Despite the Pain

Chapter 14

Albion

My wrist was throbbing when I woke the next morning, the redness in it faded to an ugly, splotchy purple. The swelling had gone down, but not completely. It still looked terrible. Dad and I made the trip out to the Reynolds once the morning rush was finished, leaving Ryan to look after the bakery.

It was freezing; my hands were so numb I couldn't even feel the pain in my wrist by the time we arrived. Dad sat by the fire, chatting with Mrs. Reynolds and warming up before making the trip back. Mrs. Reynolds offered to walk with me to the school so that neither Ryan nor my dad would need to venture out into the cold this far. Her offer was refused, of course. Dad would wait out front before he let her do something like that. She walked him to the porch, as if the partially closed door hid the kiss he planted on her cheek before leaving. Mrs. Reynolds' face was flushed when she came back into the house, quietly closing the door behind her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, smoothing her hand over her hair as she crossed the room back to me. I shrugged as she sat on the couch beside me and gestured toward my injured wrist. "May I?"

I pulled back the sleeve of my shirt and held my arm out toward her. Mrs. Reynolds carefully curled her hand around my wrist, manipulating my fingers with her other hand and squeezing gently. It hurt, and I bit back a whimper when she tried bending my hand back. I pulled away from her instead.

"I'm sorry," she smiled faintly, dropping her hands into her lap. "That looks much better than last night. Did you bring the brace?"

"It's--in my coat," I nodded toward where it hung on the wall. "Right p-pocket."

"Dawn told me about school while we were on our way back home last night," she said, getting up from the couch and walking over to my coat. "She was too upset to say much of anything beyond the immediate problem on the way to the bakery except to snap at me to hurry up." She smiled to herself for a moment, pausing before reaching into my coat for the brace. "But she told me on the way home. What those boys have been doing. I know that has to be hard to deal with. You can talk about it with me, if you like."

"That's um--that's okay," I frowned, staring at the floor as she sat down beside me again and lifted my wrist to put the brace on. It felt too tight, and having it on felt like a hard fall backward--I'd been free of it for months.

"Albion," she sighed. "I'll let this go for now, just know that we are going to have to discuss it at some point. Soon." I nodded , glancing at her as she shifted to the chair across from me. I didn't want to discuss it with anyone, ever. It was embarrassing to have people I used to consider friends turn on me like that, not to mention how true everything they said felt. It hurt. And just thinking about it reinforced that hurt, let alone actually talking about it.

Mrs. Reynolds lifted one of her notebooks from the table beside her chair, thumbing through it for a moment. Hunter jumped onto the arm of the couch, craning his neck toward me and purring before I even reached out to touch him. He pawed for my hand, arching his back against my fingers and stepping into my lap. My injured wrist captured his attention, and he nuzzled at the brace as he dropped onto his side on my legs.

"It's been a while since we've gone through all of these questions," she said, and I frowned down at the cat, knowing that meant I'd have to suffer through every last humiliating piece of it today. I'd hoped that the fact that I had to leave for class would have meant this would be shortened, maybe a even little rushed. I was hoping she'd just skip to the exercises in the books or maybe attempt a little physical therapy for my hand. No such luck. "I don't really need to ask if your wrist is worse, do I?"

"No," I shook my head, smirking to myself.

"Is the pain in it now the same or different as the initial injury?" she asked, making a note before looking up at me.