's not much I can do about the condition of his clothes. But I get him to straighten his shirt and brush some of the dirt off his pants. It helps compose him, but he's still not the Erik Gess I know and dislike. His eyes are too haunted.

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