Before Her

Newt 28

Newt
I woke to a very bad pain in my arm, but then again, I always woke up with a pain, so I didn't think much of it, until I lifted my head and saw an unraveling bandage stained blood red (probably because it was blood) around my arm. I hiss at the ache in my arm, and unravel the bandages to find blood caked around the gash on my forearm, at least it wasn't bleeding anymore.

I sigh as I try to wrap the bandage back around my arm, because I know that Jane will flip when she sees it. I sit up and try to secure the bandage, gritting my teeth at my hopeless attempt every time the bandage slipped again.

I hear the bed creak and turn my head towards the noise, Jane lay there sleeping soundly, her back facing me. The covers were pulled up to her waist. The lose, white shirt she wore to sleep had gone halfway up her stomach exposing a ribbon of skin. At that moment, she stirred, turning slowly until she faced me. Her eyes still closed, her lips slightly parted, her stomach rising slowly before falling again with each breath she took.

Sighing, I got up. My stomach growled and I headed down to the kitchen, gritting my teeth as I throw away the bandage. Stupid bandage. I stare down at my arm, dried blood, almost the colour of black.

I stuck my arm under the faucet, gently rubbing away the blood.

Suddenly, I felt a weight on my shoulders my whole body tensed. I turn around quickly to find Minho, an arm slung over my shoulders, leaning his whole weight on me. I relaxed.
'Shuck Minho, you need to lose weight.'
Minho lets out a laugh, 'Sorry shuck-face. Just wanted to see my buddy before I go out today.'
I raise an eyebrow, 'Well?'
Minho opens his mouth to speak before catching sight of my arm, 'Shuck, what did you do?'
I look down to see most of the blood was gone, but the gash was still visible and it was pretty long and pretty deep so it wasn't that easy to cover up. I was surprised Minho had just noticed it now, but then again, we're talking about Minho.
'Scraped it on some bricks.'
'Seriously?'
'Yeah.'
'Yeah you should go see a med-jack, it looks pretty bad. They'll probably give you a sling, maybe you should rest for the day.'
'Minho, calm down, I already went to see a bloody med-jack, I already got the bloody bandages, I already got the bloody sling..'
'Where are they?'
'Threw the bandages away, sling's still in the room.'
'Shuck Newt, you need to keep those on for a reason. You could get your arm infected, or you could lose a lot of blood from moving your arm around, especially when you don't have a bandage, you seriously need—'
'Minho seriously, since when did you become a med-jack? I've already got Jane on my back about it seriously. I don't even know where she put the bloody sling and I woke up with the bandages all bloodied up that's why I threw them away. I'll get more later, okay? And besides there's no med-jack up at this bloody hour.'
'Exactly why I, your best friend, woke up at this hour, to talk to my favourite little buddy.' He says, ruffling my hair.
'Yeah, yeah, what did you want to talk to me about?'
'Jane.'
'What? Why? Did something happen is she ok—'
I was very rudely interrupted by Minho, laughing.
'Why are you laughing? What happened?' Minho put his hand on my shoulder to steady himself, wiping imaginary tears from his eyes.
'You know, I was suspecting it before but now, I am definitely sure.'
I furrow my eyebrows, 'Sure about what?'
'You like her.'
'What?'
The grin on his face spread wider and wider with each passing second, 'You heard me. You. Like. Jane.'
'What? No. No I don't.'
'Keep telling yourself that buddy and you'll just be able to fool yourself, but I can guarantee you that if you asked anyone in the glade, they would all say the same thing.'
'No Minho, I don't like her.'
He snorts, 'Yeah right, I've never seen you act the way you act around her, whenever she's hurt a little or something happens, you act like she's about to die. Just now, I didn't even say anything other than her name and you immediately thought something had happened to her. And also the fact that you're always smiling to death around her, and you seem to always light up like a lightbulb whenever she walks into the room.'
'I'm only bloody protective of her because she's a bloody girl, and most of the shanks here would take advantage of her, I mean, have you seen how bloody nice she is? And I'm happy around her because she's my friend, shank.'
'Well I'm your friend! I was your friend before her! And I don't see you going all lightbulb on me!'
'Yeah, well maybe I'm not in the mood to lightbulb around you, maybe you just walk in at the wrong time!'
'Yeah, and Jane just happens to walk in at the right time, e-ver-ree-day,' he says as he pokes a finger to my chest, sounding out every syllable that comes out of his mouth, 'Don't deny it buddy, you're not doing anyone any good, you like her, admit it.'
I open my mouth to argue back but I was interrupted by a familiar voice, that could only belong to one person at the glade,
'Hey guys! Newt I've been looking everywhere for you! You didn't take your sling, you need it, I mean seriously ho—'
'What are you guys doing?'
I look back at Minho and I to find we were actually in a pretty interesting position, Minho still had his finger stabbing my chest, my arm at my side, blocking it from Jane's view. I was facing Minho, glaring at him while he was smiling, dimples and all.
'Nothing we were just umm, doing, umm stuff,' I say. Minho raises his eyebrows, his smile growing wider, if that was even possible.
'Right.'
'You guys are so weird. And you're obviously hiding something, but I'll let it pass since I need to put this sling on Newt before he— Newt where is your bandage?'
I realise I had been scratching my neck, which gave Jane a display of my arm, that was very much, free from any bandages. 'I umm, threw it away?'
'Shuck Newt, how many times do I have to tell you?' she says as she yanks my arm down, I immediately stiffen from her touch and look to see her head bent down to inspect my arm, which she was still holding onto.
I look to see Minho trying to hold in his laughter as he sees me and immediately, my heart hammer hard against my chest when I realise I still didn't have an answer to this. My reaction whenever she touched me.
'Shuck, shuck, shuck, shuck,' Jane mutters, 'Okay, we are going to the infirmary. Bye Minho!' she yells out as she marches away, dragging me behind her by my "injured" arm. I turn to see Minho, he raises his hand and wiggles his fingers before doubling over with laughter.