Morning rolled around, it was Monday, and Emira and Edric were bickering over something. Loudly. Annoyingly. But, for once, her sibling's antic's were welcome. Otherwise she wasn't sure if she would've gotten out of bed. Amity woke up, dragging her feet out of bed and sitting up. Sip of water, deep breath, and a glance at her phone. Nothing.
She made her way into the living room of their shared apartment, with the warm welcome of Emria and Edric arguing.
"I should be the one driving! I actually know the damn way!" Emria said, stuffing a few things into a suitcase.
Edric scoffed, flicking the back of her head, "It's the airport, of course you know the way! I'm the one who's capable of getting us there on time!"
Amity rubbed her eyes, looking at them both, "What the hell are you two on about?"
Her siblings looked over, maybe even looking slightly guilty over waking their sister up. Or maybe it was the fact that they hadn't managed to share this earlier.
"Well," Emira started.
"We're going out on...a business trip?" Edric said, scratching the back of his head.
"We need to go out to Washington to follow up with a few people at a research center for our degrees," Emira threw on, "and while we're there we're going to be throwing in some of our time to assist with the research and interview some of the directors."
They shuffled their feet as Amity stared blankly.
"Sorry we didn't mention anything earlier," Edric said, "But on the bright side…"
Emira smiled, throwing her arms out in dramatic fashion, "you get the apartment to yourself!"
Edric smiled as well, joining in in an equally ridiculous pose, "For a whole two weeks!"
Amity silently walked up and hugged her siblings, tight. Really tight. Weirdly tight.
"We love you too, Mittens!" Edric laughed, looking over at Emira with a shrug.
It took them both a moment or two to really give Amity a hug back. Another benefit of being a Blight is knowing when someone was struggling and the "Blight instincts" (i.e., the horrid emotionally suppressant tendencies ingrained in them from their parents) kicked in.
"You going to be ok on your own for two weeks?" Emira asked after a moment.
Amity let go, nodding in silence as she moved over to the kitchenette to make herself some coffee.
"Yeah. Just need some time to think is all," she said, resting her head on the counter, "I think having it to myself will probably help."
Edric chuckled, heading over to his little sister and giving her hair a bit of a rustle, "Just don't throw any crazy parties while we're gone, alright?"
"A Blight? Throwing a party? Blasphemous."
Emira snorted, "Well I mean, we've thrown plenty."
"That's because in high school you would do anything to impress Viney."
Emira blushed, quickly returning to packing her stuff while Amity and Edric shared a laugh.
It didn't take long for the older Blight's to be ready. They headed to the door, Amity following behind them to give them each a proper hug.
"Stay safe, you two," Amity said.
"We will!" Edric laughed.
Emira held up her phone and gave it an indicator-y wiggle, "We'll call you when we land!"
"And basically whenever we get the chance," Edric added in, "Gotta make sure you're not throwing a rave!"
Amity groaned and smiled, shoving them both out of the door, "Go on, you two, get! Get! Off my lawn!"
"We still own the place!" Emira called, heading down the hall.
Amity closed the door and sighed, returning to the couch to sit and enjoy her coffee in silence before class.
Just some time to think…
It had been a couple of days since Amity had run into Luz. Or that Luz had even tried to bother or harass her. Or try to get into her head. Which, on its own, got into Amity's head. But she did her best to keep her cool, spending time at classes she had been missing, trying to explain her situation to her friends. The only time she recalled seeing Luz was her wordlessly skating past her on a very worn skateboard now and then, presumably on her way to...Well, who the fuck knew.
Or cared! Amity didn't care. She didn't care that Luz hadn't even spoken to her once, text or otherwise, since the incident. It didn't bother her that Luz didn't even give her a passing glance, and that Luz was just focused on doing tricks on her skateboard and not even bothering to explain what the hell had been going on.
…
Amity cared.
It wasn't until the evening that she had started coming to terms with that though. She sat at the central fountain in the school's outer plaza, having been watching the sunset to gather her thoughts. She knew her friends hadn't bought the lie of wanting to work alone, but she was also very grateful they didn't question it.
The familiar sound of plastic rolling on concrete, rhythmically clunking across small cracks, came closer to her. Amity looked, and saw Luz not too far away. She was out, skateboarding, seemingly trying to practice tricks. Kick whatevers, grinds, all sorts of things. Amity decided she had nothing better to do, so she turned, and she watched Luz.
