Tied up and Locked Out: Chapter Five

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 Tonya waited for the elevator, her stomach growling loudly. She stared at the shiny brown 'up' and 'down' buttons on the wall until they started to look like Smarties, and that made her think of her roommate's boxes of Halloween chocolate. It was pathetic. If she had stayed with the Digital Ninjas, she could have eaten hot pizza with interesting company, but what did she do? She retreated so she could eat protein bars in her room, like a hidden mouse nibbling scraps. She considered going back, but then the elevator reached her floor.

The door was locked, which was unusual this time of night. Usually her roommate Lynette left the door open to let her many friends wander in and out. Sometimes it made Tonya crazy because she never got a quiet moment, in what was supposed to be her home. When there weren't guests laughing and talking, and ignoring Tonya, Lynette would blare obnoxious pop tunes. Did she even like them? Tonya figured Lynette used her music like hunters use duck decoys, techno quacking attracted drakes to land on her pond.

For Tonya, an only child from a quiet house, the relentless bass and never-ending company were exhausting. After a long day, Tonya just wanted to collapse on her bed and read in peace. The best thing about Lynette was that she went out a lot. Tonya usually had quiet Friday and Saturday nights.

Tonya unlocked the door and walked in.

At first she didn't know what she was seeing. It looked too impossible. Lynette was seated facing the wall, her hands tied to the head of her rickety, wrought iron bed.

 "Lynette... You okay?" Tonya rushed over and started untying her.

 "Leave me alone. I have to stay this way, until the craving passes."

 "Who did this to you? I'm phoning campus police," she said.

 "Relax. It's okay."

 "Are you sure?" Why would anybody want to be tied up like that? It made no sense to Tonya.

"I ate all my Halloween candy, and then all three boxes of your cereal, and I was about to eat your crappy diet food, so I got Roberto to tie my hands," said Lynette.

 "He tied you up, so you wouldn't steal a few protein bars?"

 "I was about to eat diet shake powder, without water."

Tonya felt relieved Lynette hadn't eaten her food, but having that thought also made her feel guilty. What was wrong with her? She should be worried about Lynette, not about protecting her stash.

"It's okay Lynette. Don't punish yourself for getting hungry. It's normal. Look how thin you are." Tonya put her hand on her skinny roommate's shoulder. "Come with me to the medical centre tomorrow? You need help."

"Don't look at me like that. I'm okay. I don't starve myself. Normally, if I want to eat a piece of cake or something I eat it, or sometimes I put on music and dance, or go out, and by the time I'm finished, I forget about it. "

"Promise me you're not on some dangerous starvation diet."

"Of course not."

Tonya stood there, no knowing what to do until Lynette said: "The urge has passed. You can untie me now."

Tonya sat on the bed so she could reach the knots.

"I don't know why I ever wanted to eat your diet crap," said Lynette. "It's full of fake sugar and chemicals."

Tonya heard the words, but she could also see a bit of drool forming at the corner of Lynette's mouth. The girl's eyes seemed too bright, and she wasn't looking at Tonya at all. She was looking over her shoulder at the boxes of shake powder and protein bars on the shelf.

"I'll untie you in a second," said Tonya. She unwrapped one of her protein bars and shoved it into her mouth. "Would you like some music?" she asked between chews and swallows.

 Lynette twisted her neck around so she was looking at Tonya. "Hey, you aren't going to eat all those in front of me, are you?"

"Sorry." She untied Lynette and offered her a protein bar, which she gobbled in two bites. For once it was Tonya who put on the dance music and they bopped around the room together. Lynette wasn't so bad, she thought, you just had to do what she liked. Maybe the two of them could go to a campus pub night together, and Lynette could introduce Tonya to her friends, so they'd stop treating her like wallpaper.

 They danced and ate their way through the box of protein bars until Tonya felt so tired she had to lie down.

 When Lynette stretched out on her own bed, Tonya asked: "What happened to you today?"

 "You stopped acting like a princess." Her roommate's tone was sarcastic again.

"I mean, what caused the binge." She looked at Lynette, razor thin, expensively dressed and blonde. Once she might have been jealous of someone like that, but right now she felt sorry for her.

Lynette's eyes widened. "I already told you I don't have an eating problem, and don't you go telling people I do."

"You're gorgeous and you'd be just as hot ten pounds heavier." Tonya knew she must sound like some clueless high school guidance teacher, but she was still worried, especially since Lynette had vacuumed up three protein bars, after all that Halloween candy.

"I'm not anorexic, or bulimic." She almost glared at Tonya. "But I do feel sick." She closed her eyes and seemed to fall asleep.

