Chapter Two
I opened the door to Bobbi's - and mine now as well, apparently - room and was flooded with an image of a violent crime just having taken place. There were books everywhere, and all of them open to random pages, not to mention the ginormous - yes that is a word - pile of shoes. I'll be the first to admit that I kind of have a thing for shoes...but I think this may have been taking it to the extreme! The room was obviously meant to hold an occupancy of two, but had been completely commandeered by all of Bobbi's crap. Both closets were filled to the brim with every sort of clothing imaginable, and the second bed was covered completely by what appeared to be a CD/DVD collection. I looked toward the area that was supposed to be the "living area" and saw that it was totally dominated by the giant entertainment center. It did take up the whole northern wall! I actually gasped aloud when I saw the size of the thing. It surprised me so much that she hadn't been either kicked out or had numerous complaints against all the noise she must've made when she turned the monstrous thing on. A tiny room to the left of the "TV room" as I was going to start calling it revealed itself to be a kitchenette complete with a small "dorm fridge" and a microwave. I panicked a bit when I didn't immediately see a bathroom, but its entrance was partially hidden behind a stack of books right beside the enormous bookshelf. With a sigh of relief, I placed my small bag that was filled with my few earthly possessions near the doorway. I didn't want it to get lost amid all her stuff.
Once I finished surveying my new surroundings, I searched for signs of life - i.e. my roommate - to no avail. It was devoid of any other life forms - I sincerely hoped anyway - so I stepped outside, closing the door gently behind me in search of my missing roommate. Where the hell could she be, though? I was at a loss as to where I should begin. I decided the best course of action would be to recruit some help. Instead of going to Jack, as I wanted so badly to do, I veered toward Adam's place, choosing knowledge over preference. I knew Adam wouldn't get lost while helping me search, whereas Jack very well might. As I stepped toward his door, I hesitated. What if he had company or something, this was his first day back, after all. I didn't want to disturb him, but didn't favor being alone out here where it got dark so much faster than it did above ground. Screwing up my courage, I knocked loudly on the wooden door. A lot of commotion from the other side alerted me to the very real possibility that he DID have someone in there with him. A deep blush got trapped in my cheeks at the thought of being the one to interrupt his reunion - I could already see the angry expression he would have when he came to the door - and I began to turn away to leave just as the door was flung open. A tousle-headed Adam answered, proving that he had been very much in bed before I interrupted him. With a sigh of relief, I explained my predicament and asked if he would mind helping me find Bobbi.
Adam stared uncomprehendingly at me for what felt like minutes, but in reality was likely only seconds before nodding with a small smile. He opened the door wider, inviting me inside while he got dressed. I couldn't help but notice the extreme differences between his and Bobbi's rooms. Where hers had been filled with "things" and cramped by storing all of them, Adam's was spartan and spotless. It was like he didn't own anything more than what he wore. I couldn't understand why he would opt for living here like this when he could choose the opulence and splendor his family offered. That is, I couldn't understand until I thought of his family. With a shudder, I remembered how cold and distant they all were, with the possible exception of his mother, until we left. It's possible that could have been caused by the fact they were not happy to see what he dragged home with him. By this time, my inner musings added to my snooping eyes had given him enough time to become fully dressed - not that he was naked or anything before, I just knew he wouldn't be seen walking anywhere in the flannel pants without a shirt - and ready to leave.
I could tell by his demeanor that he was suspicious, yet not that worried by Bobbi's disappearance. He began to lope along at a quickened pace, and at first I had a bit of trouble keeping up. I suppose if I had been woken up from a deep sleep, I might be in a hurry to get this over with as well. I couldn't help but notice that he kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye, but was apparently trying to hide that fact from me. It was beginning to get on my nerves, so I decided to do what I apparently did best, and confront him. "OK, so what the hell is so freaking interesting about me all of a sudden? Usually you completely ignore me, but right now it's like I've grown an extra appendage or something. Do I have something in my teeth?" I glared back at him, hoping to get a straight answer.