It was honestly interesting to see Luz focused, it wasn't a look that Amity was used to seeing on her face. And she would be lying if she said it wasn't cute. She just wouldn't say that out loud.
She watched Luz practice for a while, for how long wasn't really on her mind. She watched her trick, mess up, try again, land it, pump her fists in the air and try again. She watched her try to land on railings, mess up, get up, try again. Over and over. Amity had to admit that she admired Luz's perseverance. Even if she wasn't always putting that energy into the best of things, Noceda didn't give up easily. Try again, try again, mess up? Ok, try again.
Amity realized that was something she had always struggled with doing herself. Maybe that was one of the things she found liked about Luz that she couldn't pin down to the girl just being good looking.
It took a while for them to make eye contact. As Luz had jumped into the air, aiming for a railing for a new trick, she looked up. Brown met amber, and they both blushed. It was a moment that felt like it lasted an hour, maybe more, all as Luz glided down to the Earth. Amity swore she even saw Luz crack a smile, like she was getting the chance to show off to her.
And then Luz landed.
Hard.
The board had left her feet in the air when she lost focus, and was landing nose first. The truck of her skateboard ran up her leg, the bolt creating a nasty gash. The deck dug into her hip, and she landed kind of funny, wrist scraping across the pavement. She rolled over, somersaulting and landing with her back on the ground, pulling her wrist to her chest.
Amity ran over, falling to her knees as she looked Luz over. She gagged a bit when the blood started to gush from her calf.
"Hold still Luz!"
"F-Fuck off, Blight!"
Amity ignored her, and looked down at her shirt. She gave it a moment of thought. It was a crappy shirt anyways. She began tearing at her sleeves, and at anything at the waist of the shirt, peeling the fabric from the seams. She ripped it into strips as best she could, and quickly started wrapping it around Luz's leg.
Luz groaned in pain, looking down and suddenly going very silent when she realized just how close Amity was, and blushing when she realized exactly what was happening.
"Blight…"
"Let me think," Amity interrupted. She reached into her back pocket, pulling out a hair band. With it and the strips from her shirt, she tied the "bandage" as best she could around Luz's leg, before offering Luz a hand to help her up.
Luz hesitated for a moment, and the look on her face was one Amity couldn't quite put into any good words. But eventually the pain in her leg got the better of Luz's ego, and she grabbed her board, before hoisting herself up with Amity.
Both girls blushed as they put their arms over the others shoulders, Amity starting to walk Luz to her car as fast as she could.
"How long were you watching," Luz asked, sucking her teeth in pain.
"I don't know," Amity said, staring straight ahead.
Luz huffed, "Fuck."
Amity carefully set Luz into her car, hopping into the driver's seat and starting on her way to the hospital as fast as she could.
"You would've been fucking staring," Luz said, her voice almost pitiful.
Amity sighed, "Let your ego go for once, asshole. I'm trying to help you here."
Luz stayed quiet the rest of the ride. With the help of Amity she made it in, the doctors quickly getting her prepped and entered into a room while Amity did her best to speak with the receptionist and take care of everything else. As Luz was helped into the examination room, she looked over her shoulder, taking in the look of concern on Amity's face, and blushed.
Amity sat anxiously outside the door, waiting to be told she was allowed to go in. The moment the nurse gave her the go ahead, she thanked her and quickly ducked inside the room, shutting the door for some privacy. She gave Luz a quick look. Luz's leg looked like a mummy, several layers of bandages covering it, as well as bandages to her wrist.
"How are you?" She asked, sitting down next to her.
"I've been worse," Luz said, sighing, "Thankfully it doesn't need surgery or some shit."
Amity smiled a little, "That's good. Stitches?"
Luz shook her head and chuckled, "Surprisingly no. It looked more gnarly than it was."
Amity sighed a bit in relief, "That's good. Not infected then?"
"Nope, just gotta be careful with it for a bit," Luz said.
Silence fell over them for a bit, both avoiding looking at the other, idly twiddling their thumbs. Luz spoke first.
"...Thank you, Blight," she said, quietly, as the blush started to fill her face.
"It was the right thing to do," Amity said, averting her gaze to make sure Luz couldn't see her cheeks turn pink.
