The Beginning to an end

Chapter Six:

Drake POV 

We reached the infirmary in a few minutes, Phoebe knocked twice before telling us to wait here and walked in.

“Oh hello Phoebe! To what do I owe this pleasure? What’s wrong sweetie?”

“We need your help Ang; it’s bad.”

“We?” Phoebe called out to us to come in and I let Alex in first with Kelsey. The nurse who’s name I now know is Ang, gasped. I took a deep breath and Rose tightened her grip on me as I did the same before walking in.

“Oh my god!! Rose!? What happened?!”

“Hey, Ang… How you been since the last time I saw you?” Rose sounded scared as I looked towards Phoebe who was fidgeting with her hands. The nurse looked over at Kelsey as Alex put her down on one of the beds and then looked at Phoebe.

“Phoebe. Did Kelsey start something again? Don’t lie to me.” Again? How many times has this happened when people weren’t around?

“Ang, I...” before Rose could finish, Ms. Schneider burst through the door, breathing heavy. Rose cursed softly as Ms. S looked around the room, first at Kelsey passed out, then to Phoebe, the guys, and the nurse before turning around to look at us as her face went from confused to horrified as she ran up to us, looking over Rose’s body frantically.

“ROSE!? OH MY GOD! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?”

“Tia, I’m…” 

“DON’T YOU DARE SAY THAT YOU’RE FINE OR SO HELP ME! You… You are not FINE!!”

“Tiana, please calm down.”

“Calm down? Calm down!? Are you serious right now, Angela?! She has a gash on her forehead the size of Europe and you want me to calm down!? What the hell happened!?”

“For the love of god Tia, will you stop yelling!? My head is f*****g pounding from the headache I have and your yelling isn’t helping!!” Rose’s outburst startled all of us. She sighed and leaned her head on my chest again as I tightened my grip on her. “I’m fine, Tia. Kelsey and I got into it again and during the fight my head hit the floor. I’m pretty sure she either bruised or broke at least one of my ribs; hopefully it’s just bruised. I have to work today and having a broken rib is going to be extremely painful, not as painful as having a bruised one is though. But I’m fine.” Ms. S was silent for a minute, her head down before she looked straight at Rose.

“Did you win at least?” Phoebe burst out laughing and the nurse was trying hard not to laugh with her.

“Of course I did.” I could feel her smiling against my chest as Phoebe, Ms. S and the nurse shook their heads.

“Ok, we can continue talking as I look at your injuries. Young man, if you would be so kind, can you put her down on the other bed please? Rose, can you tell me how you feel right now?” I walked over to the bed she pointed to and set Rose down gently as she held onto my arm for stability. 

“I feel like my head is gonna explode from all the pounding. It hurts to breathe and I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open.”

“Ok; can you stand up on your own and take a few steps for me please? You can hang on to your friend here if you can’t stand up on your own.” she let go of my arm before taking a deep breath and standing up slowly. She swayed a little but managed to stay up right. I motioned for Alex and Justin to stand in front of her in case she collapsed and I’m glad I did. She took about 6 steps before she collapsed. Justin caught her and brought her back to the bed.

“Thank you, uh… Justin right?” he nodded his head and went back to stand next to his brother and Phoebe. 

“If I’m right, I have a concussion right, Ang?”

“Afraid so, sweetie. The appropriate thing to do is send you to the hospital to get a scan to see just how bad it is but knowing how stubborn you are, I know you won’t go. At least not alone.” 

“You know me so well.” the nurse laughed before pulling a chair up to the bed, moving it back again a little. “I guess I should say that it’s taking all my strength to stay up right now.” she laughed softly. The nurse turned towards me

“Can you sit behind her so she can lean against you but not too much, please?”

“Wh…? No Ang I’m fine!” 

“Rose hush! You just admitted to not being able to sit up on your own for much longer and just judging by how cozy you looked in his arms when you guys walked in here, I figured you would want him instead of Phoebe who would crush you in a hug from behind if she were the one to do it since you know how strong she is. Tiana would turn into a blubbering mess if she did it and the two twin boys… Well, I’m not sure about them. So, choose. Him or one of the twins?” Rose looked between all of us before stopping on me and sighed, putting a hand to the side of her head that wasn’t bleeding. 

“Fine, you guys win; this time. Drake?” it was silent as I moved the few steps away from the bed I was next to. She squealed as I picked her up before sitting down on the bed, placing her so that she was sitting between my legs and leaning against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her waist, gently pulling her closer to me as I rested my chin on her shoulder. I could feel her breathing pick up before relaxing into me. This may sound weird but her scent is calming me down from being so tense right now. My mind kept going to the conversation that happened a few minutes ago; just thinking about it made my blood began to boil as I looked at Kelsey. I tightened my grip on Rose as I watched the nurse walk around the room and everyone helping to get all the supplies she would need. I felt a hand on my arm as Rose turned her head to me slightly and whispered,

“Drake? Can you loosen you grip a bit please? You’re starting to hurt me.” my eyes widened as I did as she asked. She let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against me.

“Better?”

“Much. Thank you.”

“I’m so sorry, Rose. I had no idea that Kelsey was like this to you.”

“It’s ok; it’s not your duty to keep an eye on her or anything. To be honest, it wasn’t really towards me at the beginning actually. She only started to target me because I’m mainly the only one to stand up against her whenever she went after everyone else. The first couple of times were accidents but after those I started making up excuses in class so I could walk around and check to see if she was causing terror anywhere. Sometimes we would get into some heated arguments and other times we would get into fights but today is the first time that the fight has gotten this bad.”

“Why? Why did you stop her? You could have just walked away and forgot about it.”

