The Life Of A Franz Ferdinand Reference

35

It was still pouring as we trudged across the city to the apartment. We were all soaked, including Paul and Bob, who had already made it back. Alex had reported that Nick was "extremely cold and shaking and probably going to die if we didn't warm him up." Strawberry and I sacrificed our jackets so Nick could stay safe.

"You sure he's okay?" I asked, since we were still in the southwest corner and we were all soaked.

"He'll be fine, Glas." Alex laughed, flipping his fringe away from his eyes.

"Alright, I'll trust you."

"Can I rant?" Strawberry asked out of nowhere.

"Sure, go for it." I shrugged.

"If Nick doesn't stop doing stupid stuff and getting hurt, he's never gonna get better, and then he's gonna keep blaming everything that happens on his injuries, and become even more depressed, and do even more stupid things... Until..." Strawberry trailed off.

"Exactly." Alex sighed.

"We have to stop him from doing stupid things." I kicked a rock across the street.

We made it back to the apartment a half hour later. Nick was still blacked out, but we had hooked him up to Happy Box, so hopefully everything was okay. Strawberry noticed that his arm was bleeding badly again and that we would probably have to rewrap it once he woke up. Alex and Paul were making hot chocolate and Bob was googling cool things to do when you really can't do anything because it's pouring and your best friend is badly injured, because that would totally have results.

I could tell that Nick was starting to wake up because his breathing was becoming more uneven. I would be able to tell by other things too, but Strawberry decided to wrap him up in a blanket burrito. Nick woke up completely a few minutes later. He looked around the room for a couple seconds and then focused on me.

"W-Why don't... I have arms...?" Nick asked weakly.

"Because you're a snake." I giggled.

I helped Nick take his arms out of the expertly wrapped blanket burrito.

"T-That's... Bleeding..." Nick looked at his injured arm.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to rewrap that later."

"H-How did I... End up... B-Back here?"

"Alex carried you back from the southwest corner. We were all soaked and Strawberry and I sacrificed our jackets to your safety." I giggled.

"W-Why..."

"Are you up to getting your arm rewrapped? It's okay if you're not yet, you just woke up... But, we probably should, because it could get infected..."

"A-Alright... Cool."

Nick sat on the counter in the bathroom and I started unwrapping the bandages on his arm. I then noticed that the infamous "never healing cut" ran all the way from his shoulder to his wrist. And according to Strawberry, all the bandaids in the world couldn't fix this. So Rowan told us to use just normal bandages and wrap his arm up. That's what I did.

"How did this even happen?!" I asked, slowly and carefully wrapping Nick's arm, making sure I didn't accidentally hurt him.

"I-I think... I slammed a wall... B-Before Scarlette..."

"Yeah, that's possible."

I knew that I was taking a while, but I continued tracing down his arm carefully. I saw that Nick was trying to take his ventilator mask off.

"Don't." I was so focused that I didn't notice that Happy Box never reacted.

I finished wrapping Nick's arm a few minutes later. Nick collapsed onto the beanbag chair and I flopped down next to him.