Lucas ✔️

Thirty-Four

"God, Lil. You're a walking accident these days. Are you sure no one has cursed you?" Cole said with a frown as he pushed a path for us through the crowd.

"Shut up, Cole," I hissed back, wincing as I tried to inspect my bleeding elbow.

Janie helped me along, letting me put a bit of weight on her as my knees bled from the grazes. Of course, the one day I wear shorts I manage to trip over someone's foot and end up sliding along the asphalt.

"I think there's a rock in it," I whined, placing Cole's shirt back onto my elbow and keeping the pressure, even though it hurt.

"Come on, we're nearly there," Janie encouraged, pulling me along even quicker.

I knew it was only partly for my benefit and mostly because she hated blood. To be honest, I was lucky she was even helping me walk since she looked like she wanted to run away at the sight of the blood dripping from my elbow. Cole pushed the locker door open and gestured for us to enter, pointing at a long wooden bench.

"I'll see if the nurse is here yet."

I let out a groan as Janie helped me sit down, a small yelp escaping her mouth as I pulled her blonde curls.

"Sorry," I muttered to her, wincing when the cuts on my knees cracked open as I sat down. Janie flicked her hair over her shoulder and looked away from my bloody knees with a pale face.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad." It should have been convincing, but Janie looked even more upset. "What? What is it?"

"Lil," she sat down next to me with a huff and looked directly into my eyes, burning a hole into my soul. "You've been getting hurt a lot the last couple of days..." she trailed off slightly as her eyes dragged to the scar on my face, pink and puckered angrily, before they dropped to my useless, bandaged hand. "Something's not right."

You're telling me. Even the ghouls had been less annoying than usual – only the large ghouls were touching me, the rest were leaving me with a foot wide radius as though I was contagious with some ghoul-killing disease.

"Jane, seriously, it's just been a wild ride of freak accidents," I said with a shrug, moving my hand slightly to keep the pressure on my elbow. "It sucks, and it's fucking annoying, but it's not like I was seriously cursed by someone or anything." I laughed, and she didn't.

"God, I know that, stupid!" she scoffed, picking at one of her manicured nails. "It's just not normal. I'm worried about you."

"I'm worried about me too," I admitted, shrugging. "Still, freak accidents are just that freak accidents. There's not much I can do to stop them."

Janie opened her mouth to say something but stopped as Cole jogged back into view, a small box in his hands.

"No nurse, unfortunately. We're too early, but she should be here later if you want to see her." He held up the box and shook it slightly too roughly, causing a few Band-Aids to fall out. Bending down and scooping them up quickly, he passed them to Janie, who shook her head roughly. "I thought we could just bandage them... but I guess I'll do it," he finished, squatting in front of me.

"Don't you need to disinfect it?" Janie asked hesitantly, peeking around to look at my knees.

"Nah, don't worry about it," I said quickly. "Just wipe it off, who cares if there's a rock in there." My skin would just grow over it and, if I was lucky, maybe I would die from some weird asphalt-rock-bacteria.

At least I could be with you then, Dad.

"Yeah, it'll be fine," Cole agreed, picking up a small sachet and ripping it open, pulling out an antibacterial wet-wipe. "This'll sting a little."