Wake Up | E. Caswell [SLOW UPDATES]

nine | too much stress

Chapter Nine:
Too Much Stress

WALKING PAST THE stage door on her way to the bathroom during rehearsal the next day, Lucy bumped into Ej and stumbled backwards, tripping over her own foot and falling to the ground.

"Ow," she groaned when she landed.

"Oh my god, Lucy, I'm so sorry," Ej said, using his free hand to help her up.

"Totally fine, my fault anyway— oh my gosh! What happened to your face?" She asked worriedly, when she saw the blood around his mouth.

"Your boy Ricky hit me in the face with a basketball," Ej said bitterly. Lucy looked at him in shock and blinked a couple times.

"Okay, I.. I will deal with that part of this situation later. Let's go get you cleaned up," she insisted, grabbing his free arm and tugging him to the bathroom.

"Lucy, this is the boys bathroom you can't—"

"I don't give a hoot, I just wanna make sure you're okay," she retorted, quickly grabbing paper towels and wetting them to clean the cut. She went to reach for his face, but realized it was a little difficult, so she stepped back for a second, reached into her backpack, pulled out two of her textbooks and stood on them like a stool.

"You could have just asked me to crouch," he pointed out.

"And where's the fun in that?" she asked teasingly. He smiled, but winced when she put the paper towel to his lip.

"Sorry," she apologized softly. Once most of the blood had disappeared, Lucy stepped off her makeshift stool and grabbed a small first aid kit from her backpack.

"Do you always carry a first aid kit with you?" he asked curiously.

"You never know when you might need it," she told him pointedly. He chuckled again at this as she pulled out antibacterial ointment.

"You really are like the mom friend, Luce," he told her with a chuckle as she stood back on her textbooks.

"I just like taking care of people," she shrugged with a small smile, she put some of the ointment on her pinky and dabbed it on his upper lip. They fell silent for a moment and Lucy finally sighed.

"You know, I'm not really mad at you anymore about what you said at auditions," she told him honestly. "I just... Ej, I care about you. I do. It really upsets me that you think I would even try to hurt you."

"I... Lucy, you don't have a genuinely mean bone in your body. I don't think you would try to hurt me, I just... I get in my own head sometimes," he explained disappointedly. "I really am sorry about what I said."

"You gonna say a billion sorries?" She asked with a teasing grin, using her thumb to wipe the excess ointment off his lip. Ej cringed, but laughed at her joke anyway.

"Okay, I'll admit that was a good one," he told her, biting his bottom lip as she stepped down from her makeshift stool and wiped the ointment off her hands with a paper towel. "I care about you a lot too, Lucy. For what it's worth."

Lucy turned back and smiled at him for a moment, "Thanks, Ej."

Both of their hearts started beating a little faster as they made eye contact. Lucy being the first to break it as she looked away, "I— I'll go get you some ice. You should uhm, clean up your shirt."