I'm still slightly shaken, I mean I know that their testosterone levels run high sometimes but this was a little too shocking.
Virgil places me at the edge of the bed and I scoot over, getting comfortable on the airbed.
"Yah! Idiot!" Shana yells at Dale. "Don't get blood on the walls." She reprimands him, not even sounding worried.
Her tone of voice eases me somewhat, because Shana might act grumpy but she's actually a huge softie who would break down if any of us got hurt.
Dale's next choice of words make me let out a small giggle.
"Ah! I'm so sorry! Do you think I broke the wall? I hope there aren't any cracks." He says quickly and then there's a sound like he got hit.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"For scaring Hayden." Shana explains decidedly.
Another smack.
"Wha… What the hell was that for then?" He demands in shock, rubbing his smarting head.
"Because I can." She replied smugly. "Why would you bruise your fist?" She demands rhetorically.
I slip under the blankets and Virgil does the same, it's what we do every time but still I get a full body blush - thank goodness I'm already hidden in the blankets so no one sees how red I get.
Even though I never asked for a pillow, I find myself forced to wrap myself around Virgil, he already kicked all the pillows away and I don't know how to feel.
Absently, he pulls me closer and over him so that I'm practically sleeping on him, he's no longer acting like just my pillow now, he has taken on the task of being my bed as well.
Being stiff isn't an option with how tightly he wraps his hand around me.
Shana brings out cards and she and Dale start to play.
Virgil just stays still, content to let me lie on him and tangle his hands in my slightly long hair.
Soft conversations float over to us from where Shana and Dale are playing cards, conversations too soft for me to hear.
Not that I was paying attention, nothing is more distracting than having Virgil's full attention on you and I was trying really hard not to melt away.
Welp! All that flew out the window when he spoke.
"Why is your heart beating so fast?" He rumbles to me.
My head is placed on his chest so his deep voice goes straight to my brain and I wonder how I can still hold up brain activity.
"I-It is?" I ask, blinking up at him - I mean I'm the one with my ear up against his body, are my heartbeats that loud?
He hums and I melt a little bit more, the gentle movements of his hand against my scalp is lulling me to sleep, fast.
A stray thought flashes through my mind and my brain is so mushy that I don't think twice before I blurt it out.
"I-I wan to cut my hair." I drawl in a drowsy voice.
His soothing movements stop, making her quickly shutting eyes fly open.
"Why?" He asks sharply.
I cringe into myself at his tone, I hadn't expected him to take it so seriously.
I shrug, or at least I try to shrug, it's not so easy to do while lying trapped on someone else. "J-Just be-because." I stutter in a tiny voice, trying to disappear inside myself.
"Oh." His voice calms down instantly, like he senses my unease, his soothing movements picking up again. "I was just worried that you want to cut it because of something bad." He sighs.
I relax at this, my small hand, fisting and unfisting against his thin shirt. "Actually I want to cut it because people keep thinking I'm a girl." I admit sheepishly, blushing a bit.
"That shouldn't be why you would want to cut it." He says quietly, tone serious. "If you want to cut it, it should be because you want to."
I barely hear what he says, my eyes are falling shut again.
"B-But do y-you like m-my hair?" I mumble, unconsciously moving my hands to clutch at him - I can help that he's the same size as a huge teddy bear and just as cuddly too.
"Of course." He hums. "Grow it out as long as you want."
I murmur unintelligibly, falling deeper into a drowse.
"Elise wants you to be her date to the dance." Shana's voice stops me from fully falling asleep, I'm still not fully awake though but I'm not asleep either.
"Too bad, I already have a date." Virgil replies coldly.
"She also wants Dale to be Addison's date." Shana adds offhandedly but I can tell the deadly undertones belying her words.
"There's something called a choice." Dale replies in a calmer voice.
"Not really.* Virgil speaks up. "Not with Elise."
"What do you mean?" Dale asks.
"The bitch always gets what she wants." Shana answers, there's a rustling sound like she's shrugging.
"Shana dim the lights." Virgil requests.
"Okay." She answers politely, it's a little funny.
A click resounds through the quiet and tense room and Shana goes back to her seat on the cushions.
It has to be the cushions because I don't feel any depression on the bed and when she speaks up again, her voice is a little far away.
"Virgil you have to do something." She says.
"I'm a little confused." Dale interrupts, a frown in his deep voice. "Who is she that we can't say no to?"
I find it a little strange that they dimmed the lights before continuing their conversations, I mean how will they see each other's expressions?
"Elise is the Delta's daughter." Shana starts to explain and I frown, was that some political position.
Vaguely, I remember that Virgil's dad is the undisputed leader of the town or something, I wasn't really interested in politics, they gave me a headache.
"So, That's the least, I was figuring her as the Head Beta's daughter." Dale says.
More weird terms, I note to myself.
"Yeah, he's most likely going to be the next Head Beta." Virgil rumbles and I nearly fall asleep again. "Actually he is and pretty soon too, so she's basically the Head Beta's daughter."
"That doesn't give her any fucking right." Dale half growls. "Does she know about me?"
"Apparently." Shana shrugs again, the rustling is louder now in the dim room. "That's why she's trying to hook one of her sidekicks onto you."
Dale lets out a cynical chuckle, that's different from the usually goofy laugh he gives to me. "Why am I not surprised that she would know of the plan to merge?"
"Her mom is the same thing." Virgil says. "The slut had her claws in the previous Head Beta and now that her husband is being promoted, wants to aim for Luna."
"So it would add up that she would know, her mom, Leila has a lot of dirt on a lot of people." Shana adds.
"She controls with blackmail, huh?" Dale asks.
"Pretty much." Virgil replies.
"She has nothing on me." Dale murmurs.
"Maybe." Virgil grudgingly agrees. "She has nothing on me either." He tags on.
Silence falls in the room, and the ensuing tension seems unnecessary, if this Leila lady has nothing on them both, it meant that they were in the clear.
"Elise might do something else." Shana finally speaks up. "As a matter of fact, I'm certain that she will, I just don't know what it is yet." There's louder rustling like she had gotten up to pace, how she does it effortlessly in the dark without bumping into things remains a mystery to me.
I can't walk into a dark room without everything coming towards me and this all ends up in me smacking my shins on table, jamming my toes on basically everything and the occasional full on tripping which has me going over, ass over tea kettle to the ground.
"What are you saying Shana?" Virgil asks tautly.
Another eerie and tense silence.
"You have to do something about her Virgil." She repeats ominously.
"Shit!" Dale and Virgil swear simultaneously, Virgil's arms are noticeably tighter around me.
"Because if that bitch does what I think she's going to, I'm going to rip her head off the rest of her body, the fucking Council be damned." Shana threatens.
"Shana…" Dale starts to say.
"No, Shana is right." Virgil interrupts, his hand trailing from my scalp to my nape and lower. "You're going to see her and her mom in action and then you'll understand what we're saying."
"What can we do then?" Dale asks seriously and I frown, I had no idea Elise was this bad, I mean she terrifies me and her mom is even worse - from the few times I had seen her at school functions.
But if the three immovable people in my life right now are this worried, then I should definitely watch out for her.
"Leon…" Virgil trails off.
"That psychopath." Shana seethes.
"Your older brother?" Dale confirms.
"Yeah…" Virgil trails off again. "He's the only option we have right now."