Chapter 3
Chapter Three
A Great Way to Make Friends
Madison
The door is yanked open before my foot even touches the first concrete step, startling me.
“Heyyy, roomie,” a voice drawls as someone leans over the threshold.
I open my mouth to respond, but the words catch in my throat as my eyes land on the person standing in front of me, completely naked apart from a towel slung low on his hips. His dark, wet skin catches in the afternoon light, and my mind blanks out.
“Hellooo.” He waves his hand in front of my face.
I struggle to meet his gaze, caught in the planes of muscles, but somehow manage to unfocus my eyes so I can look away. When I meet the other’s eyes, my own widen, and my face flames with heat. I somehow manage to stutter out a pathetic, “H-hi.”
He smirks, and it’s lopsided and kind of wild. “Awe, you stutter. That’s cu—”
Someone smacks him, the skin-on-skin contact a sharp crack in the air. “Don’t be an ass, Lenny.” A voice I recognize.
“Ow!” Lenny shouts, whipping around to glare at the other guy while rubbing his bicep. “I wasn’t!”
My attention is drawn from Lenny to the man beside him as he makes his way toward the steps. His dark hair is hanging in disarray across his forehead. He reaches up to push it back before offering his hand. “I’m Kane, and that’s obviously Lenny. Ignore him. He’s a dick. Glad you had a safe trip.”
There’s so much going on, it takes me a minute to catch up.
“Oh!” I start. This is Kane? My eyes dart back to Lenny, who’s now sitting on the porch’s handrail, just watching me.
I quickly look away, focusing my attention back at the hand stretched before me.
My manners kick in, and I take it with a sweaty palm, wincing when I realize how rude that is. I should’ve wiped my hand first.
Jesus, I’m really messing this up already.
“Y-yeah, yes. Kane, h-hello.” His hand is warm and dry. Nothing like my small, clammy one. I suck my bottom lip between my teeth, hating how hot my face is feeling. I’m sure my pale skin is just bright red. Awesome.
Even as I berate myself, my eyes wander again.
Is… everyone that lives here so… nice looking?
“Depends on personal preference, I guess,” Lenny says with a shrug as he hops down, brown eyes dancing.
“O-oh,” I squeak. What in the world is wrong with me? I’m going to get kicked out before I even get the chance to move in. I’ll have to crawl back to Mother and Father with my tail between my legs. I’ll have to… to grovel. Tell them I was wrong…
I let my head hang between my shoulders. My fingers fist my backpack tighter, needing the feel of something against my fingertips to help ground me.
A hand clasps my shoulders, making me jolt forward. “Hey, don’t sweat it,” Kane says with ease. His smile is small but kind. It helps.
“Sorry,” I apologize. Might as well get this over with. I knew it would be a problem. “I, erm, as you can probably tell… I have, uh…” I grab the back of my neck and drag the tip of my shoe over a plank of wood to avoid both pairs of eyes on me. My stomach cramps.
“I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life. I don’t… r-really know what I’m doing,” I quickly blurt the second part out. The pressure of my fingertips against the ridges of my cervical spine makes me grit my teeth, but it’s a pressure I need.
“You have come to the right place, my friend,” Lenny says loudly. “We shall teach you!” I look over at him, smiling, but it probably comes off as more of a grimace. Lenny winks and then disappears back inside. I’m grateful for that because his naked body is quite distracting.
“Ignore him. He’s the dumb one,” Kane says with a huff of a laugh. He makes me feel at ease. Maybe it’s because he’s the one I’ve been talking to, but I try not to question it when it’s such a relief.
“C’mon, let’s go get your stuff.” He starts down the steps, leaving me to follow. When I open the trunk, I notice his slight frown. “This is all?”
I wince and pinch my nape. “Erm… yeah. Sorry I came early. T-things got… bad.” When he looks over at me, I stumble to explain—and end up oversharing.
“Mom and Dad wanted me to stay and go to this Christian university, and I just—I couldn’t.
I couldn’t be there anymore and keep hating myself so much, so I needed to leave before I couldn’t and—”
Kane’s wide-eyed stare cuts me off mid-sentence. I blanch when I realize everything I’ve said. I open my mouth. To say what, I don’t know, but Kane beats me to it.
His smile is small but sincere. He pats my shoulder gently. “I get it. I’m glad you’re here.” It’s nothing profound or even that deep, but it means so much, my eyes instantly burn and fill with tears. To be accepted so easily is a gift I don’t think he truly understands.
