The Minor

Monday, Last Semester of Senior Year

By the time school was over, I was anxious once again. There was a high chance that Jacob would refuse to see me. I couldn't tell if I hoped or feared that the door would be shut in my face. 

I had a plan, though. The moment I walked through the door, Kayla inspected my eye & nodded her approval. "Third day is supposed to be the worst. How are we feeling today?"

"Slightly better, actually. Swelling is almost completely down. It's just bruised at this point." She sat down once more & pushed a coffee across the table into my hands. "Aww, you shouldn't have!"

"You've earned it," she chuckled. "Jacob's been quite the handful."

"It's not his fault." Mostly. It was mostly not his fault. She shrugged & handed me a sticky note with all the boys & their locations. Jacob was back in his room. So was Zack.

"Zack has been asking about Cal."

"I think he's coming today? I'll call him & confirm." 

"Great! I think that's about it. Why don't you get started with Zack and I'll just call you if anything else comes up?"

I nodded, taking a swig of the coffee. I was gonna need it today. She waved me off & stared intensely at the computer once more. So, I took off in the direction of Zack's room. He would've been moved back to his cell by now. On the walk there, I shot Cal a text asking what his schedule looked like and whether or not he had time to come. He responded within seconds with a dozen heart emojis & the words "I'LL BE THERE" in entirely capital letters.

"Crystal!!!!" He sang my name the moment I knocked. Chuckling, I opened the door & braced myself for impact. He came in hot & gave me a giant, one armed hug. "How are you? How was school? How is Cal? Can he come back today?? I wanna show him how good I can do at Flappy Bird, because you only need one thumb for that game!!" I rolled my eyes playfully & stuck my tongue out, walking him back into the room and shutting the door with my foot.

"Funny you should ask... You'll have a visitor sometime today! Maybe two, depending on what Cal's girlfriend decides to do. She might come too!" 

Zack got a funny look on his face. I couldn't tell quite what it meant, but he jumped on the bed and fist pumped in the air. "He was telling me about his girlfriend the other day! I can't wait to meet her." He babbled on about all the people he'd seen since getting his cast & how he had wanted people to sign it, but the facility wouldn't allow permanent markers outside of the medical wing. Apparently, Mackey had given Zack the highest of honors and was telling people that he was a hero in the cafeteria fiasco, so the younger guys were giving him some respect now. "All I needed was a broken arm and suddenly, I'm the coolest kid in this place!" He ended his stories with a giant grin. I couldn't resist laughing and gave him some knuckles for extra encouragement.

"You were pretty brave," I told him. "Not even the big guys stood up to that kid. But next time, maybe we should just grab a security guard? Or Alex?" 

Zack looked at me, incredulous. "The security guards were busy, Crystal. And Alex could have done something if he wanted to. I just felt bad for the new guy," he admitted more quietly. "I know what it feels like to get picked on." 

The mood of the room changed. He shifted slightly and pulled away from me. "I talked to psych yesterday. Someone came in here & said they wanted to see how I was doing. The guy said that he knew you."

I simply gave a nod, encouraging him to continue as I held my breath.

"He asked me how I was feeling and all that basic stuff, so I told him the basic stuff. Then he let me talk about how I felt about the facility and the people here and the routine and all this stuff. He said that he didn't care what I said. I just needed to say what I thought was true... which was kind of cool, honestly. I told him that I was bored & that the people could be mean and the people in charge don't really seem to care. I told him that I wanted to get out as soon as possible, but I'm not sure where I'm going afterwards."