"Can I go to the nurse's office?" I ask Mr. Neven quietly, barely twenty minutes after class started, and ten after he instructed us to start warming up our portions of a current song before he starts conducting.
"What's your reasoning?" he responds.
To yell at Jules for the fucking fight, I want to say. Instead, I point at my stomach. "I'm getting a stomachache."
Nodding in understanding, the music teacher pulls out a notepad and writes on out for me. "Hurry back if you can," he grunts. I nod and quickly leave the classroom.
On my way to the nurse, I hear some whispering, but I assume it's a hushed conversation between a guy and a girl. Probably about a date. Man, the things you can pick up from walking down a quiet hallway.
Pushing the thought out of my head, I open the office door, and then the nurse's door. The first thing I see are the usual health posters tacked on the wall, most likely with chewed gum as the tape. The room is tiny, barely enough to have two beds, but I don't see the nurse anywhere. Jules, on the other hand, is waving at me from one of the beds she's sitting at the edge of.
"Hi, Callie!" she stage-whispers. "How are you?" I'm busy examining the injuries, from a couple of cuts to blood-spattered skin to bright pink patches, which would become bruises later. From the scene, it looked as if the guy was really hammering her. Now, it doesn't look as bad. Maybe the shock of watching a legitimate school fight made the whole thing more intense.
Or Jules is secretly a vampire. That's a plausible excuse, especially with the pale skin.
Snapping to the present, I glower down at her. "You're asking me how I am?" I demand in the same volume, crossing my arms at the same time. "You were in a fucking fight not too long ago."
She gives me a bloody smile. I think one of her teeth inadvertently sliced the inside of her cheek when she was punched. "But you're here! That makes it worthwhile."
"Wh-what was the fight even about?" Jules gestures to the bed across from her. "No, I'm standing right here. This isn't some damn reward for you."
For once, Jules isn't smiling. "Okay," she says. "It was a typical thing, us insulting each other, which then led to having our fists do the talking." The brief image of two fists having a cup of tea passes through my mind before I shake my head to get it out. "No, it's not a typical thing?"
"No, not you," I say. "You just insulted each other out of the blue?"
She shrugs. "What else is there to know?" A long pause wedges into the conversation. Jules then smiles wide again. "You can stay here for a little bit! It'll be like a sleepover!" I stare at her in disbelief. "No sleepover? There are beds here, so I thought you'd like a nap--"
"No, Jules," I interrupt. "I have class." I turn on my heel and start to leave. I hear some shambling behind me, and I look down in time to see a pair of arms going around my waist, jerking me back a bit. I'm beginning to doubt the fight affected Jules in any way.
"I want a hug before you go," she tells me by my ear. I'm not understanding how people can find this position romantic; all it's doing is pissing me off.
I grab her arms and pull them away from me. Without looking at her, I say, "Don't make me use some moves from my self-defense class. Good luck when you get to the principal's office." I walk away again, and this time, Jules doesn't try to get me back again.
__________
Callie: Hey, you there?
I wait for five minutes until Dominic replies.
Dominic: Yeah. What's up?
Callie: Is it alright if we hang out at the field?
Dominic: Sure. When?
I hesitate. What if now's too late for the two of us to meet? I look at the clock on the nightstand. It's almost midnight. I guess I can wait for tomorrow, but the thoughts are swimming violently in my head now. Who knows when I'll be able to sleep?
Dominic: You still there?
Without any hesitation this time, I type fast.
Callie: Now.
Dominic: *smiley face* You can't wait until tomorrow?
That's what the logic in me is asking, I think.
Callie: No. Can you meet me there?
Dominic: I guess. I'll be there in fifteen.
Callie: Me in ten.
Mom is still mad about what happened, so I try my best to be extra quiet as I slip out of my room, down the hall and stairs, and leave the house through the back door. I make sure I don't leave a trace anywhere before I go to the tree.
When I get there, the only thing around here that's living is just me and the tree. I'm glad I thought of wearing my sturdy tennis shoes, because the climb up to the branches is difficult, especially since this is technically my first time doing it alone.
I've just barely sat my ass down when I see a light wavering around at a distance. Whenever it passes by me, I have to shield my eyes from the brightness. "Callie?" Dominic's voice calls out. "Callie!"
As soon as he gets close enough to the tree, I hiss, "Wake up everyone nearby, why don't you?"
The light is shifted so I can only see Dominic's face. He's currently giving me a toothy grin. "I can't do that," he replies. "I'm not loud enough."
I roll my eyes. "You're a step away from being loud enough," I say.
"So, what's up?" Dominic climbs up the tree faster than a squirrel, and a lot faster than me. "Don't say you; that's a Logan joke." He clicks off his flashlight.
I inhale sharply at the mention of Logan. May hasn't mentioned him in a while, but I think it has more to do with me being busy with my homework than anything else. "A lot of stuff's been going on," I say. "And my thoughts about them aren't letting me sleep."
"Is it about the girl from that one time?" Dominic asks.
I give him a 'kind of' shrug. I tell him what's been going on with Jules. The attitude, the house visit, the fight. I finish the story after what feels like an eternity, and Dominic asks me, "This all started with the 'dibs'?"
I nod. "Pretty much," I respond. "She's been pushing my buttons since then." He waggles his eyebrows, causing me to add hastily, "No, I'm not that insane!"
"Why not?" I stare at him. "Alright, that might have been a dumb question. Did you ever tell her to back off?"
"Numerous times," I say flatly.
"Oh." Dominic clicks on his flashlight, making sure it hasn't died for the past five minutes. "Say, why did you go to her after the fight?"
I grab the flashlight away from him when he starts having a little too much fun. "I told you, I wanted to yell at her." He reaches for it, and I hide it behind my back. He gives up.
"You could have yelled at her anytime," Dominic points out. "And you instead risked getting in trouble to see her. Don't you think that's worth thinking about your motives earlier?"
I ask him to come here so I can rant to someone who a) isn't related to me, b) doesn't go to Fife High, and c) doesn't know the details enough to make a biased opinion. And now I have . . . exactly the thing I wanted. It might be a bit better than the advice May or Nancy would have given me.
"You okay?" he asks.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Handing over the flashlight, I add, "Sorry for making you come down here to hear me complaining."
Dominic shakes his head. "I get you. Besides, I was beginning to think you lost my number, so that settled my concern." I laugh a little too loudly. "But hey, you can talk to me when you need to."
I tap on my head. "I'll keep that in mind."
