Table 15

Chapter 27

After Mark came back with the first aid kit, he and I helped Melly limp to the bathroom. She insisted on taking a shower to clean herself off, refusing either of our offers to help her. "I need my privacy, dingbats!" She had exclaimed, after locking the bathroom door.

Mark threw her dirty clothes in the wash and offered her some of his own clothes. Now this she accepted. Once she was clean, we helped her dress her wounds. The gash in her left leg ran from her ankle to just below her knee cap, but thankfully it wasn't deep enough for stitches.

Mark spread some antiseptic on the gash and bandaged it up as best as he could. I then wrapped up her calf to keep out infection. Thankfully the cut on her nose just needed a band-aid. She rubbed some Neosporin into the palms of her hands to soothe the scrapes, then wrapped them up as well.

Now we're all sitting on the couch together. I longed to curl up with Mark and rest my head on his shoulder, but Mel sat between us. She was wrapped up in the blue blanket I had used earlier this morning, sipping hot cocoa out of Mark's favorite mug.

She wore a pair of his sweatpants that were almost to big for her. The red T-shirt she wore fit perfectly, however. Her wounded leg was propped up on the table with an ice bag on top of the wound. She looked pretty comfortable now, despite the occasional pain-filled wince.

"So, what happened back there?" Mark asked calmly. She swallowed the marshmallow that she had in her mouth and took a deep breath.

"Well, I was walking to class when that ginger, Ginger, and her two goons, Spencer and Ian, stopped me. They must've heard the rumor that I had an affair with Ginger's asshole boyfriend," she began casually, taking another sip of cocoa. My eyes widened in shock. "You did what!?"

"No no!" She said quickly. "It's a rumor! Not. True! Jack, if I had sex with someone, hell if I even got a boyfriend, you'd be the first to know. You'd tell me if you got lucky, right?" she asked. I exchanged a glance with Mark, who had narrowed his eyes.

I chuckled nervously, "Uh... thanks...Mel. I-uh..yeah I'd totally tell you. If something happened," Mark raised an eyebrow in suspicion. I shook my head lightly and mouthed "No,". Apparently, she didn't notice our exchange, and continued on with her story.

"Well, anyways, Ginger went off on me. I tried to tell her that it wasn't true, but she sent her dumb goons out on me. I ran away, but they caught up and threw me on the ground, which is how I scratched my hands. I tried to run again. But as I got up, one of the boys threw a rock at me. It scraped my nose," she pointed at the cut on her face matter-of-factly.

She started to shake a little. Mark placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she went on,

"When I thought I had finally got away and I hid behind a tree in the corner of the campus, Ginger lept out at me and tackled me to the ground. She shouted at me some more. I tried to shove her off. Eventually, I succeeded. As I was escaping, my pantleg got stuck on the bottom of the metal fence. She pushed me up against it, and I cut my leg.

"That's when I ran to the dumpster to call you. Thank god you found me when you did, or I'd be in a lot more pain," she finished, her voice was quivering at this point. Tears pricked at my eyes again, and Mark gave her a big hug. "I'm so sorry, Mel," he said, letting her go.

"Is there anything we can do to make you feel better?" I asked, wiping away a stray tear. She smiled softly. "Maybe later. Thank you guys," she said. She chuckled lightly, shaking her head.

"Gingers really don't have souls," she joked. I smiled weakly. I'm just glad she can joke about this so easily so soon after it happened. Then she bowed her head slightly. Tears stained her sweatpants.