Concussion •Miniminter•

•34•

     "Aweee shit-" I nagged as I slowly poked at my left cheek. I looked in the mirror of our bathroom, revealing a pretty decent size bruise forming. I could also feel it slightly throbbing.

     "What's wrong?" I heard the echo of Jay's voice from the other room, and now hearing the steps of his feet leading to the bathroom. I turned to my right and faced him so he could see, his eyes squinting and getting closer to examine the fresh bruise.

     "Damn, that's rough. I'm surprised I didn't see it before," he said as his gentle hands touched my face. I flinched at the sudden pain. "Sorry. Do you have anything to cover it?" I looked through the bag I used to put my bathroom things and makeup in, sighing as I didn't have much makeup.

     "No. But, I can ask if Emily does," I suggested to myself, making note of the makeup she always has on. I picked up my phone from the counter and called her, asking her to come over with all the makeup she had. And in a matter of seconds, Emily was standing at the door, already dressed and ready to go. As for me? I looked like a just woke up.

     "You summoned me?" She questioned. I pulled her into the room by her wrist and into the bathroom. I faced her and pointed to my cheek, now very noticeable in the light.

     "This." Was all I said. She looked a little closer and grimaced.

     "Oooh, ouch. That asshole. I can definitely cover that," and with that she placed her aqua-beachy covered makeup bag on the counter and applied the cream and powder to the spot, making sure to be gentle. Soon enough it was covered up. I looked at it in the mirror; it was still noticeable, but not even close to how it was before.

"Thanks," I told her, making her gleam with joy.

"Yeah no problem, now you have to get ready," she commanded me as she left. I smiled and walked back over to my luggage.

As I was putting my socks on, I felt something hard hit me in the back. I quickly yelled ow and looked behind me to see a pair of black football boots scattered on my bed and as I looked up saw Jay grinning at me from afar.

"Can you put those in your football bag pleeease?" He begged, making me smile and sigh.

"Yes, only for you, my dorky brother." I put my shoes on and put his boots in the bag with my bright green boots, chin pads, sweat towels and a football.

I stopped for a minute as I stared into the bag. I just realised that tomorrow. Saturday. We were going to be in one of the most intense football matches I've ever been in. Against all of my YouTube idols. In front of thousands of fans. That thought made chills run down my spine. I quickly zipped up the bag and put it around my shoulder, zipping up that thought out of my head. As I stood up I remembered to grab the sweatshirt I had borrowed from Simon a couple days back, feeling a little sad that I was returning it back to him. I shoved it in the bag and asked if Jay was ready, which he replied with an excited yes, and we left the hotel room. In the hall, I was once again greeted by Emily, along with Greg. Greg started walking in front with Jay as Emily walked behind.

     "You know your brother is low-key hot," she randomly mumbled in my ear, making an effort so the boys wouldn't hear us. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

     "Um, no. No thank you." I assured, making Emily laugh.

"No but for real, is he dating someone?" She asked in the same quiet voice.

     "Hey Jay!" I immediately yelled in the biggest voice I had, even though he was right in front of me. He turned his head and kept walking, showing his brown hair and his black-framed eyes, same as my hair. I don't know what she sees in him.

     "Are you still dating that Sadie girl?" I sarcastically questioned, making Emily embarrassed at the situation she got herself into.

     "Ahh, no. That relationship was a joke, and I thought you already knew that," he laughed. Although I already knew that, I only asked for Emily's sake. We all piled into the stairwell, finally making the decision to walk.

     "I did. You hear that, Emily," I teased like a child as I elbowed her. And in return, she slapped my arm and I laughed at her. Both she and Jay were awkwardly laughing, and Greg was confused.

Us four all rode in a car together, the original squad, and me not going with Simon this time. Although in the lobby, from the other side of the room, we had made complete eye contact and we started making weird faces at each other, making each other giggle, and getting stares from people around us but we didn't care, it was fun. I thought about that as I sat in the back of the car with Emily, my bag on top of Greg's on top of hers on the ground between us. I fidgeted with the pinkie wrap, which was now starting to get dirty.

"I wonder what it looks like," I thought aloud, curious as it barely hurt anymore. Or the pain was transferred from my pinkie to my cheek, who knows.

I slowly pulled the brace off, bandage and all, revealing more and more pinkie as it all came off. To my surprise, it wasn't bad at all; it was now only a tad bit discoloured but other than that it was fine. It also felt refreshing to take that damn thing off. Just as I threw the brace in my bag, Jay looked around from the passenger seat.

"Ay, you know you're not supposed to take that off for several more days. Doctors orders," he lectured me.

For some odd reason, that made me think of Simon. The way that he took of his masked emotions, admitting that he liked me. Even though that barrier of memories caused a problem, he removed it, and so did I. I did with that brace, and also while agreeing with Simon. Although I don't think that memory barrier was supposed to help in any way with me, maybe that was a sign that the pinkie brace didn't matter either.

"No, I think it was finally time to get rid of it," I finally said snapping out of my thoughts. Was I talking about my pinkie? Yes. Was I also talking about past times?
Yes.

~~~~~~~~~~
Symbolism is a great thing :))

AND ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SARAH!!!! CALL ME OUT ANYTIME 🎉🎉🎉

Stay awesome,
-Natalie 🤘🏼