Luz let her head fall back into the pillows, interlacing her fingers and resting her hands on her chest, "Yeah, but just because it was the right thing to do doesn't make you obligated," she mused, slowly talking more to herself, "especially because you probably shouldn't be helping me…" Her voice trailed off, becoming more of a whisper, one that she had hoped Amity hadn't heard.
"You may not be obligated," Amity said, turning her head, "But I am a Blight," she said with a growing, weirdly cocky grin.
Luz laughed, raising two particular fingers in Amity's general direction, "I understand it, now. You did it so you could bother me while I was bedridden."
Amity laughed, and Luz couldn't help but beam, watching Amity smile and be...Happy.
"You really should smile more, Blight," Luz said, lost in thought, cheeks turning rosy.
"What?" Amity asked.
"What?!" Luz had totally said that out loud.
They both turned a few shades of crimson, turning to look away from each other as a slightly more awkward silence settled in the room.
A nurse poked her head through the door, "Ah there you are. Doctor says that you should be fine to leave tomorrow morning, Ms. Noceda."
Luz did a small fist pump, the tension in the air dissipating. The nurse smiled and looked at Amity.
"You can leave if you like, Ms. Blight, we assume you'll be here to pick up Ms. Noceda in the morning. But if you wish to stay, no worries."
Amity fell from crimson into blood red, and gave a sheepish nod and smile to the nurse, who thankfully left them alone. Luz looked at Amity, and snorted, snapping Amity out of her thoughts.
"You look like a firetruck," Luz laughed, her smile blowing through any of the anxiety Amity had.
Amity grinned and stood up,gathering her stuff, "Shut up."
"Can't silence me, Blight, I'll-" Luz was cut off by Amity giving her a quick hug. It was awkward, Amity bending to match Luz's angle on the bed. But she managed, getting her arms around Luz enough to make what she was doing pretty obvious, and being gentle enough to not hurt the other girl. Amity straightened up and smiled, her turn to laugh.
"You look like a cherry," she said, before turning to head out.
"F-Fuck you, Blight," Luz said, turning to look to the wall.
"You're welcome, Luz. I'll be back to pick you up in the morning."
Luz gained her composure, and turned her head back.
"Thank you, Blight...Goodnight."
Amity smiled at Luz, that look of concern, of worry, of fear for the safety of Luz having melted away and being left with that classic, cute- Kinda dumb, kinda pleasantly stupid Blight smile.
"Goodnight."
Amity helped Luz into her car, the morning sun shining down on them. It was a warm day, but a cool morning, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was refreshing, at least to Amity. She couldn't help but feel that Luz was probably a bit indifferent given her leg though. Or maybe pissed. If the frown on the Dominican girl's face was anything to go by, Amity would wager a bit of both.
"How's it feel?" Amity asked, hopping inside the car.
Luz turned her head slightly, deciding she was really interested in whatever was outside the window.
Amity sighed, heading out to the main road to start to head back to campus. The radio made the silence less deafening, but Luz made sure that all Amity saw when she looked was the back of her head.
Amity pulled up to a stoplight, "I'm sorry that this happened," she said, thinking out loud more than anything, "I mean I know I didn't necessarily cause it out right but…"
"Please be quiet," Luz said, the poison in her voice swapped with exasperation.
"What's wrong? Does it hurt? Am I doing something wrong? What is the-"
Luz slammed her fist into the dashboard, snapping her head to look at the green haired girl, "Shut the fuck up, you loser! Just take me the fuck home!"
Amity pulled off the road and slammed the brakes, throwing the car into park as she looked back at Luz, "What the fuck is your problem, Luz?!"
"You're my fucking problem!" Luz snapped, and for a moment Amity swore she saw a tear beading in Noceda's eyes, "You're fucking helping me and yesterday I made you a fucking laughting stock!"
"If it weren't for me, you would've had hospital bills!"
Luz grimaced, the tear in the corner of her eye threatening to fall any second.
"And, correct me if I'm wrong, Noceda, but last night you and I were joking around like best friends and you didn't have a fucking problem with it!" Amity spat.
Luz just stared.
"I hugged you, didn't I?" Amity said, the shouting gone and replaced with that same exasperation Luz had earlier.
Finally the tear fell, and Luz turned away and sniffled. Amity got back on the road, the radio now making the air painfully loud, like it was in any way comfortable. Amity clicked it off, and they sat in silence for a few minutes, Amity focusing on the road.
