Alone • Liam Dunbar

Thirty-Two

From the bleachers, I watch Hayden with an easy smile as she sprints across the campus field.

A few of her soccer teammates invited her for a light practice during our free period, and I insisted that she go. She had healed in the days since we found her and Liam in the tunnels. The skin on her side knitted itself back together and her health returned. It was important that she keep that up, and I also wanted to have a fraction of normalcy come back, too. Not only for her, but selfishly, for me as well.

It had been almost a week since the night everything seemingly changed.

I hadn't spoken to Scott since. I hadn't spoken to anyone but Mason, Liam, and Hayden. I wasn't sure if my friends would forgive me for my lies, but due to Scott's reaction, I wasn't too keen to find out.

Hayden stops to wave at me from her position. I mirror the gesture with a slight laugh, and she resumes playing afterward. It's a good thing, as a second later I flinch with a wince, a sudden burning radiating from the back of my head. My hand buries itself into my hair, rubbing at the laceration that had been caused by the Surgeon tossing my body into a wall.

Since the attack in the locker room, the pain I felt intensified. It grew from a manageable ache into abrupt moments of scorching gnawing. I tried to find ways to soothe it, but nothing worked, not even painkillers. It was bothersome beyond belief, especially since I'd had head injuries before and none of them worsened like this. All I could do was bite down on the stinging until it passed, inevitably waiting for the next wave of fire.

"Your head okay?"

I pull myself out of my pained state of distraction, finding Theo at the bottom of the bleachers. He stares up at me with his usual smirk, laid back and expectant as he waits for my response.

"Bit of a headache. Usually happens when someone's head gets slammed into a wall," I reply jokingly, dropping my hands to return his pleasant expression.

Theo chuckles as he climbs up to my row. He gestures to the space beside me, an unspoken question. I motion for him to join, not at all bothered by his company. He wasn't like the others, he wasn't close enough to Liam and I to feel manipulated by our secrets, so there was no chance that he would hold any of it against us.

His attention goes out to the field, watching Hayden as I do.

"She healed," he acknowledges, and I hum in confirmation.

There's a lingering silence between us after that, neither bringing up what we both wanted to. I had hoped Theo would be the one to do it, but he doesn't, so I find the courage to.

"Have you talked to Scott lately?" I force myself to say, my eyes remaining on Hayden.

"This morning." Theo nods, doing the same. "He asked me to meet him at the clinic."

"Deaton's back?" I question him instantly.

The mention of the clinic brought forward thoughts of its owner. It had been some time since I last saw him, the final moment being the night we pieced together the theory of what the Dread Doctors wanted from me. He had no idea that it turned out to be a reality, and I could have used his guidance now more than ever.

Though, I feel even more of my limited optimism fade as Theo shakes his head.

Another gap of silence hits us that feels odd, yet comfortable.

"Is he okay?" I ask after a while, my voice almost a whisper as I speak of Scott.

"He's not angry anymore, if that's what you're really asking," Theo replies.