Living Dolls-Chap 6-Heide..

Living Dolls-Chap 6-Heide..

It was difficult to sleep last night. I mean, it's always difficult for me, but I just kept remembering that little breakdown Carmen shot at me last night. I even got up in the middle of the night to go to her room to throw her off the bed as revenge, but Ernest heard me and sent me back to bed.

Used to the schedule, I already got up and moved downstairs by the time I heard the muffled rummaging outside. I dragged over a chair in order to reach up the counter for the jar of sugar Irene was always so insistent to hide. I was just reaching for it when there was a pound on the ground.

I clench my teeth, struggling to keep a hold of the jar. I didn't know he was getting up this early! I didn't even feel his steps! "No-!" I was more concerned over the jar than my own safety. Unable to keep my balance in this quake, I tripped right over the edge of the chair and hit the still jumping ground with a hard thump. Still crying out in pain, I was barely able to see the falling jar before catching it.

Just as soon as I hear the pounding voice with the quakes stopping, there's a slamming of steps down the stairs, rushed. Sitting up with a groan as I safely place the jar down, I wipe at my eyes.

"Again?" Ernest hisses out in groggy annoyance. Coming up behind me, he lifts me up from under my arms harshly, pushing be over to the couches. "Stop doing that, you idiot! You could have gotten hurt."

"W-What?" I cried out, slapping his hands away, "That wasn't me! That was Jules."

He looks behind him, "The sugar!? Don't make us get rid of it again-!"

"Then I'll tell on you-!"

Giving me a smack across the head, I yelp. He storms past me and goes back upstairs to help wake everyone else up. Rubbing my head with a pout, I keep staring as he goes upstairs.

Pulling on my sweater, I slam open the front door and jump down the steps. God, it's freezing! He keeps promising to keep it warm in here, what a liar.

Once I'm down on the table we call ground, I allow myself to settle back onto one of the benches. Bringing my knees up to my chest, I keep stamping my socks down on the wood, hugging myself in frenzied rubs. Really, I'm just desperate to warm myself up.

Tugging down my sleeves and flipping on my hood, I look out over from beyond this table of ours. The curtains far beyond at the other side was drawn, despite the sky still being a grey blue, the sun just beginning to make it's peek over the mountains. So, the only source of light here is the lamp that Julien set up, the one standing by his bed.

He usually makes his bed as soon as he wakes up, but the blankets and covers are still moved in a heap, one blanket almost touching the floor. My eyes keep searching until I find the clock. Earlier than normal, at 6:20.

I keep taking in the surroundings, from the "outside world" of  Julien's room, and our ground of this table with the shrunken down decorations and sport pens. It's in these long, quiet suffering moments that I get hit with all these stupid, painful reminders. I should have just stayed inside, probably messed with Kyle and help him get up instead of lurk out here.

Just as I was about to get up and do that, I'm practically pushed right back down on the bench when the door on the outside is slammed open. Great, I note with a pout, arms folding over my chest.

"Good morning!" Julien's voice booms with glee as he pounds his way over. Sneering, I raise up my knees again, covering my ears with my shaking palms. Turning away in anger as he approaches, I can tell he's trying to move slowly given yesterday's situation, but he can only do so much-

Scratch that, he's not trying at all. I have to bite back a scream when he slams the plate onto the table, knocking over the soccer goal. Not only that, but his fingers clasp tight around the end of the table, it damn near makes the bench I'm sitting on jump up.

Once settling myself, I stamp down my feet and glare up at him.

He saw me, that was a fact, I caught that quick glance. Fingers tightening at the table so hard I feel the reaching tremor, he raises his head up with a teasing smirk. Oh, Gods, not this again.

"Hellooo?" He calls. Ugh, not so loud! This guy drives me crazy. "Where can my little Heide be? She's usually up here first."

I answer blankly, having to make my voice loud enough for him to hear, "I'm literally sitting right here." When his smirk tugs higher as he continues looking around, I glare and sit up, "Don't ignore me!"

"Wonder where she is..."

"Stop it!"

His eyes land on me, and I'm just starting to relax until he grins, hand releasing the table and coming over me. "Oh, there she is."

My eyes narrow, instantly regretting trying to get his attention. Scrambling back, I cry out, shaking my head, "Nonononono-!" It's too early for this! I'm still resting off the pain in my side!

When his fingers pinch around my torso, I choke back a scream. Just what does he want? So far, he hasn't broken his promise of messing with us early in the morning!

I could have just gotten off the bench and to the eating area myself, but Julien is bent on messing with me. Practically throwing me across the table, I skid with yelps of pain as I slide harshly. Once I'm recovered, I begin to cough and wipe the dripping saliva off my lips.

Note to self: Don't be waiting out here in the mornings.

His hands clasping over the table, he hovers closer towards me. "So? How'd you sleep?" He asks, and sitting up, I just shrug with an annoyed frown. After a pause, another questions is whispered out, "How are you guys? I was worried you'd all still be tense after yesterday."

Is he going to apologize? No? No? Ugh. I'm considering telling him about all that yelling Carmen directed at me, but Kyle and Irene always tell me not to. "We're..." I choke out, breathing still unsteady from the pinching grip. "We're doing fine."

I can sense the smile tugging at his lips, "You sure?"

"Ye... Yeah. W-We just slept it off."

"That's good." He utters. I'm starting to raise myself up higher when Julien slaps his fingers at my back, sending me slamming back on the table. Shaking with rage, I curse him hundreds of times in my head as he fully stands himself up, tapping his fingers harshly on the roof of the dollhouse. "Come on, everyone! Don't make me disassemble your house again."

I bet they were just waiting inside, the bastards! They could have come out earlier to distract this brat. I'm still trying to stand myself up when I feel Ernest help, still cursing under his breath about my recklessness.

I hiss under my breath, "I told you - it was Jules!"

