Forever | Protector 3.2 | Wattys2017

Chapter 47

       Jerome shook his head, still holding his wrist. "I moved it the wrong way, when I almost lost my grip on the handle," he said.

       Lucy was the next to walk over. "Was it just a small sprain, or does it still hurt?" she asked.

       "It still hurts," Jerome said.

       "Okay, I'll get a paramedic to come here and check your wrist out," Lucy said, and Jerome nodded in reply.

       "So....I won this challenge, right?" Dirk asked.

       "Because that's what's important right now," I said sarcastically.

       "What? I'm just making sure," Dirk said.

       "Well, then you're going to have to hope the last challenge isn't a brain one," I said. "Because clearly you don't have one if you had to ask if you won this challenge."

       "Excuse me?" Dirk asked.

       "Yes, Dirk, you are the winner of this challenge," Lucy said. "Congratulations, you'll be moving onto the final round." She didn't really seem that enthusiastic when she said that, unlike every other time she announced who the winner was. 

       I didn't blame her. Dirk was an idiot.

       Lucy looked back at Jerome. "Just wait in the living room and I'll get the paramedic to check out your wrist."

       Jerome and I headed inside, and we sat down on one of the couches in the living room. Jerome leaned back into the couch, releasing a long sigh. "I'm sorry," he said.

       "For what?" I asked.

       "Making Dirk win," Jerome said. "Now he's going to be in the finals for sure."

       "Jerome, that's not your fault," I said. 

       "Uh, released your handle to make sure I was okay," Jerome said. "You would have still been in the challenge if it weren't for me."

       "No, not really," I said. "I was going to lose sooner rather than later because my back was hurting from standing liked that for too long."

       Jerome sighed again. "I still can't help but feel like it's my fault he's going to the final round. Now, it's going to be one of us against him."

       "It might have been that way if you didn't even hurt your wrist," I said. "I hate to admit it, but he is a strong competitor. He has won a lot of challenges."

       "Yeah, you're right there," Jerome said. "Look, I know you don't want to go up against him in the final round, but on Friday, you're going to have to try your hardest whatever the challenge is, even if it's a puzzle of some sort that you'll definitely win."

       "But you're going to do so much better against him in the final," I said. "You have a lot of determination and you're a very competitive person. I'm not."

       "You don't have to be a competitive person to win," Jerome said. "I'm serious. Whatever the challenge on Friday is, you're going to have to try your hardest. I will too, and we can't just not try just because we'll be up against each other."

       "Okay," I said.

       This was the first time I actually hoped the challenge was going to be a physical one so Jerome would win.

       It didn't take long for a paramedic to show up since Lucy had to keep one close to the house just in case there was a serious injury on the show, because a lot of the challenges could have caused a lot if we weren't careful. Even if we were careful, there could have been an injury.

       Lucy led the paramedic over to Jerome, and he began examining his wrists and asking some questions. When he finished, Lucy asked, "So, what's the result?"

       "Well, I would say this is a grade two wrist sprain," the paramedic said.

       "How long will it take to heal?" I asked.

       "Not too long," he said. "About a week or so and until it's healed, he should keep it bandaged and avoid any physical activity."

       "But....I can still participate in the challenges, right?" Jerome asked.

       "It depends what they are," the paramedic said. "If they're physical, then to be on the safe side, I don't think you should."

       "And the next two challenges have some physicality in it," Lucy said. "I'm sorry, Jerome, but I don't think you'll be able to participate in them."

       Jerome sighed. "Okay. So....that means Nolan is automatically in the final, right?"

       Lucy nodded. "Right. There won't be a challenge on Friday to determine who's in the final and I really hate to do this, but....Congratulations, Nolan. You are in the final round by forfeit."

       Great. That was one thing I didn't want; to be in the final round with Dirk. I was way too confident when I told him I was going to destroy him if it was just us two left in the competition. I didn't even think I could.

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Three chapters left. :O And within two hours, there will be two chapters left because I'm going to write another chapter right as a post this.

And depending how my day goes tomorrow, Jerlan's story might come to an end tomorrow, and we might be lucky enough to have the first chapter of Rhys's book up then as well. Again, it depends how my day goes and how much I get distracted, because that tends to happen a lot. cx