Rod Wars

by D. J. Hoskins

  Lowering his head against the railing Alex smiled contentedly and listened as she set about labeling Corpus's layout from memory.

  "—you wouldn't believe what a slob she is. I just said one joke and she just sprayed me with her milkshake when we were over there at the cafe; well I call it the foodie mall since it serves so much junk food. Oh, and over there are the stables..."

  Pretty... he thought. She was soo pretty and her smile just radiated energy, and her ambiguous eyes drew him in. Her bell-like voice fluctuated like a melody, rising and softening in pitch like a coded song. She was bright, radiant like a sun. Her personality, intelligence, innate beauty and resonating warmth were riveting.

  His eyes slowly, trailed from eyes to nose, lingering on her mouth before drifting down from her face to the white blouse. Formfitting, it offered plenty of cleavage.

  Small melons... his mouth twitched into a roguish smile. Ha...what am I thinking? Melissa compliments herself way too much, not to mention her arrogance just about suffocates anything nearby. This walking, talking library denounces everyone she comes into contact with...insecure much? She's nothing more than a classmate.

  His eyes dropped back down to Melissa chest, but still those melons...

  Melissa had never encountered a guy that could stand to listen to her babbling so earnestly. Something warmed within her, a slow kindling fire, fanned and nurtured through their brief interactions. This feeling began to rise into a small but steady flame as she continued to speak and he to listen.

  He listened; he truly listened, not just for the sake of cheap information but in an effort to promote conversation. Everyone spoke to her for a reason. Sierra, the stain upon the Goethe name, saw her as rival as well as someone to expel solitude. The orphaned Strata's, Daniel and Katelyn, shared in common base relatability; her past was like theirs, riddled with pain.

  But Alex? The Oddity possessed no reason, displayed no motive. If he needed information he could consult a librarian. If it was convenience he sought then why not use his card to summon a helper? She wasn't a government tool in his eyes, but a person, a girl.

  "—what do you say we go to the entertainment center sometime?" Melissa swallowed and tried to transfer her nerves to clasped hands. "Th-there's this one scary movie that comes out on Friday and I was thinking that we—".

  She curled a few strands of hair behind as she gathered her courage. She could feel his eyes on her. If she waited too long the pause would become awkward. It was now or never. She let out the next breath in a slow controlled exhale.

  "We—we could always watch a romance movie..." She looked him dead in the eyes...except he wasn't quite looking at her. Following the train of his eyes to her chest, a fierce blush rose. "Alex!"

  "Huh?" Alex snapped his head up, running a hand through his hair as he turned his neck, evading her stare. "Uh...um, what?" He stepped back from the rail, cheeks warm as he studied a cloud overhead unsuccessfully. Melissa jabbed him in the side with a fist.

  Alex put a hand on his side and bent over. "Kidney shot...really?"

  "You can't complain, you deserved it."

  "And just who determines that?"

  "Who determines—you weren't even listening to me! Not to mention your—your eyes, were...looking—"

  "At your flab and just how is that a bad thing? I'm a guy, its a compliment."

  "That justifies nothing!"

  "Sure it does. Because get this, I'm a dude."

  "You literally just repeated yourself."

  "No, I'm pretty sure I said dude that time. But taking a peek or two is completely normal. You have flab, I have eyes, it’s the goddamn circle of life…"

  "Oh I've got your circle of life." Locking her finger behind the back of his head she brought up a knee and managed to connect with his face twice before Alex blocked the next strike with his arm. Curling a hand about her collar, his eyes glinting with barely suppressed fury, he gritted his teeth.

  “You…bitch,” he said.

  His grip tightened and Melissa's fingers unlaced, her arms dropping to her sides as she kicked out wildly, her face contorted, twisted in pain. From her lips emitted a low wheeze.

  He was hurting her. Green eyes widening, Alex shoved her back as a wayward kick caught him in the crotch. A gasp escaped him. He took a knee as Melissa stumbled back into the rail, wincing as her arm brushed against metal which chafed her skin.

  "Fucking bitch,” Alex wheezed. He tilted his head back as he nursed a bloody nose. He hadn't been kicked hard below but his lower body nonetheless throbbed dully.