I'm surprised that Ernest wasn't flicked the second he walked outside (he's Julien's favorite to abuse, after all), but upon looking back, it was probably because he was too busy fussing over Kyle.

But even with Julien's constant concerned pestering, Kyle was never really safe with the constant pushes of fingers. Kyle listened through Julien's concerns with nods, even with his annoyed frown. Once thinking Julien was finished, Kyle was just starting to move himself with his wheelchair down the ramp before Julien suddenly pushed him back with a simple finger.

Of course, when the chair fell back with Kyle's pained cry, Julien was just insistent on shifting the blame, "Why don't you have the belt with you? You could fall out."

Rushing my way over to the rim of the plate, I pout. Just toast and biscuits? Really? The least he could do is shrink it down for us. He only does it on our birthdays or any other holidays, maybe a time when we were on our "best behavior", whatever that means. Eating scraps like this... I don't know, I feel weird.

Still, through my complaining, I quickly rush over to get some. I'm honestly starving, I didn't eat much of dinner last night.

Trying to hide my frown when Carmen sits next to me, Irene reaches me and hushes for me to keep my mouth shut. I wait until Julien starts moving around his room to get ready when I mumble, still chewing, "Jules told me he plans to hug Tiffany today."

Carmen's glare is immediate, and the hisses for me to shut up.

Julien keeps reaching over to us to take some bites of his own breakfast. "You guys are barely talking." He notes, "I thought you guys were better today. Or," He grins, "Are you guys just lazy?"

It's six in the morning, what the hell.

Seeing that we weren't responding, he leans even further closer to us, "Should we go back to doing morning exercises?"

Everyone goes stiff, freezing. I'm too tired and annoyed at this point, so I just go along with it, "Yeah," I mumble, and Irene tries hushing me. "Sure, whatever."

"So we should?"

"No, no!" Making sure to give me a smack at my arm, Ernest turns and pleads, "We're fine, we're fine! Please."

Chewing, Julien just squints. He's probably just keeping that expression to keep watching Ernest plead, because after swallowing, he closes his eyes and turns his head away, "Fine."

It just takes about ten minutes for us to have our fill, but even still, we have to wait an extra seven minutes before Julien's ready in his rush to get ready. I tried going back in the house but Irene pulled me back down.

"Better be ready, better be ready..." Julien's still sneering at his cell, surely waiting for a reply from Gale, when he moves over. I flinch, but he only ends up picking up the plate and moving out. Once again, I try standing, but now both Ernest and Irene pull me back down.

I'm stricken with envy as Julien keeps moving around to get ready, I just want to go inside to calm myself down momentarily. Due my "behavior", he's neglected to take me anywhere outside with him in nearly two weeks. That's too long...

Not having fully dried his hands from the wash in the restroom, he's sure to flick us all with the freezing cold water. We all flinch as he reminds us of the Monday rules, "There better not be - especially since we cleaned up last night - another huge mess out here." He looks at me through the whole list, I note with a pout. "No gorging on the food I gave you guys in there - it's emergency only. Now, anything you guys want when I come back?" Of course, a lot of us raise our hands, but he dismisses them, "Good, because I'm not stopping anywhere."

Before standing up fully, he looks at me, "Oh, I forgot." He grins, "So there's another group thing today in Hewitt's. Gale, or Justin?"

He's always testing me like this, it's routine. "Gale!"

His grin brightens, "Great." Just about to make his leave, turned half way, he stops abruptly. Face going blank, he mutters, "You guys are forgetting something..."

We each exchange nervous looks before robotically saying, "Have a good day."

He beams once more instantly, "Thank you! All of you have nice day, too." He closes the closet about halfway for us, enough for us to get a good glimpse of the outside world. Stepping back while flinging his backpack over his shoulder, he calls out before leaving the room, "See you guys at five!"

We all wait about five seconds after he's gone to exchange annoyed, disgusted looks.

As soon as everyone begins to get up and stretch, I run over back inside the house. I keep looking around for the jar of sugar. Ernest must have hid it again. I try reaching to one of the top cabinets before he finds me again, pulling me back by the waist, "You just don't stop, do you?"

"Do you want to play tic tac toe with me?" I follow Ernest around, and he just groans.

"I'm going to sleep."

"But I'm not."

"Tough shit." And then he goes into his room, slamming the door right on my face. How annoying! These people go right back to sleep after Jules goes to school.

I turn and see Carmen just in time to run over to her, "Carm! Wanna play-?"

She practically rushes into her room and slams the door. I lean close to it, frowning in annoyance when I already hear her burying back into the covers.

Deciding to ask Irene and Kyle (there's no way they can say no to me!), I go downstairs, but stop as soon as I see Irene hunched over on the table, hand on her chest as she struggles to swallow something down.

I come in just as Kyle is quietly saying something to her with concern on his face. "You keep getting sick in the morning." I comment, staring, "Are you okay?"

She puts on a smile, and straightens up, "I'm fine, thank you."

"Oh, okay. So I was wondering-"

"I don't - I don't feel very good, sweetie, sorry." Her voice comes out a little disoriented. When she goes past me and up the stairs, I frown, though immediately brighten up when Kyle catches my attention with him trying to turn to move back to his room.

"Kyle!" I quickly move over to stop him, "That means you're the only one who can hang out with me. Congratulations!"

Smirking spitefully, he hangs his head, "Yippee."

We mostly spend time in the living room, but I keep moving over to his room to bring out the books and ask him to read some of my favorite passages from them. I like how everyone comes up with the voices of characters and tone.

"I have something to ask you," He said, scribbling a circle inside the box on the paper, signaling his win. "Were you standing out my door in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah. I was bored."

"You..." Another nervous chuckle. He did that a lot. "You shouldn't do that."

"Why not?" I ask, but steer into another subject before he could explain. "I was gonna sneak into Carmen's room and attack her in her sleep, but Ernest caught me."

