(It Happened) One Friday by Lori L. Otto

Author:Lori L. Otto [Otto, Lori L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lori L. Otto
Published: 2017-07-24T18:30:00+00:00

7

Max

I lean onto my arm over the bathroom counter, trying to put as much pressure on the area above my wrist as possible. Trey finally knocks on the door. It seems like he took forever, but I’m pretty sure I’m unable to accurately measure time in the panicked state I’m in.

“Come in!” I yell loudly, having left the door slightly open after I called him. I wipe my cheeks on my shoulders, trying to remove any evidence of tears. “Hope I wasn’t interrupting anything,” I say to him, hearing my voice shake as I focus on the blood blossoming out onto the towel I’ve loosely draped over my hand.

“No, not at all… uh…. Max? What happened, man?”

“What?”

“Did you throw a bottle through the window? What the… there’s blood on the floor. Max?”

I sniffle and meet his eyes in the mirror as he walks toward me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I cut up my hand.” I turn around to show him the bloody towel and feel the flow of blood increase when I stand up fully.

“Oh, shit.” He stops abruptly and takes a few breaths. “How bad is it?”

“There’s glass in it. Blood. Lots of it.”

“Did you two get into a fight?” He diverts his attention, moving quickly to the dresser until he finds one of Callen’s soccer socks.

“He cheated on me,” I barely manage to choke out. “I saw him. In the men’s locker room.” I cry fully and easily with my best friend, my chest hurting where my heart used to beat strongly for Callen.

He stares, mouth agape, and shakes his head. Seconds later, he snaps out of it. “Here.” He ties the sock tightly around my arm just above my wrist and tosses Callen’s now-bloody swim shorts on the floor. He looks under the towel. “Ohhhh, shit. We need to get you to a hospital.”

I nod, beginning to feel lightheaded as I let him take control of the situation.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” He directs me to the bed, sensing my weakness. “Just a sec.” He calls Zaina and asks her to come to my room. She’s here almost immediately, acting only on the urgency in his voice because he didn’t tell her anything.

“Oh, my God! What happened?”

“Zai, I’m taking him to the ER. I need you to stay here and wait for Callen.”

“What’s going on?” She looks at me with sympathetic tears.

“He was with another guy, Zany,” I whisper weakly, putting my arm around Trey’s shoulder as he helps me up. “He doesn’t know I saw him… but I did.”

“That son of a… Max… where?”

“Zai, we don’t have time. We’ll figure this out later,” Trey says. “I’ll call you once we find an ER or something.”

“Right,” she says.

“Just let Callen know where we are… that he’ll be okay. If he walks into this bloody mess, I’m afraid he’ll think something much worse happened.”

“Okay.”

“Tell him…” I start. “Tell him…” Trey drags me out of the room before I can finish my thought. My thought didn’t have an ending, though. I have so much to say to him, and yet nothing to say to him at all.

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