  "Does it hurt?" Melissa's sneer wafted over him. "Good, consider it a lesson."

  "I consider it assault."

  "You'll learn to judge me by my character, not my boobs."

  "Or what?"

  Melissa raised a fist.

  Yeah, put that bastard in his place, her shadow cut in. You’re the real eleven, he’s just a fake.

  "They're not even that—" Alex began.

  Purple eyes dilated as her expression took on a murderous gleam. "That...what? What were you about to say Alex hmm?"

  He stood, looking past her, suddenly quite interested in the view. "Nope, nope...it-it's nothing." Crossing the short distance to the stadium's edge, he placed a hand on the railing, not daring to return her drilling gaze.

  She popped a knuckle. "Oh, don't mind me. Go on, by all means, continue."

  There was nowhere to run and with lying not a plausible option, he pulled a Wilson. "Ahh...um, ju-just how far up are we?"

  Turning, Melissa made a face at him. She leaned over the rail and looked down. Distracted, her expression for a moment smoothed as fury dissipated into contemplation. Alex watched her from the corner of his eyes, sighed, and smiled a little. Go figure, the walking library couldn't refuse questions of intellectual value. Weakness noted. He was off the hook.

  "I don't know..." She admitted. Violet eyes twinkling with mischief, she grinned. "Why don't you find out?!"

  Dropping into a crouch she reached out and grabbed both his ankles. In one swift movement she yanked them back and out from underneath him. Slamming his chest against the railing, Melissa slid Alex out, tipping him halfway over.

  "What is wrong with you?!" he gasped. "Are you a fucking nutjob?! Lemme—let me up! Let me up! Damn you—"

  Melissa slid him out an inch and he tilted forward. The ground, the vast campus and the Commons gravel roof below focused and blurred, blurred and focused on the earth spanning more than a hundred feet below.

  A gust of frigid wind blew past him and building fear, which like a volcano was slowly leaking lava, now erupted, not with ash and fire but in a pitiful scream whose pitch drew from the depth of his diaphragm. If he fell, if Melissa dropped him, the ground would catch him and he would die.

  "What do you want with me?!" he cried, grabbing at the railing in vain.

  "Apologize."

  "Okay, okay." He swallowed fitfully. The blood was rushing to his head and in his peripheral vision the world began to swim. "Just—just let me up first. Just let me up and I'll say sorry as many times as you want."

  Melissa smiled smugly. She was a genius; she had him just where she wanted, practically dancing at her fingertips. Her hypothesis was correct. People did react differently when their lives were on the line. "Nope. Say it right, here, right now."

  He licked his lips. "I-I'm sorry! Now let me up! Pull me up." He kicked out for emphasis but in the process loosened Melissa's grip. He slid further.

  "Stop moving..." The blonde girl's tone had lost all humor. The joke had gone too far. Her muscles flexed and strained; exhausted they were rapidly reaching their limits.

  Shadow do something! Melissa pleaded.

  Oh no, let’s see him fall. I haven’t seen a dead body since Kevin.

  No, but I kinda like him.

  Fall, fall, fall…

  Planting a foot on the rail, Melissa pulled, but rather than slide towards her Alex slowly slid away. Blood roared in her ears as her
muscles protested, screamed relief and demanded the release of their burden. She’d reached her limit and come to the chilling realization that she couldn't pull him up. She couldn't pull him up, she could only hold him, cling to him at a stalemate. But it wasn’t a stalemate. It was a decline, because slowly but surely her crush was slipping away from her.

  "Mel-Melissa wha—" He let out a nervous laugh followed by a dry cough. Dizziness though slight, had set in. "What's wrong? Let me up...let me up already."

  "I'm trying..." she gasped, clinging onto his ankles with a death grip. "I just gotta..."

  She cast her eyes about for something, anything to anchor herself to, but there was nothing, at least nothing within reach. A small laugh, hysterical in origin bubbled within her.

  What was the use in looking for something to hang onto? If she let go of even one of his ankles, he'd carry her over with him. A tear worked its way from an eye as her sweating hands made her grip harder to maintain. Her body was attempting in its own subtle way, to lift the load. It was him or her; her or him.

  "Mel-Melissa...?"