"And thank God he did!" Kyle chokes out, "Please don't mess with Carmen."

"Why not? She was yelling at me yesterday!"

"She's just..." He cringes, surely knowing that it'd be the hundredth time he was gonna tell me this, "She just needs more time, you know. Be nice to her, please-" Suddenly, his face fell. The book in his hands were released, and they made a tumble down his lap and onto the floor.

I furrowed a brow, leaning forward, "Kyle?" I questioned, but he didn't react. He just hung his head, shoulders slumping down.

Already? This normally doesn't happen until noon.

I grabbed a blanket from the couch and wrapped it around him, also picking up one of the stuffed bears and setting it on his lap before going upstairs into Irene's room, where she was hunched over the drawer's mirror. She jumps from my appearance, and begins wiping at her face.

"Kyle's down." I inform her, going over to sit at her bed. "I'm still hungry."

She smirks, tracing her thumb along her bottom lip, "Me, too. Man, I've been dying for some pastries, or something." She's been craving those a lot lately, and I don't blame her.

I look over to the side of the room, and sprawled out in folded heaps is the crotchet and lanyard strings. Ever since Irene's been pushing to teach me things about knitting and arts and crafts, Julien's succumbed enough to give us those supplies, and unlike the usual, didn't shrink them. He's been more kinder to give it more since his birthday two weeks ago, where Irene predicted his mother would neglect on her promise to take him out, so made him a bracelet in advance.

This plan was discussed and agreed with just five days ago. Keep asking for them and tie one into a long piece, enough to carry us down to the floor.

Where from there? No idea.

All of our plans didn't quite make it from point A to Z. It would stop at around M. Which sucks, because when Julien finds out, all hell breaks loose.

I asked, "Did you already work on it more?"

"A - A little bit. We'll need another piece."

"I can ask, then-!"

"Sweetie, I think Kyle should ask this time. You and I have already asked a lot."

"What about Ernest or Carmen?"

"That's..." She bites her knuckle, turning her head a bit, "That's not a very good idea."

"Kyle can't do it. He's dead right now!"

She turns to me quick with a frown, and smacks me on the shoulder as she walks out the door, "How many times do I have to tell you to stop saying that?"

By the time we're making our way downstairs, Carmen and Ernest are already content with their rest. The two were already sharing their endless lists of complaints, but when they spot Irene, they practically lie further back in their seats with whines.

"Irene, we're all bruised!"

Quick as ever, she picks up a pillow and flings it over to Ernest's direction. What they said reminded me of it, so I pull back my sleeves, blinking at the recovering and forming bruises. Having just recovered from the pillow's hit, Ernest catches me staring at her arms and throws the pillow at me, "Pull down your sleeves, we don't want to see that."

Wearing over sized clothes was kind of a thing. One, it's almost always very cold. Two, we don't like seeing all of our bruises. Three, I like it.

"So... I hear that scholarships are opening..." Carmen starts with a trail. I look over and start questioning what that means, before Ernest cuts me off.

"Either you or I have to be next to his phone or laptop." Ernest says, and Irene shoots him an annoyed frown. I just sigh, rolling over on the floor. That never works out, never. Ernest has to remember the last time he pulled that stunt, he got a broken arm, still near the end of his recovery in fact.

I'm getting ready for Irene to start scolding Ernest, but shockingly, she just solemnly says, "We have to be careful, though. Let me just finish the ropes, and then we can... We have to do it quickly, but carefully... Heide."

Stunned and confused, I sit up and stare at her.

"Try asking him what his plans'll be this week. We need to - we need to prepare ahead of time, and..."

"He's going to school this week." I say, and everyone groans. Both Ernest and Carmen are already searching for something to throw at me, and Irene scolds for them to keep calm.

Frowning, Carmen looks back at me, "He always tells his plans to you. Just - Just ask questions, listen very carefully, and tell us what you heard. It's that simple. Can you do that?"

I nod. Irene looks to the side, biting her lip, "That's not enough, though." Again, it's usually Ernest who pesters with this stuff, so I lean forward with shock. Even Ernest, who I bet was gonna say the same thing, narrows his eyes upon being beaten. "You - I mean, we have to get on his good side this week." It was a common thing to do when we had an escape plan ready, to loosen the blow when it would inevitably fail. "So we'll have more privileges and trust."

Carmen and Ernest pout, clearly not liking the idea of being nice to Jules. "You'll have less new bruises this week." I optimistically offer, but they only glare at me.

"All I'm saying is, if that brat is toying with me, there's no way I'm gonna be calm and all nice about it." Ernest sneers, and Carmen nods in irritated agreement. "I'm not like  mister Kyle here." He jams his finger over in the comatose Kyle's direction.

Blinking, I stand up and go over with Kyle and Irene. My palms squeeze on Kyle's cheek and begin to rub as everyone else keeps conversing over what to do. Irene grabs me by my shoulders and pulls me away, "Leave him alone. All I'm saying is to make an effort - and don't worry..." She cuts off before Ernest could retort, "We'll tell Kyle, too." Whenever Kyle shows any kind of defiance to Julien, he doesn't get the punishment, he's too spoiled. The rest of us do, we take his place, particularly Ernest.

"Then wake him up!" Carmen turns over in her spot, giving us a funny look.

"It doesn't happen instantly, he's still recovering."

I pull out of Irene's grip and move over to continue messing with Kyle's face. Sure enough, when I press my thumbs atop of his eyelids, he squirms a bit. I remove my hands, only slightly, my fingers still brushing against his cheeks as his drained eyes flutter themselves open.

"Kyle," I make sure to address him before everyone else. I lean down to retrieve the book he dropped before going closer, "Can you at least finish the chapter? Please?"

----------------------

I was outside of the house kicking soccer balls into the goal when Kyle came outside, giving me a confused look, "Who are you talking you?" He asks.