I blink rapidly and clear my throat. “Th-tha-thanks,” I stutter, not feeling embarrassed about it for the first time.
“Sure thing.” His smile is too much. “Let’s get this stuff inside, and I’ll show you to your room.”
“Cool.”
As I follow Kane into the house, bags in hand, I can’t help but think maybe this won’t be so bad.
Maybe I can finally relax.
“Sup, Mads,” Kane says as I walk into the living room where everyone seems to be congregated. I blush at the nickname but nod my head with a tight-lipped smile. Everyone’s eyes track over me, and the heat blazes hotter from their attention.
After a quick exchange of “hi’s” and “hello’s,” I plop down onto the worn couch beside Kane, grunting slightly as the broken wires poke me beneath the thin, fraying fabric. I readjust with a wince.
“You get unpacked okay?” he asks with a quick glance as he scrolls through his phone.
“Yeah, thanks again for your help.” I try not to twist my fingers together in my lap—another habit I’m trying to break—but my nerves are shot after what happened with Mom and Dad and then moving into a house full of strangers on top of it.
But this is better than being at home, and I keep trying to remember that. They won’t be strangers forever.
And I need this. I need to be three hours away from them, starting a college I chose and doing it all on my own.
I know it’ll be hard to work while in school, but I have enough money saved to last me for a while.
But no matter what happens, I know I can’t go back.
This… decision was final in every sense of the word.
They would accept me back if I admitted they were right, but I can’t because they never have been.
And I never realized how detrimental their “love” was until I actually had the freedom of being a legal adult.
Or any freedom at all. I never thought making my own decisions was something I could do…
but then, I did it, and it changed everything.
I just hope I’m strong enough for this… I’ve never been very courageous. Or confident.
“Sure thing. Happy to help.” Kane nods his head in response to my thanks.
The movement sends some of his dark hair flopping across his forehead.
My throat bobs as I watch the tendrils brush his smooth skin before I force my eyes away, heat settling just beneath my skin.
Not because it’s wrong but because it’s so inappropriate. My roommate!
Jesus Christ, Madison.
Thankfully, no one seems to notice my recurrent blushing—or if they do, they don’t comment on it, which I appreciate.
Being around other people who are just… normal is still so new. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.
After a few moments of subtle breathing, I finally take a real look around the room.
It’s big and open. The white paint on the walls isn’t bright anymore, and there are stains in the carpet.
Every piece of furniture is old and falling apart and smells kind of musty, but it’s nice. Feels real and honest.
Not like the pristine, stiff contents of the home I always knew…
I shake those thoughts away—which is harder than I thought it’d be. It takes me a few moments to realize everyone is either on their phones or they have their laptops out—and they’re all staring at the screens with rapt attention. “Is something going on?” I ask hesitantly.
“Yeah.” Lenny nods excitedly. I eye him curiously, trying not to remember him naked—or almost naked.
Instead, I focus on his eyes, which are wide and glassy, the screen of his computer reflecting off of them.
His dark fingers hammer over the keys with giddy glee, magnifying my curiosity.
“Here.” He shoves his laptop toward me. “Look at this, dude.”
I wince as it scrapes across the wood, sending the worst nail-scraping noise reverberating throughout the room.
Shaking off the chill, I lean forward, pressing my fingers against the coffee table to ground me as I look at the web page in front of me.
It’s dark, muddled with an ambiance of colors that are nearly indistinguishable, but all that does is highlight the photo in the background.
I blink as my eyes zero in on it, throat bobbing as my skin prickles with unease.
It's a motel, which looks to be abandoned—run down and decrepit with peeling paint and doors hanging off the hinges. There’s a large, broken neon sign with only the letter M glowing through the black and white, standing out like a haunting beacon in the darkness.
It’s not until I shudder, and a single tear falls from the corner of my eye that I realize they’re burning. I lean back with a sniffle, dragging the back of my hand over my eyes in a rush as my face floods with embarrassment.
“Uh…” I clear my throat, resisting the urge to tug on my collar. Unwittingly, my eyes drop back to the words beneath the photo. They’re bold and dingy and… creepy. If words can even be those things.
Welcome to Mayhem Motel.
A bead of sweat drips onto my quivering bottom lip. My tongue swipes across it absentmindedly before I suck it into my mouth and sink my teeth into the flesh.
“Wanna come with us?” Collin asks, startling me.
“M-me?” I balk, eyebrows sky high. My three new roommates jerk their heads up to stare at me.