  "I...can't."

  "Wha-what do you mean you can't?"

  "I don't think...no, I can't pull you up. I'm at my limit, I-I'm at my limit, Alex." She choked back a sob; she was soo stupid. "I'm sorry Alex. I-I can't—"

  "Melissa!" Alex snapped, his heart climbed into his throat and resisting the urge to swallow, he stopped moving immediately. Unfortunately, acting as dead weight did little to improve their fix. He realized that if Melissa slipped again, he would fall and at the end of it, he would be very, very dead.

  "Ye-yeah?"

  "Don't you dare drop me."

  "I'm trying!" Cold sweat trickled down a brow and a chill ran up her spine as fear placed a frozen hand on her shoulder.

  Just let him go... her shadow urged. If he goes down, you follow. It's not worth it. Just let him go...let him go.

  You could save him!

  No…besides he too far gone. He’s not you; no sense wasting energy.

  "I'm serious...don't,” Alex reminded.

  "I'm not going to drop you!"

  "Wh-why are you yelling...? I'm right here."

  "Yeah, sorry...the stress."

  If she dropped him, she would be a murderer. She would've technically killed him...his blood would be on her hands.

  "But really, don't—"

  "That's not helping."

  "Call for help—ca-can't you call for help?"

  "Do you really want my attention divided?”

  “I don't think I can hold out much longer," Alex whined.

  "That should be my line,” Melissa snapped back.

  "No...but really—I'm dizzy. I—I think the blood's rushing to my head. It sorta...hurts."

  "I'm not going to drop you. I refuse to drop you, so just—just...shut up."

  ~*~*~*~

  Sierra pushed open the double doors with a deep breath and glanced over her shoulder at her cousin, who brushed past her stout determination with an apathetic glance.

  "Okay, we're here, Aaron," Sierra said coolly, clapping her hands together. "Now fight me."

  "Maybe later,” Aaron replied with a dismissive wave. Sierra lifted a hand sharply and Aaron stepped back as a granite spike shot up from the spot he just nearly trod upon.

  "Fight me, now."

  Aaron turned, laughing. His dark eyes appraised her in a demeaning manner, as if she was little more than a spider. A nuisance whose presence needed to be crushed. "You think that just because you've hit level eight that you're on my level?" He rolled back a sleeve, shaking his head slowly, "Sierra, Sierra, Sierra...why do you even try? Me being better than you is like fate. You can't change it. Determination alone will never close the gap between us. So let me tell you how this...exercise going to play out—"

  "Shut it, Alex! Stop pressuring me!"

  Drawn by the desperate scene at the rails above, Sierra recognized Melissa's voice before she turned.

  "What the...?" Green eyes widening, the Goethe caught on. "Oh my god, hold on!"

  Sprinting up the stairs with Aaron on her heels. She came up behind Melissa. She wrapped her arms around one leg while Aaron rushed to the blonde's other side. He grabbed hold of Alex's shirt and arm but then promptly let go.

  “Aaron!” Sierra snapped. “Help.”

  “No. Why should I soil my hands?” he said and stepped off to the side with his hands behind his head. “Think of me as a spectator. I’m rooting for the fall.”

  Sierra clenched her teeth and turned back to her burden. Pulling as a unit, together the two girls heaved the Oddity back up to safety.

  What a waste, Melissa heard her shadow say.

  Having evaded certain death, Alex sat there in shocked relief. His head pounded, temples throbbed in a subduing migraine and his heart still threatened to crack the ribs that caged it. But he was grateful that breath still filled his lungs and blood still flowed through his body. On the roof of the Commons he'd hadn't become a pancake.

  Melissa doubled over, staring numbly at her shaking hands as she drank in air with short ragged gasps. "I did it..." She said relief washing over her like an ocean's gentle wave. Sinking to her knees she let the tears flow. "We're alive."

  "What were you guys thinking? How did Alex end up halfway across the rails?" Sierra demanded, emerald eyes flicking from Alex to Melissa and back again. Her eyes snapped back to Aaron. “And you. I’ll deal with you later.”

  “You ain’t gonna—”

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  Stunned, Aaron slowly closed his mouth.

