Purple

Chapter 2

Son of a bitch.

That's the first thought that pops into my mind when my eyes flutter open and I recognize the curtains of the nurse's office around me. I groan, pressing a hand gently to my pounding jaw, as I slowly sit up. Nausea rises in me but fades after a few deep breaths.

He punched me. Colton actually punched me.

The curtains sway and a head of dirty blond hair pokes through. I scoot backward in surprise and cringe as the sheets beneath me crinkle loudly.

"You're up," Dominic says, dark hazel irises appraising me. He settles into a chair next to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got punched in the jaw," I reply snarkily, only to sigh as he rolls his eyes but doesn't look away. "I'm fine, really."

"Fine?" he barks with a short laugh. "You've been out for about twenty minutes, and you call that fine?"

I blink once, twice, three times before the words sink in. "T-twenty minutes? Twenty minutes? Oh, hell, I missed the bio test!" I scramble off the bed and to my feet with every intention of hauling ass to Mr. Powell's room-- but the world starts to swim and I lose my footing. The world is washed in black and my senses fade away.

When the feeling subsides, I realize that I've been blubbering nonsense from the way my mouth is still moving nonsensically. I stop, licking my dry lips absently, eyes flickering nervously to Dominic's face. His expression of concern stays as he gently steers me to the bed.

"You really didn't have to do that for me, you know," he says after a moment of charged silence. "Confronting Colton was--"

"Heroic?" I offer with a lopsided smile. He glowers at me.

"Idiotic, more like," he grumbles, but there's an amused and almost tender glint to his eyes. He looks down with a breathy sigh before our gazes meet again-- and when they do, the peculiar look is wiped clean from his face. "Thalia, I appreciate you trying to help, but--"

I don't get a chance to hear the rest of it. The school's nurse, Patty Brewer, loudly approaches and throws the curtains open; he falls silent. I'm not sure it would have mattered, anyway. The rock that I can suddenly feel in my stomach tells me that I know exactly what he was about to say.

Patty shuffles in between us, a thermometer in hand. She places it on my forehead. "Just going to take your temperature, dear," she rasps, humming a cheery tune under her breath. I meet Dominic's gaze over her shoulder to find an amused smile on his face. I roll my eyes.

She clucks and hums, checking over this and that. Silence is the only sound in the air, occasionally accompanied by the crinkle of paper sheets as I fidget. An agonizing seven minutes later, she straightens and beams, a wrinkled hand extending a clear bag of ice to me. "Not to worry, dear. You'll be good as new in no time. You only have a mild concussion."

I stare at her, jaw agape. "Concussion? Concussion? Colton gave me a concussion-- Colton gave me a concussion..."

Dominic thrusts his hands into his hair, beginning to pace and mutter something that suspiciously sounds like "I'm going to kill him."

"There's no need to fret!" she tells me gently, in a tone of voice that tells me she's been in this situation far too many times. "You only need to limit your screen time and take some over-the-counter pain meds for the headaches. You'll be just fine, promise."

And, with that, she signs my papers and sends me back to class.

Dominic walks with me to bio. "You sure you're okay?"