Thin Line

7. Staring again

The next morning when I went downstairs, mom followed my every action with a burning gaze but didn't say a thing. I could tell that it was too early, even for her, to delve into a lengthy argument. I knew I would have to deal with that when I came home tonight.

At school, I wanted to tell Bella of yesterday's events, but she was all over the place. Apparently, her little project with Jamie didn't go so well, in that they never got around to actually doing the project. So I let her be for the day and even tried to help her where I could.

As for Hunter, I didn't see him the entire day. It made sense though, he was probably trying to recover. Even then, I was kind of disappointed to not see him around.

And then there was that thing with Lisa at work, as soon as she saw me she had her hands on her hips and was awaiting an explanation. I filled her in and emphasised on the bit where he was a 'friend' and I couldn't just leave him. Eventually, she came around to it and made it clear it wasn't to happen again.

I had spent the entire shift recalling yesterday's events, over and over and over again. To the point where I just really wanted to stop thinking about it. That didn't happen because as soon as I got home, mom began her little rant. It went something like this;

Who was he? Why were you with him? Why would you hang around boys like that? I hope he isn't your boyfriend.

Every time I tried to explain myself, she'd cut me right off and continue yelling. So I sunk deeper into the chair and allowed her to finish. She was never this angry when girls would stay the night with Kian. If anything, she should be grateful that she has a daughter that extends her humanity to all sorts of people.

After some time she went upstairs to sleep, and I followed her up soon after.

-

I saw Bellas' eyes begin to widen as she looked right past me. Following her gaze, I slowly turned my head around. Before I could see for myself what had managed to stop her from talking, which probably had me just as shocked as she was, Luke slid in next to Bella on the table and Hunter sat down next to me.

"Listen, Versace, I need to talk to you."

Instead of replying, I just looked at him in equal parts confused and shocked. I hadn't seen him at school for the past four days which led me to stop thinking about him. I assumed it was going to be a long while before he showed up at school, and I also assumed he wasn't ever going to speak to me again even when he did show up. I finally snapped out of it and realised they were all looking at me, waiting for a response.

"Okay?" I said, unsure of what he could possibly want to talk about. Had I done something wrong? Had he done something wrong?

"I think the cuts infected."

Everything started to slowly come back to me. Hunter, stabbed, work, hospital, stitches.

"Let's see," I said awkwardly.

He lifted up the corner of his shirt, revealing a big band-aid that was practically red. This felt a little too familiar for my liking.

I couldn't help myself, "Wow, yep, no you're right. That definitely is infected, are band-aids meant to look like that?"

He looked down at his stomach and his expression changed, probably just now realising the cut wasn't visible.

"Settle down with the sarcasm" he muttered, slowly pulling up the band-aid to reveal the cut. Bella, from the other end, had leaned her body forward to see what he was talking about.

I winced as soon as I saw the cut. It had turned into a disgusting shade of yellow, which I figured was probably from all the pus around it.

"Okay sarcasm aside, that definitely is infected." I scrunched up my face.