"He keeps getting in the way!" I screech, pointing to the action figure in front of the goal. "And he never budges!" Producing another powerful kick to the last soccer ball piled in front of me, it aims far off, tumbling off the table.

Kyle watches it, and frowns deeply. "H-Hey..." Smiling nervously, he looks back at me and moves himself down to the flat surface of the table. "I... I'm sorry."

He says that all the time, I hardly ever know what he's apologizing for. Scampering over to pick up one of the other balls, I go back in my original spot, "I forgive you."

We just barely feel the tremor before the door pounds itself open. Sneering instantly, Kyle buckles his seat beat, and I just pout and sit myself down, hopefully discouraging any of Julien's sudden picks.

"Good afternoon, everyone!" Julien booms out with glee as he activates the lights, finally. Flinging his backpack on the floor, he's already moving towards us, holding a brown paper bag, and visibly brightens when he sees Kyle and I. Quickly going in his chair, he flings it closer to us, "And how are my little Kyle and Heide doing?"

Scowling, Kyle and I both look at the house, the escape tempting, but it would just take a second or two for Julien to reach over and pull us back. "Fine." We both say blankly, but loudly for him to hear. "We're fine."

"That's great! You'll be feeling even better in a second." Shit. He reaches over and taps along the roof of the house.

Frowning, I turn to look up at him, "It's only, like, three or four. I thought you were hanging out with Tiff after school today." I was kind of looking forward to teasing Carmen about it.

Placing his slightly clutched hand on the table beside me, I watch it suspiciously. Hunching forward in his seat, he groans, "I was, but then Talbot called our parents just for some little mess up in Physics, and you know how her Mom gets..." He says through an annoyed scowl.

Kyle sighed, hanging his head, "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing!" Julien almost shrieks, Kyle and I wince. "It was all Tiffany! She was messing with the beakers - stuffing a bunch of trash into them to watch them disintegrate for shits and giggles, he found out, and I got pulled into detention with her!"

"You're lying," Kyle says blankly, "You did something, too."

"Kyle, I swear to-" Julien's voice toughens, fist clenching with a quick rise, only to stop. Biting his lip, he appears to be considering before a sigh escapes his lips. I was partially relaxed until I saw his fingers curl over towards me.

"Ju-" Eyes narrowing, I scrambled in a crawl back, desperate hands clasping in scratches along the ground, but of course, I can only do so much. My head is painfully caught between the crevice between his middle and index finger as he presses his palm more forcefully onto me, fingers curling under me.

Getting suddenly handled and messed around without a care in the world was a pretty much normal thing, but when the guy was even a tad bit stressed, that's when his handlings were more rough. Each rub and press heighten along my bruises, and I groan out with agony at the discomforting pain.

I barely feel the usual gust of wind as he brings me closer to him. As soon as I'm partially released from the oxygen locking grip, I clutch at his skin and wheeze for breath, but even that is short lived. After crossing his legs on the chair with him, he brings his other hand up and begins kneading all around me with the tips and sides of his fingers. The constant turnings and pressings agonize me with a dizzying sensation, but no matter how much I struggle and scream out for him to stop, he refuses to even acknowledge me as anything but a little stress toy.

Thanks a lot, Kyle.

"The only thing I can even remotely think of is just smiling while she was doing it - but I did tell her to stop. Talbot just has an issue against me, I swear. He's always the one calling Alan and then Alan tells my parents and then they get mad because they're getting bothered and it does no good for anyone." He speaks hastily in an annoyed rant, fingers tightening in more presses against me. He lowers me down near his crossed ankles, and I try moving down to grip at the fabric of his pants to help bring me down, but it's just barely out of my reach. Even still, it wouldn't have done anything. "I don't know what I'm gonna do in that freak's class and..." A pause, and he stops rubbing me, significantly leaning forward, "Where's Irene? Where's everyone else?"

I sigh in relief when he pushes me further in his left, tilted palm. I soften and try steadying my breathing, clutching at his pinkie to keep myself elevated as he taps his right hand against the roof of our house.

"Come on, come on." He whines, "Come out or the three of you aren't gonna get fed." My body stiffens upon hearing that. Clutching tighter around his finger, I turn over to try to see the brown paper bag he dropped just a minute ago. I can't see it from this angle, his shoes are in the way.

"What did you get?" I ask, eager to get to eat again. He either ignores me or doesn't hear, so I repeat myself three times. Still nothing, he's waiting for everyone else. I cry out in surprise when he turns his palm, flicking his fingers out of reach for me to grasp on. Just as I fall atop of his ankle, the other slightly risen one saving me from a potentially dangerous fall, Julien moves his seat back and reaches down for the bag.

"I already ate and cut these up." He says, and I hear the rustling.

Wiping my eyes and pulling my hair back, I turn around and try leaning over his risen ankle to see what it is. My eyes narrow, and stunned and more than a little offended, I look up at him, "This is a joke, right?"

He definitely heard me, that stupid smirk that forms on his face says it all. Folding up the filled napkin to keep it all in place, he sets the strings of carrots and small slices of apple on top of the table with everyone else.

I flush, falling back against his ankle. "Jules, you said I was gonna be happy!"

He goes through his pockets, retrieving his phone, "You eat enough of the sugar inside your house, anyway. You need something healthy, once in awhile."

"But Ernest always takes it away from me!"

"What?" His eyes flick back to the table, and I wish I could see the fear shooting into Ernest. After a pause, Julien leans forward, and I can't see his face anymore, "Ernest," He says slowly, "Did you take the sugar away from Heide?" I don't hear a single thing above at the table, Julien already says it again, more forcefully, "Did you?"

Squinting, I try looking up again. Seeing the tightening of his fist as he begins to raise it, I resist groaning, "I was kidding." I called out, and his hand stopped.

"... What?"

