Cursed: Chapter Two.

I jumped awake when I heard someone banging on my bedroom door. Though, once awake, I thought nothing of it; it was probably just the other boys on the way past to their own rooms. I breathed out heavily and rolled onto my side, blinking rapidly at the rusty alarm clock on the floor next to my bed. It was just past three in the morning.

It was silent outside my room now. I flipped my legs over the edge of my bed and it groaned in complaint; it was a very old bed.

We weren’t treated particularly badly at the care home. The main reason for the emptiness and disrepair of my room was my own lazy attitude. We were supposed to have jobs at specially organised locations outside the home. That way, we could learn a few ‘life values’ and ‘proper social interaction’ and along with it, earn money to buy our own clothes and furniture for our rooms.

Of course I had declined any offers they’d given me for a job; I wasn’t going to let them think they were ‘reforming’ me. I don’t need reforming.

I heard someone knocking at my door again; this time louder. I faintly smiled; it must be Reuben. There was rarely a night when he wouldn’t sit outside my room and talk to me through the door. He was too scared to sleep. Not only because of fear of what the other boys might do to him if he slept but because, for as long as I’ve known him, Reuben has had horrifically vivid nightmares.

He’d often run to my room and sit against the door, usually crying. It sounds awful but I’ve never let him in; I’ll happily talk to him until he calms down but I just couldn’t let him into my room. It’s for his safety as well as my own; if the other boys ever found out that he was here they’d make us regret being born.

Reuben was kind of like a little brother to me in this way; it felt good to be able to protect him, even though I did a poor job. Sometimes, while we talked, I’d hear him slump against the door and know he’d fallen asleep and, while I sat awake and made sure he was safe, I’d wish I could do more to help him.

“Reuben?” I whispered, secretly hoping it was him; I often felt lonely.

There was no reply. I stood up from my bed and looked cautiously at the door, hoping to god that it wasn’t one of the other boys putting a firework outside my bedroom.

I heard a faint click and Bailey slid around the door and into my room, a broad grin on his face. I just stared back at him sleepily, hoping he might realise from my expression that I wasn’t in the mood. He was wearing a long, expensive looking leather jacket and I wondered how he’d afforded it considering he was almost as lazy as me.

“Why would it be Reuben?” He chuckled, raising an eyebrow. Bailey wasn’t an idiot but luckily, he had an extremely short attention span and began looking around my room in awe, probably forgetting that he’d even asked a question.

“Whaddya want?” I yawned; slightly annoyed that it hadn’t been Reuben. I didn’t ask how he’d gotten into my room when the door was locked or why he came at three o’clock in the morning; I didn’t really care.

“Whoa, your room’s even worse than mine.” He laughed, completely ignoring me.

“Why are you here?” I spoke a little louder. He heard the annoyed tone in my voice and turned to face me, pouting slightly and looking purposely innocent.

“We’re going out.” He smirked, grabbing my jacket from the bedroom floor and chucking it at me. I glared and flung it back to the floor.

“No we’re not.” I stated bluntly, sitting back down on my bed and looking away from him, willing him to go away. He didn’t.

“Oh, yes we are!” he laughed, “I’m bored.”

He said, ‘I’m bored’, as if this were the perfect justification for sneaking out. I really didn’t see how this involved me anyway. He didn’t usually include me in his plans because he knew how I felt about them.
The bed shifted next to me and I felt his shoulder against mine. I sighed heavily and shook my head, knowing he wasn’t going to take the hint.

“Come on, Ollie. Trust me; it’ll be fun; Lucas is coming too...and Reuben.” He paused before he said Reuben’s name and I got the feeling that he knew a lot more about me than I thought he did.

It was strange, but I actually wanted to go. I was kind of bored after all and I had plenty of time to catch up on sleep.
Spending time with Bailey wasn’t so bad either. I always felt at ease around him; he was quite a strange guy, yet, there was always an aura of overwhelming strength around him; both physical and mental and he was undeniably intelligent.

He reached over and ruffled my hair. I suppressed a smile and just grunted; this was one of those very rare moments in which I felt glad to have him as my friend.

When I looked at him, he had an understanding smile on his face. He wrapped his arm loosely around my shoulders. What he said next took me slightly by surprise.

There was seriousness in his silver eyes that scared me. However, I knew that when Bailey said he was going to do something, he’d do it.

“We’re going to get out of here; I’ll make sure of it.”