all i want :: s.m

10: old him

monday ¬ february 8, 2016

"Pain killers?"

Ella exhaled sharply, impatience clearly evident on the fake smile she plastered on her face, directed to the school nurse who stood in front of her, struggling to do her job correctly. "Yes, pain killers. I have a headache, and I just need Advil."

A look of realization finally showed on the nurse's young face, "Oh! Yeah, yeah, of course! I apologize; I'm not that awake today. You'll understand when you're older and have a baby to look after." The nurse chortled tiredly and Ella laughed along with her, awkwardly and uncomfortably. She just really wanted a painkiller. "Okay, I'll go get you an Advil." The nurse chuckled one last time before proceeding to a room where the medicines were stored.

As Ella waited, she tapped her foot on the floor, improvising a beat with her fingers on the counter. Suddenly, the doors burst open in the nurse's office, revealing a boy wiping his nose due to blood gushing out of it. To add on to his ugly state, he had a bruised left eye. "Can I get an ice pack, please?" He raised his voice to gain attention, as if he needed to gain any more; he had eyes on him the second he walked into the room.

"Oh my god, Zack, what happened to you?" Ella questioned with stunned eyes as she ran over to him, holding his arm gently and inspecting his face.

He wiped the blood off with his jacket, making Ella cringe slightly, but she tried not to show her disgust. "Your boyfriend fucking beat me up." Zack replied with an infuriated expression as he harshly took the ice pack one of the nurses was handing to him, placing it over his black eye. Ella was confused; she didn't have a boyfriend. "Shawn," Zack elaborated, seeing the puzzled look on Ella's face, clenching his jaw as he said Shawn's name. "He claimed that I owed him some money, but I said I didn't owe him shit, and he got angry and threw a punch."

What is this, some drug deal? Ella thought as a frown made its way on her face. Her headache slightly worsened; she didn't think Shawn would do those things again. She thought he had stopped completely.

"I threw a punch at him, too," Zack continued, his words making Ella tense up and slightly angry that he had harmed Shawn, as well, but she was knew that Shawn was also the one to blame. "If it wasn't for his friends to separate us, I most probably would have killed him."

Or vice versa, Ella wanted to say, aware of the strength Shawn had, and the damage he could give: it was far more powerful than what Zack was capable of (or what he thinks he is capable of). "Do you know where he is now?"

"No, and I don't care." Zack grumbled and pushed past Ella to sit on one of the waiting chairs. Ella rolled her eyes at his rudeness before hurrying out the nurse's office, not bothering to wait a single second to drink the Advil she asked for.

She ran around the hallways in search for Shawn, not caring about the unwritten rule that was established, stating that no one can run around the hallways. Fortunately, since school was over, there were no teachers on patrol.

After frantically jogging around the school, she finally spotted him alone at his locker, putting books into his backpack. "Shawn!" She bellowed at the boy, quickly making her way towards him. Shawn didn't even have to turn to the voice, he already knew who it was. Unfortunately, Ella had arrived before Shawn could make his escape. "Shawn, are you okay? I heard about what happened. Why did you hit Zack? What happened?"

Shawn ignored her interrogation, proceeding to drop the rest of his things into his bag. "I asked you a question, Shawn!" She pushed, making Shawn tighten his jaw as he zipped his backpack closed.

He disregarded her question, and instead, asked her, "How'd you find out?"

"Zack told me. We encountered in the nurse's office."

"Why were you in the nurse's office?" For a second, Ella thought she heard worry in his voice, but she convinced herself that it was probably just her throbbing headache that made her assume the impossible.

"Doesn't matter. I'm asking you something." Ella scoffed and flinched back when Shawn abruptly slammed his locker closed, turning to Ella slowly, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. She studied his face: he had no black eye, but his lip was busted and bleeding only a little.

"And why would you care about what happened to me, Ella?" He spat harshly, stepping closer.

Ella sighed, sad and slightly peeved, "You're not having that conversation with me again, Shawn. You know I care about you and what happens to you! Stop saying that I don't." She said, "Now...can you answer my questions? Please?"

Shawn shook his head slowly, eyeing the girl in front of him up and down. "Burn in hell, Ella Rose." He turned his heel, ambling away, leaving Ella to deal with her cracking heart.

Ignoring the lump in her throat and her stinging nose and her watery eyes, Ella followed behind him. "Shawn, I know you're mad at me, but I'm trying to help you! Can you just forget about what I did for one second and allow me to help you?" She didn't mean to raise her voice.

Shawn stopped and turned back to Ella, disbelief written on his face. "You think I'm going to forget about what you did to me, Ella? You don't think I've tried? Because I have, and it's so damn hard! If you didn't do it to me in the first place, I wouldn't have had to try and forget it!" He didn't mean to raise his voice, either.

Ella swallowed and gazed down, to her shoes. "Your lip," she disregarded the subject, "It needs to be cleaned."

"I'll do that myself. I don't need your help."

Before he could leave, Ella called for him once again, "Shawn, wait," she let out a huff and gained the courage to look him in the eye. "I know what you're going to do: you're going to apply pressure on your wound, and the second it hurts, you're going to stop and leave it alone. Please...can I help you?"

Shawn rolled his eyes, looking to the side, pondering about it. Though he wasn't going to admit it out loud, Shawn was the type of person to immediately stop what he was doing if his actions started to physically hurt him.

"Fine."

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