"What about a broken wrist, James?" Kerry asked, smiling, as she twisted painfully James' arm behind his back, threatening to fracture the articulation.
"Come on, Kerry! You have already cracked my eggs!" James panted.
They were doing a practicing exercise in the campus. It was 3am, and it was dark. James had a pair of night vision glasses, but Kerry had destroyed it, so he couldn't see anything. They were inside an empty building, without a single light. There were four groups, which one with thirty eggs. The main objective of the exercise was to survive twelve hours and get to the end with the more eggs as possible. The team with less ones would have a ten miles run as punishment. Each team had also guns with fake munitions. Those fake munitions weren't as dangerous as normal ones, but they still hurt like hell. James had already been shot about ten times that night, but the wound in his lower back was starting to bruise and it was still hurting with a touch.
He didn't need to wonder why Kerry was so angry and willing to hurt him that way: she had always been very competitive, and James had cracked her and Gabrielle's eggs. In the other hand, Kerry was his girlfriend. She shouldn't be hurting him so bad. But as he knew her, that's how she was. After the exercise, they would be kissing and acting like boyfriend and girlfriend again.
But in that moment, Kerry continued twisting James' right hand, until it made a loud "crack". And then, she left James on the ground, clutching his wrist against his chest and whimpering. Gabrielle and Kerry went gone, and James, probably because of the exhaustion and pain, he passed out.
Hours passed and it was 6am, so the exercise would last only two more hours. When Lauren entered the building and saw her brother laid on the floor, unconscious, she panicked and ran towards him.
"James, James! Wake up!" She yelled, shaking him. He only groaned in answer, becoming aware of the pain again. He felt warm and cold at the same time, and he was shivering. Last night was raining and the temperature outside was extremely low, so he must have caught a cold. "Is this over already?" He asked hoarsely.
"No, we have two hours left. What happened to you?" She asked, concerned. He sat on the cold floor slowly. "Kerry and Gabrielle attacked me and Kerry hurt my wrist." He showed his right wrist to Lauren, and she gasped as she saw the swollen and bruised limb. "Then, I guess I was too tired and I must felt asleep here. I think I got a cold. It was freezing last night."
"Your wrist looks broken. You should go to the infirmary. Let's go."Lauren said, as she helped James standing up. It was hard for him to walk, because of the shot on his lower back, but they managed to go to Instructor Large's office. He was examining the cameras which were distributed for the whole campus, and he didn't look happy when he saw James and Lauren.
"Puke! What are you and your brother doing here?" He shouted angrily.
"My brother got hurt; I think he should go to the infirmary." She explained.
"Where is he hurt? Because I can't see any obvious injury in Mr. Adams!" He said.
"His wrist looks broken." She let Large take a look at it. After examining for some seconds, Large concluded James really needed to go the infirmary. "Okay, he has my permission to go. But not with you, Puke! Call Mrs. Smith and she will go with him." He said smiling. Large hated Lauren because, during her recruit, she had beaten him up with a shovel. Lauren just sighed and went to call Dana Smith, while James stood in the office.
Dana Smith was a 15 year old cherub, so she was only a year older than James, and she was known to be a grumpy tomboy. Kerry hated her, but we could say James and her were friends. Dana was at the top of one of the buildings, ready to shot someone of the other teams. At that time, it was almost 7am, so they didn't need the night vision glasses, and Dana could see it was Lauren who was moving towards her, running. She looked worried and in a hurry.
"Is everything okay, Lauren?" She asked, concerned.
"Yeah, James got hurt, I mean, Kerry hurt James and he needs to go to the infirmary. Large said that you have to go with him. He is in Large's office." She explained, still panting because of the running.
"Okay, I'm on my way! Good luck." And Dana gave her gun to Lauren, and she started to sprint.
It took Dana five minutes to get to Large's office, where she saw the instructor sited in a chair, monitorizing every movement made by the cherubs who were still outside, and utterly ignoring James, who was in a chair, eyes looking at the floor. He also looked sad, and Dana felt sorry for him. She didn't knew what had happened, and she would find but, but not in that moment. It was more important to take James to the infirmary as fast as possible, and, when he felt better, she could ask him.
