𝑻𝑶 𝑩𝑬 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑫, 𝒋𝒊𝒏𝒙

viii. home

13 years around the sun
________

A hiss falls from my lips when the rusty needle dips into my skin. It's the tenth puncture the needle has made in my shoulder wound. The wound, the girl opposite to me created. Her knee bounces up and down as she watches the aged doctor close my gash. However, it's more than her eyes that watch the doctor like a hawk.

Sevika's brown eyes are all but set ablaze with furry. I can feel her looming animosity from her perched position against the wall. The different insults and punishments that will soon fall upon me, almost make me want the doctor to stay, but when the needle pierces me for an eleventh time, I change my mind.

I try to recall the last time I ruined a mission, but none come to mind. Ever since Sevika thrust a sword into my hand I've been more capable than half the adults around me. It was one of the few characteristics that I took pride in. Anyone could learn to use a sword, but few could remain calm amongst fighting, or lead others in situations that seemed impossible. That was how the underground city (Sevika, Margot, and the kids who stole my stuff) taught me to behave amidst treachery.

The twelfth stitch went in, and I winced. I failed the people who raised me. If Sevika had wanted riots in Piltover, that screamed for the decimation of Zaun then we succeeded, yet that's not what she wanted. That's a fallacy in my head. Another stitch is threaded through the bullet wound.

The tense room is only filled with the sound of breathing and Silco's methodic tapping. He lifts his pen up and then drops it, so the tip bounces. It distracts me from my counting, and I've momentarily forgotten which number I was at. Tap, tap, then silence as he raises the pen in the air. He drops it, tap, tap. His eyes unlike Sevika's are avoiding ours. He doesn't look at Jinx or me, but instead at his ballpoint pen, tap, tap.

Jinx has bandages of her own. They were wrapped securely around her torso to prevent too much movement. The doctor told us that she had internal injuries that needed to be treated with rest.

The doctor stops his threading, and I glance down at my shoulder. The sight is gruesome. There's bruising around the wound that is now closed with black string. The doctor uniformly ties the end into a knot. "The wound is deep." He turns to talk to Sevika. An action that irritates me. She's not my mother and she won't be babying me. The doctor should be informing me, of my condition, and how I should treat it.

"So scarring is unavoidable. Though it's still important to keep the injury clean," He nods. "Don't have her bathe in unclean water or paint the surrounding skin. We don't want an infection to take root."

Avoiding bathing in unclean water reiterates in my head. Was this man from topside, or just stupid? There is no such thing as clean water in Piltover. Drinking from tap water meant accepting ingesting unknown toxins and minerals. And showering from a questionable pipe meant never smelling fully clean.

"And bedrest for at least two weeks, Jinx." The doctor gives the girl a patronizing tight-lipped smile. He turns to Silco, his true audience. "No exercise for the girl, Silco. Internal bruising is nothing to brush over." Silco's pen dropping finally stops. He looks up at the doctor with a glare.

"Thank you, for stating the obvious." He sneers. The doctor simply shrugs his shoulders. "Hm, it is what you pay me to do."

The gray-haired man heaves a heavy sigh and recollects his medical equipment. His departure is happening too fast for my liking. I want to stretch this appointment out like the kneading of dough. I want to roll back time and ask the doctor unnecessary questions. Spreading out how long this process will take. Sevika grits her teeth and clenches her jaw. She can't wait for this appointment to be over, so she can rip me to pieces.