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29.

Nathaniel's Point Of View

"DJ, I think I'm fine," I say. She made me go with her to get my wrist looked at.

"I don't think so," she says.

"Look," I say, using my hand. Painfully but I don't think it's a big deal.

"Nath-"

The door opens, cutting Dakota off.

"You must be Nathaniel?" The nurse says.

"Yes," I say.

"And you must be Dakota," she asks.

"Yup," Dakota says.

"Okay, now let's take a look at your wrist," the nurse says, "which one?"

"His right," Dakota says.

"Okay then. May I see it?" She asks. I let her see my hand. She feels around for anything that might be broken or fractured. I wince. "Yup, right there. Nathaniel I'm going to get the doctor and we're going to do an X-Ray on your hand," she says. Then she leaves.

*****

I feel like it's been hours. It's really only been about an hour and a half. They're fixing the sling now. I ended up breaking some bone in my thumb. Well ain't that just perfect timing?

"There, all set," the nurse says. She's already gone over everything I can and can't do. Like it actually going to stop me from doing things.

"You ready?" Dakota asks.

"Yeah," I say. I walk out and start walking down the hallway to the exit. Honestly this could not have been worse timing. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be a goalie for some of the challenges.

"Angelina's going to drive you back to the hotel," she says.

"Okay," I say. I pause, then ask, "About tomorrow... Do you think I could deal without the sling. Just for tomorrow?" Dakota is usually put down to watch me. She's supposed to make sure I don't do anything wrong with the instructions.

"Well... Let's get out of here first," she says as we near the exit. Angelina is outside talking to Ryan.

"Nathan, I need the keys," Dakota says. I take the keys out of the pocket of my shorts. Then toss it to her. She catches the keys. "Where'd you park," she asks.

"Somewhere over there," I say and point to the east side of the lot.

"C'mon Ryan," she says and starts walking in that direction.

"How you doing?" Angelina asks.

"Fine," I say.

"Doesn't it ever hurt," she asks.

"No," I say. She steps closer to me and puts her arms around my neck. I look into her purple eyes. She's beautiful. We kiss.

*****

"Ah fuck," Angelina says. It's almost 10. We're back at the hotel.

"What?" I say.

"My phone fucking fell as I was fucking beating my fucking high score for fucking flappy bird," she says. I start laughing. God she gets so angry at almost anything. "Hey, stop laughing at me," she says laughing and throws a pillow at me. It misses.

Ding

"Are you going to answer that?" I ask.

"It's a fucking notification about my fucking chicken farm," she says picking her phone up.

"I'm not even going to ask," I say. I take my shirt off and get another shirt as she looks at her phone. Doing whatever kind of shit she does on that thing.

"You need any help?" She asks.

"No," I say then mutter, "I'm useless not helpless."

"Hey, Nate. You're neither," she says as I put the clean shirt on. Oh shit. She heard that. My phone vibrates. It's some Twitter notification. I open it up. "What are you looking at?" She asks.

"It's a DM," I say.

'NRHunter are you straight or gay... Can't be both...' Wow. It's also from Shane. He's such an asshole. But is it really wrong to like both? I mean yes I fell in love with Angelina, but I've never had another girlfriend. Only a few boyfriends... Is that wrong?

"What does it say?" She asks.

"Nothing. It's just Shane being an ass," I say.

Knock. Knock.

"Oh hey, what's going on?" Angelina says as she opens the door. Dakota's standing there.

"Hunter's... Um... Well do either of you know if he has been um... Drinking?" Dakota says nervously.

"Um. No. Nate, do you know?" Angelina asks.

"Well is he like coughing up blood?" I ask.

"Yeah. A little," Dakota replies.

"Check his water bottle," I say, "If it's Vodka then it's from that. If not it could be just something else."

"Like what?" She asks.

"I don't know," I say.

"Anyway, I'm going to go check that out," Dakota says and leaves. Angelina closes the door.

"I think you do know," she says, walking back over to me.

"I really don't," I say.

"Really?" She asks.

"Yes," I lie. Hunter used to get beat up from his older 'friends'. Maybe it was one of them. They made him do a lot of things. Before he moved here. He started drinking at age 12. Which is really bad.

"Can I ask something?" She says. Then sits on my bed.

"Yeah, sure," I say.

"What even happened? I asked Ryan and he said he didn't know," she says.

"I fell," I say.

"Into a fucking wall?" She asks.

"Not really. No. I was kind of pushed because the last person Reid would want to see is his dad," I say.

"How'd his dad know he was injured?" She says.

"Don't know. I recognized him. Before he left California, when I used to go over to Reid's house," I say.

"So he shoved you into the wall?" She asks surprised.

"Kind of. I mean it was kinda my fault," I say guilty and look at the floor, "I may have gotten in his way."

"Well. I don't know if I should believe that, but at least you're okay," she says.

"No. Seriously. I tried to keep him out," I say shrugging.

"Hey. Nate. Look at me," she says.

"Yeah?" I ask looking up from the floor. To see her beautifully stunning purple eyes.

"You're bruised," she says. Then she gently touches around my left eye, and says, "I knew something was a little off earlier."

"Well, I'm," I start. I was about to finish with 'fine' but she knows too well how that goes... "I'm good," I finish.

"Aren't you supposed to keep your hand elevated," she asks.

"Yes," I say.

"Are you going to follow instructions?" She asks.

"Nope," I say. She giggles, "What?" I ask and act surprised.

"You never listen," she says.