LOVELORN

11|Bloody & bruised

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CAS WAS sitting on the nurse's bed, holding a packet of ice to his face and trying to stop the blood flowing from his nose. I sat on one of the chairs, guilty as ever.

"I'm really sorry, Cas."

"It's okay," he reassured me.

I nodded, resisting the urge to apologize again. While I might not be particularly fond of Cas, like at all, I hadn't meant to slam a door in his face. He didn't appear mad, but every now and then he'd flinch when accidentally applying too much pressure to his nose.

We sat there for about five minutes in silence, until the school nurse entered the office again. I sighed in relief, having been close to considering jumping out of the window if I had to endure one more second of awkward quietness.

"Your nosebleed should stop soon and you don't exhibit any signs of a concussion, but if you'd like to go home or to the hospital to be sure, I'll sign you a slip," the nurse said, writing something on a piece of paper that she handed to Cas before facing me, "as for you, Naya, it's best if you return to your class immediately. There's still a good amount of time before it ends."

"Yes, sorry. Will do."

"And Naya?"

"Yeah?"

"Watch where you're slamming your doors next time."

Red peeked through my brown skin, mortification present on my face. I gave her a stiff nod and turned around to exit the room. What stopped me was a hand gripping my wrist.

Cas slipped a note into my hand and winked. Which, by the way, looked ridiculous in his bruised state. "Call me."

Yeah, no. I pretended like I accepted his poor attempt at flirting and rushed out of there to my English classroom. After knocking on the door, it soon opened, revealing my pissed-off English teacher.

"Sorry I was-"

She cut me off. "Just go to your seat and stay after class."

As quietly as possible, I headed to my seat and sat down next to Zora. I'd felt her gaze follow me as I walked to our desk and anticipated the incoming questioning.

"What took you so long?" She whispered.

Called it.

"I'll tell you later."

Deeming that as enough for now, Zora nodded. I kept my focus as much as I could on the lecture, but my mind kept wandering. To the Cas accident. To math. To everything. To Zora.

My mind wandered to Zora a lot. Sometimes I wondered how much she thought of me, what she thought of in context to me. I knew she didn't think of me like that. Didn't imagine what it would be like to kiss me. Didn't imagine spending days in just each other's company. Didn't imagine spending the rest of our lives together.

I was her best friend, yet she was my everything, and it made me feel sick. This specific train of thought often led me to think about other things. Like, would I ever be able to move on? I felt stuck. Adults often say that young love doesn't last, they talk about their first loves as if they were merely a memory to reminisce on.