The Major Lift. Rewrite one.

Down with the Wall.

The studio lights were on, but something seemed ... off. If she were asked to define what felt off, she couldn't have said. But as she walked up the hall toward the large studio room with the drumkit, she did a doubletake on the door to the unisex bathroom, snapping her head around so hard her neck cracked.
There was a sound coming from behind the door, the lights shined from under it. The sound Chris heard sounded like someone choking. She pushed open the door and peered inside disregarding the feeling of foreboding that had dropped into her own stomach.
Beside the bench near the corner of the room, there was a frankly alarming amount of blood on the floor. It was slowly inching its way toward the drain. 'What the fuck?' She thought tonherelf, looking toward the sound she'd heard. There was Aurora, hunched over one of the toilets in a stall, her head disappearing into the bowl coughing. Chris dropped her bag without a second thought and made a beeline for her even as the sound she was making made her own stomach twist. She placed a hand on Auroras back and was slightly alarmed to feel the sharp bumps of Auroras spine, undulating as she heaved into the toilet. She rubbed her back. "Aurora, it's Chris and it's okay. Just let it out" she soothed, bending over and brushing some of the stray red hairs out of her face. Aurora took a deep breath and moved to rest her head on her arm. Chris let her trained eyes sweep the rest of her body, or what little of it she could see through her overcoat. The question of where the blood had come from was answered with a glance. Auroras hand was covered in it and she could see just peaking through her sleeve the end of a large laceration.
Auroras face was pale and sweaty. She was breathing far too fast. Tears streamed down her face and her body trembled nearly constantly. Chris pressed a hand to auroras forehead and sighed in relief.
"Aurora, can you open your eyes? Look at me?" She asked in a voice she hoped wasn't too loud for the acoustics of the room. Aurora moaned, coughed and then looked at her, blinking tears out of her big, green, bloodshot eyes.
"Relentless" she rasped, sighing through a shredded pair of vocal chords.
Chris knew what this meant. Four days earlier, Aurora had accused her of the same thing, though in a much more light-hearted way. Now however, the situation seemed far more serious and Chris may have laughed but now it didn't seem appropriate.
"How long have you been unwell?" Chris asked rather matter-of-factly, letting Auroras remark fly over her head.
"M- n-t ... sick, Chris" Aurora croaked, wiping her face on her sleeve and breathing still more rapidly.
"Slow breaths" Chris reminded, resuming rubbing a hand up and down her back. She began to take slower, deeper breaths. Chris guided her away from the disgusting toilet bowl to lean on the wall of the cubicle.  She could could see signs of dyspnea (difficult breathing according to one of her textbooks) in Auroras posture, the muscles of her neck and suprasternal notch were working hard to draw in air. She couldn't hear any obstruction which she thought was a positive sign.
"Easy, breath. There you go". Chris repeated in a tone she hoped was soothing and not patronising. Aurora closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the wall. Chris could hear her breathing catch on inhalation as she hiccupped. After a few moments of this, Aurora finally began to slow her breathing down noticeably.
Chris saw she was in a t-shirt that was far too big for her and the neckline gaped, showing off the straps of what appeared to be a sports bra but might have been some kind of compression garment and many more small scars. But this was the least of their worries. She took a genital hold of Auroras bloody left arm. But Aurora flinched away, gasping and wincing.
"I'm sorry. But I have to take a look. Will you let me take a look?" Chris asked, pleadingly, privately sure that her wound would require stitches and itching with morbid curiosity as to how she'd acquired such a laceration. Aurora appeared to be considering this. But she held her head up and her eyes closed as though afraid to look down, or as if fighting back further nausea Chris couldn't be sure.
She then nodded, tight-lipped and head resolutely high. Chris carefully rolled up the sleeve of Auroras overcoat to reveal a sight that made Chris stomach roll again.
There was a deep laceration running almost the length of Auroras inner forearm in an almost painfully straight line. It didn't appear deep enough to warrant stitches but it was slowly and surely seeping a darkened, steady stream of blood. The surrounding skin was angry and inflamed and she felt Auroras muscles tense under her hands as she gasped and hissed in pain. Chris looked up at Auroras face to see it pale a little.
"You need this cleaned and dressed. I'd like to take you to the campus health centre where they have-" Chris began, but Aurora shook her head, finally opening her eyes and looking at Chris with terror.
"Nah! No! I can't" she stammered, voice shaking and caught. The intonation spoke to Chris of a kind of terror she may never know. And something deep in her soul told her that she'd have an impossible time getting Aurora to go anywhere near the health centre while conscious. Something struck Chris as she stared at the wound though, and it sent a chill up her spine. She knew somehow, auroras would was no mere accident.