Almost ten minutes later, Lynette sat up with a start. She opened her eyes and looked at her bedspread, which was still littered with chocolate wrappers. Her expression changed from soft and sleepy to surprised. "When did you eat all my Halloween candy?"

"You ate it, before I got here," Tonya said, "before you were tied up."

"Tied up? What are you talking about? I've been trying on clothes all afternoon, trying to pick a costume for Saturday."

"And the candy wrappers?"

"What the... You ate all my candy!" It was as if she were senile and couldn't remember two minutes ago.

 "I didn't," said Tonya. What was wrong with that girl?

 The accusing look on Lynette's face didn't soften. "You could have at least put away the wrappers!"

 "I never ate your candy."

 "Liar, but who cares. I have a life, unlike some people. And I have Roberto." She pulled out her phone and started texting, smiling as if nothing had happened.

"He's coming. Okay roomy, let's make this place shine!" She shot Tonya the open-faced smile of a child.

Tonya couldn't believe it, especially when Lynette took her by the hands, swung her 360 degrees and started dancing again. As they cleaned up candy wrappers to beat of Lynette's favorite song, it became clear Lynette didn't remember any of what had just happened.

When Roberto arrived Lynette sang out "salsa time!" and put on something fast and Latin. Unfortunately, they skipped the salsa and started dirty dancing as if Tonya weren't there. Tonya sighed. Lynette was definitely back to normal.

"Hey," Roberto said to Tonya. "Why don't you go to the movies?" He had his wallet open and was offering her a fifty-dollar bill.

"I don't want your money. I want to sleep in my own bed. It's school tomorrow," said Tonya. "Couldn't you two get a room?"

 "You see what I have to put up with?" said Lynette.

 "Shhh," said Roberto, kissing her quiet. Tonya picked up a paperback, lay on her bed and faced the wall. She put on her 'noise cancelling' earphones, but they couldn't compete with Lynette's speakers. She read the same sentence over and over again. Sometimes the wild dancing caused them to crash into the wall and explode into giggles, or to land on the bed with a chorus of squeaky springs. Tonya gave up trying to read and stared at the ceiling, too angry to leave but too tired to fight. Out of the corner of her eye, Tonya accidentally saw Roberto slide his hands under Lynette's shirt. Enough! Tonya took her book and stalked off to the common room to sleep on the couch. Although the two of them had barely met, judging by Lynette's frosh week activities, Roberto wouldn't be leaving tonight.

Tonya hadn't been on the couch for more than five minutes when she felt something was amiss. The common room bisected two wings of the dorm. Men in one hall and women in the other. It was normal to see young men and women visiting each other's rooms on a Thursday night. As usual, music played out of open bedrooms, and generally there was a lot of laughter, rowdy conversation, and the occasional thump. None of these things were unusual, but underneath them, Tonya felt something was wrong. It was like when you're sitting in an empty room and you know something is irritating you, but you can't figure out what, until you realize the radio is on, too low to understand, but just loud enough to annoy.

Something like that was happening in this room. The TV seemed to be turned off, but just to be sure she got up from the couch and checked. It bothered her like noise, but it was more like a feeling. She put her hand to her forehead, wondering if she had a fever. Her head did ache but that might be the roommate drama stress. Tonya lay back down on the couch and shivered.

Just what she needed now, to be sick. She couldn't even get her thermometer to check because it was in the room with the lovebirds. Besides, this odd sensation didn't seem physical. She couldn't detect precisely what was nagging at her, because the ambient music made it too hard to concentrate. Whatever it was, lay just below the surface. She tossed for an hour, half-trying to sleep, half-trying to unravel the cause of her disquiet, until she gave up. Maybe she would feel better in the morning.

Tonya wished she had grabbed a blanket on the way out, but it was too late to go back now. She took off her sweater, draped it over her head and shoulders and tried to think of calm, soothing things, like lying in bed listening to rain on the roof of her old attic bedroom, or the reflection of the moon setting over Loon Lake.

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This is one of the chapters that is much different in the published version of Feeding Frenzy. If you've read both versions, I'd love to hear which version you prefer.

Thanks for reading Feeding Frenzy! I'm so grateful to you, the Wattpad readers, who voted, commented and helped the novel win a Watty Award. Without you, dear readers, I would never have published my first book.

This is the draft version of Feeding Frenzy, but you can read the revised and published version for free on Ream. https://reamstories.com/maaja

Or visit https://www.maajawentz.com/ for free ebooks and info about all my published stories.

Thanks for reading!

Maaja

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