~Main
~Cast
~Me
Part 5~
Have you ever woken up after a day spent fighting for your life while you hang over a hundred feet void? No? Then let me tell you how it makes you feel. Like crap! Perhaps I should be somewhat more lyrical and say that I felt a deep kinship with a piece of brown and smelly…blob. Not that it changes the way I feel. Everything hurts. Mostly my arms and back, though. I can’t move my upper body without wincing and wishing for at least five pills of painkillers. But I’d have to drag myself out of bed to get them. Aii. And what’s today? Ah yeah, Friday. Bio and o-chem then some other such class. No tests, exams, even a little quiz anywhere on the horizon. Just great. And no, I am not being sarcastic right now. I’m taking a day off. Life can go on without me, while I stay home and snore some more. So I simply rolled over to my side, no scratch that, I stayed exactly were I was because moving hurt way too damn much, and went back to sleep. This was the perfect opportunity to regain on all that lost sleep you seem to somehow accumulate when you are in college. I believe I was behind by a few hundred hours.
Did I tell you that my doorbell is loud? As in “louder than a very angry mother yelling at the top of her lungs” kind of loud? Don’t be surprised then that I flew off the bed and landed on the floor with a very painful thud. No one ever uses my doorbell. Thank god. Well no one except this asshole. .
After a little pause, it kept on ringing even more annoyingly. I guess whoever the little fucker was had heard me fall. No use in pretending there was no one home then.
“Who is it?!” I yelled, restraining myself from adding some nice epitaphs at the end of that question.
“Open up Nat. It’s Riel.” I growled again and took another deep breath for a second yell.
“Go away! I’m not moving to open the door for you!” maybe that will make him go away. At least he stopped ringing the stupid bell.
“Nat? What’s wrong?” he really sounded worried actually. I’m impressed. Well, no I’m not.
“Nothing’s wrong. Go away.” Too tired to even yell. And why wasn’t he in class, eh?
“I’ll break the door down if you don’t open it, brat.” Now he was angry. And worried. A bad combination.
He started on the door bell again. The asshole. I slapped my hands on my ears, and swore at the pain. It didn’t even help that much. Fuck. I didn’t stand a chance. He’ll pay for that.
I dragged myself on all fours, made my way to the door, which I used as a prop to stand up, and then wrenched it open suddenly.
“What do you want,” I growled. He looked pissed. It made two of us.
“You missed both your morning classes. You never do. I came to check up on you.”
I rolled my eyes –one part of me that didn’t hurt, thank god- and made my painful way toward the couch where I just let myself fall.
“I’m fine.”
“The hell you are. You look like crap.”
“Well, thank you so very much.”
“I mean it Nat. What happened to you. Did you get into a fight? Did someone beat you up?” ah, now, that was embarrassing. I was big enough to take care of myself. Because of my imposing stature, no one bothered me by physical attacks. Thank god, because truthfully, I didn’t even know how to fight. I’d probably flay around like a girl. Very embarrassing. Get that thought away from me!
“I fell off a cliff.”
“What!!!!” he was up and by my side in an eye blink.
“Well, I almost did. I do rock climbing, remember? So I went yesterday, but I got into a bad situation. I’m just sore and a little scratched, is all. Nothing wrong. I’ll be okay in a few days.”
“Nothing happened? Nothing happened!!? Didn’t you have a safety harness or something?”
“Err, no?”
“What were you thinking you idiot! You could get yourself killed!!”
“I’ve been doing it for years now. I’m still alive, so lay off before I go deaf, will ya?” I frowned at him until he did somehow calm down…only to begin the whole tirade all over again a few seconds later.
“Enough!”
I think it was the first time I yelled at him. And then I almost laughed at the face he made. I did crack a smile.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that I can’t believe you did something that stupid.”
“Yeah, neither can I. And I’m paying for it. I swear I can’t move an inch of me without being in pain.”
“That will teach you.”
“Oh come on, I need a little friendly pity here.”
“How about a massage?”
“Please. And I’ll be your bestest friend forever.” I grinned my silliest grin and found the strength to flip onto my stomach for an hour of pure bliss to my poor battered muscles. Riel definitely had skills in that department. Don’t get me wrong. It had no sexual connotations at all. Just pure, platonic friendship. And then a few more hours of sleep, and the smell of sweet coffee to wake you up.
If I do find myself a significant other, that person better know how to give massages. It’s a requirement from now on.
But all good things have an end. So a day later, I was back in class. I couldn’t miss that much. Did I tell you, in all my crazy ramblings, that I wanted to become a doc? Yeah, so I was now in pre-med, and it was work. No slacking allowed or I’ll go under and never resurface again. And since I was paying for it all by my little self, even with a big federal help, I couldn’t fail. Not when I had just lost my job and was desperately searching for a new one. I had posted yet another resume this morning. Among the several coffee shop waiters, secretary, and teacher’s assistant positions I had applied to, I tried out for research assistant. I really wanted that one, not the least because it would help me out in my med studies, and it paid a lot more than being a busy boy for a bartender. *sigh*. Cross your fingers for me. I’m praying for that one. The answer will be coming in a few days. Until then, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep much.
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