Frowning with a huff, I turned and looked down, fingers grasping tighter onto the fabric around me, "I was just joking." Trying to scramble away was futile, I simply bit my lip harshly when his hand comes down towards me.

When he presses his thumb against me, I'm partially convinced he's gonna cave my chest in from the brute force. Clenching my teeth, I try to grab at his finger, but my senses begin to waver, vision heading into a blur.

"Heide," Even his voice sounds way too far off, "If you keep going back and forth with your stories, I swear I'll..."

I would say yes or something, but that's kind of a challenge when he's close to smashing my chest in with his mere thumb. So, all I'm able to do is writhe in pain, giving shaking nods. It seems to do the trick, because he finally moves his hand away. As soon as I'm able, I relax in my spot, hands on my chest as I take heaving breaths in and out, body shaking.

The bastard never gives us much time to recover from his handlings of us. I'm just half way done through collecting my breath when he picks up one of the small slices from the table, damn near dropping it right atop of my chest. I grunt, and by the time I grab at it with a sneer, I already feel the spinning, sickening sensation when Julien moves his chair back.

Dammit, now I'm gonna be his tabletop toy.

The move over to the table almost makes me puke with all the screeching and spinning the chair enforces. Once it stops, I struggle to catch at least half of my breath before Julien grabs at me.

Crying out in a grasping reach for the apple slice that I barely accomplish, I go pale instantly when Julien's barely secured fingers go under me, lifting up and letting me see the potentially dangerous fall. And I think, Carmen goes through thinking she's gonna fall and die all the time even if she doesn't see the drop. Shit. When it does hit me, especially with my still dizzy system, I feel ready to barf.

With a mere fling of the wrist, I'm already sent tumbling down on the work desk. Vision nonexistent at that point with all the spinning, my hands search and grab onto the edge of the lamp. Forcing myself to a stop, I know this is the best time to relax myself, and that's what I do with my lying on my back and catching up with my system. The bruises certainly deepened, new ones already creating their marks.

I'm still catching up with my breath by the time Julien's setting all of his books and writing utensils on the table. Palm on my pounding head, I sit up and crawl my way to the folded scarf on the other end of the table, allowing myself to curl up on it. Sometimes he just lets me be, sometimes he doesn't. I'm just resting here in hopes that it's the former.

He picks up the apple slice and sets it next to me before opening up one of his books. Sighing, I tell him, "Tell me something you learned in school today." I'm learning deprived.

He mutters, "The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell."

He says that everyday. "Be serious."

Thank the Gods, he takes it serious, "Back at the early 1990s, the meat industry was disgusting. The conditions were unsanitary and were filled with bacteria around the time of the tuberculosis outbreak. There was even cases where a worker would fall into the pits, and they've leave their remains in there, so the consumers would commit cannibalism without even knowing it."

"That's brutal." I breathe out, though a smile begins tugging at my lips. "Tell me something else."

"Talbot's a prick."

"I already know that. Tell me something else."

Unfortunately, he lost all sense of seriousness in terms to my education, instead focusing on his as he flips through his book, opening up his notes. I pout, sitting up and rasiing up the apple slice and munching on it.

As the minutes quickily pass, I grow bored. Standing up, I scamper over around Julien's books and I have to crawl under his tilting wrist to go to my destination, at his edge of the desk, right in front of all of his work.

He gives me a quick glance or two as I make my way over, and it seems to encourage his talking. "Everyone keeps talking about this rumor - about this girl that doesn't even go to our school."

I move over, hands clasping and pressing down on the bottom of the note's paper, "The hooker one?"

"The - what?" He sneers, "Did Carmen tell you that word?"

"Yeah. It's true, though."

"Well... Y-Yeah, whatever. Anyway, they keep talking about it and encouraging them to go downtown to see it, not for helping her whatever or-"

"Paying her for things-"

I cry out when he taps his fingers at my head, it nearly makes me sit right back down. "Calm yourself," He says, despite the fact that I was never yelling. "It's all they've been talking about since Friday, and it's absolutely driving me crazy."

"Even Gale?"

"Even Gale! I had to knock some sense into him. I mean, I'm just getting tired of it."

His cellphone lights of momentarily, and I flinch. Julien drops his pencil and stretches his arms out to check it, leaning so close over his chin hits my back. While I am facing straight forward so I can see what he's doing on his phone, I stretch my hand back to slap it against his chin and bottom lip, to which he sighs.

At least one good privilege I have is that Julien has little to no privacy when it concerns me. He already always takes me out of the dollhouse to rant about his entire damn day outside the house, so it just lets him rest when I gawk at his messages and texts, including his calls.

But yeah, once I try touching the phones.

That's when a line is crossed.

Julien's already heading to the contact from Brett with the new message, but my eyes light up when I see one of the recent calls. "Your-" I try looking back at him, but the second I turn, he wisps his breath out at me intentionally. I cough, shaking my hands around to clear the air. "Your Mom called you? Was it because of Talbot?"

He snickers, "Not exactly. This was before second period - it was right before homeroom."

"Then," Confused, I squint, "What did she want?"

"Guess."

I pause, going over past scenarios. One was clear in my mind, but I decided to look at the call's information for more confirmation. The call only lasted twelve seconds. "... Was she meant to call someone else?"

"You're getting smart."

Well, I think and shudder with a frown, at least he's not tormenting us because of his own little mommy issues. That's improvement, I guess. Probably Irene's been getting through to him.

I hear the sliding of the wheels on his chair as he moves it back so he could hunch over on the desk. I squeak out when he rests his cheek on the desk, I have to move forward to give him more room. I close my eyes with a small shudder as I feel his depressed sigh washing all over my back.

While he has been getting more on track with his school work by doing it as soon as he gets home since a couple of months ago, he still gets easily side tracked. In between boredly twirling me back and forth in his fingers, the occasional moving over to the dollhouse to briefly mess with whoever goes out, and the tedious vibrations of his cell phone, it eats away time.

