Red Hair, Black Soul (Red & Black #1)

22 | Don't care

Complement #17

Said to: Makena

Your  blood-wiping skills are astonishing.

***

"Don't move." Makena scolds me, running the wet tissue under my nose. "Or I'll smear all of this blood all over your face."

I shrug. "It'll match the hair."

She doesn't respond as she focuses on her hard task of cleaning the dried blood from my face. She took me to the bathroom when the chaos on the corridor has subsided. Apparently, the teachers in our school have the perfect timing and always manage to appear in the place of an incident. Only this time, the teacher bypassing us was no other than Mrs. Scottinson. When she spotted the peanut gallery that had gathered around us, she didn't even ask questions. All she did was push through the mass of people toward Jed and Carson, motion for them to follow her silently and ordered Makena to help me clean up on her way. I don't know the further fate of the two boys, since I've spent the last fifteen minutes in the bathroom, letting Makena tend to my no longer bleeding nose.

"I could do it myself, you know." I tell her.

"I know." She responds evenly. Balling the wet tissue in her fist, she throws it into the bin and reaches for another one.

"What do you think Mrs. Scottinson is going to do with them?" I ask after a moment of silence.

"I don't know." She admits. She brings her face so close to mine, examining my nose, that her breath fans my hair. "Nothing serious, though. She's not the type of a teacher who suspends the students or calls their parents."

I nod, gaining a tell-off from Makena. She orders me to sit still and continues her work. As she does, I consider what she just told me. Her words do seem believable. Mrs. Scottinson saved me from detention once. Clearly, she doesn't support the typical school punishments.

"He didn't want to, you know." Makena says out of nowhere in a voice that seems too quiet solemn to be hers. "Hit you, I mean."

"But he did." I reply in a voice that seems perfectly cold to be mine.

"Not on purpose." She insists. I sigh. I don't even know why we're having this conversation. I don't want anyone trying to justify the events of the past thirty minutes.
"He just wanted to help you." Makena goes on.

"Well, I didn't want to be helped."

And it's true. It doesn't matter how good his intensions were. Helping someone by force is a damage of its own.

"He knew what he was doing. Sorry." Makena murmurs when I wince as she adds a bit too much pressure. "Carson is an asshole. They used to have a bone to pick on their freshman year, when Jed was still playing football. When he quitted the team, the quarrels have subsided, but the two were never fans of each other."

Huh. I never knew Jed used to play football. It's funny I had to get my nose smashed to gain the information.

And Carson? Seems like Jed doesn't get along with any other owner of the Y chromosome in this school. First Al, then the Hemoglobin Guy - the list only lengthens with time.

"It doesn't seem like he knew what he was doing to me." I say, pointing to my nose.

"The hit wasn't aimed at you. You just kind of... got in the way."

"Oh, so now all of this is my fault?" I scoff, tilting my head away from her grasp. Her hand reaches out to stop me but I move out of her reach, pressing my back against one of the door leading to the cabins. "I didn't ask him to attack this guy. It was all his choice. One I do not support."