Page 18 of Heartbeat

“Lucy Bell, I don’t get why you’re always making excuses for this guy.”

“I am not!” she said defensively. “I’m just saying it’s a possibility—”

“I think there’s a possibility he’s full of shit.”

“Stop saying shit!” Lucy said loudly, frustrated.

They all closed their lockers just as I found the piece of paper I was looking for. The one called Lucy, however, decided she had to open hers once more to fetch something from it at the very instant I stood up. And she did so with such force I’d rarely witnessed. Needless to say, she slammed the metal door onto the side of my face.

“Fuck me!” I yelled as a sharp pain ran from my right eyebrow all the way down to my chin.

“Oh my God!” she said, both hands to her face covering her mouth, her eyes wide. “I’m so sorry.”

I could barely hear her. “What the fuck?” I covered the bump instantly forming over my eye with my hand.

“What did you do, Lucy?” one of the girls asked, walking up to me and standing two inches away as she tried to assess the damage.

“I didn’t do anything, Sara. I was opening my locker—”

“—when his face got in the way?”

“Shut up, Lisa!” Lucy turned to me. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Is that blood?” Lisa asked.

“Does this hurt?” Sara—I assumed—asked me, gently touching my forehead.

“No,” I lied.

“We should get you to the infirmary—” Sara said.

“No, that’s okay,” I said quickly.

“But you’re bleeding,” Lucy said.

“I’m used to it,” I blurted out. “Don’t worry about it; it’s fine.” I closed my locker and turned around.

“Are you sure you don’t—” Sara started.

“I’m all right. Thanks for the help.”

I turned and made my way down the hall to the nearest bathroom. I splashed some water on my face, but still the blood wouldn’t cease. I got some paper towels and tried covering my cut, but it got soaked in a matter of seconds, so I had to repeat the process three more times until I finally got the bleeding under control.

“What the hell?” Ethan said the moment he walked in and saw the bits of white paper soaked in blood covering most of the sink.

“Hey,” I said, splashing water on my face yet again.

“What happened?” he asked, quickly approaching me. He put one hand on my shoulder and the other over my forehead.

Fuck, this feels nice.

“Some girl opened her locker on me.”

“What?”

“Yeah, like, on me,” I said, pointing at my face.

“Jesus, how hard did she open it?”

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