Reckless

Reckless - Chapter Twenty

“Hey, are you forgetting my hand is broken?” I said, holding up my wrapped up hand in front of her. “Or does that not count as a proper injury?”

“It’s not exactly life threatening, either,” the receptionist said dryly.

“Nor is a broken leg,” I pointed out.

“It requires bed rest,” she snapped, obviously tired by our conversation already. She’d been waiting all night for us and probably didn’t want to spend another minute in our presence, and to be honest who could blame her? I was unnecessarily fighting with her, Sam was leaning on her crutches and moaning like she’d come back from a war and Claire was still glaring at me for insulting Jeremy.

There was a long, heavy silence.

“Well, this is awkward,” I finally said.

It was an even longer silence this time.

Yet again, I was the one to break the silence. I couldn’t stand the quiet. “We’re just going to go up to our dorm… okay?”

“Okay then.” Miss Perry turned on her heels and marched off down a corridor.

Gesturing for my friends to follow me, I walked across the large entrance hall and towards the stairs. It was dark in the building now it was night; the ancient, dusty chandelier, that had hung in the hall for years, wasn’t even on, and the large room echoed our loud footsteps in an eerie way.

Sam paused just as we were about to go up the stairs, looking up at me. “Uh… Anne. I can’t get up the stairs on my own,” she said apologetically, with Claire nodding besides her.

I sighed and walked back towards her. “Life would’ve been easier if you’d broken your arm or something, you know?”

“Of course I do,” Sam said as she handed her crutches to me and slung an arm around each of our shoulders. Since my right hand was broken I had to carry both in my left, which led to slow progress. “I didn’t exactly want to break anything, it was their fault.”

“Are you going to tell us what actually happened soon?” I asked breathlessly as we heaved her awkwardly up the stairs.

“You don’t need to know the details. I don’t want to relive that night. You know all that you need to know.”

I groaned. “Forget it then.”

After a lot of stops to catch our breath and dragging of our friend, me and Claire managed to get Sam to the top of the large flight of stairs. I found myself cursing the stairs for their grandeur. If they’d had fewer steps, a more stable banister or a less shiny surface for my shoes to grip to then we might’ve got to the top much sooner.

We were exhausted by the time we got to the dorms, both from lack of sleep and the clumsy journey there. I flung open our door and stumbled inside the room. It was just as we’d left it, with paper and clothes strewn over the floor in a disordered way that made the floor look like a war-zone.

Without speaking, we simultaneously made our way to the bedroom and collapsed on to our beds.

“Why can’t we just get a break sometimes?” I moaned, sweeping a pile of paper off my bed with one stroke of my hand. The paper fluttered to the floor and lay on top of the mess beside my bed. “It would be nice to have some time to relax without being attacked left, right and centre by things that shouldn’t even exist.”

Sam and Claire made sounds of agreement but were both too tired to strike up a proper conversation. They were asleep within five minutes, still in their clothes from the day before.