POINT OF VIEW: Cory Kensington
"Hey, do you think you can help with dinner?" My mom hollers up the stairs while I run to my room to plug my phone. I get to the charger and plug it in, before running back downstairs to the kitchen.
"What do you need me to do?" I say, striding into the kitchen.
"Well, you can wash the dishes." My mom states absent-mindedly, flipping the page she's looking at in the cookbook. I start filling the sink with soapy water and start by washing the plates and bowls, when the phone rings. "Can you get that Cory? My hands are covered in food." My mom asks.
"Yep, gimme a sec. " I reply, setting the dish I'm holding in the dish rack and drying my hands off.
"Hello?" I say into the receiver.
"Hello, this is the Brantford General Hospital. I was given this number by a girl named Ella O'Connor. I'm looking for someone named Cory Kensington?" I pause for a second.
"Uhh.. Yes, speaking." I reply nervously.
"Great. We have your friend down here in the emergency room, and we need someone to come pick her up." The man on the other line states.
"Alright, umm.." I rake my fingers through my hair frustratedly. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Ok, when you get to the front desk, tell them who you are, and they'll take you from there.
"Mm-hmm..." I say, hanging up the phone on the receiver. I bang the wall with the side of my fist.
"What's the matter, Cory?" My mom asks as I lean against the counter, hanging my head.
I take a big drag in of air. "Ella's in the ER." I state frustratedly, standing up straight and leaving the kitchen, heading toward the front door. "I'm going to have to take a rain check on doing the dishes." I state, flinging the door open and shutting it behind me.
****
"I'm Cory Kensington, I'm here for Ella O'Connor." I say to the young-and-bored-looking secretary in the Emergency Room. "Oh, yeah, just go through those doors and walk down the hall. She's got the 3rd door on the right." She states, pressing a button, causing a buzzer to go off.
"Thanks." I say, spinning on my heels and walking toward the doors.
Once I get into the room, I see Ella turned away from my direction, toward a nurse, with her feet dangling over the edge of the bed, her hands folded in her lap. "Elle?" I blurt. She turns around, her hair falling in her face. She brushes it out of the way with her left hand, and that's when I see her eye. Her usually prominently brown eye is now surrounded by a ring of dark purple, discolouring her cheekbones on the right side of her face. "What happened?" I ask as the nurse walks past me and out of the room.
She's quiet for a second, checking if the nurse is gone. "Took a snow globe to the eye, and a lighter to the hand." She mumbles, waving her wrapped up hand in the air. She reaches out her good hand for me to grab as she jumps off the hospital bed. 'Thanks for coming to get me." She catches me off guard, wrapping her arms around my neck and resting her head on my shoulder. I wrap my arms around her lower back. "No problem." I mumble.
YOU ARE READING
Leaving The Friendzone
Teen FictionI've been friends with Cory since we were 6. Despite everyone we know poking fun at us for hanging out all the time, the subject of 'dating' never came up. But lately, I've been thinking about him differently. The way his eyes glint when he smiles a...
