All I see is darkness. Then I start to see white. I'm dying. This is death.
Suddenly, I'm out of the fountain and I'm sputtering and coughing out water. Someone dragged me out by the collar of my shirt. They pull me over to sit on the ledge of the fountain. I cough, eyes focussing back, slowly regaining my hearing.
Someone is shouting at Xander and Gadi and Alyssa and Chloe. He's so angry at them, I think he might just explode. He tells them to go to their rooms, and that he'll deal with them tomorrow. That they should expect expulsion. That they should pack their bags.
"Jade," he says, voice course after all the yelling. "Are you okay?"
I try to stand up and fail, coughing more to the point of choking. I turn away from him and cough.
"Jade?" he says again, this time more worried.
"I..." I turn to look up at him. My eyes finally focus on his concerned features. His wide eyes look more grey than green. A tattoo poking out from beneath the collar of his shirt. It's Callum. Callum saved me.
"I'm fine," I say, and I'm shocked to hear my voice as dry and rasped as sandpaper.
"They almost drowned you," he says in disbelief.
"How did you...?" find me.
"Can you stand?" he says.
I try to pull myself up, but the blood rushes to my head and I black out.
I blink back to life, Callum is standing over me, shaking me lightly. "I'm back," I say, knowing I must have only been gone for a few seconds.
"You're going to freeze to death," he says. He stands up, eyeing me up and down, then leaning forward and picking me up like a bride.
I shiver against him. Even though I'm out of the water, I still struggle to breathe and I gasp for air.
He walks hurriedly, but not in the direction of my dorm. He takes me behind the glasshouse, where I know a short distance away was Coach Goscicki's old cabin.
I start to fade away again – I don't know if it's to sleep or if I'm passing out – but I don't wake up until we're in a small one room apartment like place.
I'm laid out on a bed. I sit up and am hit with a dizzy spell, but I persevere. The room is long and rectangular with me, in bed, on the far end of the room. In front of me is a small couch pressed against one wall and opposite it a small tv. In front of that is a small kitchen. Everything is grey – the walls, the cabinets, the couch. Behind the wall of the kitchen is (I imagine) the bathroom, and a small hallway leading to the front door.
Callum is calling someone but they don't seem to be picking up. He is scrambling in the kitchen, looking for who knows what, searching things up on his phone.
He walks over to me and says, "you need to change."
Even half dead I know better than to do that.
"Now," he says, passing me a hockey jersey and some sweatpants. He leaves the room and goes to the bathroom.
I change quickly, almost toppling over (and actually toppling over a few times) before sitting back down. "I'm dressed," I call out.
He rushes back in with about twenty towels in his hands. "Lie down."
"Noo..." I begin to say but it sounds empty. I'm already laying down before he comes and sits on the bed beside me.
He covers me in towels from head to toe. "Hypothermia..." he says absently.
I feel drowsy, my head spins and I start to fall back asleep.
"No!" he says, grabbing my face in his hands and shaking me softly. "Stay awake, a doctors on the way."
My eyes flutter closed. "I'm so tired," I say.
"Jade..." he says.
"Yes, Callum?" I say, floating away. "Oh sorry, I meant Coach Calver... Callum... Carver..."
"Stay with me," he says. "Jade," he says, more sternly.
"I don't want to," I say. I feel drugged, like the lack of oxygen to my brain is slowly poisoning me.
"Keep talking to me," he says, "Just a little longer."
"I'm so cold," is all I can think of.
"Your skin is purple," he says, gasping lightly.
"Drowning was... terrifying," I say slowly.
"I'm so sorry," he says.
"For what?" I say, "be more specific."
"I shouldn't have let this happen to you."
"Oh," I say. I wanted him to apologise for being an asshole.
"No, no, keep talking," he says.
"You're so... rude."
"Yes, tear into me. Insult me. Completely destroy me. Do whatever you have to. Just stay awake. Please."
"I want to go to my dorm. Let me go."
"No," he says, his hands pinning me down by my arms. "Stay here until I know you're okay."
"I want to leave," I say, struggling against him, but my attempts are weak and his strength is undeniable.
He grits his teeth, like it hurts him to be this close to me. Like I'm so repulsive to him, that having to touch me burns his skin. "You're hurt," he says impatiently.
"Why do you care?" I manage, almost losing my train of thought. "You should have let me drown."
"Don't say that shit. Don't be stupid." He pauses, hands softening against me. "I care about you. A lot."
"Then why... are you so... rude to me?"
One of his hands reaches up to brush the hair out of my eyes, hair that got in the way during our struggle.
I can see him better now, and I look up and see he looks so afraid.
He bites his lip so hard I think it might draw blood. "Because you infuriate me," he says.
"I infuriate you?" I repeat.
He nods slowly.
"You wish you never kissed me?" I ask.
He flinches, like the words physically hurt him. "Why would you say that?"
"Because you hate me so much," I sigh.
"No I hate... not being able to-"
The door to his humble abode swings open and Gladys rushes in. She pushes him aside and sits by me. "Jade, oh Jade," she says frantically, resting the back of her hand against my forehead to check my temperature.
I start dozing off again. Someone else joins the room. A doctor, I presume.
The three of them talk about me for a moment. The doctor takes some tests. I don't remember what he's done, even seconds after he's done it.
I fall asleep in Callum's bed, in Callum's clothes, wrapped in his scent. I wonder what he was going to say.
.
.
.
I wake up feeling normal, better. My throat still hurts from all the violent coughing.
I turn over and see someone lying in bed with me, and I almost scream, until I realise it's only Gladys.
The sun isn't up yet. But I sit up for a moment and glance around the room. Callum is asleep on the couch in front of me. He looks almost angelic in his sleep.
I fall back to sleep.
.
.
.
The next morning, I'm called to the Ms Svetkov's office.
Ms Svetkov almost seems annoyed to release me from my punishment, as though she takes it as a personal loss.
Gladys says, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you."
"You can skate in Nationals," Ms Svetkov says as though she has to drag the words out of her at knife point. "I wouldn't have believed it if Coach Carver hadn't come here the first thing in the morning begging for your remediation, demanding those children be punished."
I don't know what to say to that. "Don't punish—it was only Alyssa," I say.
"She may be the gang leader, but the others played a part too," Gladys says.
I don't want Xander to get in trouble. I should. He used my greatest fear against me, and he knows I'm terrified of the water. But I still feel loyalty towards him.
I walk to homegroup late. Perry sits in our typical corner, and I start making my way over to her, when someone grabs my arm.
It's Xander.
________
hehe spice is coming
to be continued.....
love aurora