Whenever it's Irene or Kyle out at the dollhouse when he decides to go and take his little "breaks", he's more accepting when they blankly tell him, "Go finish your homework." Carmen and Ernest don't get such well treatment, he simply messes with them more out of annoyed spite.

"I don't get this." I try calling him over after looking over his work. It's gone into studying time, so he's more likely to teach me. Hearing no reply, I look up to see the tapping away at his cellphone. "Hey!" I pout, "I don't get this." I say, displaying over at his physics notes.

"Neither do I." He says absentmindedly.

"You passed the last test. You have to." I tell him, and I just get an annoyed huff. Frowning, I scan over the pages as best as I can, trying to tie together all the scribbled words and numbers. "What do those mean? What's Capa - Capacitance?"

That got him. Like usual, he appeared embarrassed at first, but gave a halfhearted explanation. I just had to ask one more question for him to go full teaching mode, flipping through his notes and opening his textbook, even searching a few things that even he was clueless about. Irene says it's probably the best studying method for him, teaching us. He learns and preps for his test, and I learn about the world. It's a win win situation, really.

His little lesson was already starting to die, but I still jumped in surprise when he closed his books, "That's enough for today."

"Huh?" My eyes go wide, and I blink as he stacks the books atop of each other. "But -  I thought you had homework for English and-"

"I already said this morning, it's a group thing, so we're finishing it tomorrow." I was hoping he'd take some time to put all his stuff back in his bags and shelves, but he simply leaves it there, presumably to take care of it in the morning.

Feeling the rushing movements of his hand coming towards me, I try moving myself forward as if it would have helped. I released a small yelp when his fingers curl around in front of me, pushing and pressing me back into his palm.

I wince at the gust of wind and the spinning sensation as Julien yanks me over to him, all while moving his chair back towards his bed. Once it's at least partially still, I try hunching over in his hand to take wheezing breaths.

"So, since I'm done - and I'm awfully bored..." He adds it as an afterthought, already sighing from said boredom. I grit my teeth, closing my eyes tight as he gives my body another pressing rub from his tedious fingers. "What should we play today?"

"Pre-" I choke out, and it takes him a second to loosen his grip just enough for me to speak, "P-Pretend. Y-You be the teacher and I b-be the student." Desperate, I force a smile, "R-Right?"

"We already did that. I'm bored with that. We can do it another day, but not today, I'm tired."

Shit. "I-If you're tired, then you c-could just..." It was a huge struggle for me to slip my arm out from the confines of his fingers, and when I finally accomplished, I pointed behind him to his bed. "Y-You could just take a n-nap! Remember? Irene t-told Kyle that he should nap whenever he's tired, a-and that it applies to all of the rest of us a-and-"

I take in a sharp breath, feeling my eyes tear up when he clutches his fist, the pressure squeezing against my entire body.

"I said," He repeats, clearly losing patience, "I'm not going to sleep. Not now." He actually didn't say that specifically, but whatever floats his stupid boat.

"We can-" I'm barely able to choke out the words at this point. His grip loosens, but only ever so slightly. I still have to heave through my breaths, "W-Watch that sh-show, you promised we'd c-continue together-"

"You really are stupid," He sighs, "The new episodes only air on Saturday."

"That doesn't m-mean that you can't-"

"This is pointless." He finally says, turning over in his seat. I don't know what he was referring to, but it was probably just talking to me. He has said that on some occasions, not only that we're not supposed to talk because we're his toys, but whenever he did stop himself in the middle of huge talks, he'd only belittle the fact, and call me sensitive, but I took it seriously.

As soon as he lifted me up in his loosening hand with a tilt of the wrist, I got ready for it. Granted, I couldn't keep away the fast gusts of movement as much as I wished I was able. Being thrown onto the bed, I just keep tumbling and tumbling, occasionally getting tangled up in the sheets.

Once I'm finally in a swirling stop, I rest my hands on my chest, lying on my back as I take in unsteady breaths. I don't even bother with some stupid futile attempt at escape as Julien pounds over to the other side of the bed. I just stare meekly as his knee comes upon the mattress, shifting its weight. That excited grin is already washing onto his features as he leans forward and reaches his hand towards me.

When his cellphone makes it's shrill vibrating cry from his desk, I allow myself to sink back in relief. Julien's face falls, and after a quick pause, immediately gets up to retrieve and answer the call.

"Are you serious?" Julien asks through the phone with a grin as soon as he answers it. "Let me guess, you didn't get the last section of the worksheet, either." He messes with the settings before setting it to speaker.

My chest tightens when I hear Gale's groaning reply, "Well let me guess, you were gonna leave it blank so I could do it for you tomorrow."

"Pretty much." Smirking, Julien comes over to the bed. Trembling and still trying to get a hold of my sore limbs, I grasp at the sheets and try to move back. Sitting himself on the side of the bed, he quickily reaches over with his free hand, clasping his palm over on top of me. I was barely able to get my arm through the crevice between his ring and middle finger to grasp meekly as the tops of those fingers curled down, practically enclosing me in this dark prison.

With a tilt of the hand, he loosely catches me to lie weakly in his palm as he settles back on his bed, letting the phone sit on a pillow as he switches me from hand to hand, each finger stroking roughly. He's always got to have one of us in his grasp, always obsessed with the fact that we're able to fit in there, that he can do literally whatever he wants.

Propping a bunch of his pillows up so he can have some heightening in his lay back, he keeps talking to Gale through the phone as he starts bouncing me from hand to hand mindlessly. Whenever he misses a catch, I tumble off his chest or stomach and onto the bed, close to falling in the crevice under his weight.

Of course, there's no possible way for us to actually stop him from doing things. We can only discourage it.

