love through the lens - kate martin

Marathon

wednesday, may 8th, 2024

Kate wakes up before Frankie and as creepy as it sounds, she just watches her sleep. She carefully rolls over to check her phone and it's 9:26, not much longer than 4 hours from the last time they were awake. Frankie is completely knocked out, and Kate can't blame her. Yesterday was rough, to put things simply. The younger girl could tell her the broken ankle wasn't her fault a million times and part of Kate would still blame herself for it. 

The blonde carefully crawls out of the bed, making sure Frankie's still asleep. She decides she's going to make breakfast for the both of them. After looking through every cupboard, the pantry, and the fridge, Kate has found everything she needs to make pancakes. She usually listens to music while making breakfast but Frankie getting rest is much more important to her, so she cooks in silence. 

She gets out some fruit and puts water in 2 spots at the small table. Once she finds that everything is to her satisfaction, she uses the hall bathroom and heads back to the bedroom . It's 10:02 now, which is a little longer than the 30 minutes Frankie insisted on last night. Kate sits on the edge of the bed where the sleeping girl re-adjusts to the dip in the mattress.

"Hey, Frankie," Kate rubs her shoulder, "time to wake up." Frankie groans a little as Kate gets an Ibuprofen out of the bottle, ready to hand it to over when she wakes up.

"What time is it?" Frankie mumbles.

"Just a little after 10. I made breakfast."

"You made breakfast in my apartment?" Her eyes open making both girls smile when they look at each other.

"I did. Pancakes. Here." She hands the pill and water bottle to Frankie.

"Thanks." She sits up, swallowing the pill with ease. She reaches over and takes 3 other pills; Kate knows better than to ask what they are and what they're for.

"Ready?"

"I gotta pee, but I'll meet you out there."

"Alright. Yell if you need me." 

Kate pulls the shorter of the 2 to her feet... foot and hands her the crutches. Frankie crutches over to her bathroom and closes the door, Kate stays unless she needs something like yesterday. Surely enough, right after a flush Kate hears a thump. It doesn't sound like the one from yesterday but she doesn't want to invade Frankie's privacy. She goes to call out her name but is cut off by her own.

"Kate!" Frankie yells, again, not sounding like yesterday. Kate jumps to her feet and rushes the few feet to the bathroom, opening the door to a heartbreaking scene. Frankie's sat on the ground, tears running down her face. 

"Princess, what happened?" Kate crouches down.

"The- the bath mat sli-slid out from under m-my crutch." She cries with choppy breathing.

"Did you hit your head or anything?" Kate starts inspecting Frankie's body.

"No. I- I just fe-fell."

"And your ankle?"

"Fine." She sniffles.

"You're going to need to tell me if anything hurts, okay?" Kate gets a nod from Frankie.

Kate puts an arm under Frankie's knees and the other around her waist. She gently lifts Frankie off the ground and carries her back out to the bedroom, setting her down so she's lying on the bed. Kate sits next to her like she did just a few minutes ago and held her hand as she cried. She grabs a tissue and hands it to Frankie, who wipes up her tears. The younger of the 2 calms down rather quickly, trying to get her breathing back to normal.