“What the fuck do you want?”
I bit my tongue, immediately regretting saying anything to him. I moved back, but I was stunned when he turned around.
His cheekbones were black and blue and his jaw was swollen. His straight nose pointed upward and seemed like the only part of him that was intact in the middle of all the cuts and blotches.
“Why the fuck are you always staring?”
His words fell on deaf ears; I was too stunned by what I saw. None of his wounds had cleared up even a bit? Nobody took care of him?
“Let me get this straight, your parents didn’t say any—”
It only took him two steps forward to loom over me. “Look, Snow White, listen to me loud and clear. Stay away from me.”
The tension from his gaze was too much to handle, so I lowered my eyes again.
“Your hand’s bleeding again.”
“It’s not doing anything. It’s a flesh wound,” he spat dryly.
“Those cuts look pretty deep. If you don’t take care of them, they’ll keep opening up. You better see the nurse,” I murmured with a jolt of courage.
He lowered his head as if he wanted to recapture my attention.
“You really care that much, huh?”
I looked up, and our eyes met, confusing me. His words were tinged with subtle sarcasm, and his lips were curled into an insolent grin, confirming my suspicion.
“Come with me,” he said, taking a step back.
“Where?”
“This is an opportunity for you clean up the mess you made yesterday, White. Need I remind you?”
James took me by surprise, but I decided not to let him see that. I followed him to the nurse’s office without saying a word.
“Do you really care, or are you putting on a front so you can go to bed with a clear conscience?” He borrowed my exact words, which gave me a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.
He remembered what I’d said again.
The nurse’s office was a narrow little room with a strong smell of disinfectant. James sat on a stretcher with a mattress that seemed like it couldn’t hold his weight. I stood.
I had no intention of apologizing. I wanted to make him understand that since I had my reasons for doing what I did, there was no reason to make me pay. We were even.
“Look, Hunter. About last night . . .”
Without any warning, James grabbed the end of his sweatshirt and pulled it off. He was shirtless, and I looked at him skeptically.
I didn’t know what he gained from stripping in front of people, but he did it often.
“I’m hot, don’t give me any shit about it,” he barked. “Carmen?” he yelled loudly.
A stocky middle-aged woman poked her head out from the nurse’s office.
“Oh, you again. I’m coming,” she groaned in a thick accent.
Peering beyond the curtain that separated the stretchers, I noticed she was wearing a white coat.
“You’re in good hands now. I’m gonna head to class,” I whispered, as James put a vape pen between his lips.