The only answer I got was him staring at his feet, face going red. It actually caught me off guard enough that I stumbled over my feet, and almost fell on my face - thank heavens for rails along staircases. We were climbing upward, I assumed toward the women's dorms again, of which there were four buildings. He must've wanted to take a look at our room to check for clues. As we edged closer to the building that neighbored my own, I finally thought through the implications of asking Adam to come with me instead of Jack. The former might read too much into this, and the latter would definitely read too much into it. I hurried past the room shared by my favorite brothers, and to my relief, so did Adam. "There's a possibility that she may be somewhere close. It seems she has a sort of affinity for heights, so let's try the highest places first." He spoke in quiet tones, as though afraid to wake my friends and have them join our little escapade. Yep, knew it was a bad idea.
We climbed what felt like thousands of flights of stairs - in reality it was closer to four flights of stairs - until we reached the roof. There were many tiny offshoots that led from different apartments onto a shared rooftop patio, but it appeared that only a select few actually used the things. Adam made a beeline for one in particular, and as we approached, I noticed what looked to be an urban version of a jungle growing from every blank space. Someone had built a freaking huge garden up here, and this seemed to be the place he assumed my talkative friend would occupy. Right between a honeysuckle and some reddish flowery vine thing I didn't know the name of I saw Bobbi reclined in a hammock. She had headphones on and apparently it was a really rocking song, because she was wiggling along to the music while still in the hammock. Not an easy feat, believe me! How the heck did she keep from flipping out of the other side?
"Bobbi! We've been searching everywhere for you! What the heck are you doing up here?" I cringed a bit as I glanced at how far we were from the ground. Damn, but it was a long way down. "I found your room, but couldn't figure out...uh...which bed was mine?" I faltered a bit, not wanting to hurt her feelings by pointing out the severe clutter that littered the place.
Her eyes popped open instantly as though I had screamed at her, although in my own defense she wouldn't have been able to hear my voice with the volume her music was set to - I could hear it all the way over here. With a serene smile, she hopped down from the hammock - seriously, how did she not fall? - and meandered slowly toward us. "This is my special place. You see all these plants, Cleo? I planted every single one of them. I love it up here; it's the only place in this whole compound that anything will grow." She smiled proudly as she pointed them out, then leaned closer to whisper conspiratorially to me, "No one else can figure out why they grow here and nowhere else. Do you know why?" I shook my head mutely. "It's because one of my gifts is growing things," she said simply as she took my hand and let the way back to the stairs. "By the way, what's the deal with you and Adam? I assumed from watching the two of you that you were more interested in Jack." She whispered again for my ears only.
I felt my face flush and spread all the way down my neck. Shrugging, I made a noncommittal noise in the back of my throat. She assumed I wanted to talk about it later after Adam went home, and smiled knowingly. I just let her think that; really, there was no way I was actually going to go into that with her when I was barely willing to go into it with myself. I had no idea what was "going on" with Jack and me, or even Adam and me for that matter. It would help if my memory was coming back
as more than bits and pieces. With a sigh, I trudged along obediently behind Bobbi with far less enthusiasm than she had. Then again, did the person exist who actually possessed as much enthusiasm as she constantly exuded? She skipped toward the rickety stairs as though she hadn't a care in the world, and I finally noticed how shabby they appeared. Why hadn't I noticed how bad they looked before? Now as we prepared to descend them, it felt very death-trappish - that's a word! And if it's not, it is now! - and frightening. I turned to back away and find another less scary way down, and gasped as I bumped into the solid wall of Adam, who smiled warmly back at me - wait, smiled warmly...what the hell? In a mild panic, I spun back around and came face to...well not face with the rickety stairwell again. Tentatively, I placed a foot on the first step, and to my dismay it creaked unsteadily. I was about to give up and just move up here to Bobbi's rooftop retreat forever, or at least until they built better stairs, when a strong hand gripped my shoulder gently. "Just take my hand. You know I would never allow you to fall. Close your eyes and follow behind me." Adam whispered in my ear, tickling it as he stepped around me to lead.
I took the offered hand, but declined the other, much preferring to be able to see if - or looking back at the stairs again, when - I happened to plummet to my death. I crept carefully behind Adam, doing my best to keep my fear in check. Bobbi turned at that moment - she was already halfway down the first flight when we stepped on the first step - and waved eagerly, before hopping down three stairs at a time and making a grand, olympic-worthy landing on the next floor down. "C'mon slowpokes! At this rate we're gonna be here all night!" She hollered up at us. As an afterthought, she yelled again. "If I were thinking about it, I could've just blipped us all down in an instant." A maniacal cackle followed, making my head ache even more than it already was.
