A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 14

Writer's Note- As of Nov. 7th we've reached over 2000 reads!! Wow I literally can't believe this, this really started cause of r/writingprompts, thank you all so much. Thank you to those of you who comment and vote and read and especially those of you who made Wattpad accounts just to read the story of Derrick and Mike.

A Note on who's reading the story and from where
Age:
13-18 (26%)
18-25 (22%)
25-35 (4%)
45+ (4%)
Private (43%)

Gender:
Female (30%)
Male (30%)
Private (39%)

Readers and Country:
United States - 34.783% - I hope y'all voted.
Canada -13.043% - Hi Canadians :)
Korea- 8.696% - 안녕하세요 !!
Australia, Austria, Chile, Kenya, New Zealand, The Philippines, The United Kingdom and Vietnam each have 4.348 % of readers.
We really hit every continent!!

#

Mike was knocking on the door, muffled voice coming through, "Derrick, are you okay? I can hold your hair for you."

Fucking shit. I flushed the toilet and looked in the mirror, wiping and washing my face and my hands vigorously. I didn't respond, taking out some cleaning supplies and beginning to clean the toilet. Where was the blood even coming from?

Mike creaked open the door, coming into the bathroom when he saw me cleaning frenetically.

"Derrick, are you okay?"

I wanted to yell at Mike to stop asking me if I was okay. I bit my lip instead, not wanting to raise my voice.

"Derrick-" he said, touching the back of my shoulder, "Tell me what I can do."

A sudden irritation spread over my skin like a rash but I held back how badly I wanted to lash out, "I just need a moment, I'm good, thanks." It came out clipped, but that was the best I could manage at the moment. I left the cleaning solution in the toilet, giving it a moment to sit.

I put a bit of tooth paste on my tooth brush, brushing and spitting out some paste. It came out red.

I saw the moment when Mike saw the blood in the sink, how his eyes widened, and his face paled. "Derrick." he said in a voice I hadn't heard from him before, strangled and scared.

I finished brushing my teeth before responding, "I just bit my tongue by accident, it's not big deal."

"You didn't bite your tongue. And you need to go to the hospital." Mike crossed his arms over his chest, slanting his eyes at me.

"Mike-" I said, pouring out some mouthwash into a tiny cup, continuing to look at him through the bathroom mirror, "Just- Stop freaking out okay?" I started gargling noisily and Mike left the washroom, stomping somewhere. I heard him rustling through things and talking in Spanish. God, maybe Lucy was right and I needed to learn Spanish. It would be nice to have conversations with Mike in his native tongue even if it wasn't so native to me.

A sudden dizzy spell hit me and I gripped the bathroom counter, blinking away the double vision. This was okay. It was fine. I'd be okay.

I spit out the mouthwash, wiped down the sink and flushed the toilet, the cleaning solution doing it's job.

I turned off the bathroom light and went to the living room, sitting down on the new couch. I slumped deeper, feeling exhausted. Maybe spending money wasn't so bad. Mike appeared, having changed out of his work clothes into something he had in my closet, along with a back pack. "Are you going like that?"