The Way We Are

13

Admittedly, despite being such a cheery person, Lola wasn't really one for mornings. Her whole body, and mind, just refused to wake up. She was quite content in the in between state of asleep and awake, where things were still a bit fuzzy, and remembering anything or recalling encounters took a little longer than normal. Eventually though, everything came back to her, and in her little cocoon of blankets and pillows, it hit her: somehow, she wasn't certain how, but Hank and herself were together. She rolled over in her bed with a grin suddenly on her face. He had refused to stay with a rather awkward, nervous smile on his face before retreating from the room. She remembered it all now.

With a frown she looked down, she remembered all details of the day, especially her injured leg. She propped herself up onto her elbows and kicked the covers away from herself with her good leg. She was not expecting to see blood drenched bandages and stains on the bed. Lola shot up then and moved her leg, it hurt, a horrible pulling sensation which caused her to frown and wince.

Swinging her legs over the bed she stood, her leg gave out slightly, but she was able to hobble awkwardly around the room until she got to the door. Opening it she shuffled pathetically down the corridor, conscious of it still being early she really didn't want to accidentally wake anyone up. So trailing a hand across the wall she had to painfully hop to avoid banging on doors. The last thing she wanted was someone half asleep and grouchy shouting at her, no thank you. She was already apparently having a rubbish morning without that. It was slow going until she got to the end of the corridor, she looked at the stairs with a new sense of dread. Never before had stairs looked so evil.

Considering who she was looking for seemed to be a basic insomniac with heightened senses, Lola was rather sure Hank would hear her regardless. "Hank?" She called out lightly, despite now being in pain, her voice sounded actually quite level. It was a surprise to her because she didn't feel all too level at the moment. "Hank?!" She called out in a harder tone, this time her voice sounding a little panicked and harsh. She was whisper shouting, which wasn't the easiest. She really didn't want to try and get down the stairs before her. Once she gets down them, then there's the other set to the ground floor. No way did she want to go near stairs. This alone was plenty enough for her. "Hank!" She lost it and shouted shortly and sharply. She winced though and looked over her shoulders, nothing. She looked a little confused, the people here were really heavy sleepers it seemed. She really did think whoever was nearest to her would've been woken by her shouting, apparently not. Which was a relief, she really didn't want an awkward morning meeting with someone and explain why she was standing awkwardly gripping onto the banister to save herself from falling.

"Lola?" Instant relief shot through her, she stopped distantly looking over her shoulder and looked downwards. She swore he didn't sleep. Hank looked as alert and awake as ever, fuelled by coffee, she predicted. "What is it?" Being at the end of the first lot of stairs, and her basically around a corner, there was no way for him to see the mess of her leg.

"I've got a problem."

Hank's eyes widened, "Erm-"

"Not a girl problem, Hank!" She cut him off shortly with a despairing look. Hank let out a relieved sigh and then tried to cover it up with an awkward cough, he failed completely. Lola hopped and jumped and managed to just about go down the first stair and show him the bandage which was well and truly red now. Hank's eyes widened as he held up a hand, she got it, don't move. She looked around and pulled a face at the blood droplets she had left as a trail.

Hearing footsteps again, she turned and watched as he practically flew up the stairs with the way he ran so quickly. She hadn't seen someone move so fast before, blinking wide eyes she only just registered him talking to her when he snapped her name. "What happened?"