Missing Streams

Sticks and Stones Will Definitely Break Your Bones - 24

"So what happened to you?" I whispered to James, feeling too tired to speak at a normal volume.

"I've got either a bruised or broken rib. The staff don't really care, since they're about the same." He visibly shivered, wrapping his arms around himself, "I've got some painkillers for it, but unless it pokes a hole in my lung I should be fine."

I nodded, having broken a rib before, "What about your head?"

"It hurts, but they say nothing's wrong." James laughed, "But what happened to you?"

"Not completely sure." I took as deep a breath as I could, but the bandages across my abdomen made that difficult, "I got stitches for the stab, and they bandaged me up for all the extra cuts I got."

"So you got more than just the stab?" James looked at me with wide, worried eyes.

"Just little cuts. Don't sweat it." I closed my eyes and grinned, "Can't believe I lasted a total of what, five minutes out of the hospital?"

"More like ten." James chuckled, but it was quiet. No doubt it hurt for him to breathe, "What about your nose, though? And the general getting beat up?"

"Nose will be fine." I laughed as best I could, causing James to smile, "It's been broken before, so nothing new there. As for my getting beat up, I'll suffer a few bruises but that's about it."

James nodded, suddenly sobering up. I could guess what he was about to talk about, "So Simon found out what happened to Xavier."

Bingo, "What's the damage?"

"You fucked him up. Other than the fact that he'll look like a Smurf with his bruises, he got a concussion and you dislocated his jaw."

"Christ, like a fucking snake?" I remembered punching Xavier in the face, but not that hard.

"Yeah, except people's jaws aren't supposed to dislocate." James forced a small laugh, but was simply shaken up for the moment. It didn't feel like a good time to say anything, so I just stayed quiet as I laid there in my bed.

James did too.

***

"Do you need anything?" Simon asked through pursed lips, testing my bandages to see if they had to be changed.

"Just some water." I licked my lips, already feeling thirsty, "And maybe a date with Xavier."

Simon chuckled, "Scarlet, I don't think that's a good idea." He moved to get a glass of water.

"Come on, it'd be fine." I grinned and rolled my eyes, "We can have a rooftop dinner and I can throw him off of it."

Simon forced a smile as he gave me my water, silently asking if I could drink it myself. I could, so I took it from his hands and sipped my water. I was tired of being stuck in the hospital, but James couldn't be much better. We were both leaving the hospital that day, though, so we wouldn't be stuck much longer.

"Where is he anyways?" I asked, hatred burning anew for Xavier. I had to prevent myself from squeezing the cup in my hands.

"He should be leaving the hospital today too. They told him to take it easy, though, concussion and all."

I nodded, "Might as well let that heal before I kick the shit out of him."

"Scar." Simon sighed, looking at me, "You need to stop this."

I laughed, "Watch me."

***

"Fuck." James groaned, putting his hand to his side. He gasped at the new pain, forcing himself to pull his hand away, "Damn it, Scarlet. This hurts."

"I know it does, buddy." I sighed, wishing I could do something to comfort him. Not only was I bad at comforting people, but we had two sets of bars between us. All three of us who were in the fight - even though James hadn't done anything but get the shit beat out of him - were put in detention for the rest of the day. Which meant missing supper, and we hadn't even gotten lunch in the hospital wing, so we were just about starving until we got to go to bed.

And I wasn't going to sit there and mope. I stood up and wrapped my arms around the bars, grinning to myself. I spoke just as loud as I needed to, "Xavier, how are you holding up?"

"Fuck off, Scars." He hissed back at me, and I wished I could see the look on his face. I wasn't going to stop there.

"You did a good job beating up James, huh?" James looked up at me with sad eyes, but I kept talking, "But it's really easy when you're kicking a man that's down. And slamming his head into the floor. I didn't think you'd stoop that low. The least you could do is fight at my level."

"Yeah, he should fight like a woman." James grinned at me, "Give people concussions and dislocate their jaws."

I laughed, holding myself up as I heard Xavier angrily growl but otherwise stayed quiet. It must have hurt for him to tell me to fuck off, considering his condition. I was pretty sure he should've been eating food out of a tube, but I was glad I wasn't the only one to be prematurely ejected from the hospital.

Ugh, I still had hours upon hours to kill. Seemed like a good time to take a nap.

***

"Scarlet!" Max looked at me in horror, "What the fuck happened to you?"

"Nothing good." I groaned, clenching my teeth as I pulled another stitch closed, "Get me some vodka, will you?"

"Fuck, I- No! Scarlet, you need the hospital!"

I couldn't help but grin, "Please, I'm basically a nurse at this point." With that I pushed the needle back through my skin, causing me to flinch from the pain, "It's still hard working on myself though."

"You need-"

"Look, I've disinfected it and everything." I grimaced as I pulled the needle the rest of the way through, "And this table is already bloodstained, so it's fine."

"You told me that was wine."

"I mean, there's wine too, but it's mostly blood."