"She doesn't care" A CHB fanfiction

Cuts, confusion and concussions

Jaiden's POV

My eyes flew open because of a sudden, gentle gust of wind sent by Alli. 

"Oops, you had fallen asleep and I heard somewhere that wind wakes people up.", she stammered. 

I rubbed my eyes and waved to her dismissively. "It's fine, I needed to get up anyway."

Today she was wearing a black t-shirt with a red jacket and a black skirt. Her silver snake bracelet was glistening in the sunlight. I was sitting next to her at breakfast, she smelled like fire, it was nice but by the slight blackness of her jacket sleeves I could tell she had a magic mishap.

I went to archery practice and continued talking to Hali, she gave me more advice and I saw Alli throwing us several glances. She had missed every shot, she wasn't concentrating. She glanced at me and Hali again, smirked then walked off, leaving me scared, wondering what she was up to.

My question was answered when she returned a few seconds later with a tall guy. Smiling playfully, I saw her make a few vague hand gestures and he nodded and came up behind her, adjusting her bow position and bending low to whisper instructions in her ear.

My blood felt hot and I clenched my fists but held back. She'd expect a reaction. 

I checked again and they were giggling, hands on each other's waists. That was it. She wanted a reaction right? I'd give her what she wanted. I stalked over there and tapped Alli on the shoulder. "Sorry to interrupt your little teaching session,", I said, emphasizing the last two words, "But I have to ask Alli something, so if you don't mind..." 

My jaw clenched and I glared at the guy over my shoulder, even Alli looked a bit nervous seeing my eyes flash, but it was a millisecond before she stuttered, "Wha-what was th-that about?

Before I could answer, Hali pulled me away, apologising to Alli, saying it was important and that she needed to talk to me. Alli isn't one to be selfish when it's "important" so she just nodded.

"What the heck are you doing?", Hali asked me. I opened my mouth to speak but she cut me off. "The plan is for her to come to you. Aren't you tired of running after her like some lovesick puppy? Jaiden, you deserve a relationship. A real one, one where the other person cares as much as you do. We have to see how much you matter to her, this is a test."

I nodded slowly, pouting. I knew what I was supposed to do, she just drove me crazy with her little stunts.

I heard a scream and looked at Hali. We both nodded in unison, the attack had started again.

I fought so many monsters and was completely drenched in blood and sweat. The air was thick with tension, this attack felt different, it felt more do-or-die.

I saw Alli kneeling beside Thalia's tree, she was chanting. She had created a barrier around herself so that the monsters couldn't surprise attack. She had shut her eyes, after all. 

I glanced at her again, and saw the barrier drop. She hadn't noticed, I saw a dracaena coming closer, a hungry look in her eyes, spear ready. 

I ran over, throwing away any sense I had, jumped in front of Alli and stabbed the monster with my sword. Before that however, she stabbed me in my shoulder and hit me on top of the head with the bottom of her spear. I fell, head dropping into Alli's lap. I tasted metal and I wasn't able to think straight, my head was throbbing. My last thought before the world went black was, "Ouch-"

Alli's POV

I smiled to myself, I had finished healing Thalia's tree. That smile didn't last long as I heard loud scuffling and a screech before Jade's head dropped into my lap. My heart jumped inside my chest. He was bleeding and his eyes were shut. He had more scars and cuts on his face and I almost burst into tears seeing him like this. 

This was my best friend, my love, the boy I had known almost my whole life. He lay here, covered in blood and in pain because of me...

I held back the tears threatening to spill out and yelled to Faye for help. She sprinted over and calmly helped me take him to the infirmary. We hurried over and put him on one of the beds. I cleaned the wound with a black cloth while Will examined him. I didn't cry just then, but I was close.

After all the blood was cleared, I ran to the sink near the infirmary and washed the cloth. Seeing all the blood spill out, I finally burst into tears. "P-Please st-stop.", I practically begged, seeing so much blood oozing out of the cloth. How much was in here? I cried myself into a splitting headache and finally, finally, it stopped. 

Faye came around and hugged me. "Hey, Alli, calm down, breathe. Will said he'll be fine. His shoulder is gonna be bad for a while, but other than that, he's okay. He should wake up in an hour or so. If you want, you can wait for him to get up, I'll get you a chair.

I slowly nodded, still shaking, but relieved. I sat there just looking at him. I almost lost him, if he had been hit anywhere else, if she hadn't missed and had sunk it into his heart...

No, he was safe, that's all that mattered. I held his hand and my head lolled over, I had fallen into a light slumber.

I jerked awake when I felt someone squeeze my hand. I looked at Jaiden, he was grinning at me and my heart stopped for a second. "You did it Alli, no more attacks.", he said smiling. I scowled at him. He had almost lost his life, but he, this idiot boy, was praising me?

"What?", he asked, tilting his head. "I'm fine, I'm awake and in my senses aren't I? You finally got the barrier up, it's more important.", he said. I glared at him. "You almost died, and you won't be able to do archery for a while. How can you congratulate me at a time like this? 

"But I'm fiiiiiiine.", he argued. "Look at you guys bickering like an old married couple", Nico said, walking by. We rounded on him, looking furious, our cheeks turning pink. He just shrugged, took a sip of his coffee and continued walking.

I stayed in the infirmary longer and fussed over him while he just rolled his eyes and told me to calm down.

Finally, he just agreed because he figured I wouldn't leave him alone, so I brought him his dinner and ate mine along with him. 

It was nice, easy. Reminded me of before I realised I was in love with him, without any complications. But that doesn't mean I regret it. Falling in love with this man was a good thing, a very good thing.

We just sat there, laughing and chatting about our memories, but my heart sank a little. This was already nice, should I ruin it by falling for him?