Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 118125 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118125 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Rian swept a bow, gesturing toward the infirmary door. “After you.”
That earned him an acerbic look. “You just want me to be the meat shield if Hadley’s still mad at us.”
“Am I that obvious?” Rian smiled sunnily. “You did offer already with Walden.”
“... Hadley’s more terrifying than Walden.” But the tightness in Damon’s shoulders eased, and he cast Rian an amused look as he pressed his palm against the door and pushed it open. “Here we go.”
Damon stepped through the door, his broad bulk blocking Rian’s line of sight for a moment before he stepped aside and Rian followed, pushing the door closed behind him. Inside, the curtain had been pulled back from around Chris’s bed, and Nurse Hadley leaned over him, settling a cafeteria tray atop an overbed table and maneuvering it comfortably into place over his lap, while Chris shifted himself awkwardly with one hand to sit upright, gingerly minding the other with its IV needle still inserted in his inner elbow.
Chris looked up as they entered; Nurse Hadley did, too, but while Hadley eyed them with thinly veiled disapproval, Chris watched them with a wide-eyed wariness that his smile did little to hide.
And it broke Rian’s heart.
Please, Chris. Please.
We’re not the ones you need to be afraid of.
“Hey, Mr. Falwell. Hey, Coach Louis,” Chris said. He looked a bit better, at least, his skin no longer so pale and eyes no longer so sunken, likely from at least getting a good night’s sleep and some fluids in him. “Come to spring me without bail?”
Nurse Hadley answered before either Rian or Damon could, her hands on her hips and her lips compressed tight. “You aren’t leaving this infirmary until I’m satisfied you’re no longer dehydrated or suffering from exhaustion,” she said, and Chris’s smile vanished; he gave her a swift, startled look.
“What?” he practically choked out, words shallow and riding on too little air. “I can’t—I need to go. I can’t stay here, I have to—I’ll miss—”
He started to push the overbed tray aside, drawing his legs up to kick them free—but Nurse Hadley pressed a hand to the center of his chest. Although he likely had a good hundred pounds on her, even when Chris strained that hand didn’t move, and she looked down at him with a firm, no-nonsense stare.
“You absolutely can stay here,” she said, in cool tones that would brook no opposition. “And you will. Whatever you might miss can wait. Nothing is more important than your health. Now settle down, eat, and let your teachers talk to you before I run them out of here for using up your energy again.”
Chris slowly, reluctantly sank back onto the bed, distress written into his face as if it had been printed and stamped there in indelible ink. Rian cast Damon a helpless glance, only to find Damon looking right back at him, his eyes dark with concern.
What had that been about?
Why was Chris so desperate to escape?
“Hey,” Damon said, looking away from Rian and stepping closer to Chris’s bedside. “What’re you so worried about missing? I’ve got you down on sick leave from the team, so it’s not going to add up to your absences. Your scholarship’s safe.”
Chris flinched visibly at the word scholarship, but lowered his eyes and pulled the wrapped cafeteria sandwich closer, plucking at the edges of the cling film covering it. “Nothing. I... I was just worried about practice; I didn’t know you’d—I—thanks, Coach Louis.”
While Rian watched Chris and Damon, Nurse Hadley pulled away from the bed, pausing next to Rian and touching his arm; she leaned in, dropping her voice low. “He’s more stable,” she murmured. “Probably be fine in a week or so. But please try not to upset him.” Quieter still—barely a whisper, as she glanced over her shoulder at Chris. “And please try to get him to talk, or we’ll be seeing him in here again and again. Call it a hunch. He won’t talk to me, but I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Rian brushed his fingers to the backs of her knuckles with a nod. “We’ll try,” he promised. “We will.”
With one more significant look, she slipped away, ducking past the curtain walling off Chris’s bed from a few other empty ones and the exam area, making herself quite pointedly busy organizing shelves that didn’t seem to need organizing. Rian watched her for a few moments more, then stepped closer to the bed, folding his arms against the railing on the footboard and leaning against them.
“Hey,” Chris said, green eyes shifting to Rian with a touch of pleading, even though he tried to smile again. “Don’t look at me like that, Mr. Falwell.”
Rian quirked his lips. “Like what?”
“Like...like you’re disappointed in me.” Chris ducked his head, playing at that bit of cling wrap until it started to ball up, before he peeled it back from his sandwich and toyed with the corner of it until the dark brown crust of the wheat bread began to crumble. “Like I’ve just...you know...let you down so much, and I just... I’m...”