  Sierra turned back to Alex. "Were you jumping after something?"

  Alex simply closed his eyes. Melissa on the other hand said nothing.

  "Why are you so caught up on this?" Aaron asked impassively and slipping a hand in his pocket casually. "A couple of morons dive over every year."

  "What the hell were you thinking?" Alex asked softly, his eyes still closed. Silent, Melissa continued to study the ground. He looked at her with a rage barely checked by pain and fatigue. Still the intensity resonating behind his cracking voice did not waver. "Just what was going through your mind?!"

  "You're alive aren't you?" she muttered.

  "Alive..." he spat. "Yeah, I'm alive! I survived being dangled over the edge like a goddamn spider! What did you call it again?! A lesson?" He laughed mirthlessly. "Some bitches I swear...take their jokes too far. It was all fun and games until it wasn't. Right? And now look where we are, both recovering and I still haven't heard a goddamn sorry. Just a—get over it you're alive, no harm done. Screw—"

  "Hey! Stop it,” Sierra cut in. "You've had your rant, now let her speak. How's she supposed to apologize if you're tearing into her?"

  "Did I ask for your opinion? No? Then shut the hell up, Sierra!" He shook involuntarily, still in shock. Consumed by an irrational fear, insecure, he was terrified. Hanging in the balance over the edge, helpless, his life in the hands of another, surfaced; reminded him of a similar mindset from the past.

  For a moment, he was back on the train, being eased out the window yet again. Then burrowing out of a snow drift, as the train exploded in the valley below, he encountered the true face of solitude – despair. It was a state of powerlessness that rather than express itself as subservient, filtered through as blind rage.

  "You're mad, I get it but...just let it go,” Sierra said. "It's done. It’s past so man up."

  "I'm sorry Alex." He ignored Melissa's feeble apology.

  "Man up?" he scoffed, indignantly. "Why don't we hang you over the rail for a couple of minutes and see how well you woman up when we pull you back?"

  "I'm done,” Aaron announced, turning. "You guys have fun playing counselor."

  "Hey Aaron get your—" Sierra called after her cousin as he descended the stairs. "We haven't fought yet. Stop trying to chicken out. I have plenty of anger to take out on you. Get back here!"

  The Goethe prodigy ignored her.

  For a mom
ent, Alex's gaze followed Aaron before snapping back to Melissa. Lunging forth in one continuous motion, he grabbed Melissa by the collar.

  "You almost killed me. You almost..." Losing his grip, Alex retracted the shaking hand. Standing abruptly, he turned away, tears dropping from his eyes in an unsteady flow. "I almost died."

  Chapter 17

  Settling In

  Wandering out of an elevator and onto the fourth floor hours later, Alex turned down a hall leading to the boy's dormitory. After raindrops had fallen from his eyes during his moment of weakness, he left the stadium and descended through to the Commons. Foggy and agitated, he'd stepped out of the building only to lose himself later in the same hedge maze he'd observed from the stadium.

  Glancing up as he passed through automatic doors: Tier 1, etched across their glass. His eyes widened. Even the dorm wings were categorized.

  Just how many benefits did the first tier receive? he wondered as he came upon a fork in between two halls and opting right, turned the corner at its end. He ran a hand over a thick dark red line streaking through the wall's middle. As the dark, finely carved wood of a dorm door suddenly opened before him, he stepped to the side, evading it by a hair.

  "Whoa...that was close,” he said as his gaze shifted to the person standing in the door’s shadow. "Aren't you—?”

  Daniel's dark eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh, you're that Oddity,” he said as he let the door swing closed behind him.

  "It’s Alex."

  "Oh that's right, Melissa's friend,” Daniel said. Fishing a card from his wallet, he turned and slipped it into a slot in the door where one would ordinarily spy a handle.

  A moment passed. "We're not...really friends," Alex responded.

  Daniel slid the card out after the slot flashed green. "Really?" he said, turning. "Aww that's too bad. Melissa...doesn't talk—associate with many people. Anyway, have you picked a dorm yet?"

  "No. I haven't even thought about it."

  "I've just registered for this one." Daniel waved his card before slipping it back in the wallet. “Since you haven’t picked a dorm yet, do you want to room with me?"