The Dorm Guard

*

"Landon, I need you to come with me," Ava requested.

I leaned against the tree, arms crossed, eyes down, like Ava sitting cross-legged beside me. Her shoulders slumped forward, her face cast so far down her hair hid her eyes. She was drawing impatient circles in the loose dirt, the other rested on her knee in a tight fist.

"Do you think it"s a good idea for you to go at all?" I asked. "This isn"t a small thing, A. We should probably tell Robyn"s parents or the school."

I checked my phone for the time, sighing as I glanced at the school buildings visible past the pine trees. It was late afternoon, washing everything in an orange glow. The dirt pathway was deserted of vehicles or school kids, as many of them had either gone home or were still in the middle of their school club activities.

"Landon, I"m going, regardless of what you say. I just want you there to stop me from losing my temper."

I could hear chatter further up the road; the group was on their way.

I had considered calling Dylan and the Delinquents for back-up, but Ava had firmly told me they would scare off the "wannabe goody-two-shoes." When she could hear them, she pulled her pen out from her breast pocket and started rhythmically clicking it, glaring at the ground.

"Just talking," I reminded her, almost startling her from her scowl.

Ava fitted the pen behind her ear. "Sure." She pushed herself up as the grouping came into view; a group of six, three boys, one of them being Timothy, and three girls. I had come to recognise them throughout the school year, yet still had no clue what their names were. Robyn had never invited her "friends" over to the dorm to hang out, and aside from the occasional movie get-together or that frustrating whirlwind with Timothy, there wasn"t a time where I hadn"t seen them walking individually; always in a group.

Like fish.

Ava pushed herself off the tree and stepped into their path. At first, they didn"t notice her, but when they were a few meters away from running into her, their chatter fell silent, and they stopped.

The girl at the front, who had led the groups walking, cleared her throat, gently flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder as she plastered her face a surprisingly genuinely looking smile. "Ava. Haven"t seen you in a while," she greeted.

I watched as Ava"s cheek relaxed, but she didn"t react.

The girl"s toothy smile turned into a suppressed grin. "You okay?" she chuckled, amused by Ava"s growingly dark expression.

"How could you?" Ava"s words were barely a whisper, her arms trembling from how tight her hands were curling at her sides.

The girl tucked some hair behind her ear, furrowing her brows. "Pardon?"

In the time it took for Ava to lift her face, look the group in the eyes, she was close to tears, and her voice sounded choked. "She loved you guys. You know that? She loved you guys! And this is what you do to her?!" Her words came out like a hysterical screech, startling the group.

"What?"

"Robyn," Ava snapped, "Robyn… loved you guys, what-what you offered. She didn"t do anything to you." Ava stepped forwards, her feet heavy, but she didn"t drag them. "She only wanted to please you jerks. To be your friend."

The girl"s mouth hung agape, looking over her shoulder at her friends and scoffing in disbelief. "Creepy much?" she joked, prompting a mild chuckle from the group.

"How much?" Ava asked.

One of the other girls, short black hair and Asian face, spoke up. "How much what?"

"How much of it was a lie?" Ava snapped, "How much of it was just a joke? Just something to laugh at because she can"t hear you?" Ava"s face was morphing into a strange series of expressions; as if she was trying to laugh, but her red eyes showed off her tears of frustration. She viciously wiped her tears away, any amus.e.m.e.nt the situation had disappearing with them. "Only she can! She knows everything that you say about her! Robyn has cried over some of the hurtful c.r.a.p you"ve said, you"ve all said!"

The blonde girl grew nervous, taking tiny steps back when Ava advanced on them. "But she didn"t want to lose you guys," Ava sniffed, "She was willing to look over the way you treated her because she was desperate to have normal friends. And how do you guys return her kindness?"

The confused glances continued to pa.s.s between the six, mouthing and shrugging to each other, as if this outrage was out of nowhere.

The blonde girl"s toothy smile returned, angering both Ava and me, as she said, "We have absolutely no clue what you"re talking about."

Ava"s posture straightened, and the muscles in her face relaxed, but the tears streamed down her face faster. Ava"s pursed her lips, forcing a smile as she looked up to the sky and made herself laugh. "That"s fun, that"s great even. Perfect. Effing wonderful!"

"If what you"ve said is true, then maybe you should talk to Robyn about a serious lying issue," the girl said in a sweet tone, "Because this right here," she gestured to Ava as a whole, "is a bit of an overreaction, don"t you think?"

