They wanted to keep me in for a few days to make sure it didn't get infected and I had already decided I didn’t like hospitals very much, it was to quiet and white and sterile, and it wasn’t a peaceful quiet it was a tense quiet the kind of quiet that could help you sense silent misery and pain and I wanted Lily to take me home. "I'm not staying here" I say defiantly as Lily spoke with the doctor, they both look at me "Cayden its better that you stay" she says
"yes your bandages will have to be changed and cream and ointments will have to be put on the wound to stop it getting infected" says the doctor
"Lily has done medical training she can do it, at home" I say, she shot me a look that said shut up now or I will kick your ass, injury or not, I shrunk down into the bed "we also found a break in your collar bone so we'll have to do surgery on it tomorrow" says the doctor
"fine" i grumble "I'll stay in this god forsaken place", they left to talk more privately and I heard the word psychologist "I won't see a psychologist" I call. Hospital was the most boring place I had ever been I lie there all day waiting for them to come and change my bandages and that’s the most that happens except when Lily comes over after work. I was in there ten days before I was allowed to go home, and then I had to spend 5 days at home not doing anything it was better than being in the hospital at least now i could spend all day watching movies but after the first 2 days it got boring and I had already gone through 8 movies. When lily got home I was lying on the lounge bored "what are you moaning and groaning about" she asks
"I'm bored" I grumble "and I have another three days of this"
"there must be something for you to do" she says
"there's nothing except watching movies" I complain
"why don't you read a book?" she asks
"do you know how awkward it is to turn a page with one arm without losing said page?" I ask her she shakes her head "well I tried it today and found out it is extremely awkward"
"so there's absolutely nothing you can do?"
"absolutely nothing" I say.
Friday afternoon I lay on the lounge upside down, my feet dangling over the back and my head hanging down the front, my head was already feeling funny due to all the blood rushing to my head but I couldn’t care less. There was a knock at the door, well it's not lily I thought to myself, she'd come straight in, it couldn’t be anyone else no one likes me. Hmm what a conundrum. I really didn’t want to get up, a bored chris is a reluctant chris, crap Cayden. I mentally cursed myself its Cayden this time chris was your name last time. I hadn't gotten my own name wrong so far, maybe it was all the blood rushing to my head. The knocking continued I groaned and pushed off from the wall flipping forward and landing on my knees. The knocking now sounded impatient "I'm coming!" I snapped "jeez at that rate you'll put holes in the door" I get up off the floor and open the door. I didn’t even say anything I just stood there stunned she was the last person I would have expected to see at my doorstep. Taylor. "hi Cayden, I um came to apologize" she said quietly. She's apologizing to me? Really? I just stood there like the idiot I was still gobsmacked by the fact that she was on my doorstep. I mentally shook myself "no its alright I was a dick I deserved it" never thought I'd ever say that. It was her turn to look shocked "I did not expect that to come from your mouth" she said emphasizing the word your.
"I'm just full of surprises" I say lacking the enthusiasm I had intended
"well I just came to say sorry" she said "ill just, go" she half turned away
"wait" I said, what the fuck am I doing "I'm sorry I've been rude" great cant stop now "why don’t you come in" and I'm an idiot
"um yeah ok" she says.
We sat awkwardly on the lounge. There are a thousands things I wish it was instead of awkward but that’s what it was. "how's your arm" she asks quietly
"its alright i suppose" I say "being at home with nothing to do is the worst part"
"i would too" she says "its hard trying to read with a cast on"
"how many bones have you broken" I ask curiously
"um" she starts counting on her fingers until she gets past ten and tries to figure out the rest in her head "about 22" she answers "what about you"
"my broken collar bone makes it an even 1" I say triumphantly. It goes silent again
"can i ask you something?" she asks quietly
"technically you already are" I say, she gives me an unamused look "but yes you can ask me a question"
"who trained you?" I look at her caught off guard by the question
"what do you mean who trained me?" I ask playing dumb
"i know you’re a hunter" she says "I could tell by the way you reacted when I attacked you" i nod "I was trained by David Mathews" I answer she nods "is something wrong?"
"no" she says "its just strange being in this house"
"really? Why?" I ask
"well actually its not the house that’s strange" she says "its you that’s strange"
"i like to think I'm quite normal thank you very much" she raises an eyebrow at him "ok, ok other than the whole hunter thing, how am I strange"
"well for starters you did let a werewolf into your house" she says
"im ignoring the rules of the hunters at the moment" I say
"and you have the biggest barrier around yourself" she says "you act like a total dick to everyone hoping the hidden boy that just wants attention wont be seen by the people around you, you hide behind a mask and you wont let anyone get close enough to see who's behind it-"
"stop!" he shouts at her "just stop!" she stands suddenly
"no!" she shouts back "you need to hear this Cayden! Your acting like a pathetic child! Hiding from the world because you don’t want to face the truth! You need to grow up!"
"you don't understand! No one ever does! Not even the hunters do! I screwed up and I have to live with that!" he shouted at her
"if you let people in then they might understand" she says gently
"no" he says quietly "that was my downfall, I wont make that mistake again"
"is that what the hunters told you to think?" she asks "that it was your fault because you got too mixed up in normal life" I don’t respond.
she sits back down next to me "there was a child who was a hunter just like you are, they always went hunting with their father and they mainly killed werewolves. One hunting trip the child thought they were smart and when the werewolf ran off they chased it even when they're father said not to. The child was bitten by the wolf and turned and do you want to know what the father did?" I looked at her I'd heard this story a thousand time it was to teach us obedience so why was she telling it to me? "he took the child to the hunters as is procedure and told them to execute it as it was no longer his child" I was never told that part of the story, I was told the child had been turned and that was that "why are you telling me this?"
"because the hunters aren't always right" she says "they train teenagers to not feel anything, to bottle your emotions up and not let them show but if you do that you'll explode". I started thinking about all the angry outbursts I'd had lately and how they had been like explosions I couldn’t contain anymore "how do you know so much about the hunters?" I ask her, she shrugs and goes silent. I look at her I had been struggling the whole time to not look at her and now I had failed yet again and was looking at her.