An hour passed, and Dana had already taken James to the infirmary. He had a broken wrist, which was now in a sling, and the wound he had in his back had to be disinfected. Apart from that, he had a really bad cold, so he would stay overnight.
Dana had stayed the whole time, and now, with James half sited in the bed, she felt she could talk with him, so she could find out what had happened.
"Lauren said it had been Kerry who broke your wrist." She said.
"Yeah, I don't really want to talk about it now!" He said, irritated. James was shivering a lot, and he didn't feel like talking in that moment, because of his sore throat.
"You don't need to be mad; I was just trying to talk, ok?" She answered, looking slightly hurt. James noticed that, and he felt guilty: after all, it wasn't Dana's fault.
"Sorry Dana. It's just…" He sighed.
"We're friends, James. You can talk to me."
"I guess I wasn't expecting this from Kerry. I mean, she had always been violent when she is competitive, but, I thought it had some limits. I thought the limit was me."James said sadly.
"James, you know I'm not the biggest fan of Kerry, but you know her: she does everything to win. She was angry, because you cracked her eggs, and she hurt you in the heat of the moment."
"I know, Dana, but do you think I should forgive her?" He asked clueless. He was confused about his feelings, and the pain and throbbing sensation in his wrist were getting bigger, as if talking about what happened made it worse.
"Well, do you love her?" She asked, looking at his blue eyes.
"Yes, but…"James said.
"Then you should forgive her. Besides… everybody loses control once in a while, right?"
"I guess you're right…thanks." James smiled to Dana.
Lauren got out of her room, ready to go to the infirmary to check on James. Dana called her a while ago asking if she could get some clothes for her brother, so she had to go to his room. When she got there, she saw Kerry knocking at the door, looking worried. Kerry and Lauren were friends, but Lauren, though she was two years younger than James, she loved him very much, and she was not happy at all knowing Kerry hurt him. So, in that moment, Lauren was pissed off with Kerry.
"Lauren?"
"It's me." Lauren responded, and Kerry could easily notice the bit of anger on Lauren's voice.
"I was looking for James, have you seen him?" Kerry asked.
"Oh, now you care about him." She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"What are you trying to say?"
"This: my brother is in the infirmary, where he's going to stay overnight, because someone broke his wrist, shot him in his lower back, and left him in that cold building, so he could get a terrible cold. Now excuse me, I have to bring him some stuff." Lauren opened the door, starting to search between James' wardrobes.
"Did I really break his wrist? I mean, I heard a "crack", but sometimes bones do that when they're not broken."
"Ask the X-rays he had to do."
"Can I go see him too?"
"If you think he wants you there." And Lauren left Kerry alone in the room.
"I didn't mean to break his wrist… I swear… I hope he forgives me..."
James was in the room with Lauren, laid on his left side, because of his wrist and his back. He couldn't take any medicine in that moment, because his stomach was empty. Whenever James got sick, he lost all his appetite. So, when Kerry got in the room and saw James moaning softly in pain, she felt like burst out crying.
"James…" Kerry had been trying to decorate a good apologizing speech, but now that she was in front of him, she could only stutter.
"Hey Kerry." James tried to smile a little, he was happy for having Kerry there, and, after talking to Dana, he was willing to forgive her.
"James I was so stupid, I'm sorry, I freaked out, I don't know what the heck I was thinking, I'm so sorry, I…" Kerry started to talk really fast.
"Kerry, it's okay. No problem." He said calmly, running his good hand trough his blonde hair.
"What do you mean "it's okay"? I broke your wrist! This is my fault!"
James grabbed Kerry's left hand, running his fingers trough the big scar she had there. That scar was made two years before by him, during the recruit, when James got furious and hurt Kerry's hand on purpose.
"Do you remember this?" James looked deeply at Kerry's dark eyes, stroking her straight hair. "We're okay Kerry. Everybody freaks out sometimes. We can't hold a grudge every time someone makes mistakes." He smiled, which made her smile too.
"So, how are you feeling? How is your wrist?"
"I must say, you did a great job breaking it." James notice Kerry's smile fading away. "Hey, just kidding. It hurts a lot, but not so much, now that you're here with me."
"I love you James."
And James kissed her.