Elijah.
 
           He took another long sip from the bottle of water Tokunbo had given him. He hadn't had good food in three days. He deserved it. He was certain. All the terrible things that had happened to him the past few days were very much his fault. He sighed and laid flat on the bed.
           Skinnine's room was bland. A bed, a drawer, a carpet and a clothe hanger. Aside that nothing else. No decorations. No wallpapers. No plants. And she seemed just fine with it. He was certain Betty would have a flip if there was no more than a tiny bit of pink in her room. He sipped again absentmindedly and coughed as it went down the wrong hole.
         "Shhhhhh!!!" Tokunbo hissed and he fought the urge to laugh at how tensed her face looked.
          "It...it's not exactly my fault." He spluttered as he sat up against the wall.
           "It is! You should have been smart enough to know that you don't lie on your back and drink water! Scratch that, you should be wise enough to not get involved with bad people who make you do bad things. I can't believe I'm doing this. Papa is on the rampage, looking for you and ensuring I stay clear of your lot and here you are...."
          Eli held back a laugh. Her eyes buldged out like tennis balls and her hands wrangled with each other. She was nervous. Heck, he would be too if he had her father as his father. He wondered for a while, how his father would react if he suddenly burst into their house right now.
            Skinnine stopped ranting and came to sit beside him staring at him intently. He shifted uneasily. After he had broken down; he hadn't had one in months; she had stared at him like that too before pulling him by the arm and dragging him home.
        He recalled as he stood in front of his door, apprehension sitting in his stomach like a bag of stones while she nodded encouragingly.
Coward! That's what you are.
           "Stop staring at me like that."
          "You're in my room. I have the right to stare."
             He rolled his eyes at her response.
             "I'll leave."
             "We both know you can't, Eli. And we both know we need to talk. You need to tell them you didn't do it." She stated dryly.
              He paused.
              "I didn't say I didn't do it."
              "You didn't do it. You wouldn't have come to check on Enoch if you did. And Enoch is your best friend. I doubt you could've have forgotten that so soon."
               He wanted to speak. No. He wanted to yell at her to leave him alone. He wanted to push her away too. But nobody had ever read in between the lines. Nobody had seen what she saw.
                 "And how, pray tell, are you certain of these things?" He murmured, his voice bleak as he rubbed his hands over his face.
              She hesitated.
              He raised a brow.
               She sighed then said "Because I was a victim too."
               Eli felt his blood run hot with anger.
              "I am not a victim! You can't just ..just assume you know me. You don't-"
               "Will you stop being so hot headed?! You're in major trouble here! You need to admit certain things to gain courage! And whether you want to admit it or not, you're being bullied right now Elijah. Someone's making you take the fall." She chastised.
              "I'll take care of it!" He defended.
              A scoff escaped her lips.
            "I can see how you've been doing that. By starving yourself and hiding like a criminal. Look Eli, just come clean, come out, tell my dad. He'll help you-"
              "Of course you'll say that. Precious police daughter!" He spat with as much venom as he could infuse.
             She stared at him, a broken expression on her face then looked away.
           Elijah felt like he had swallowed chalk.  He fiddled with the bed covers in guilt.
No one understands. And they don't have to. She doesn't have to.
             "They called me that a lot you know." Her voice was slow and melancholic. "Precious police daughter, where's daddy now to save you?  Oh wait, what is that I hear? Not a siren for sure.  I tripped you? What are you gonna do, call the commissioner? I'll bet she dreams about  the firing squad.  They would laugh like a pack of hyenas. They would giggle when I stuttered. I hated it. So much. I would lock myself up in the toilets and cry my eyes out. I used to tell my father and he would come to school to threaten those kids personally."
                "And how did that work out?" He asked shifting to face her. He knew it would get worse instead. As if telling on those bullies gave them more power instead.
                "You know exactly how it did." She replied staring at him pointedly.
                "Skinnine whatever happened to me is really none-"
                 "You want to take revenge."
     He sucked in a breath at her very simple yet heavy statement.
                 "That's why you joined the Skylars. You wanted power. You wanted to be seen."
          He couldn't take it anymore. He stood up from the bed and opened the window from which he had climbed in.
               "It never works that way Eli. Nothing good comes out from having that kind of power."
                 "Shut up Skinnine" he spat heaving himself out the window. She moved towards him and held his arm.
                  "Listen to me! She died. She died. Because I wanted revenge. I killed her. She hurt me so much and...and I couldn't. I just couldn't do it anymore. You need to stop now Eli. While you can-"
              He wrenched his arm free, stared at her stricken face and walked off.
No one understands. And they don't have to. She doesn't have to.
She already does.
  
*****   
           Eli clutched the sheet harder, sobbing silently as he stared at Enoch's face. His friend slept with swollen eyes and bruised lips and it was all his fault.
          His chest ached as he recalled what had happened three days before. He had known that Enoch followed him. He had warned him to stay away. The Skylars were too powerful, they would take him out in a second. But Enoch had been stupid.
            "Stupid" he cried silently. The saline drip shifted slightly and he stood up to adjust it.
             He had gone to basement that day as he normally did. The Skies would send him on errands so he could prove his worth to them before he officially became one of them. They were the most respected gang in Citadel High. A gang that had existed for four generations. Once they accepted him, he had power, and he would finally, finally show all those who had made his life miserable what terror was.
          He had heard noises. Groans. And when he'd stepped in, he saw a sight he would never forget. Never. Enoch on the floor. Blood everywhere  and the Skylars laughing maniacally. He had watched in horror as Enoch's eyes held his for a moment then lolled like a bunch of dead flowers.
          His chest clenched and unclenched in memory. He sat back on the chair beside the bed. It was late in the night. He hoped no one had seen him sneak into the hospital. He had just wanted to see how Enoch was. He just wanted to know. And he needed something as an incentive. An incentive to destroy whoever it was that wanted to ruin him.
           It wasn't the Skylars. They wouldn't place the blame on him. He knew far too much about them for them to risk it. It was someone else. Someone who had power over the Skylars. He had to find out who it was.
          He closed his eyes for a minute, then stood up and stretched. A hand grasped his shirt and he let out a startled sound.
           Enoch's eyes stared at him drowsily.
           "Eli?"
        A tear escaped an eye as he stared at his friend in pain.
            "Sleep Enoch."
        The latter shook his head then made to sit up.
             "I wondered when you would come."
            Eli raised a brow.
             "To finish you off?."
        Enoch gave a soft laugh.
              "Nonsense."
        They stared at each other for a while.
               "When will you go home Eli?"
               "If you haven't heard, I can't exactly-"
         Enoch waved his hand dismissively.
                 "Betty told me. But it's not you."
     Elijah sat down narrowing his eyes  at Enoch.
                  "You know who sent the Skylars?"
          Enoch nodded and spouted the one word Eli wanted and didn't want to hear.
                 "Demi."