Westwood School

Cry Baby

Magnolia

As soon as Caspian was dragged in, I started shouting orders to people.

"I need Alcohol, boiling water, a lighter, a sewing kit and some clean clothes, and if you can kinda first aid kit," I said to Matteo and Laurent who nodded and went to go find these things.

I turned to face Rowen, "You go grab my purse from on top of the dresser downstairs." He rushed off to go grab that. I wiped all the worry off my face and turned to face Caspian.

"Ok you big baby, Come climb up and sit on this chair," He climbed into it, so his face was eye level with mine. I glanced over his wounds. A lot of blood, a busted lip, some busing around the eye, a cut on the upper cheek that might need stitches, lots of cuts that just needed to stop bleeding. I need to check if he has a concussion.

"Hey Caspian, I need ya to remember this word, Dinosaur." He nodded to me but winced as he did.

"What was the word I said?" I demanded him.

"Dinosaur," He groaned. God only knows what he did to get himself into this mess. I bet $50 bucks it was a girl.

"Good boy," I nodded in approval. Just then, Matteo, Laurent, and Rowen had returned with the items I asked them to get.

Rowen and the other boys teased him as I first used the boiling water to wipe the dirt and blood off his face to get a better look at the wound. Just as I expected, nothing too severe. Hell, he probably doesn't need any stitches.

I picked up the bottle of alcohol and poured it on a rag. "This might sting a bit," I said and I began to clean the wounds.

"Bloody hell! That stings quite a bit!" he whined

"Oh grow up, what's the word,"

"Dinosaur", he muttered and I nodded my head in approval. I then dug around in my purse until I found my handy dandy wound seal.

"Hey, you should be happy I'm here and I have a blood disorder, so I'm good at this stuff. Close your eyes," I demanded. I then poured the brownish dust onto the wounds.

"Ok you'll be fine, but you sure as hell are gonna have a black eye tomorrow," I told him, patting him on the shoulder. He winced as I did so. I looked around, and seemingly the party had kept on going as if nothing at all had happened. I frowned but then shrugged, helping Caspian off his seat and helped him into the house.

He looked at me, his eyes no longer teasing. "Thank you," his voice was deep and quiet.

"Haha don't be silly. At least you didn't need stitches, and lemme tell ya, gettin' stitches on the table is not fun. And the only training I have is I am woofer certified." I went to go wash my hands off.

"Woofer?" confusion obvious in his tone.

"Yeah! It's like... first aid certified but for the woods? I really like hiking and stuff so I got it earlier this summer," I tried to explain, not doing my best at it. He just solemnly nodded in response.

I heard the sliding glass door open. "Hey! Come on, he'll be fine," Some guy who I didn't know said before leaving the same way he came.

I looked up awkwardly at Caspian, and when I did, he seemed like a completely different person. For a second, he seemed... human. But now it was as if he was made of stone again.

"You should go."

"But-" I started.

"Go, I'll be fine I promise," His eyes met mine and there was some emotion I couldn't read in it.

I hesitated but then walked outside, to see that Gemma girl with her arms draped around Rowen. I looked away, disgusted, and annoyed at myself that it had bothered me. I rolled my eyes and decided to focus on having fun. Come on Nola, you usually are the life of the party!

I frowned and chugged the contents of my beer. I really wasn't good with alcohol, I never drank much at a time so I wasn't sure how much it took to get buzzed. But this was a good place to start.

I went over to my phone, and queued up the songs to be Money by Cardi B. I shook out my hair and strutted to the pool. I knew exactly what I was doing, and my friends called it the AEOM (All Eyes On Me). I felt people's eyes follow me, and I heard incoherent noises of annoyance no doubt coming from that posse of girls I'm going to call The Plastics because they truly are that cliché.

I looked around and then sat myself down in the hot tub, where Matteo and a few of his friends were, including some girls. One girl was very attractive, in a yellow twist front swimsuit and her hair pulled up in a messy bun.

We chatted a bit, everyone in the hot tub, and I was very aware of my actions, flirting when I saw fit, with everyone. The funniest thing to me was seeing the girl's reactions when they realized I was possibly flirting with them.

The party wrapped up, or well, Matteo kicked everyone out around 6:00. When it did I attempted to try and clean up to help. I was picking up some beer cans when I felt someone walk up behind me.

"You really don't need to do that, you're a guest here," I felt his breath on the back of my neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. I spun around to face Rowen, and habitually I hid the beer can behind my back.

"I'm surprised to still see you here," I said, with a bit more anger than I intended.

"Why? You mean Gemma?" He said, furrowing his brows. I slowly nodded. And I watched him run his hands through his hair, "She... she thinks she is a hot commodity, she wouldn't leave me alone." I stared at him silently, I think he caught me staring and reached behind my back to grab the beer can, but doing so he unintentionally brought our faces millimeters away.

My breath caught as he looked me in the eye. "Why? Jealous?" I felt my face heat up and I pushed him away, and he simply laughed in response.

Stupid fucking bitches be playing with my stupid fucking emotions, I thought as I stormed off to my room. I resisted the urge to slam the door. I took a deep breath, attempting to calm myself. I went to the bathroom and took a long, steamy shower, and after the crazy past few days, nothing felt better.

Once I was done, I blew dried my hair, washed my face and put on my pajamas, which truly just consisted of these old, tiny pajamas shorts and this gigantic *NSYNC t-shirt that reached past my mid-thighs. I put my hair in two messy braids and wandered upstairs, to find the boys sprawled across the sofas talking. They seemed to be in their pajamas. Laurent had traditional blue and white striped pajamas, with you'd expect to look dumb but they actually didn't. Matteo had a white wife-beater looking thing and grey sweatpants on. Both Caspian and Rowen seemed to have forgone shirts altogether, tho, I was not complaining about the state of anyone's dress or undress...

"Hey! What are y'all doin," I asked, fairly awkwardly?

"Oh, here you are! Come, we just wanted to play some party games, have any ideas?" Caspian said with a mischievous grin, despite the fact his face was nearly bashed in two. I hesitated, and then a naughty thought crossed my mind.

"I have the perfect game, let's play paranoia," I said and then sat down on the sofa between the boys. 

Hey! do you guys play paranoia? it's popular where I live, but It's worse than Uno at breaking up friendships. also- if yall have another name than wife-beater tell me, I don't enjoy using that term but I didn't know what to do. I hope you like! <3