fragile time

~chapter 7~

"We'll move past it." She finally looked up, her expression remorseful, "The only reason I'm saying this is because you need us to get you out of this whole mess. But, I don't know, Summers... you've been messing up a lot lately. First with the detention thing, and now this? Get your head on right, and then maybe I'll forgive you."

"Thank you." I mumbled, "I know I've lost a lot of trust from you bec—"

Emily scoffed as she stood. "Oh, please. I still have all my faith in you, Summers. My trust is not fragile."

I sighed in relief. Why was I so worried about ruining our friendship? I knew she trusted me. I knew she put a lot of faith in me. Why couldn't I trust her to be with me not just at my best, but at my worst, too? Emily had always done it. I nodded and tried to hide my grin, as I wasn't exactly sure how to respond to a statement of such intensity. 'My trust is not fragile.'

So then we just stood there. Neither of us were the touchy-feely type, so we just studied each other's eyes in what should have been awkward silence.

She might have trusted me, but she told me she didn't forgive me. Not yet, anyway. Deep down, I knew she did. I appreciated her a lot, I dare say the most out of everyone. Therefore, I was terrified to lose the special bond I had with her.

"So, uh," Taylor laughed uncomfortably, breaking the silence, "Can we see the dog?"

~✶~

Forrest seemed to take a liking to (almost) everyone, but I could tell Blade was his favorite. They loved to play together, but Forrest was very careful about his broken paw. Nobody seemed to really notice the bandage around him. Soon enough, (almost) everyone was head over heels for my new dog. I had left Forrest in my dorm room alone for a while, so I searched for scratches, bite marks, or pee on anything while (almost) all the rest of the team met him. Much to my surprise, the only thing even slightly beaten was my pillow, with a few teeth marks. Nothing severe, much to my relief.

"He's so cute!" Taylor squealed while she scratched Forrest's stomach as he, Blade, Taylor, and Emily sat on the floor in awe of our new pet. Lillith stood over them, observing carefully. I slipped off my leather jacket and hung it on the frame of my bed.

"It is not cute. It probably has rabies." Xavier said from his foil bed. Out of all my friends, Xavier was the only one to not love Forrest.

"He does not have rabies, Xavier." Lillith reasoned, eyes still on the dog, "Most dogs with rabies have excessive drooling, staggering, sensitivity to light—"

Blade interrupted Lillith with a chuckle, "How do you know all of this stuff?" He teased, "What are you, a veterinarian?"

"I have always been fascinated with animal life. Recently, the Academically Advanced Magicians Program of this school recently did a fundraiser for the animal shelters of The Barrier. I, being the secretary, decided to study a bit on the species of animals we were helping. Thus, I found a book on dogs, with rabies as a section."

"It probably still has rabies." Xavier argued.

"Even if he does have rabies, Xavier, wouldn't he have to bite you?" Emily chimed in.

Blade coughed to get our attention. "Speaking of bite, is anybody going to talk about Micheal's bleeding shoulder?"

I glanced down at my shoulder, and sure enough, the entire top half of my sleeve was tainted in blood. There was a bite mark through my shirt that Forrest had left when he bit me in the cave. I completely forgot! Sure, it still hurt a little, but it hurt a lot worse the moment it happened. Perhaps I was too busy with everything else to realize the pain it was causing. As soon as he saw the mark, Forrest ran underneath Blade's bed in shame. "It looks a lot worse than it feels." I insisted.