911!

Chapter 25

"You've been quiet." Frank moved a knight and took an opposing pawn off of the board. "And preoccupied."

The blonde across from him merely grunted a reply, chin resting on his fist.

"Your move." Frank reiterated.

Blake moved one of his pieces and they immediately got tipped over by Frank; pitying eyes never leaving the doctor.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Huh?" Blake finally looked up at the old man, clearly not paying attention to anything around him.

"I said, do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"About why you're moping. Is it that girl again?"

Blake tensed under his words, hands balling into fists. "No."

"It is, isn't it. What happened this time? Another fight? Is it that man again? The one you were jealous of?"

Blake's mouth pressed into a line, fire beginning to burn in his stomach.

"What did you do?"

"Who said I did anything?!" The top popped off of Blake's bottled emotions and he stood up, knocking some pieces on the board over. "Maybe it was her! Maybe she messed up! Who said it was me?!" Blake jabbed a finger into his own chest which was now heaving.

"Blake." Frank said kindly. "I'm just trying to figure out the baseline. I need to know the situation if I'm going to help."

"Yeah? And who said I wanted your help?" His cobalt eyes pierced straight through Frank, but he wasn't finished. He was tired of people telling him what to do and pushing him around. He wasn't some manikin that people could manipulate until they got the results that they wanted.

"Who said I need advice from a tottering old man?!"

"Blake-"

"Forget it. I'm going back to work."

Blake's stomach churned angrily as he slammed the door open and stormed out. He knew he shouldn't have said that. He knew it. Frank knew it. The nurse down the hall who probably heard the whole thing knew it. But that didn't seem to keep him from speaking his mind.

Everyone in his life thought they knew the answer to all of his problems. But they were his problems that he needed to work out for himself. He was done taking advice. Done being shoved around. He wasn't seventeen anymore. He could think and act for himself.

Blake's chest heaved and he glanced back over his shoulder for a moment. He would let himself cool down and go back to apologize to Frank later. Right now he had people to heal.

~!~

Rose picked at the sandwich in front of her, Mia watching from across the table.

"Ok, spill." She finally said, watching as the brunette looked up at her surprised.

"Hm?"

"I've barely seen you do anything this week and when I finally coerce you out into public you dissect a turkey avocado sandwich for ten minutes. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

A pang rang through Mia's stomach but she squared her shoulders. "Don't freeze me out."

It was silent for a moment before she decided she would guess until she hit gold. "I haven't seen Blake around for a while."

"This isn't about him." Rose shot back.