The Eleventh Ward

Chapter 13

Over the next couple of days, things began to fall back into place. Michael was still staring at me from across the group, but not as much as before. Calum had resumed his flirting using his stupid nickname and Erin and Gracie became just as they were before. Luke had never really changed despite the Lea thing, but Lacey hadn't said a word to me since the roof. That was until I sat down on the sofa with them after breakfast. "Wanna smoke?" At first I thought she was talking to one of the others, but when I turned to look at her, she was staring at me, waiting for a reply. "Umm yeah" As we stood up and started making our way to the janitors closet, I began questioning if she was going to kill me and hide my body behind the boiler, or if this was her way of trying to make things right. Unsurprisingly, the smoking room in the adult ward was full, and second hand smoke seeped into my pores as we opened the door. Lacey flicked open her pack and held it out to me. I took one and put it between my lips as she got hers out and lit it. She held the flame out to me and I leaned forward, putting the tip into the fire. We stood in silence for a few seconds, each taking pulls from our cigarettes when she said "I'm not apologising for being mad at you or anything, but its over now so yeah". It wasn't what I expected, but still the most Laceyish thing she could of done. So that was that, me and Lacey returned to who we were and what we had been before. No talk of the fight, no bitterness left over, as if Gracie had never seen Lea sitting at our table.

When we returned to the lounge, I sat on the sofa next to Luke, and Lacey sat next to me.

"What the fuck is going on?" whispered Erin, staring at us sitting together.

"I think Lace hit her head or something" said Calum

"Maybe she's having a stroke"

"I'm not having a fucking stroke. Shits just going back to normal" she snapped. Calum put his hands up in mock defeat and his eyes shifted to the door.

"Brandi" I looked over to see Ashton standing in the doorframe, signalling me to go over to him. I stood up from the sofa and walked over.

"What's up?" I smiled. I hadn't seen Ashton since he tranquilized me last week after the fight with Lacey and I'd missed catching his eye every now and then around the ward.

"I just wanted to say sorry" He said, his eyes looking down at the floor.

"For what?"

"For injecting you after the fight. Trust me I really didn't want to but they said I had to-"

"Its fine" I said before he could keep going. His eyes looked up and that smile I loved so much spread across his face.

"Good, thanks. Well, um I got you and you friends some stuff to make up for it. I know you're all good again now and you're probably all bored out of your heads so, um, go check under your bed and keep quiet about it yeah" he winked at me before walking off. I had no clue what he was talking about and I wanted to know. I turned back to the group and held up a finger telling them to wait for a second before walking into the girls corridor and into my room. I got on the floor and there, under the bed, was a pack of cards, a few bags of jelly beans and a 14 pack of beers. Without a seconds hesitation I ran back into the lounge. "Guys, we have been blessed by god"

"What?" I signalled them to follow me and lead them back to my room. Erin closed the door behind her and they waited for me to say something.

"Look under the bed" I whispered, too excited to speak. They all dropped to the floor and started screaming. Calum grabbed the box of beer and put it on the bed.

"I have never loved someone so much" he said staring between the beer and me. Erin ran round the bed and wrapped her arms around me. Michael was practically drooling looking at the drinks and Gracie was fiddling with the packets of sweets as if she was going to rip them open and eat them all. I leant down and picked up the cards. "So who wants to play poker?"