Ruin

Ruin by Rachel Van Dyken



Chapter One

Weakness is just pain leaving the body

Three months previous

Kiersten
I repeated the same mantra over and over again until I thought I was going to lose my mind. It wasn’t real. I was having the nightmare again. It wasn’t real.
Never a good sign when you wake yourself up because you’re screaming so loud. Footsteps neared the door and then it burst open, revealing my roommate, you know, the one I just met a few hours ago.
“Are you okay?” She took a tentative step through the door and crossed her arms. “I heard screaming.”
Right. I was a freak. I wanted a fresh start, and what did I get? A gold star for traumatizing my roommate, the only friendly face I’d met since arriving at the University of Washington.
“Um, yeah.” I managed to keep my voice from shaking. “I know it’s weird but I still have night terrors.” At the look of disbelief on her face, I added quickly, “But only when I’m really stressed out.” And when I’m on heavy medication, but I left that part out.
“Oh.” She licked her lips and looked back out into the hallway. “Do you want me to sleep on the floor or something? I mean, I will if you’re scared.”
Bless her southern hospitality-filled heart. “No.” I smiled. “I’m good. I hope I didn’t scare you.”
“Yeah, well…” Lisa waved me off. “I didn’t really like that lamp in my room anyways.”
“My screaming broke a lamp?” I cringed.
“No.” She shook her head. “My fall broke the lamp. Seems jumping out of your bunk bed at one in the morning’s a contact sport. My lamp being the main target. No worries.” She sighed. “It didn’t suffer. It shattered on contact with the floor. And then again after I slipped on the teddy bear that also fell. And that’s great since it broke my fall onto the floor, making it so I escape with two faint bruises.”
I covered my face with my hands. “Holy crap! I’m so sorry!”
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m a walking accident.” She laughed. “But if you plan on screaming all night, I’m taking the floor. My lamp killing days are behind me.”
Smiling, I nodded. “Sure. I just… I don’t want you to—”
“Stop apologizing.” Lisa’s smile was warm and inviting “Oh, and I sleepwalk so if you wake up to me standing over you, try not to punch me in the face.”
“Wow, we’re sure a fun pair.”
She grabbed a blanket from my bed and threw it onto the floor. “You know those little comment sections in the housing part of registration?”
“Yeah?”
“I swear it’s a setup to put all of us weirdos together.”
I yawned.
“I need a pillow,” Lisa announced. “I’ll be right back. No more screaming. Close your eyes, and in the morning we’ll go boy-hunting. Dream about that.”
“Boys?”
“Uh…” Lisa tucked her brown hair behind her ear. “That is, unless you’re interested in girls. I mean, that’s cool if you bat for the other team, I was just sayin’—”
“No, no, no.” A weak laugh squeezed past my lips. Did I look like I batted for the other team? “No, nothing like that. I’ve just never had a boyfriend.”
“You poor soul!” Was she serious? “How did you survive?”
“Netflix, Johnny Depp, books. I powered through.” I shrugged. “Trust me, if you grew up in the town I did, you wouldn’t have dated either.”
“Oh yeah? Why?” She held up her hand really quick and ran out of the room. When she came back she had her pillow in hand. Throwing it onto the floor she sat with her legs crossed and yawned. “Okay, you may continue.”
“Guys…” I lay on my left side so I could fully face her. “I didn’t date them because my town was so dang small that if I even sneezed in the wrong direction my mom said bless you before I even got it out. I mean, the one time I got a bad grade on my report card, it made the newspaper.”
“Huh? What the hell kind of town does that?”
“One that literally documents how many people visit it during the high season.”
“High season?” Lisa asked.
“Tourist season. When people go wine-tasting. Last year we had five hundred, which is more people than our entire town put together.”
“This information makes me depressed,” Lisa announced. “So no cute boys then?”
“Mayor’s son was cute.”
“Oh, that’s cool!” she gushed.
“Yup, the quarterback of the football team thought so too.”
“Did that one make the news?” She cringed.
I wrinkled my nose and nodded. “It did. Along with my bad grade.”
“I would have taken the bad grade.”
“Agreed.” I laughed. It felt good that someone could empathize with how bad it royally sucked to be the center of attention. Tension slowly left my body.
“Well, we’ll have to rectify this situation immediately.” She licked her lips. “I know plenty of guys. I met at least ten at orientation this morning. One of them had tattoos.” She sighed longingly. “I’m a sucker for tattoos.”
“But they cover your skin.” I pointed out. “And a tattoo is forever. I mean, don’t you think it’s kind of trashy?”
“Who are you?” She squinted. “Apparently your small town was built underneath a rock.”