Unpromised Home

just girls being girls

'in which you wake up in the past'

Groaning you sit up off the ground. Clutching your ringing head, you let out the most crunchy cough you have ever heard, probably due in part that you just inhaled a face full of dirt.

"Ugh. Man..." You mutter wheezing slightly, as you rest your head between your knees. Your eyes were shut tightly as you sat there for a few minutes. Waiting and hoping that the pain in your skull would stop sometime soon. You probably most definitely had a concussion. A pretty bad one. Maybe. You also had a track record for being overly dramatic for every minor inconvenience that ever crosses your path.

"Excuse me? Are you alright?" A delicate voice called out to you from above, making you jump. "Agh! I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you!" You mumble as you rub out your bruising backside.

"That's alright" You stare up at the face from where you were sitting on the ground. Her hair was a dark brown, and she was wearing a long skirt that fell above her ankles and a button up shirt, "Who... are you exactly?" Her face grows into a grimace. A pretty grimace, but a visible discomfort none the less.

"You can call me Vivian." She replied, "I was just out here taking a walk, when I came across you. Clutching your head and sitting on the ground." Her tone was strange. It was oddly forced and polite, clearly an ill fitting facade.

"A walk? This late?"

"What do you mean late? It's hardly past noon!" The two of you stare at each other in pure confusion. Sure enough it was now midday, not midnight like it had been moments before.

"I swear... I swear it was just night. Like... What?" You stare at your hands as Vivian, steps closer to you, caution on her footfalls.

"Maybe... I should take you to the doctor." She starts, giving you a hand to help you up, "My father is one actually. I think he will be home soon. Come on." She sticks your hand in your face again. You stand up, and follow her back down the path she supposedly came from. Even your surroundings have changed you now realize. There's a much more beaten path her, even denser tree cover, and most importantly no bank for you to fall from.

"I don't think I caught your name?" Vivian questions, glancing over her shoulder briefly before returning her attention to the path before her.

"Uh... I'm [Name]." You glance down at your feet. This is becoming increasingly awkward. A sigh escapes you, as you begin kicking a stray rock you found laying next to the path. You focus on it for a while, kicking it forward just far enough that it wouldn't impede Vivian's path.

You wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't failed that damned test. Then Dani wouldn't have felt the need to play super roommate and include you in their game of tag as an act of sympathy. And you wouldn't have had the stupid idea to run down in the tree line to lose Vic, and then falling and then probably disappearing right in front of his eyes. You really are just a hopeless girl. How are you supposed to go and save lives if you can hardly stop yourself from inconveniencing everyone you ever interact with?

"[Name]?" Vivian asks as you kick the rock a few feet to far, sending it barreling into the scattered trees.

"Yeah?"

"What were you doing before I found you anyways?" She stares blankly ahead, "It's odd for someone other than myself to be on this path most days."

"Odd? Why's it odd?"