Up in the Air

Chapter 18

Dedicated to @_InSaNiTy, the queen of GIFs -- a dedication that is waaay overdue. Sorry!

Chapter 18

One minute, you're walking to the school library where your sort-of boyfriend is waiting for you for a sort-of study date for tomorrow's butt-kicking AP Chem quiz. The next minute, you're lying on the ground with your head practically splitting in half – figuratively and literally.

From the back of my head came a sharp throbbing pain and from the front, a warm trickle of something that smelled like rusty metal – blood.

So, I was bleeding and my head hurt, my brain intelligently told me.

I wasn't really sure what happened because it didn't go like it did in the movies. It was confusing and fast, not at all dramatic and it didn't play out in slow motion. All I knew was that, now, the hallway floor was cold and the fluorescent lights shining above me were too bright.

"Holy shit!" a voice I didn't recognize yelled.

A second later, someone was hovering above me. "Are you okay?" He was tall and wide, built like an Ancient Roman soldier – or a WWE wrestler – with the face of a baby complete with the cherubic curls and baby blue eyes. "I was late for practice and Coach was gonna kill me and -"

"What's going on here?"

Now that voice I knew.

"Daniel?" my own voice sounded small, child-like, afraid.

"Sara? What's -? Sara!"

Daniel was beside me in a heartbeat. "You're bleeding," were the first words he said.

Glad to know I wasn't imagining the blood.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice calm and even in a way that told me he was forcing it to be that way.

I started to shake my head but he stopped me. "Don't move, just try to talk to me. What day it is."

I would have frowned but the little movement my forehead had to do to accomplish that task caused a new wave of throbbing pain. "Hngh – it hurts," I whined before answering him. "It's Thursday and I was heading off to the library so we could study for that quiz tomorrow. My head hurts but I'm pretty sure I don't have amnesia, Daniel."

Daniel gave me a tight-lipped smile. "You," he glared at the kid who'd been apologizing to me before. "What happened?"

"I-I was running – I was late for practice and -"

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "Practice?"

The kid nodded, his sandy brown hair flying into his pale blue eyes. "JV Football team – I'm a sophomore. Anyway, I was running, late for practice – like I said – and I didn't know she was around the corner and I slammed into her and, honest, I thought I didn't hit her that hardbut she slammed into the locker and then fell on the floor."

"Did she hit her head?" Daniel was no longer looking at the kid. He'd taken a handkerchief –people weren't supposed to be carrying those around, let alone teenage boys –and pressed it to the cut on my head.

Again, the kid nodded.

"How many times?"

"Twice maybe? The first time on the lockers –I guess that's why she's bleeding? -- and then I saw her hit it again when she fell to the floor," the kid said in a rushed mumble.