Running • Iggy

Birthday

AUTUMN

September 31st. Everything since returning had slowly returned to normal, which was good. I had returned to my small room where I slept alone, and I had even gotten my drawing books back. Me and Iggy hadn't changed too much, but I felt a lot more comfortable with him now that the anxiety of him finding out was off my chest.

The leaves on all the trees had turned beautiful shades of orange, red and yellow, but they hadn't dropped off the trees yet. There were even a few horse chestnut trees, or conkers trees, in the local park that were dropping a bunch of conkers.

It was after the children's bedtimes when Alisha brought something up. We were all playing monopoly at the time, and I was naturally winning like the total badass I am (I was almost bankrupt and in jail). "You know, it's your 16th birthday tomorrow, Citrus." Alisha probably didn't think I was going to knock my water over in surprise at the question, but I did just that.

"My what now?" I asked, blinking like a madman. "Sorry, didn't mean to do that." I quickly used my telekinesis-like ability to clean the water up. Alisha just laughed. "Your 16th. And then it'll be Iggy's birthday in, what, 26 days after yours?" Alisha glanced to Iggy, who had officially gone bankrupt about 10 minutes ago.

"17. Woo, I'm old." Iggy grinned. "16 though, nice of you to catch up." Iggy laughed as I pouted. Max rolled the dice and managed to land on one of my properties. I collected my sweet colorful paper bills and waited for Fang to play his turn.

"The others already knew, I told them about a week ago." Alisha informed me. I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it." I said sarcastically as I was finally let out of jail. On my first roll, I landed on Max's property and went bankrupt. I sighed and stood up, ignoring Max's taunting as I walked over to the kitchen to get some food. It was getting close to 12am, and I was exhausted from helping customers all day with a constantly aching back injury. By the time I had finished eating my toast and strawberry jam, Alisha had left to go to bed. It was just Max and Fang now.

All I did was twist to go to wash my plate, that was it. Apparently, my wounds unanimously decided that they didn't like that, and decided to tear themselves open. I dropped the plate as white-hot pain rushed through me, and I had to grab the edge of the counter to steady myself. The plate smashed as it hit the ground, and Iggy was by my side before I could even register it. "Woah, what happened?" He asked quickly, putting a hand on my back. Bad choice. I couldn't scream or I would have, instead I clenched my teeth and groaned. "Don't. Please don't-" I stepped towards the counter to avoid his touch on my back.

"Are you hurt? Cee, what happened?" Iggy asked in concern, bringing his hand to his side. Max had somehow managed to walk over without me noticing, and was hovering one of her hands over my back. She gasped, she probably sensed the injuries. Her powers were weird, she could do a full-body scan, things like vitals, injuries, even down to possible beginnings of infection and the cause of injuries. "You were stabbed? When?" Max asked insistently.

"Dunno... I don't remember what date it was. Ages ago, in the mountains. Some... Some jackass threw knives at me and shot my leg." I hissed as Max lifted the shirt off my back so it bunched near the back of my neck. Iggy had gently put his hand over mine, covering my whitening knuckles.

"That's bad." Fang pointed out. "Yeah, no shit." Max responded sarcastically. "They're both infected, jesus, why didn't you tell me sooner?" She asked as she poked lightly at the edge of one of the wounds. This time, I screamed. I just about managed to cover my mouth to quiet the noise.