Ava launched forwards, shoving the blonde girl so hard she ran into Timothy and the Asian girl, the three stumbling over like dominos. "You bunch of rich, spoilt, brats!"

I ran forwards and put a hand on her shoulder, but in response Ava swung at me, her elbow and forearm impacting my chest and winding me.

My heartbeat dominated my hearing and my vision clouded as I stumbled back, hand pressed against my chest as I waited for the pain to subside. I tensed my arms to keep from shaking as I fell to my knees. I screwed my face into a wince, my teeth aching from how tight I clenched my jaw.

I could hear talking, but my heartbeat drowned their words out. I tried to lift my head, but my body started curling in on itself, my rea.s.surance that I was fine, and nothing was wrong, failing to aid the pain spreading through my chest.

I forced my hand from my chest, turning my focus from my aching heart to my queasy stomach. A m.u.f.fled exchange continued, my mind hearing nothing coherent.

As quickly as it came, it faded. My vision cleared as I blinked away tears and my hearing made sense of Ava"s chillingly calm rage.

"Do you know what ripping out someone"s hearing aids does to them?" I heard Ava ask, "How much it hurts them? How much it scares them?" Ava was looming over the blonde girl, who seemed to be the only one brave enough to speak out.

"What are you talking about?" she shrilled, trying to shuffle herself away from Ava.

"Robyn is deaf," Ava informed, her voice strangely even as she took her pen from behind her ear and clicked it slowly. "Now you guys may have already thought that but before she was only partially deaf. She could still hear things when she wore her hearing aids." Ava"s sigh was loud through her nose. "She finally told me everything. What you all did to her. And you have the d.a.m.n nerve to call her a liar."

Ava held the pen like one holds a knife, at first stabbing it gently into her thigh, before standing over the blonde girl and holding it threateningly. "Stealing her hearing aids when she was wearing them, hiding them, ripping them out of her ears when she was using them. Do you know how painful that is? How invasive?"

Ava stepped forwards, one foot either side of the girl"s as she squatted down, essentially trapping her as Ava pressed the pointed tip of the pen against her leg. "I didn"t notice her mood change, how quiet she suddenly was, how down she became upon meeting all of you. It finally made some b.l.o.o.d.y sense."

When I tried to move, my body tingled, taking all sensation from my limbs as I stumbled over.

"Hey, get off her!" one of the male friends demanded, stepping forwards to shove Ava off.

In one swift motion, Ava punched his approach face, hitting him square in the nose and sending him off his feet. This sent the group into a newfound frightened silence as their friend groaned on the floor clutching their nose.

The girl started freaking out, desperately babbling to plead her case. "Robyn never told us!" she exclaimed between hyperventilated pants, "If she had we would"ve stopped! We thought it was just a joke! We didn"t mean anything by it!"

Ava laughed, holding the pointed pen to the girl"s face, "A joke? A joke! How about I carve that stupid smile into your face and then we can all laugh about it!"

I latched onto Ava"s arms and yanked her off the girl, stumbling back with a struggling Ava as the blonde girl recoiled completely and sobbed.

"Ava!" I snapped when she yelled for me to let her go, "Ava! Stop it! You"re scaring them!"

"Good! I hope they c.r.a.p themselves!" she growled, forcing her heel into my foot. Somehow, I managed to keep a hold of her, wrapping a hand around her waist and pulling her further away from the now whimpering girl and friends.

"Ava, this doesn"t make you look good," I hissed through my teeth into her ear, "You look like the bad guy here. You"ve punched one of them, and now you"re threatening to stab them with a pen."

Ava froze in my arms, in the tussle I had forced her arm above her head, the pen still clutched in her hand. Upon hearing my words, she dropped her head and relaxed her arm, the pen slipping from her fingers and clattering on the ground.

"They did this to her…" Ava murmured gravely, "And had the nerve to call her a liar."

Ava lifted her head and stared at the group of kids, the blonde girl in hysterics as Timothy comforted her. The Asian girl was in the process of using her asthma inhaler with shaky hands, while everyone else was aiding the boy with the now b.l.o.o.d.y nose.

It was painful, holding Ava upright, but I refused to let them see Ava in this state any longer. After making the bare minimum effort to make sure they were going to be okay, I walked with Ava home, wondering just how much trouble we were going to be in.