o2.
chapter two
a bottle of corvexine
and disaster

I should have run.

I should have said scram the minute Drew brought up the topic of the best sketcher.

But instead, I stood frozen.

If I hadn't, Kenny wouldn't have fought him. He wouldn't have shoved the greenhead. Drew wouldn't have collapsed onto May and knocked her onto Dawn.

No, none of it would have happened. I should have known that.

After all, the girls had just admitted that they were glad to have me as a friend. That they loved me...

"She'll be fine," Nurse Joy informed, her clipboard clutched tightly against her chest, eyes darting between the weakened Kenny and the mess that I was. "But may I ask what transpired?"

I broke down. As expected. Misty had to usher me out of the hospital wing to the canteen, where weird eyes pierced through. Brown, green, hazel. Even the normally friendly blond guy who waved in the hallways looked agitated.

Not that I knew him, or he me. Just a friendly hi — and even that was going down the drain.

"I'm sorry, Mist," I managed after two lugs of ice water. The orange-haired girl sighed, holding hers like it was about to explode.

"It wasn't your fault. It was the... boys losing blood over something so lame."

"It wasn't lame," I countered, feeling the bile rise in my throat. Everything had happened so fast. One minute Drew was complimenting me, the next, he and Kenny were throwing hands over their girl being the best.

The rest? Darned soul bonds called it. Darned bubbles. Darned feelings.

Darned love.

"Maybe it wasn't, okay?!"

I looked up from my lap, sharply. Misty was the overprotective mom of the group. Well, what was left of the group — just us now...

"Dawn and May are going to be fine," she affirmed, her hands reaching for my shoulders. For the briefest moment they came in contact with me, the girl shivered, and my blades expressed a little sting of pain.

I couldn't imagine how much May and Dawn were hurting now without another fresh batch of tears. "Three weeks? Four? What are w-we gonna tell their parents?"

Misty looked lost on an answer. "We'll figure it out, Ser. We'll figure it out."

— xoxo —

The hospital wing was sterile. White sheets, the sunlight falling like a mess through the blinds, and the desperate attempt at making the place comfortable — a trace of lavender freshener.

My eyes were glued to the girl before me, lying limp and paler than she was. Her long dark blue hair flowed behind her like a veil, chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

I didn't have to turn to identify the voice.

"It's my fault," I countered, blinking back the prick in my eyes. "It's all my fault."

"I'm terrified," Kenny admitted. I felt the air stir and the chair beside mine being pulled out before he came into view. However, his gaze was fixated on the bluette. "I really pray Dawn's okay."

"Are you?"

It must have startled him. I caught the widened pupils, and the hair sticking out in all directions like he had run a hand through it a lot of times.

"This is a ghost of a ride, Serena. What do you expect? I'm downright terrified."

Silence settled over us. On the other side, Drew was softly snoring on the edge of his soulmate's bed, too worn out to stay up.

The atmosphere cracked when a blonde girl with an oversized lab coat stepped in, carrying a vial labelled Corvexine. She sent me a polite nod before disappearing behind one of the storage cupboards. Behind her was Misty, carrying two glasses of Starbucks. My friend handed me a glass and offered hers to Kenny, but he politely declined.

"Dawn and May will be fine," Misty started, as if she had overheard the boy. Her fiercely protective side was strangely comforting. "Let's stay strong."

That was the thing adults said whenever they had no clue about something. Misty was a few months older than I was, yet it felt like Mom talking about herself whenever I felt the nerves of sterile odour and IV drops.

I was accustomed to it, alright? But it didn't mean I liked it or fancied being in a wing.

The door clicked shut behind the blonde girl, and I let out an exhale I didn't know I was holding.

"Serena."

Looking up, I caught Misty's narrowed eyes — one that I’d learned these past few weeks meant not to overthink anything. Nodding soundlessly, my eyes darted to Drew, who had stirred awake. His green eyes met mine, then darted back to May.

My eyes felt funny. Of freaking course. I couldn't let myself down right now.

Not in front of them.

Not before May and Dawn.

Not before Mom.

I don't deserve friends.