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28. Ups And Downs

Damien ran over to me, moving to help me to my feet. When he tried to put his hands on me, I gasped. It was more out of shock, than pain, but he pulled away with a worried look that had blanketed his entire body.

"Are you alright? You look like you fell kind of hard."

I shook my head "I'm alright, really. Can we get out of here? I don't want to be here if he comes back. Let's go to the mall?"

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Twenty minutes later we were at the mall. My wrist was screaming, but I tried to ignore it and just keep my hand inside my sweater pocket. Alex and Damien had immediately ran towards the record store, leaving me to my own devices. I had noticed that Damien was still shivering from the cold, and he was clinging onto the thin gray sweater Alex had let him borrow.

I walked along to a nice men's clothing store, and after wandering around I found the winter coat section. Most of these were the cheap, puffy marshmallow coats. I could never see Damien walking around in a puffy coat, I smiled at the thought.

I wandered a little more until I found the wool coats and bomber jackets. I felt frustrated that I couldn't even find a jacket, until I found the pilot jackets. They were like a woman's pea coat, only bigger. I found a black, navy and finally a brown coat. The black would make him almost unrecognizable in a crowd, and thinking of his skin tone I figured brown would be a better choice. I looked at the $150 price tag staring me in the face, but I knew it would be worth it to keep him warm.

After fumbling with my wallet, and apologizing under my breath to the person working at the counter when I had trouble sliding my card...

Maybe my wrist was worse off than I wanted to admit...

Why didn't I get him another handkerchief?

When I stepped into the indie/rock shop, I saw a perfect combination. Alice in Wonderland and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the perfect items for a musician like him. I wondered if he would even like them... if this was all too much... but then I found a pair of fingerless gloves too, and I added some new eyeliner into the bag just for fun.

I decided I'd wait until we were finished eating to give him his gift, the last thing I wanted was for him to feel like he had to reciprocate.

We all decided to eat there, in the food court, and I noticed Damien's hesitation when he made up an excuse that he left his wallet at the house. He said to just eat without him, but I couldn't do that. I tried fumbling for my card, but Alex was not convinced I was okay.

"Nat, you're in pain. Why don't we go get it looked at?" Alex whispered, grabbing my wallet and helping me extract a $20 bill.

"We will, okay? I'm hungry, Damien's hungry, you're starving-we've been here for three hours already." I pleaded with him, convincing him to help me at least scarf some food down before heading to the emergency clinic. I sat down with Alex, letting Damien go get our food. When he came back, it was in a huge bag and he had a drink carrier.

"We'll eat in the car, let's go. You're getting it looked at, don't argue with me, please." Damien nodded at us to follow him, and soon we were in Alex's car and headed down the highway.

I took a breath in, keeping a vigilant eye on the road. Alex noticed I was nervous, and said, "We're almost there. I'm going the speed limit, we're going to be alright." I closed my eyes one more time, and when I opened them we were at the emergency entrance, and a nurse had already come out with a wheelchair and Damien was helping me onto it.

"I can walk, you know."

The nurse assured me it was protocol, and once I was in the room, we chowed down before the doctor came in to do x-rays.