Sitting down when we expect him to pick us up, running from him, any of those will discourage him at least a bit. It's the only thing we can hope for, really. It only worked briefly, I saw the hesitating expression, the outstretched hand stopping for just a second as I scrambled back in a panting, horrified heap.

It only worked briefly, I must repeat, because he continued reaching over.

"GALE!" Reaching my burning point, I went into my infamous mantras of crying for help. "GALE, GALE, GALE, GALE, GALE-!" I kept screeching out Gale's name, and Julien's response was only to (after a peering pause, wondering where would be a fun place) sit up and, pulling at the collar of his shirt, drop me in. The dark, murky tumble only enraged me more, for I continued yelling and pounding my fist at his abdomen. Of course, this would only work back when he was ticklish, but it's hasn't been the case for a year now.

By the time the call finally ends, I'm just lying there. With the rising of his breathing and the fabric of his shirt lying over me, it gets pretty tedious and uncomfortable. When Julien sits up and quickly pulls his hand through to grab at me, all I'm able to do is sigh.

Once I'm pulled into the artificial light and air, I squint and cough, wiping at my forehead as Julien settles up to sit. Fingers barely at me for security, he just lifts me right below his chin and snickers, "I said we should just leave it blank, but Gale always has to be up top." He winces, yawning and I just sneer, "I'm - I'm already tired..."He tells me, as if he didn't forget that I was still very much a person who'd rather be spoken to than tossed around.

I pout, looking to the side.

Julien pauses, "Are you mad?" He asks, and by the softness of his voice, I think he's taking it seriously, the very few moments. I'm about to open up and answer honestly before he smirks, snickering. Dammit, Jules. "Is my little Heide mad?"

I flush, biting my lip, "Leave me alone."

"Aww, my little Heide's mad!" He laughs, and I can feel the blood rushing to my face. He brings his other hand over, trickling the tip of his pointer finger against my throat. I go into panic mode instantly, fearing the pokes he calls "tickles".

"You need to cut your nails!" I find myself piping out.

He stops, "... Huh?"

"You promised Kyle you'd c-cut them..." That's one of our top complaints with him. I mean, sure, he's fine with bruising every section of our body, but cutting and scratching? The horror! "They've been scratching me all day, it hurts."

Another pause, "O-Oh..." His finger retreats, and he looks down away nervously, "S-Sorry, I didn't think they were getting that long for you guys..." Embarrassed, he shifts a bit in his spot before looking back at me as I spit and blow stray hair away from my mouth, "Your hair's getting longer." He comments, and brings his other hand up again to switch me into that one.

Allowing me to simply sit in his barely tilted palm, I take it immediately and grab onto my arm, shuddering when I feel the tense pain applying more and more into it. When his other hand comes towards me and pinches at my hair, I simply scowl.

"Should we cut it?" He asks, and I refrain from yelling when he tugs at the strands of my hair. "I think we should cut it."

"It's my hair, not yours." I barely mumble, and I wonder if he heard me or not.

"It's always getting all tangled and messy. We should cut it." Another tug, and I clutch on tighter onto my arm, pressing my feet harder on his hand to steady myself as he kept pulling. I shiver from the sensation of the tips of his fingers so close to my scalp, "Let's set up something to do it."

"I want Carmen to do it!" I finally cry out, and he releases my hair. "N-Not you..."

He has to think a bit before realizing why I said that, "Gosh, you really hold your grudges, don't you?" He looks back with a roll of the eyes, and a grin. "You know, if I wanted to, I would have cut your head off any day." He shrugs, "And who's to say that I'll never want to? Just a..." He leans closer to me, grin spreading and eyes sparkling, "Heads up!"

I'm sick and tired of this guy.

------------------

When I open the door and stumble my entrance into the living room, everyone turns to look at me.

"Well, that took a long time." Ernest adjusts his arm on the back of his seat with a snort. What the hell? It's not like it's my fault.

Vision going into a blurring, darkening haze, I stumble forward, "Y-Yeah..."

There's some silence, and then I hear noises.

The rolling of wheels. Kyle. "H-Heide? You don't look so good."

Someone stands up and take steps closer to me. "Honey," It's Irene, "Are you okay?"

My hand raises up, searching until I find the wall. Pressing my palm against it, I keep taking shaking, sloppy footsteps forward. "Y-Yeah..." I mumble through my glossing eyes, before inevitably falling to the floor.

-------------

Everyone inside kept insisting that I stay in bed and rest, and I did do that, I swear. It's just that I was in fact hungry when Julien called us out for dinner. It's good that we got any to begin with, there was some meals that Julien either forgot or just didn't wish to share. For the first time all week, we got three meals in a day.

Tonight, it's mexican rice and some chicken. Now, we all talk and share some discussion while we eat, since Julien is distracted over printing some stuff in one of the work rooms. Apparently, Gale won the argument over the work.

My eyes drift over to the end of the table, and I can't help but ask, "How's the rope going?"

Irene stiffened, but slowly softened up once again soon after. She swallowed her food before saying, "Working on it. Kyle already asked for more yarn, and Julien said he'd bring some tomorrow."

I pause, looking at the chicken that Ernest was hungrily tearing through his jaws, "Julien told me something today." I say, and they all look over. "He told me about the meat packing industry like a hundred years ago, that human parts would get mixed in and-"

Everyone groaned and put their food down.

-----------

Later that night, I went out to just wash myself up. Shower, of course, consisted of a small water filtering system sitting at the other covered, connecting, neighboring table. Julien always promises to refill it with warm water, but as expected, he doesn't keep up, so about 90% of our washes are in the cold.

Once I'm done and mostly dried, I dress myself in my pajamas and robes and towels and slippers, but nothing seems to warm me up. It gets really, really cold here, and having taken a shower in cold water has not helped.

Shivering, I waddle my way onto our main floor when I see Julien, from his recent shower, wiping his towel at his tousled, wet hair. I sneer, envying his comfort of bathing in warm water.