"Yeah, if only you'd thought of that before." I muttered sarcastically to myself. "Then we'd be on the ground again, and I wouldn't have to look over the railing of this freaking piece of crap stairwell, wondering if this will be the last night of my life because I've fallen to my death after a faulty step gives way beneath my weight." I shuddered, regretting my overly descriptive rant.
"You'll be fine, Cleo. Trust me." Adam grinned at me again. "If you want, I can carry you down the stairs and you can close your eyes."
Have I mentioned how much I hate the phrase "trust me"? No matter how trustworthy the person who says that phrase is, terrible things always follow it. Without waiting for a response from me, he slung me over his shoulder potato sack-style and started toward the steps. At this point, I was screeching frantically about the probability of us tumbling down all five flights of stairs and careening to the bottom in a painful heap. Within seconds of my near panic attack, Bobbi suddenly popped up in front of us with a huge grin. "You kind of look like you need some help." She reached slowly toward us and pressed her hand to both Adam and my arms. In the blink of an eye - make that an incredibly vertigo-filled blink of an eye - we were on ground level again and my stomach was churning painfully.
"Put me down now, Adam, or be forced to replace your shirt, pants and shoes." I croaked hoarsely in his ear. I guess the thought of vomit-filled shoes was less than appealing, because he hastily set my feet on the ground. I sank down in a small heap on the sidewalk and tried to talk my stomach down from its suicide mission. After a few minutes, the rumbling in my belly finally subsided, and I once again found the ability to become vertical again. Glancing warily at Bobbi, I couldn't help but ask the question that was burning to the surface. "How do you do that and not barf your guts out every time?"
With a girlish giggle and a wink, she replied easily, "Practice. Lots and lots of practice." With a tic of her head, she indicated the direction of our shared room. "Let's get some sleep. From what Tris said earlier, it looks like you are gonna have a long day ahead of ya." With that, she took the lead, offering no explanation for the reason behind her disappearance and left me wondering why she called my father "Tris". I couldn't help but wonder why she had a nickname for "the boss" as everyone else called him.
I turned to thank Adam for his help and apologize for waking him up, but he was already beginning to walk away. "See ya tomorrow, Cleo. I'll be by bright and early to take you for your meeting with Dr. Rochester," He called as he strode back to his place.
Groaning aloud, I slapped my forehead with my palm. I had completely forgotten "dear old dad" had scheduled an appointment with some sort of psychiatrist or something like that for early the next morning. Really, who the hell gets up early enough to make a 7:30 am appointment? And what kind of doctor actually worked on weekends? I had really been looking forward to getting a bit of extra rest, too. A frown creased my face as I thought of the time. If I slept until 6, that would mean I would get a whole whopping five hours of sleep tonight, provided I fell into a bed and immediately was claimed by sleep within the next five minutes, anyway.
I stumbled wearily toward our shared room, and cracked the door open, peering cautiously inside. It seemed Bobbi had been hard at work the last few minutes while I had been busy throwing myself a pity party and had cleared out over half the mess that cluttered up my side of the room. With a sigh, I motioned for her to stop cleaning and crawled under the covers with my back toward her. She fumbled around with something, making quite a bit of racket and when I turned to see what she was doing, I noticed her place an iPod on a speaker dock. The sound of rock music filtered through the room, and I relaxed slightly, thankful she had chosen a more reasonable volume level than when she had headphones on. Within a few minutes I began to feel drowsy, a feat that surprised even me, and as my eyes closed lazily, I whispered a quiet thanks for the music. It was a welcome distraction from the strangeness of this place, and I had been afraid it would take forever for me to relax enough for sleep to come.
"You're welcome, hon. I know this always used to help you when we were younger and you couldn't sleep." In the dimness, I could still see her brilliant smile as she reached for the lamp to turn it off. "Good night, Cleo." She spoke in such a subdued, quiet manner - so unlike her so far - and I wasn't sure I had heard correctly at first.