“Are you alright?” Shannon asked me, two days later. I’d taken two days off, claiming illness.
I nodded. “Yeah, “I said. I reached for my pencil that had fallen off of the desk. Pain shot through my abused ribs. “Shit!” I hissed.
“You don’t seem okay,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me. “Did Roy do something to you? “
Roy was gone, but not before he’d made quite a scene outside of Henry’s door, it seemed. While I was at my meeting with Arrakus, Roy was screaming, shouting, and pounding on Henry’s door, threatening him with violence. Apparently, he only stopped once the deputy dean arrived with campus security.
“Nah. Roy spent the night before he left locked in his room. I was in bed, sick.”
“You’re acting as if you’ve broken a rib or something.”
He wasn’t going to let it go.
“I fell in the shower,” I told him. “Well, actually, while I was getting out. Hit the edge of the sink vanity.”
“Oh my God! You could have hit your head or something. You should never shower by yourself if you’re that unwell. Promise me that next time, you’ll wait until someone can help you if you need it.”
Yeah, no.
“I wasn’t that sick. I didn’t get dizzy or anything. Just clumsy. I tripped over the edge of the bath mat. And I didn’t fall to the ground. I just bashed against the sink, as I said. It’s just a bad bruise.” That much was true. It was a bad bruise, it just wasn’t from that, and it went all the way around my ribcage.
He looked unconvinced. “I hope you got them looked at. Instead of just being bruised, they could be broken.”
“If they still hurt tomorrow, I’ll go see the nurse.,” I promised him.
I wouldn’t. I did have to do something about it, though. I just didn’t like what I would have to do. I hated feeding as it was, but it was a necessity. I generally preferred to allow wounds to heal at a normal pace and feed a few days earlier than I would have. I’d underestimated the physical toll of my recent assignation, though. My muscles still burned, my ass ached, and I am pretty sure at least one rib was cracked. I’d have to ask for a feeding pass earlier than planned. Made students were given one every five weeks. That wasn’t a very long time away for me, but in my current state, it was too far.
I felt a stirring in my mind at the thought of feeding.
Yesssss. Ffffeeeed.
Then a feeling of curiosity washed over me, though it felt somewhat removed as it was not mine.
No! I thought at him. He’s my friend, Shannon. Not Family and not food. I let him feel the fierce sense of protection I felt over Shannon, hoping he’d respect that.
Beeeelovvved.
I didn’t respond to that. After the events that had happened since I got here, my old life seemed very far away. Even Michael now felt like something that had happened to someone else, my memories of us now were like something I’d seen. I was detached from them, the same way I felt watching others with their partners, for example, Gregory with Gwen. I felt a sweetness from the thought of the connection between them, but nothing else. It was a curse as much as a blessing, for while I wasn’t pining over Michael’s loss any longer, it seemed that Arrakus saw all too clearly what I’d been denying to myself. I’d moved on from crush at first sight to being in love with Shannon. If it kept him safe, that was fine, even though it made me vulnerable. He was leverage now, should the Family wish to use it.
Nooooo.
An aching sadness welling up from a dark pit of loneliness swept through me. It was so vivid that I gasped again.
“You sure you don’t need to go for an X-ray?”
“Yeah. Just a nasty twinge. I forgot to take anything for it.”
“I have some ibuprofen in my bag,” he offered.
My bruise was still purple with a tiny bit of yellowing, so that wasn’t the best option. But I was going to arrange to go feed, so that didn’t matter. Why put up with pain in the meantime just because it’d add to the bleeding a bit around the site?
“Thanks.”
“I don’t have anything to drink on me, though,” Shannon said, picking up his bag and rummaging for the pill bottle.
“It’s alright. I can swallow them on their own.”
He made a face at that. “Yuck, I can’t.” He pulled out a small bottle. “Always feels like they’re stuck in my throat when I do that.” He opened the lid and carefully shook out two caplets into my waiting palm.”
