The Switch

Hunter-7

Oh shit. I bursted out laughing. I didn't think Eric would actually do it.

"Bulls eye!" I heard Chuck next to me exclaimed.

"Mathews!" Coach Smith hollered. "Since you find this so hilarious, why don't you carry her and take her to the nurse!"

I laughed dryly. "Eric was the one that threw the ball."

"Dude!" Eric on my other side protested.

"Take one for the team," I whispered to him as coach Smith instantly walked straight to me and stood before me closely.

Crap. "I'll deal with Foley." I noticed the blood from Eric's face was instantly drained. "Now, do you want me to repeat what I just asked you to do, boy?" Coach Smith's heavy southern accent suddenly appeared making his voice menacing.

I nearly gulped. "No sir."

"Good. Now get going, son!"

Everyone was circling around Luna. A few people even had their phones out. I sighed before jogging up to her and grabbing a hold of her. She was much lighter than I thought. Regardless, I held her strong enough that she couldn't lean on me so that I wouldn't have her touching me.

"Can I go with you?" The girl that was partnered with Luna asked, her face filled with worry.

I shrugged. "I don't care."

She opened the door for me when we left the gym. The walk was silent and it felt too long to get to the nurse's office. Great. First having a class with this thing, now carrying her to the damn infirmary. I felt myself grow more bitter as we got closer towards our destination.

Luna's gym partner opened the door for me again when entering the nurse's office. It looked empty. What the hell? The setting distracted me from my built-up frustration.

"What happened?" Someone behind me asked.

The gym partner and I both turned around to see a man in his twenties in scrubs with a to-go bag in one hand and car keys in the other. I was going to to let the partner explain, but she seemed to be at a lost of words when looking at the apparently male nurse. Instead, I answered warily. "She fell on her head in gym,"

"Set her right there please," The nurse said firmly, nodding towards the vinyl bed covered with thin paper, stepping inside to another room and leaving his lunch somewhere and forgetting it. Once I did what he asked the nurse came back with a little flashlight and a bag of ice. "What's her name?"

I guess I was the one in charge of talking since the partner still couldn't grasp how to speak properly yet. "Luna."

He bent forward and gently lifted one of Luna's eyelids and flashing the light directly at the eye and repeated the process with the other eye. "Luna, wake up. Can you hear me?" He gently shook her shoulder. "Luna, wake up," He set the bag of ice on her head and her eyes began to flutter until they finally opened.

"Where am I?" Her voice croaked.

"You're in the nurse's office. I'm nurse Peters."

Luna blinked. "But you're a guy."

I couldn't help but bark a laugh the second time today at the same time I heard Luna's partner gasp. The nurse chuckled. "Yes, last time I checked, but I also happen to be a nurse. Now, do you remember what happened?"

"Yeah. Someone threw a ball at me hard and it made me lose my balance. I hit my head pretty hard."

"Good. Do you need help sitting up?" She shook her head as she sat up, letting the bag of ice fall on her lap. "Stay still," I found it odd when Luna did exactly as he said. His hands gently examined her head. He stood up straight when finished.

"Thankfully you don't have a concussion, but just to be on the safe side, don't do any vigorous activities for the rest of the week. If you start to have a headache take some Tylenol, and if it gets worse go directly to the hospital. Understand?"

She nodded, silently agreeing. Luna opened the bag of ice and grabbed a cube with her fingers and put them in her mouth. Everyone automatically heard the crunching.

Nurse Peters smiled at her fondly and for a second the act made me raise an eyebrow. He turned to look at the silver watch on his wrist. "I need to go to a conference right now. You can stay here until you feel better to walk to class." He grabbed a few things from his glass-walled office, waved at us, and off he went.

Luna's partner and I stood there awkwardly while Luna continued eating the ice cubes. I was aware of Linda's affections towards Luna. It was why I didn't understand. I sighed. Their relationship was odd and infuriating to me. But Linda was more important to me. And it shouldn't matter, but I can't help but dislike Luna. It felt like I was about to get a headache. In the end, I knew the decision I had to make. And I didn't like it one bit. I have to apologize to Luna.

"Hey . . . " I began, looking at Luna's gym partner.

"Her name's Catherine," Luna finished for me.

"What?" Catherine asked me shyly.

"You can go back to class. I need to talk to Luna for a minute."

She didn't do as I asked and looked at us back and forth, unsure. "You can go back," Luna reassured her.

"You sure?" Catherine bit her lip.

Luna only nodded once and barely smiled before Catherine left. "Did you carry me?" She plopped another ice in her mouth.

"Yes, unfortunately," I may have to apologize, but I refused to no longer put up an act around her. I'm just tired of it, and I felt more like myself now that Linda officially knew how I felt with her other BF. Looking at Luna's unsurprised reaction, I figured she noticed my apparent bad acting this whole time.

"Well, sorry."

The room grew quiet and serious as we had a stare down. Her eyes were at me again. The exact same way the other day. I felt my blood boil instantly as the memory replayed in my mind.

"Did you want to tell me something?" Luna asked calmly.

Instead, everything I've been wanting to tell her just suddenly came out of my mouth. "I don't understand you. Why couldn't you just along with the joke Friday, huh? Why did-"

"I'm sorry." She interrupted me.

"You think a simple sorry is going to fix it."

She hesitated before replying. "You're not angry at me, you're just directing whatever you're feeling towards me."

"Stop doing that! As if you know everything in the world. I hate little know-it-alls, especially you!"

"Just leave." She said unaffected.

"And I hate that calm attitude of yours. You're just so- That's why I told Eric to throw that ball at you."

And for the first time since I've met her she seemed surprised. "Get out."

I laughed dryly at her order.

"I said get out!"

I stayed there a moment, caught off guard of the picture in front of me. Luna was mad. No, furious would be the exact word, her hands were shaking and her eyes grew glossy instantly. "Fine. I never wanted to be here to begin with."

I turned around, leaving the room without a second thought even as I heard Luna begin to cry.