Sam and Colby: The House

29

"You're sure you're good to go up with us?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I just needed a minute and some water. I'm good," Corey assured me.

"Okay," I said. "Well, here we go."

Jake reached up and unstuck the cord to pull down the attic hatch from where it had been taped up to prevent the contact paper from having any noticeable bumps in it. He yanked on the string a little harder than he should have, causing the hatch to snap open and its accompanying ladder to quickly unfold and shoot out after.

I, of course, was standing in the way. The ladder shot out and one of its legs hit me right in the stomach, causing me to stumble and then fall backward, hitting my head on the ground. Hard.

"Ness!" Colby exclaimed. I heard him drop his insanely expensive camera onto the wood floor but wasn't able to respond to him. The fall had knocked the wind out of me, leaving me struggling for air. I shut my eyes, trying to focus on my breathing. My head was spinning a little too from how hard the back of my head had slammed into the ground.

When I finally found my breath, I opened my eyes to see four faces very close to mine.

"Jesus!" I said, jerking up in fear. They were so close to my face that when I sat up, I bonked my head into Jake's. "Fuck!"

"Ow!" Jake yelled. "You have a hard head!"

"Yeah, to protect her giant fucking brain," said Corey.

I laid my head back down on the floor and let out a loud groan.

"Dude, what is it with you and beating up my girlfriend?" Colby asked, looking over at Jake.

"Hey bro, she got me back this time," Jake said, rubbing his forehead.

"Hardly," said Sam, leaning back over me but keeping his distance in case I wanted to sit up. "Girl's going to have a nice ol' bruise."

"Wonderful. Is this going to be a recurring theme? Me getting my face bashed in by Jake every five months? Because if so, I'm not sure that this is something I'd like to continue," I said, my voice strained from the pain in my head.

"Here, can you sit up?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," I said. He put one hand under one of my shoulders and Colby put one under my other, and they slowly pulled me up to a sitting position.

"Here, let me pull you over to the dresser so you can lean against it, okay?" Colby asked. I nodded. He went behind me and lightly gripped the undersides of my arms and pulled me back the few feet to Augusta's dresser. He squatted down in front of me and gently grabbed the sides of my face.

"Oh, princess," he said, his eyebrows creased with worry.

"Is there a mark already?" I asked.

"Yeah, a small one. Just a little bump," Colby replied.

"Good thing we already went to the ice castles for pictures, am I right?" Jake asked.

"Shut up," all of us said at the same time.

"Okay, okay. Sorry," Jake said, holding his hands up in defense.

"Do you think you hit it hard enough to get a concussion?" Sam asked.

"Well, I weigh 130 pounds and that's equal to 26 G-force from a fall like that, but that ladder was moving fast as fuck and those spring were loaded which could have easily tripled that number," I said.

"I... that's not a sufficient explanation, I have no idea what your answer was to that question," said Sam.

"Barely, but probably yes," I said.

"You seem fine. You're over here doing math," Corey said.

"Concussions don't necessarily alter brain performance," I explained.

"Oh," Corey said.

"Do we need to take you to the hospital?" Colby asked.

"Oh, fuck no. After Vicky's little stunt, I never want to go to a hospital again unless my injury is life threatening. Besides, they can't even do anything other than say 'yup, that's a concussion'," I said.

"Baby, are you sure? I want to make sure you're okay," Colby said.

"I'll tell you if it gets any worse than this bitch of a headache I have right now, okay? Let's just go explore the attic," I said.

"If you're sure...," Colby said uneasily.

"If Corey's sure, then I'm sure. Come on," I said. I stood up and tried my best to hide the fact that it made me super dizzy. I held Colby's hand tightly, but I think he thought it was because I was scared and not because I was about to lose my balance and fall over again.

Yeah. I definitely had a concussion.