Page 120 of Akarnae

“But I hurt you!” she said, tripping again, this time over a rock. He caught her—again—and she wondered why she wasn’t more embarrassed by her medically induced clumsiness. She guessed that the drugs messing with her coordination were also keeping her too relaxed to feel humiliated. It was nice.

“You weremeantto hurt me,” he pointed out. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do.”

Alex thought about that while he steered her around a bed of flowers she’d stumbled towards. “I guess you’re right,” she said finally, and he smiled in agreement. She really loved his smile.

“Thanks,” he said, his smile widening.

What was he thanking her for? Had she actually said that out loud?

“Yeah,” he said, chuckling lightly.

“You can read my mind!” she cried, coming to such an abrupt halt that she actually managed to somehow trip over her own feet. It was so unexpected that Kaiden almost didn’t catch her in time, but at the last second he managed to wrap his arms around her and steady her against his body.

“No, I can’t read your mind,” he said, stepping away from her but staying within range in case she fell again. “But I’d recommend that you think before you speak, or maybe you should stop thinking and speaking altogether, just to be safe.”

Alex groaned, embarrassed now even despite the medicine in her system.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said. “You’re probably not going to remember any of this conversation tomorrow anyway.”

“Butyouwill!”

“Yep.” His eyes sparkled with humour. “And one day when you least expect it, I might just have to remind you about it—and about how much you like my smile.”

Alex decided that it would be best if she kept her mouth shut for the rest of the walk, and she concentrated instead on not tripping over thin air.

They made it to the dorm building without any more incidents—verbal or physical—and they paused at the entry.

“Think you can make it from here?” Kaiden asked.

Alex ignored the urge to stick her tongue out at him childishly. “It’ll be tough but I reckon I’ll be okay.”

She started to walk inside but stopped after a moment, turning back to him. “Thanks for the push earlier.”

“I’m already looking forward to the next time you need one,” he said, his words sounding surprisingly genuine.

Alex didn’t look back again, but she knew he was still watching and waiting to make sure she got inside okay.

As she made it up to her room and collapsed onto her bed, she realised that maybe her Combat classmates weren’t as horrible as she’d originally thought.

Thirty-Nine

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.Ba-dum.

Alex woke up the next morning to the feeling of her pulse throbbing painfully through her shoulder. She tried to remember what Fletcher had told her, something about visiting him for more pain medicine, but she couldn’t completely recall his words. Her previous evening was all a bit of a haze after he’d popped her shoulder back into place.

How did I even get back to my room?she wondered, feeling slightly uneasy.

All she could recall was that Fletcher had asked Kaiden to walk her back to her dorm. She wasn’t sure if they’d spoken at all along the way, but Alexreallyhoped she hadn’t said or done anything to embarrass herself.

She groaned as she rolled out of bed and realised what a mess she was. Her clothes were covered in filth, which had transferred onto her bed and even around the room a little. She was surprised D.C. hadn’t woken her up, shrieking at the mess she’d made.

Alex stripped her bed and stumbled to the shower, determined to clean herself up before she trudged over to see Fletcher for some pain relief.

Twenty minutes later she was clean, dressed and out the door.

“Alex, how are you feeling this morning?” Fletcher asked when she walked into his Ward.

“Much better, thanks,” she said, hoisting herself up onto the bed and wincing slightly at the pain the movement brought. “I must have just crashed last night.”

---