Eventually, I'm going to stop putting warnings every time there's a few curse words in the chapter. There's warnings in the book's description; if you're still here then you probably don't care.
Lunchtime - Friday - Diviners' Infirmary - Time: 12:24 pm
June 6
Kip's POV
In all honesty, I couldn't trust them. Lila seemed to think they were perfectly fine, but I couldn't let my guard down. People are only filled with burning hatred and betrayal. I find it's best to avoid emotional attachment for this reason: people are dangerous.
Especially if they're anything like me.
I had been resting in the infirmary for a few days. The wound in my stomach was almost unbearable, but self-healing was not something that I was particularly good at. They claimed to have a good doctor, but that was bullshit as far as I was concerned. I had seen nobody of the sort.
Sighing, I got up out of bed. I could hear yelling laughter coming from a few rooms away. Lila's voice stuck out to me.
"You're an idiot for bringing us here," I muttered.
I looked around. The room wasn't huge, but it was fair sized. The counters were empty except for a large stack of books, which seemed to be about medical procedures. On the top, sat a binder. I flipped it open. There were tabs with names on them, and each one seemed to have relatively few papers under it.
With the exception of one.
The tab labeled 'Bruce' had a stack of papers under it; enough for it to fill the majority of the binder. As I flipped through them, I realized that they were medical records.
"This dumbass Bruce must be really frickin' stupid," I commented to nobody.
Suddenly, the door swung open. I jumped back, wincing at the pain in my stomach. One of the girls from the mansion walked in- the blonde one.
"Oh, you're awake," she said, noticing me. " I didn't mean to scare you- I just came to check on you guys. Are you okay?"
I looked away. "I'm fine... just jumpy."
She seemed to comprehend my statement. She nodded slowly, and went over to the bed beside mine.
I knew there was a person there, but I had yet to meet him. He had been comatose the entire duration of my stay at the school so far. I hadn't even tried waking him.
I walked over beside the girl. She was short compared to me. The kid in bed was sleeping as peacefully as ever. "What's his deal?" I asked.
"When Rana dispelled Pierce Garland's curse, it put him in a coma. She seems to think he'll be fine, but I have no idea when he'll wake up." She sat down on the edge of the bed, and put her hand to his forehead. "No fever..." she mumbled.
"And there's nothing you can do to help? Don't you have a doctor?"
"That's the issue," she got up and started digging through the cabinet, "he is the doctor. I'm just the fill-in while he's asleep, because of my knowledge on potions; I don't have any actual medical knowledge."
"Well that's reassuring," I muttered.
The girl turned to me, "Did you say something?"
I shook my head. After another glance at the sleeping kid, and a thought about how he had not moved since I had first arrived to the school, I asked, "Isn't there any way to wake him up?"
The girl sighed. "There probably is," she said, "but I'm no doctor. I wouldn't know for sure."
"What if you just like... hit him really hard?"
She seemed to think for a moment. "I mean I'd certainly wake up with a good slap to the face. And it's not like he's sustained any brain damage; he's just asleep because he's a jackass. It's worth a shot."
"I wasn't honestly being serious-"
She walked back over to the bed. "Lanny, wake up!" she yelled, slapping the poor kid on the forehead. To my surprise, his eyes snapped open. He grabbed the girl by the wrist and yanked her forward. She fell on top of him.
"OW FUCK!" he yelled in surprise. "WHAT THE LITERAL AND ACTUAL HELL DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT, MARIGOLD?!"
"Sorry!" Marigold exclaimed, quickly standing back up. "I was just trying to wake you up! You've been asleep for days!"
He groaned sitting up. His eyes fell on me, but he paid me no attention. "Where's Aria? Was she okay? I wanna see her."
Marigold was quiet for a second. "After Rana came and got us from the mansion, we brought Aria to the hospital. She was fine, but after they released her, Rana was pissed." She laughed nervously. "Aria got suspended for leading such a dangerous expedition. She won't be back until next Thursday."
Lanny groaned again. "Mari?"
"Yeah?"
"Please get out. I'm tired; I wanna rest."
"But you just slept for like three days-" she protested.
"Mari," he repeated, "get out."
Marigold was silent, but did as she was told. I was left standing awkwardly at the foot of Lanny's bed. He turned to me. "What's your name?"
I glared at him. "That's not your business."
It didn't seem to faze him. He pointed to a cabinet on the far side of the room. "Do me a favour? Get me the brown bottle and the vial of orange shit from in there."
Hesitantly, I went and grabbed the items. The vial of orange liquid didn't have a label, but the brown bottle read "hydrogen peroxide disinfectant." It was about the size of a two-litre pop bottle. As I made my way back to the bed, I saw that Lanny had somehow procured two tiny glass cups.
"Drink the orange one- it'll help with your wound," he instructed, "and give me the brown bottle."
I handed him the bottle, but decided against drinking the vial of liquid.
People are dangerous.
To my surprise, Lanny popped the lid off the disinfectant bottle, and started pouring it into the shot glasses on his bedside table.
"I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to drink that," I pointed out.
He looked me directly in the eye. His turquoise eyes looked dead. "It's not hydrogen peroxide. It's vodka." He poured a second shot and held it out for me to take. "I've been awake for a whole seven minutes and my life is already falling apart."
Reluctantly, I took the shot from him and downed it in one gulp. The familiar sting returned to my throat. It felt good.
~
Several shots later, we were both intoxicated out of our minds. After drunkenly spilling his entire autobiography to me, I had concluded that Lanny's life had sucked just as much as mine.
"So now I'm stuck with this bitchass PTSD," he finished, "and I've resorted to alcoholism because my meds don't do jack shit."
"Dude aren't you a doctor?"
"I'm a disappointment, that's what I am," he slurred. "This was a mistake. I can't handle alcohol very well."
I laughed. "Your face is super red. You're a tomato."
"It's not!" he exclaimed, knocking the open vodka bottle onto the floor. "Oh shit!"
The door opened, and Rana, their teacher, entered. "What the hell is going on in here?"
Lanny started to visible tear up. "I spilled my vodka," he whined, voice breaking.
Rana looked shocked. "Are you guys drunk?!"
"I'm not...fuckin' drunk..."
"Yeah, I bet." She walked over to a small fridge in the corner and pulled out two bottles of water. She shoved one into my hand and directed me back to my bed. "Drink your potion and then have your water. It'll help you feel better later on."
I didn't object, but I didn't conform either.
She walked back around the curtain to where Lanny was resting. I didn't drink the potion, nor the water, but instead I chose to lie down and get some rest. I could hear Lanny crying, and Rana talking quietly to him, trying to calm him down.
The next morning I wouldn't remember anything about his backstory. I would however, remember deciding that it was worth being his friend.
A/N-- Heyo!
Guess who actually updated within a reasonable amount of time!
Ally, that's who.
Long story short, I'm still ignoring my homework after having exactly four (4) emotional breakdowns, so yeah I'm definitely making good life choices here.
You get a filler chapter out of it, so you really have no right to complain.
Anyways I'm sick of playing the same five songs on repeat so I'm gonna go.
Ciao~!
~Allyson (Serendipity742)