I didn't have the courage to face Hadi this morning, not after what I said to her. Still, I needed to get clean clothes, which meant that I had to go into our shared bedroom. It wouldn't be the first time I snuck in to grab what I needed without waking her, so I wasn't worried. The tricky part was making sure her and Joey were asleep. The older man normally did not stay the night. Whether or not he was a light sleeper was a mystery that I was about to solve.

It was the twilight hours of the morning as I crept down the small hall to our apartment. The door in front of me led to the bathroom, while the one to my right was the bedroom. This door was cracked open, which didn't surprise me. Some would say that this was done because Hadi wanted to be able to properly hear me if I decided to sneak out. It might be true, but there was more to it than that. I knew Hadi well enough to know that she left the door open as a gesture to show that if I needed to talk, she would gladly listen. A sign that she was trying not to let anything I said to her a few hours ago get to her.

I crouched on my knees and slowly pushed the door open wide enough until I could slip through.

When I wasn't trying to distance myself from Hadi or give her a bit of privacy during her crazy work surges, the two of us shared a bed in this small bachelor's room. And by small, I mean small. Tiny. There was enough room to squeeze in a bed that wasn't quite a queen, but still bigger than a twin. It rested lengthwise against the wall, with the head of the bed pressed up against the far corner and wall to my right, so that there was maybe a single step between the door and the foot of the bed. To my left was a simple wooden dresser with five drawers that looked more square than rectangular. Next to the dresser was a set of poles we used to hang whatever clothes that were too bulky to put in the dresser, the majority of which included Hadi's uniforms and my hoodies.

Still crouched, I peered over at my fellow roommate. I saw two forms through the thick covers: Hadi was snuggled comfortably in Joey's big arms, who was bent in a way so that he could rest his chin on top of her head. Neither of them stirred upon my entrance. Certain that they were asleep, I wobbled over to the dresser, keeping low so that my head was ducked beneath the bed - one of few times where being my height proved to be more troublesome than not.

It was a slow and tedious process, but one I was familiar with, all the same. Once I was able to grab a fresh change of clothes, I snuck out as easily as I snuck in.

Then I walked into the bathroom to change, and made the mistake of facing the mirror as I stripped down to my underwear. The mirror was just above the sink, and there was nowhere near enough room for me to back up enough to get a full view of myself, though that wasn't necessary. The face staring at me made it hard to look away, and I don't mean that in a conceited sense. It was like looking at a wounded animal I'd never seen before. Something inside me was so disturbed by what I saw that it wanted to give my brain a chance to process what it was. Or, maybe it wasn't disturbed at all. Maybe I was mistaking that for a gruesome curiosity that begged to be prodded.

Like that boy without eyes. I hadn't been able to so much as move until that woman started screaming.

"Holy hell," I croaked, placing my hands against the side of the sink - just like I'd done back in the school's bathroom, only there was one sink and mirror here.

The circles beneath my eyes, if anything, only got worse overnight. The side of my right eye had certainly seen better days; a large, fist-sized bruise covered it along with a bit of ugly swelling. I didn't remember having wiped any blood from my mouth, but my bottom lip was split, and there were several small bruises and scrapes all around the rest of my face. Still, there was only one bruise that could come close to comparing to the marks on my neck, and that was the one closest to my eye.

Ugh.

Gingerly, I slipped on one of my famous dark hoodies, but not before pulling a plain black shirt over my head, having learned my lesson from yesterday. Then I pulled on a pair of gray sweats. When I was satisfied that I was as comfortable in these clothes as I was going to get in my current condition, I grabbed the small red brush on the side of the sink and slid it carefully down my hair; my arms especially didn't seem to appreciate any quick movements of the late.

Buzz . . . . buzz . . . buzzzzz . . .

The sudden sound nearly startled dear life out of me. I jumped, and barely managed to restrain myself from dropping the brush in my hand while stifling back a curse.

I glanced down at my pile of discarded clothes. The sound was coming from there . . .

"Ah, you idiot," I said quietly to myself, bending down to shift through my former hoodie. I pulled out my phone from my pocket. Upon seeing the name flashing through the small screen, I cursed.

Jaxon. I'd completely forgotten about him.

'Don't worry about dressing nice,' the text said. I frowned. What an odd thing to say, especially at five in the morning. I was only up because I couldn't get over worrying about my current situation, and it was hard to sleep with a pounding head and a body that complained anytime I put some pressure on it. What was Jaxon up to?

'Wasn't planning on it, anyway' I replied. Then I paused. Going on a date with some silly rich boy was the last thing I wanted to do, especially when I should be concerned about a potential confrontation with Landon's 'friends'. And Ven. What the hell was up with him? I struggled to recall everything he had said to me while he had me pinned down in broken glass shards. He was definitely not who I thought he was, that's for sure. But was he telling the truth?

I sighed through my nose and walked out into the living-room. I sat on the worn couch and stuck my hand between the cushions, careful of how I twisted myself as I slid my fingers beneath the crack where the base of the couch and the upper piece met. Upon feeling a piece of paper, I grabbed it and pulled it out from its designated hiding spot. It was the same envelope Frenice had given me before I'd all but leaped out of his car to get to Hadi. I hadn't looked at the money he'd given me; rather I used it to put Jaxon's money in it, since I didn't have anywhere else to place it other than my backpack.

And a good thing I didn't put it in there, too, I thought bitterly. I didn't think the boys that had jumped me in the bathroom were above stealing.

However, as I pulled a fifty out of the envelope, I caught sight of a folded piece of paper. It was the piece of paper Ginger had given me after I came home from school . . . . Make No Deals With Giants, it had read.

I dropped the envelope immediately, biting my tongue to keep from yelling out. What was it, again, that that guy had said to the woman in the video last night?

"Got a date with the giants, dear!"

Well, I was right. Make no deals with giants. The only deal that I could think of making as of late was the one I made with Port, but I already had possession of the flashdrive by that point. I grabbed the envelope again, my hand shaking as I pulled out the few other bills in there. Two fifties and a ten . . . and something else. Something that looked suspiciously like a business card.

"Oh, fuck this!" I exclaimed, then quickly looked over my shoulder in the direction mine and Hadi's room was.

Furious, I glanced down at the card. On one side, what looked like a phone number was all that was written. On the other side, a message.

'In case of emergency . . .' Well, I didn't want to go on a 'date' with Jaxon. But, thinking about everything, it was beginning to look like this was going to be the last time I would ever get the chance to go out with a guy. True, I didn't quite trust Jaxon all that well, and up until a week or so ago, I hadn't so much as spoken more than a few words to him since the beginning of the school year. However, as he had no connection to Port (as far as I was concerned) and he didn't seem like the sort to take other people's eyeballs, suffering his company would be a nice change in comparison to what I've been getting recently.

I slid the card in my pocket, followed by one of the fifties. I placed everything else back in the envelope and hid it in the same place it was in before. I looked at my phone. It was barely five-twenty in the morning, and still dark as hell outside. Being so close to winter, the sun wouldn't be up for another couple of hours at the least. I grabbed my worn blue sneakers from the floor and slipped them on.

Pulling my hood over my head, I made sure to grab my key off the shelf next to the front door and walked out, locked it, and made my way downstairs and out of the apartments. I would text Hadi later, when the sun was completely up and I had had enough time to get my bearings. For now, however, I was going to walk to school. I needed a break.