When he notices me, he comes over. "Are you going to sleep now?" He asks, and I roll my eyes. "You're always up, and then you wonder why you're so grumpy in the morning."

I groan, "Yes, yes! I just felt dirty." Being messed around in his hands does no good. After a hesitating pause, I look to the side with a pout, "W-When can I go out with you?"

"Huh?" He might not have caught it. I repeat myself, and he still doesn't hear, so he kneels down, fingers grasping tightly at the edge of the table. "Say it again, I can't hear."

Idiot. "I want to go out."

His expression goes blank, and he keeps staring at me. Shifting uncomfortably, I take just a few steps back before he spurts out a chuckle, "Really? Really." Snickering, he shakes his head, though says, "Probably next week? I'm still..." His tone drops, scowling a bit now, "I'm still pissed with that little scheme you tried pulling the other day."

I normally would argue, but I want to go out, "I know."

He's back to snickering, "And I mean - I just found it so funny..." Even if he's clearly going to reference my near escape plan. "That you tried to talk to anyone out there, when no one out there ever cared for you."

I go pale.

He grins, nodding, "Right? No one cared."

My knees start to buckle, and I become more aware of the cold that washes over me.

"And still, I doubt they do."

My trembling, cold fists clench at the fabric of my robe. Feeling the prickling sensation of my eyes, I choke the feeling back and, biting my lip harshly, shuffle over towards the dollhouse, "Goodnight."

Eyes going wide, I jump back in shock when Julien's hand suddenly clasps right in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. I keep stepping back until I fall onto the floor, breathing wildly.

"You're shivering," Julien says, blinking down at me, "Are you that cold?"

"Ye... Yes." I clutch at my robe again, looking down at my feet. "You need to put warm water in there, you know. We're always freezing." I tell him, and he keeps blinking, so I pull out the main card, "Even Kyle."

He cringes, "Ah, man... You know - I've been - I've been meaning to set something so that the water has different compartments and settings for the temperature."

"But would we be able to reach the buttons?"

"That - That's why, I've been meaning to either mess around with one or just create one in general."

I cringe, "That's concerning."

"I'm a great engineer." He says with a grin.

"You wish." I roll my eyes, giggling.

He pauses, before sitting up with a hunch. I resist crying out when his hands curl around me, enclosing me in this pocket he created with his palms and curl of the fingers.

"What're-?" I choke back a cough, trying to look up at the dim lighting, "What're you doing?" I'm dumb, it does take a second or two for me to realize.

He doesn't answer, he knows it should have instantly come to me. Leaning over to the pocket he created, he opens his mouth and after holding his breath, exhales slowly. Even though I do feel the warmth washing over me, I feel an unsettling tickling at my skin. I close my eyes, allowing the exhales he gives out and my growing goosebumps.

It takes about five exhales for him to finally move his hands away from me, and I wipe at my face. All that breathing he did onto me - his breath was almost like a liquid, I felt the new very light layer of moisture.

Moving back slowly, he asks, "Better?" With his curling lips that form into a smile. Blinking, my eyes raise up over to his own eyes. Seeing those silver eyes made me lower my own instantly.

I nod slowly. Too nervous to look at those silver eyes, I just keep staring at my layered palms, thinking over the new heated warmth I feel around me.

I hear his chuckle, "Good." His hand comes over to lift me up, and even though I was already close to the dollhouse, he still picks me up and drops me on my feet at the front doors. "Goodnight to you guys, I'll see you in the morning."

I keep staring down, "Goodnight..." I wait until I hear him move back over to his bed, and after a long string of minutes, until he shuts the lights off. I close my eyes, and after a painful pause, finally enter out small house that he's confined us in.

-----------

We all exchanged good nights to each other before going to our rooms to sleep. Again, I tried to sleep, I really did, but like some nights, memories just washed right over me just like Julien's heated breath.

I remember back at home - at home home - whenever Dad was home, he would always heat up my blankets before I would go to bed. I'd approach him, imply show him one of my blankets, and he would gather up all of them and toss them into the heater. We'd wait, together, for twenty minutes before they were warm enough for me to happily sleep with.

Yet...

No one out there cared for you.

Biting my lip, I clutched at the cold blankets around me.

I remembered Dad's willingness to warm up my stuff, his affectionate smile with those silver eyes staring right back at mine. Shuddering, my fingers brushed over my eyelids.

No one cared.

My eyes went wide, body jumping up and then stiffening when I heard the room down the hall open and close, followed by rough footsteps. The footsteps just screamed Ernest, so I got up and wiped at my eyes before wrapping my blanket around me.

By the time I opened the door and peeked out the hallway, I saw Ernest's figure already moving down the stairs. Blinking, I looked to the other end of the hallway. His door was creaked open, even though I swore I heard him close it.

I flinched when I heard the front door open and close. Eyes narrowed, I got out of my room and scampered down the stairs, and looked out the windows. I could barely make out his figure pacing around, running his hands across his face.

There was a heavy consideration for going out there to question him, but once I spotted the jar of sugar on top of the top cabinet, I decided not to. Dragging a chair over, I kept reaching until I retrieved it.

Grinning, I jumped off the chair and sat myself on the counter, opening the lid. Sugar, sugar, sugar! It always helped. And this time, I don't have to hide or share it.

Not hiding from Ernest and Irene, not sharing and explaining with Kyle and Carmen.

Getting a spoonful, I gulped it all down with smiling licks.

Not hiding from Mom and Dad, not sharing and explaining with Terri!

Grinning with my mouth full of sugary goodness, I lean back and giggle out, "It's nice!" To myself in the dark cold. In this...

I tried to keep my grin - I really did. But the thing in my chest kept swelling until I felt the deafening crack.

I gritted my teeth, shaking as I felt the prickling at my eyes. I couldn't hold it anymore, for I squeezed my eyes shut and let the hot tears stream down my reddening cheeks.