Blood Games

    According to Finley, who spent a lot of time wandering the campus at night, the custodial staff usually finished cleaning the administration building and left it before ten.

    At ten, Abilene and Helen would leave the stockroom, sneak out of the bookstore, and open an outside door to let the other girls in.

    At five after eight, however, Helen whispered, ‘I’ve gotta go.’

    ‘What?’

    ‘All that root beer.’

    ‘You’re kidding.’

    ‘I’m gonna explode.’

    ‘Go in your cup.’

    ‘Abbyyyyyy.’

    ‘I mean it.’

    ‘I can’t. I need a toilet.’

    ‘Oh, man. The custodians are probably in the building.’

    ‘Please.’

    ‘Okay. There’s probably a john in the hallway. But be careful. If anybody spots you

    ‘You’re coming with me, aren’t you?’

    Abilene hadn’t planned on it. Though she’d consumed as much root beer as Helen, she’d intended to either hold on until ten o’clock or use a cup.

    ‘I don’t want to go alone.’ The pleading tone of her voice reminded Abilene of Helen’s experience in the shower room at the start of the school year: the lights going off, the hand touching her.

    ‘All right, I’ll go with you. We’ll take our flashlights.’ Abilene led the way. She inched open the door. The bookstore was dark except for a faint glow of lights coming in through the windows along one wall. Stepping out, she turned on her flashlight. As she walked around the counter, she heard the stockroom door bump shut. ‘Crap.’

    ‘What?’

    ‘Did you unlock it?’

    ‘Huh? Oh, no.’

    ‘There goes our hideout.’ She thought about the A & W bags and cups. No big deal. ‘You didn’t leave anything, did you? Other than the stuff from the A ’n Dub?’

    ‘No. Did you?’

    ‘Nope. Thank God.’

    ‘They’ll know we were in there.’

    ‘They’ll know someone was. No way to figure out who, though.’

    ‘Can you get fingerprints off that stuff?’

    ‘You can. But we aren’t gonna murder anybody. I’m sure the cops wouldn’t go to the trouble.’

    ‘Sure hope not.’

    Following the bright beam of her flashlight, Abilene went to the door of the bookstore. Then she shut off the light. She turned the knob and eased the door toward her.

    The hallway was dark.

    ‘Fantastic!’ she whispered. Leaning into the hall, she looked both ways. The only lights came from the green glow of Exit signs at each end. She stepped out. ‘Don’t let it lock.’

    ‘Got it.’ Helen came into the hallway behind her. ‘Maybe the janitors have already left.’

    ‘They might be upstairs, I guess. But you’d think they’d light up the whole building if they were here.’

    ‘Maybe they have Wednesdays off.’

    ‘Or they haven’t arrived yet. Come on. Let’s make it quick.’ She and Helen hurried through the hallway, checking the doors with their flashlights. Near the center, they came to a door marked LADIES. Abilene pushed it open, and they entered the dark restroom. Helen rushed into the first stall, Abilene into the next.

    As she shone her light on the toilet, a groan came from Helen. ‘What?’

    ‘No t-p,’ Helen muttered, and rushed past her to the third stall.

    Abilene’s stall had a roll of paper. The toilet seat looked clean, but she didn’t want to sit on it. Her dispenser of paper seat covers was empty. So, after latching the door and pulling down her pants, she squatted above the seat without touching it.

    She was scared, trembling. She couldn’t relax enough to go.

    From the sounds she heard, Helen was having no such problem.

    Then she heard the distant clamor of a closing door.

    It sent ice sliding up her back. It sent her urine squirting into the toilet bowl.

    ‘Oh, my God,’ Helen murmured.

    ‘Kill your light and be quiet,’ Abilene warned. She switched off her own flashlight. But couldn’t stop peeing, and neither could Helen. Though the splashing sounded awfully loud, she doubted that it could be heard from the hallway. If someone came into the restroom, though… ‘Whatever you do,’ she gasped, ‘don’t flush. Stand on the seat when you’re done. And make it quick.’

    ‘Do you think they’re coming here?’ Helen sounded ready to panic.

    ‘Who knows?’ She finished. She groped some toilet paper, dried, stood up straight, pulled up her panties and shorts, and climbed onto the seat. One hand held the flashlight. The other held the waistband of her loose shorts. She wished she had a spare hand to press against a wall of the stall; her perch on the seat felt too precarious for comfort.

    This isn’t such a hot idea, anyway, she thought. If it’s the custodial staff, someone’s bound to come in.

    The restroom was certain to be a place they cleaned, and hiding in the stalls wouldn’t do any good at all.

    From beside her came a gasp. Then a heavy, thumping splash. ‘Shit!’

    ‘Shhhh.’

    ‘Oh, yuck.’ Splashing, dripping sounds. ‘I stepped in it.’

    ‘Shhhh.’

    The restroom door sighed open, and the light came on.

    ‘Go ahead to my office. I’ll be along in a minute.’

    Hardin!

    ‘Yes, ma’am.’

    We’re dead, Abilene thought.

    Footsteps approached, heels clacking on the tile floor. Abilene held her breath.

    Hardin entered the first stall.

    The one without toilet paper!