“You could’ve called me last night,” Hazel said as she handed him the ice pack.
He glanced at her for a second and proceeded to put the ice pack on his ribs. He winced.
“You know … whatever made you left your house … you could’ve called me,” she persisted. She took a bandage and poured some antiseptics on a cotton ball then began to dab it to the open wound on his face.
He pressed his eyes shut holding in a grunt from the sting. He opened his eyes again and looked at Hazel like she was an alien. He didn’t know what to say to her. She was kind to him, the kindest anyone had ever been towards him.
“Sorry, did that hurt? I’m used to doing this for my brother, he gets cuts all the time after a game … this looks pretty bad, maybe you should go to a clinic and let them take a look at it,” she was diligently looking at every lacerations on his face.
“No, I’ll be fine,” he took the bandage from her hand and tried to put it on himself. Their closeness made him nervous all of the sudden. “Thanks … by the way,” he finally said.
She looked at him confused.
“For this,” he was suggesting the first aid and the sandwich she made. “And for the offer … maybe I will take you up for it,” he laughed nervously.
She was still confused.
“Call you? Next time?”
“Oh … sure,” she said. She could see he was struggling with his words though he seemed to need to talk about it with someone, he was still very much closed up when it comes to his family.
He grabbed the sandwich and took a big bite out of it, he nodded and creased his forehead, “This is good.”
It was a simple ham and cheese her mom always made for her, she knew he was just trying to steer the conversation to a different direction. He’d been telling her last night’s event in a jokingly way though she could see it was far more serious than he’d like to portray it.
Maybe they haven’t been friends long enough for him to trust her with his deepest trouble, though she wished he would. But she didn’t want to act like she knew anything about what he must be going through because she had no clue. She would listen to him if that would help him in any way.
“Why did you text me this afternoon?” she was curious. He had tons of friends, but he reached out to her in his time of trouble.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” he said.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” she had to ask.
He looked away. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he held it back. “Not really,” he said.
“Okay …” she paused, “Well, if you need anything … I’ll be doing my laundry downstairs … it’s my turn to do the laundry.”
He nodded, “Okay.”
“Just grab a shirt if you need one, I’ll wash yours while I’m at it … I’m sure there’s a shirt somewhere in there you can use, it’s no Balenciaga,” she chuckled, “But I wear men’s t-shirt all the time, that’s how lame my fashion is,” she pointed to her wardrobe and left the room.
“Thanks,” he said munching on his sandwich.
Having a half naked boy she just befriended for less than two months in her bedroom was awkward. He needed a place to clean up, that was all there is to it. She shouldn’t see it as anything more than that, though the time they spent the day before had shifted their friendship to a new level, Marlon was an enigma she was yet to decipher.
She took her time cleaning and did her laundry, gave him time to himself to think and rest. When she came up an hour later, he was fast asleep on her bed still not wearing any shirt. She closed the door and went downstairs. She snug in her sofa and watched some Netflix.
“Hazel … what are you doing sleeping on the sofa?” her mom’s voice woke her.
She was disoriented when she realized she had fallen asleep. She sat up and looked at the time, she had dozed off for over an hour. Then she remembered Marlon was up in her room.
“Hey mom … you seen Marlon?”
Claire looked confused, “Marlon? Was he here?”
Hazel walked over to the front window and saw his car was gone.
“Never mind, I was waiting for him … I guess he’s not coming,” she didn’t want to explain the details. She checked her phone again and sure enough there was a message from Marlon.
‘Hey, thanks for everything, I didn’t want to wake you … I have to go … see you tomorrow, we’ll do some studying … M’
And that was how the day ended for her. She would only find out the repercussion of what Marlon had done the next morning when it became the talk of the school and when Josh Reynolds showed up once again to see the principal for a very different reason than when he came the first time.