After All, I'm Your Secret Admirer~!!

Ch15 - Broken and Changed

Paige blinks. Where did that come from?

He shakes his head. That was unimportant right now. "I'm going to get Ms. Tiseu, okay?"

"Y-yeah..." Kevin breathes heavily. "Please."

Paige rushes to the nurse's office as fast as he can. Bursting through the door and startling Ms. Tiseu, he shouts, "Ms. Tiseu! There's an emergency!"

"E-emergency?" she repeats, hand to her chest and trying to catch her breath. "Oh dear. What happened?"

"Someone broke Kevin's leg!"

"WHAT!?" the nurse yelps, standing immediately. "Show me to him! Hurry!"

Paige quickly makes his way back to where he left Kevin. He's still on the floor, but his tears seem to have dried up a bit. Even so, he's obviously still in immense pain, breathing heavily.

"Oh my good lord," Ms. Tiseu gasps. "Kevin, how did this happen?" she asks, bending over him in much the same way Paige did a moment ago.

"Some kid stomped on my leg..." he recounts again. "Ms. Tiseu, it really, really hurts."

"I can imagine, dear. Just let me do one thing, okay?"

"Okay..."

The nurse very, very carefully pokes at Kevin's undamaged leg. Nothing happens. Then, she does the same to his injured one.

He screams.

"OW, OW, OWW!" he cries. "It hurts! It hurts!"

"Okay, okay," Ms. Tiseu soothes. "We have to get you to the hospital, dear."

"Hospital...?" Paige breathes.

"Yes, the hospital. It looks like this is a pretty bad fracture. I can't do anything about it here." The nurse pulls out her cellphone and dials a number. "Yes, hello? We need an ambulance at Ingenious High ASAP. I'm the nurse and I have a student here with a broken leg."

Paige stares down at Kevin's leg, disbelieving. He was fine not only a week ago! How... how could someone do this!?

"Yes, thank you." Ms. Tiseu says, hanging up. "They'll be here soon. Paige?"

"..."

"Paige."

"......"

"Paige!"

"Huh?" he blinks. "Y-yes, Ms. Tiseu?"

"Go on to class, sweetie. I'll make sure Kevin here is alright."

"No!" Paige cries. "I—I want to go with him!"

"Honey..." the nurse murmurs sympathetically. "I'm afraid I can't release you even under these circumstances."

Paige is going to cry. "Then I want to go home!" he shouts, stomping his foot. "You can't expect me to see one of my best friends like this and then go to class like nothing happened! It's not fair!!"

Ms. Tiseu looks down at the child with a tight face. "...You're right," she says eventually. "I'll call your aunt."

+++

Carmen looks in his rear view mirror directly at Paige. Paige is trying not to let his aunt catch his gaze, but he fails.

"Paige, mijo, what happened today?" he asks, worry clear in his voice.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Paige says flatly.

"...Alright, sweetie."

+++