The Snowball Effect (Work in progress)

Chapter 5

I stayed in the hospital until the next day. When I got home I sat down and thought about calling Rebecca but I decided against it, not because I was afraid of James but because I felt like I needed to be alone for now. I got up and walked to my bathroom, I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror, I had a black eye and bruises all over my face, I also had a cut which would most likely add to the collection of scars I already have. I left the bathroom and went to lay down on my bed, it hurt a bit, I had forgotten about my fractured rib, I lay on my back and drifted off to sleep. I woke up a few hours later, I sat up on the edge of my bed, I again felt some pain coming from my ribs, I winced and checked my phone, I had 2 missed calls from Rebecca and some messages from her, she was asking if I was okay and if I wanted to hang out or if I wanted her to come over. My parents probably told hers who told her. I texted her saying I was fine and that she could come over if she wanted. She came by an hour later with a pile of papers,

"What are those?" I asked "Oh no, those aren't divorce papers, are they? Please, honey, don't take the children away from me." I pleaded jokingly.

"Ha-ha no flower boy, those are some papers the school wanted me to give you. So, you can catch up." She replied putting the papers and her bag on my desk and sitting on a chair in front of me. She smiled at me and looked at the cast around my arm and the sling type thing that was around my ribs.

"Does it still hurt?" she asked the smile slowly fading from her face.

"Nah, it's okay." I replied looking down at the sling myself.

"Hm. No one's signed your cast?" She asked, her smile forming once again. She grabbed a red sharpie from my desk and lent her hand asking for my arm, she leaned into my arm and started writing, she took her time writing and drawing but I didn't care I just looked at her, she looked so concentrated, she looked beautiful.

"Okay, all done," she said, putting the cap back over the pen. I looked down, it said 'Flower Boy' in beautiful handwriting and an amazing drawing of a rose next to it.

"Wow, that's amazing..." I said in awe. I took her hands into mine, leaned in and kissed her softly. I looked down at our hands, our two foreheads resting against each other. Then I noticed something,

"You've been biting your nails..." I whispered. "Rebecca, what's wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"Nothing, why would something be wrong? Can't I chew my nails without having something going on?" She asked defensively, quickly taking her hands back and hiding them in her sleeves.

"You could if only you didn't hate it, its something you do when your anxiety returns or you feel stressed or there's something going on..." I answered looking into her eyes.

"It's- it's just exams, I'm pretty stressed. Look, I have to go, I'm glad you're feeling better, I'll see you tomorrow." She said quickly, quickly wiping away a tear and starting to head for the door. I stood up winced a little and grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving.

"Rebecca. It's the start of a term, we have no exams, and even if we did I know that you wouldn't care, exams have never stressed you out, you get perfect scores on almost all of them." I told her, I was getting a little worried,

"Baby. What's going on?" I asked again dropping her hand.

"I- I've got to go Q, bye." She said before leaving my room and slamming the door. I sat down on the chair where she had been sitting and put my head in my hands, 'Is she okay? What's going on with her?' I asked myself. When I looked up I noticed that she had forgotten her bag here, I picked up to go give it back but at that moment a piece of paper fell out of the side pocket, "Sl*t" "W**re" "Cheater!" were a few of the words written down on the various sheets of paper that were crumpled up in her bag. "So that's why she wouldn't tell me what was going on." I whispered to myself, I put the pieces of paper in my pocket, got up and went downstairs and out the door to her house.