“There’s a saying that somewhat goes; ‘Those who have the power to stop those we are causing harm to others should act on it.’ I’ve been bullied for as long as I can remember and I would never wish that onto upon anyone. So if I have the power to stop someone from being bullied like I was, I’m going to stop it. I’m not gonna play the ‘Bystander Effect’ and wait for someone, who I know will do nothing, to help. It’s just not who I am.”

“Rose… You’re amazing, you know that? And you’re mine.” I hugged her some behind.

“Who says I’m yours? I’ve only known you for half a day.” 

“That may be true but I don’t care. You’re mine; no matter how much of a fight you put up.”

“You…” before she could finish, Ang set down a tray with gauze, disinfectant, a small bottle of something with a syringe next to it, cotton balls and swabs, and thread with a needle.

“Ok Rose. You ready?”

“Is anyone ever ready to get stitched back together?”

“Touché. Ok; normally we aren't supposed to do this kind a thing: stitch and everything but beggars can’t be choosers right now so… Banzai!” everyone laughed before Rose took a deep breath and leaned forward a bit. “Ok we’re going to clean it first, get rid of the blood and make sure that there isn’t anything in there that can lead to it getting infected and whatnot. Then we’ll stitch it up and get it dressed properly. Any questions?”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Ang. It is my first time having someone else do it for me though, so that’s something.” Rose laughed a little, most likely to defuse some of the tension in the room. I looked up and saw the guys and Phoebe come closer.

“Oh Tiana, can you grab some towels from the cupboard above the sink please? We may have to lay you down Rose and when we do, I bet your friend here won’t like to get his pants dirty.”

“I don’t mind ma’am and my name is Drake so you don’t have to call me young man and or her friend all the time.”

“Ok. Perfect. And what about you two boys? What are your names?”

“Alex”

“Justin” 

“Nice to meet you. I’m Angela but everyone calls me Mrs. A except these two psychos here; Rose and Phoebe.”

“Hey!! We’re only psycho on Friday, Ang and you know that!!”Phoebe yelled as she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted as her move pushed up her t**s and gained Alex’s attention to them also. I chuckled and looked back down at Rose who was also watching it happen and laughed. 

“Thanks, Tiana. Ok Rose first things first: I need to check to see if your rib is really broken or not, ok?” Rose nodded her head and patted my arms. I looked at her as she moved her arms.

“I need to lift my arms up, Drake.”

“Oh.” 

“You need to lift you arms up as well as your shirt. Actually, can you boys turn around please. It would be faster if she just took her shirt off and I don’t think she wants you boys to be looking her.” I felt Rose tense before opening my mouth to agree with her but stopped at her next words.

“It’s fine. It’s not like this is the first time they’ve seen a half naked girl nor am I ashamed of my body. Phoebe, can you come help me please?” Phoebe walked over and helped her slowly remove her shirt. I was right about her having a fit body. She has curves and thighs for days and her body is toned and lean but what caught my attention was the tattoo’s and scars on her body. She had a tattoo on each of her back shoulders and I leaned back to see the one on her right side. She had a dragon on her back right shoulder looking towards her left one which had some flowers and a saying in a different language that I don’t know. Her side had flowers too. Interesting; who knew that she would have tattoo’s? The scars however, made my blood boil. Who would do this to her? To hurt her to the point where her body is covered in scars? One in particular looks to be fresh; looking to be a day or two old and it is… f*****g huge. Huge as in going from the top her shoulder across her back and stopping at her left hip. It’s stops just below her dragon tattoo and I made a note to look into who had the balls to do this to my future girl. Wait… Were some of these from Kelsey?

I leaned forward to whisper in her ear and grinned as I felt her shiver.

“I didn’t know you have tattoo’s, love.” 

“Well, you know nothing about me so how would you know? I’ve got one’s on my arms, leg and chest too.” I leaned forward to look at them as she turned her arms over so I could see. I saw she had some birds on her left wrist as well as kanji symbols where her arm meets her elbow. On the inside of her right arm, I saw she has an arrowhead tattoo. And on her chest is a small heart. I lightly ran my fingers over the kanji symbols.

“What does this mean? What language is it in?”

“To survive. It’s in Chinese. It’s a reminder that no matter how rough, difficult, or depressing life gets; you always have to move on and survive.”

“And this one?” I sat back and trailed my fingers down the tattoo on her left shoulder.

“That means love yourself first. It’s in Arabic.”

“Why Arabic?” she shrugged her shoulders and looked up at me.

“Why not? The language is beautiful; whether spoken or written so why not.”

“Fair point. You said you have one on your leg too, right? Which one and what is it?”

“My left thigh and they are flowers. A girl can never have too many flowers.” I nodded my head as we looked ahead and watched Mrs. A and Ms. S argue back and forth. Rose and Phoebe looked at each other before laughing which lead to Rose wincing.

“Ow. f**k; it hurts to laugh. And breathe.”

“Rose. Language.”

“Oh come on, Tia! Can’t I get a pass considering the situation I’m in right now?” 

“No.” Rose huffed and leaned back against me again. I lightly wrapped my arms around her as she crossed her arms and pouted. 

Mrs. A walked over and sat down, but not before glaring at Ms. S who huffed and glared back. 

“Ok Rose. You ready?” she nodded her head.

“Ready as I always am to get stitched up, Ang.” she gave a thumbs up. 

“Ok. Well, do y-...”

“I don’t need anything to numb the pain.”

“Are you sure? The disinfecting and cleaning alone is going to hurt; a lot.”

“I’m fine. It’s not like this is the first time this is going to happen or anything so let’s just get this over and done with. I don't want to miss my afternoon classes. Let’s do this.”