ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴅ | ɪ.ɢ

021

[TWENTY-ONE]

* . °•★𝓢𝓪𝔂𝓵𝓸𝓻☆•° . * 

ɪ ʙʟɪɴᴋᴇᴅ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴍʏ ᴠɪꜱɪᴏɴ ᴄᴀᴍᴇ ʀᴜꜱʜɪɴɢ ʙᴀᴄᴋ. I was lying on the ground. Why was I lying on the ground? 

Why were all the Walter boys crowded around me?

I looked around, confused, and pushed myself to my feet. All of them made sounds of concern and reached out as I stumbled slightly. 

"What's going on?" I slurred. My voice sounded nasally. 

Slowly, I reached my hand up to my nose and felt it. My hand came away red. Was that blood? My blood? 

I let out a strangled sort of sound and stumbled backwards, collapsing into Isaac's arms. 

* . °•★•° . *

"Saylor. Saylor, can you hear me?" 

I groaned, pushing myself upright. I was lying on a firm surface in an unfamiliar room. There were two people there. One of them, I didn't recognize. The other one, I did.

"Katherine?" I said, my voice still sounding different. Her face broke into an expression of relief as she helped me sit all the way up. 

"What happened to me?"  I asked, taking a sip of water out of the cup the other person gave me. Katherine sat down on the cot beside me. 

"Honey...Cole broke your nose." 

"WHAT?" I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I switched on the camera and looked at myself in the reflection.

"Oh shit." I whispered. My nose was covered with tape and I could already see bruising coming under my eyes. I gently pressed against my nose and immediatly regretted the action. "Ow." I muttered under my breath.

"Luckily, there's no disfigurement of your nose, so it should heal normally. You'll likely have pain for a few weeks, so just be careful." 

I nodded slowly and rose to my feet. I stumbled slightly and Katherine caught my arm. 

"Come on. Let's go home. I already took the boys back and they're all getting punished for fighting." 

"Wait. Wait wait wait." I braced myself against the doorframe. "But Isaac and the others...they weren't fighting. It was just Cole and Alex." 

"There's other stuff...um...you don't need to worry about it, okay? Let's just focus on getting you home." 

"How did I get here?" I asked, still not letting go of the doorframe. I had so many questions, but I hoped to at least get this one answered. "I passed out, right? So how did I get here?"

"One of the boys carried you here. The one with the leather jacket." The nurse said, taking the empty cup from my hand and throwing it in the trash. 

Wait. 

"Isaac carried me here?"

"Yes."

"Isaac?"

"Yes." 

"Really?" 

"Oookay. Come on, let's get home before Alex and Cole rip the house up." Katherine said, guiding me out the door and towards her car. After climbing into the front seat I glanced down at my shirt and saw there was still blood on it. I'd have to change when we got back. 

Overall, this was not a very fun day.

* . °•★𝓘𝓼𝓪𝓪𝓬☆•° . * 

"To be, or not to be. That is the question." Danny said as he walked around the dining room table. Okay. Maybe he didn't say exactly that, but he was rehearsing for his play, had been rehearsing ever since Aunt Katherine and Uncle George told us we had to stay here until Alex and Cole worked things out. And it was getting annoying. 

After Danny repeated his monologue for what must have been the fifth time, I groaned and decided to interrupt. 

"Can you please stop? You've got it. I think we can all say you've got it by now." 

"Yeah. I'm with Isaac, stop." Nathan said quickly, looking up from his book. "And can you guys please just apologize, cause this fight is affecting all of us now." He said, glancing at Cole and Alex. Cole snorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"But it seems like it's affecting me the most. You know, the one with a black eye?"

I snorted, slamming my homework binder shut. "You? You're the one who's affected the most? What about Saylor? Whose nose you broke? I think she's suffering just slightly more than you are!" 

I didn't realize that I was on my feet until Lee was tugging on my arm.

"Bro, calm down. Chill." 

My fist clenched as I continued to glare at Cole, who smirked at me. 

"Why do you care so much. Don't tell me—"

"Shut up!" I lunged at him and Lee jumped up, stopping me from reaching my cousin. 

"Isaac, sit down." He said, pushing me back into my seat. Cole held up his hands.

"I'm sorry for breaking her nose. Didn't realize you guys were involved—"

"We're not!" 

"Not what?" 

All of us looked up to see Saylor, leaning against the doorframe. Her nose was covered in tape, and there was purple brushing under her eyes. I heard a few sharp intakes of breath and even saw Cole wince slightly. Good. At least he realized exactly what he had done.

"Nothing." I said quickly, answering her question as she walked inside the room. After a moment, Alex asked,

"Are you okay?" 

"Oh, this?" She said, gesturing towards her nose as she sat down between me and Cole. "Oh yeah. I'm fine. Perfect. They said it shouldn't disfigure my face. Only, you know, hurt for a few weeks." 

These next words were aimed towards Cole, and I saw a flicker of an apologetic expression cross his face. I refused to look at Saylor, my heart pounding fast. How much of the conversation had she heard? How long had she been home? 

But before I could work up the courage to ask her, Nathan had suddenly slipped and fallen from his chair. 

* . °•★•° . * 

A/N:

I'm so sorry that this is such a boring chapter! I'll have better and more entertaining ones tomorrow. I just kinda had to get through this one! I have some good ideas that hopefully won't be as slow to write and boring as this chapter 🙄.

Also guys how did we go from like 5K reads to almost 8k this is insane you guys are amazing!