"Aurora? Who did this to you? Or how did you injure yourself?" She asked in a hushed tone, glancing furtively toward the door. There was a long moment of silence before she saw Aurora shake her head, swallowing hard. Chris sighed, taking Auroras silence as conformation of her worst fear. The wound was too uniform and clean to be an accident and Aurora was alone and her distress she was sure had come on before she'd sustained the wound, though if asked, she couldn't have articulated how she knew this. Something had to have gone badly wrong for her many hours ago, perhaps last night. Something so terrible that in auroras reality, there was no practical out.
"Okay, I'm going to go and run some water over this and then well bind it and then I'm going to get you something to drink. Okay?" Chris said in a tone she hoped invited no argument or protest. Auroras posture changed at this, she tensed and gaged but to Chris' relief this was all that happened.
"You don't have to tell me, Aurora. But please let me help you" Chris urged, putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling a wad of toilet paper out of the dispenser beside auroras right shoulder to slow the steady bleeding from the arm. She winced in pain but didn't pull away, nodding after a pause.
"There you go. Hold this" she said, pressing a large folded piece of clean (not sterile) toilet paper onto Auroras arm gently. Hard pressure wasn't exactly necessary because the bleeding had slowed significantly, but there was still blood everywhere. It was all over the toilet rim, all over Auroras hand and all over the floor where Aurora had clearly been sitting an indeterminate amount of time earlier.
Chris got up and went to her bag. She pulled out a water bottle which she was yet to drink and her gym towel which she'd planned to use at the rehearsal that evening. Usually it was draped around her neck as she drummed to mop up the buckets of sweat she normally produced during said rehearsals. But she proceeded to one of the basins and ran the water until it was lukewarm and then soaked the towel in it. Returning to the stall where Aurora had not moved an inch, she took the arm gently and proceeded to wipe away the blood from the pale, lined arm as gently as possible.
Tears still fell down Auroras reddened face. Reddened, that was a good thing Chris thought. It was better than the alarming pallor of minutes previously. Aurora hiccupped furiously. She appeared to be working hard to hold back some torrent of darkness. Something had gone badly wrong, whatever had gone wrong, Chris worried it had been going on a long time. Too long. Perhaps she was looking at someone who had been pushed too far. Perhaps Chris was bearing witness to Aurora finally cracking under the pressure it now seemed obvious she was under from some unseen place.
"Aurora? How are you doing?" She asked, tentatively as she finished and inspected the now clean wound. It was deep, Chris had been correct, but it was likely that Aurora would get away without needing stitches if it was dressed correctly. 'Likely, but not definitely'.
"Still feel sick. But ... ehh" Aurora muttered, though she was still trembling. Chris, without asking consent, placed a hand on Auroras forehead again and pressed it there for a moment. Aurora didn't have a fever which was another good sign that did nothing to assuage her worry for the person sitting in front of her. But she had another question that needed a concrete answer. She couldn't hold it back anymore.
"Did you do this to yourself?" She asked in a hushed voice she desperately hoped didn't sound accusatory.
There was silence and Aurora gave a nod that might well have been imperceptible had Chris not payed close attention. Her tiny nod made Chris' stomach drop, even though the answer didn't exactly  surprise her. She sighed and then picked up the bottle of water she'd brought with her. She unscrewed it and offered it to Aurora who blinked slowly as if trying to focus her sluggish eyes on it. Then she glanced up at Chris in unabashed incredulity.
"Drink, just a little if you can. You can keep it if you want. Just ... drink" Chris urged, persisting and holding it out until Auroras good hand closed around it. It shook as she brought it to her mouth and Chris had to steady it to prevent her from spilling it on herself. Aurora took maybe a few sips before grimacing and lightening her lips. Chris took back the bottle with a smile and screwed back on the cap.
"Better?" she asked, craning her neck to peer into Auroras downcast eyes.
Aurora shrugged.
Chris got up and surveyed the room. It was getting close to nine o'clock which meant other people would be flooding on campus soon. She needed to do something about the mess near the drain and the bench. She used the towel from earlier to push the now coagulated pool of darkened blood toward the drain. She soaked it in the now hot water from the basin and scrubbed it from the grout as best she could before throwing the towel into the sanitary bin that stood beside the toilet. Then, she washed her hands. Blood didn't scare her but she liked to think she wasn't stupidly fearless of it, especially if it was someoneelses. She returned to Aurora who remained where Chris had left her, though she noticed the absence of the tremor. She inspected the wound again. It was still oozing, so she pressed a fresh wad of paper to it and asked Aurora to hold it there, which she did.

