broken claims

Part 3

"Hey. Can I borrow your phone?"

Nancy looked up in vague surprise, fingers freezing up from where she had been texting. "Wow. Say that again? Aren't you, like, absolutely terrified of modern technology?"

Anxiety knotted itself up inside Leigh's stomach but she forced a smile. Their teacher was bent over the computer at his desk and paid the classroom no attention from where they shoved their own desks into tiny clusters, whittling away the hour with a dull chatter from behind textbooks, barely maintaining the illusion of private study. Nobody had the attention span to waste on World History. Nobody was bothering to go along with lesson plans. "I'm overcoming it," Leigh bluffed, holding her hand out. "Please?"

"Sure, but you really need to man up and get one of your own. Hello, we are living in the era of actual technology. Use it. Own it. Become it," Nancy handed over the phone freely. "Amelia is still stuck in the ER. If she texts, let her know it is absolutely as boring here as it is there. I can't believe my mom made me come today."

Amelia had gone down on the soccer field the night before but every hospital was so far behind with new cases lining up. Everyone was catching the illness going around. Her grandmother's driver had been forced to alternate his normal route from the house to her school to avoid temporary road blocks for where first aid stations were set up. One of the free clinics had already run out of supplies and the radio was warning listeners that it was closed to the general public until it could be resupplied.

But everyone was buying up masks and gloves. Everyone was striping the stores clean of anything to ward off the mysterious illness floating around. Amelia's father had taken her straight to the ER from practise and it would have been a long night waiting for the X-rays and for someone to take a look at the swollen ankle.

Leigh had her own miserable memories of a broken wrist from two years prior. It had been a long afternoon of waiting around and getting processed through the system. She felt a phantom twinge of pain as she ducked into the hallway with the offered phone, ignoring the buzzing of incoming petulant texts. She closed the messenger app in favour of dialling a number that she knew from heart, exhaling as it started to ring in her ear, and crumbling when an automatic voice kicked on. "The caller you are trying to reach is not available. Please—"

She hung up. And then, from habit, she looked over her shoulder to ensure that her grandmother hadn't materialized like a wraith. The phone began to vibrate again with a call, Amelia's face blinking on the screen. Leigh hit the answer button and barely had time to lift it back up to her ear when her friend's voice snapped out from the other end of the line. "My dad left two whole hours ago for coffee and I swear I have moved, maybe, two whole inches. This place is fucked."

"Tragic," Leigh said dryly, leaning against the lockers and sliding her way down slowly. "How's the ankle."

"Sore, swollen. Considering the pros and cons of amputation."

"Half priced pedicures?"

"That's definitely going on the list. What are you doing with Nancy's phone?"

"Had to make a call. She was ever so kind and let me borrow it."

"Yikes. That's incredibly brave of you," Amelia chirped back. Leigh had borrowed Amelia's phone when soccer practice ended early due to rain and gotten slapped with a grounding that had lasted two months. The whole thing had been legendary in ridiculousness. She wasn't supposed to have a cellphone. Her grandparents didn't want her with one. Her entire world consisted of the private school and their mansion, shuttled back and forth by Jonathon. Her grandparents didn't trust Sharley, which meant they couldn't trust Sharley's daughter by extension. "Did you find your inner courage?"