The Last Apothecary

Chapter 22.

I had never been more glad to see Dustin at the bus stop than the next morning. The last few steps of my walk turned into a sprint as I ran up to him, spinning him around to lightly pull him into a hug.

"Oh thank the gods. I thought you were gonna be in the hospital so much longer. I'm glad you're all rig- Dustin!" I pulled out of the hold to see the side of his face covered in a large, black eyepatch. "You lost your eye?" My hands trembled, a horrified feeling settling into my stomach. I did this...

"Ah... yeah." A sheepish smile crossed his face as he tugged a blue lollipop out of his mouth, shrugging nonchalantly. "I guess it's my battle scar from the great war between Humans and Witches. That's what I get for being the Chosen One, I guess."

My mouth fell open in shock. Was this kid off his rocker? What happened to the sass he'd wanted to give me yesterday? Now it was just... fine? "What is wrong with you?" I yelled, throwing my hands into the air. "How can you be so calm about everything? Your face and sight is gonna be ruined forever, all because I sent you to get some goddamn flowers! Why aren't you mad, or, or-"

I hugged his thin body tighter, tears starting in my eyes. "I'm so sorry. So incredibly sorry. I never should have dragged you into this." I can barely handle having a scar on my face, and he won't even cry over losing an entire eye?

Wow, I really am pathetic.

"Woah, hold on. Stop." Dustin pushed me back for a second. "You didn't drag me into anything. Also–" He paused, giggling to himself before lifting the patch to show a shining black eye on his face... swollen, but still there. "I was only kidding. I still have all my eyes. I just wanted an excuse to wear this eyepatch I found in my old Halloween costumes, because when else would I have a good opportunity to wear it to school?" He flicked it back down, nodding and looking pleased with himself. "I think it looks great on me."

"Are you serious right now?" I asked, the volume of my voice echoing around the empty street. "You have no idea how worried I was about you, and you go and pull that?" I sighed, though whether it was a sigh of relief, or aggravation, I wasn't sure. Reliefgravation, maybe.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought that would go over smoother... maybe lighten up the mood a bit." He frowned in thought. "Or at least have one thing go right after how yesterday went."

I grimaced at the way his usually soft tone started to dip into something more serious. "Yeah I meant to ask... how did the hospital trip go? You're looking a lot better than you did, but still worse than anytime I've been out of there." I stopped as the bus ground to a halt in front of us, giving the yellow sardine can a quick glance before turning back to the boy with the fish-themed shirt. "Why'd they leave the bruise on your face?"

Most of the time when I got hurt, I opted for a roll of duct tape instead of a hospital trip, but even so, healing nurses nowadays could almost always have you walking out how you came in. The only thing a Witch with a knack for healing couldn't do was fix up scar tissue. My own face proved that much, and yet despite that, it looked like Dustin had only gotten a multitude of bandages to plaster to his face.

"I umm... I don't remember much of yesterday." His eyes darted to the ground, an uneasy look on his face before he perked up. "But I do remember the doctors at the hospital said there was a lot of magik in my system for some reason, so they couldn't determine at first if I was Human or a Witch. One of the nurses started healing my lip, which is why it isn't busted, and only has a little scar from where it hit my tooth." He showed me the thin slice. "But halfway through, the doctor interrupted him with paperwork saying I was Human, so he wasn't allowed to perform on me anymore."