What to do now that other people were about to flood onto campus was not a question with an easy answer. Chris could try to persuade Aurora to accompany her to the café for coffee, or perhaps a bite to eat. She could use the overcoat to cover up the wound from the prying eyes of others who didn't have any of the context Chris did. There, they could decide what to do, Chris could ensure Aurora ate something and then kept it down and then hopefully try to persuade her to have the wound looked at by someone with more expertise than she possessed. It was her fretting arm, and in the back of Chris' mind, she could see this being a big problem for Aurora down the line. The last thing she wanted for the only guitarist that she'd heard who actually could replace Dylan, was a career ending injury. As Chris thought about this, she decided that the best course of action was to get Aurora out of the bathroom, and down by something else. Anything else.
She held out a friendly hand to Aurora who took hold of it and used it to haul herself up. Now standing, Chris inspected her and noticed that she staggered slightly. She adjusted her overcoat, taking the bad arm out of the sleeve and hiding it in the coats cavernous interior. Auroras face cracked in a sad smile.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked suddenly as Chris went to pick up her bag and then quickly returned to and guided her toward the door.
"Because you need some help and you're a fellow human being. And I'm nice" Chris explained, surprising even herself with her eloquence forwardness.
"I've been an absolute tool to you" Aurora spat looking genuinely confused as they exited the bathroom and headed up the staircase toward the buildings lobby. Chris fought not to laugh with incredulity. Here stood beside her a person who appeared so convinced of their own unworthiness that they went prepared to believe anyone could want to help them.
"Honey, with all the respect and love I can possibly muster, don't be stupid" Chris said without thinking about it too much.
"I can't eat, Chris" Aurora groaned, suddenly and with a bite of fear.
"I'm not going to make you, but I'd like you to try at least. You need to put some of that fluid you lost back. I won't take no for an answer" Chris said in a voice she hoped didn't invite protest.
"Relentless" she heard Aurora whisper again, causing Chris to laugh darkly.

They went to the café in the lobby of the arts building where Chris managed to coax Aurora to take a few bites of a sandwich and a few sips of tea.
"You need to have the wound cleaned properly, I think Steri-tsrips might ..." Chris began, but Aurora was already shaking her head furiously, tight-lipped again. Chris would have loved to argue, but she could see where Auroras mind was going. She was terrified that someone in whom she had no trust would know what she'd done and punish her for it, more than she'd already punished herself.
"We don't have to say how it happened. I could say you were helping me fix Blakes bass and his hand slipped ... or something" Chris suggested, picturing her housemate toiling away with modifying his instrument and the sharp tools he often used which often had him placing band aids all over his hands and fingers.
"They'd never buy that, Chris. Nobody's that dim. I can't. I'm just going to have to deal with it at home" Aurora replied in a voice like stone. Picturing this, Chris felt uncomfortable. "And not a word to anyone! You understand?" Aurora added, suddenly threatening, like balls of green flame.
"You so sure that home is the safest place?" She asked without really thinking.
Looking back on the conversation latter that day, Chris was sure this question was her first real mistake.
"That's enough! I gotto go. Chris, thanks for the food and helping me out. And I'm sorry you had to see that. But I gotto go. See you round" Aurora blurred out, getting up but she was shaking, going pale again. Chris could see this backfiring on her badly latter and wanted desperately to keep her talking, keep her satisfactorily distracted.
"I'm sorry. You should finish this. Hey. Aurora!" She persisted. Aurora did a double take at the café doorway, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Chris went to meet her and was surprised when Aurora didn't back away. She took out a pen and a piece of paper from her bag and scribbled down her number, giving it to Aurora who looked at it with a kind of sad incredulity and took it in a shaking right hand.
"Give me a call some time. Yeah?" Chris prompted, smiling what she desperately hoped was a sincere smile and not a creepy one. There was a moment of softness in Auroras expression. For just a moment, it might have looked to an outsider like the climactic moment in some cheesy romantic film. Aurora bowed her head, leaning in slightly, but then she was gone. Chris ambled back to her table.

She took the take-away coffee she'd ordered and hoisted her back higher up her shoulder, heading upstairs to the class she was already late for, furious with herself.
Had she been too forward? Had she perhaps scared off the only decent guitarist with any chance with the band? Chris didn't know, but as she quietly took a seat at the back of the auditorium and took out her pen and notebook, resigned.
Worry prickled at her like many tiny needles as the lecturers droned on over the many different types of splints, her thoughts wandering back to Aurora like a compass orienting to north.