Annie
“Is there a reason that Bella appears to hate me?”
It was ten o’clock at night, and I was sitting on the edge of my bed, watching Nathan as he stalked around my apartment. The bandaid on my foot had been drenched in blood and I’d been forced to take it off – now Nathan was trying to find a bandage to replace it.
I’d had time to change out of my wet underwear and into some fresh pyjamas, but Nathan was still wearing his beach clothes.
“Do you even have a first aid kit in here?” he was opening and closing my kitchen cupboards, carefully avoiding eye contact and my question. His dark blonde hair flopped over his eyes as he knelt down, out of sight, and then reappeared with a small red box.
He strode towards me and knelt in front of me, gingerly lifting up my foot for inspection. I obliged, but felt silly – it was just a cut, and I didn’t need to be treated like an infant.
I voiced my thoughts and Nathan gestured to my foot. “Do you want me to bandage this or not?”
Nodding, I watched as he opened the box and retrieved a thick bandage, a clip, and two small packets. He tore one of the packets open and pulled out a moist cloth to clean the wound with, and without hesitation, he pressed it onto the cut. There was no doubt that it was covered in some antiseptic solution, for it stung like hell. I sucked in a breath of air so fast that it sounded like a hiss, and Nathan sent me an apologetic look.
“Nearly done,” he had a look of concentration on his face as he peeled it off and picked up the second packet. When opened, a small white patch of gauze fell out, and Nathan stuck it on my foot over the wound. He then picked up the bandage. “Tell me if it’s too tight.” He began to unwind the material over my foot, starting above my toes and slowly wrapping it over my ankle.
After clipping the bandage into place, he closed the first aid kit and walked to the kitchen to put it back.
“Thanks Doctor Nathan,” I teased, and he smiled at me. “Although you have been avoiding my question.”
Nathan sighed and came over to sit on the bed beside me. We both reclined on the pillows, and Nathan broke the silence first.
“Bella’s just… wounded.” He supplied, and I snorted at his inadequate response.
“Really? Is she emotionally wounded?” I put the words in quotation marks.
Nathan looked at me and tried again. “Its just that her parents haven’t been the most nurturing people, and she’s been through some rough times. She doesn’t make friends easily.”
I paused to think about what I was going to say. “I don’t want to sound insensitive, but it doesn’t seem like she’s making the effort. Friendship is a two-sided thing.”
“I know. It’s a slow process, but I’m trying to help her get over it. Maybe if she opens up more you two can be friends.” Nathan sent me an optimistic smile and I didn’t have the heart to voice my doubts. You can’t change your personality like that overnight.
But I wasn’t about to say that out loud. Nathan had hope, so I let him keep it. “Yeah,” I offered with a smile of my own.
“Well I’d better get going,” Nathan stood. He gave my bandaged foot a once over, and moved towards the door. “I’ll see you around, and if your foot starts hurting or anything, give me a call!”
“Will do, bye Nathan!”
The door clicked closed and I exhaled. The whole Bella thing had me thinking way too much, I had the feeling that I should let it go and hope for the best. This was meant to be a holiday for me, and I didn’t want to sour the mood by thinking of how much one of the locals disliked me.