Luz spoke first.
"I'm sorry, Blight," She said.
Amity held her tongue. She wanted to say she was sorry too and just move on from this fiasco and hope that maybe something good comes out of it. But if she didn't speak up now the cycle wouldn't break. She had to say something.
"What are you doing, Luz?" Amity asked, concern spilling from her words.
"I don't know."
Amity's concern flipped to sadness as they pulled into the campus, "Are...Are you trying to tear my brain in half, Luz?"
Because it's working.
As the car came to a stop, and the engine shut down, Luz finally broke. For the first time, Amity saw Luz cry. Like, really cry. The girl wouldn't stop bawling, babbling about something through the tears as she tried to make some semblance of a coherent person who knew what they were doing. As she tried to pretend she was a badass that couldn't be brought to tears because some girl took her to the hospital and drove her home.
It was nothing short of heartwrenching. And every time Luz's shoulders jerked, Amity felt a painful jab in her chest.
"Do you want me to hold you?" Amity asked quietly, her heart being twisted and crumpled like a water bottle as she watched her- her bully- break down.
No sooner had the words left her mouth than Luz had flung herself over at Amity, throwing her arms around the younger one's shoulders and burying her face into Amity's shirt collar. Amity kept her mouth shut.
Amity's hands felt nice. They had a gentle, but firm touch. And the way Amity moved them felt so delicate, so deliberate, like Luz was a glass statue. From where Luz was, she could hear Amity's heartbeat. Slow, calm, a gentle tempo to ground herself to, like a metronome. Each beat of the girl's heart, every time she ran her finger tips through Luz's hair. It was like she just took all the Valium in the world. Her breathing slowed, her shoulders stopped racking, and eventually she stopped sobbing.
Amity never said a word. Amity never tried to offer anything to make it better, she never guaranteed it would be ok. She didn't pretend to know what was going on in Luz's head. And, while she probably really wanted to, Luz was grateful she didn't pry. Because to say she herself had any idea of what was going on would be a total fucking lie.
"I'm sorry, too," Amity whispered, Luz eventually deciding she was more than happy resting her head on Amity's chest for a bit.
Luz gave Amity a weak thumbs up in an "apology accepted" way, before throwing her arm back around Amity's waist.
When Luz looked up, she blushed a bit. Had she been crying for 30 minutes?
No.
No, she had been crying and clinging to Amity for 30 minutes. All outside her dorm. She could've been inside a while ago.
Amity looked down at Luz, her fingers twiddling some of her dark hair, watching it shine and flow. It was so soft, and Amity really didn't want to stop.
"Ready to go inside?"
Luz nodded, and sat up straight...Well, after Amity had finished playing with her hair.
Amity threw Luz's arm over her shoulder, and helped her to her apartment. As they made their way up the second flight of stairs, Luz blushed a bit.
"Thank you, Blight," Luz sighed, averting her eyes a bit.
"You're welcome," Amity said, a slight smile making itself home on her face.
When they reached the door, Amity set Luz down. She leaned against the wall, holding her arm a bit sheepishly as she tried to have some semblance of looking cool. They stood there for a bit, blushing, looking away, not quite sure what to do next.
Amity looked up, "Do you think you're gonna be fine for a couple of days?"
Luz nodded, and did her best to flash a cocky smirk, "I'm me. I'll be fine."
Amity laughed, and simply pointed to Luz's leg. Luz gave her a playful shove, giving one of those "air through the nose" laughs.
"Shut up," she said.
Amity feigned shock and awe, gasping dramatically and throwing the back of her hand to her forehead, leaning back, "but I didn't even speak!"
Luz laughed again, and for the first time in a while, Amity saw that smile. It made the green haired girl grin and blush like an idiot as if on cue.
"If I need you, " Luz said, opening her door and hopping over to go inside, "I'll give you a shout. Ok?"
"Promise?" Amity asked.
Luz nodded, "Promise."
And, in a move Amity probably should've seen coming given what happened the night before, Luz threw her arms around Amity, tucking the shorter girl's head under her chin and into her neck. Amity jumped a bit, but quickly returned the embrace, giving Luz a tight squeeze. She took a quick breath, and woah Luz smelled really nice. She smelled like a summer day, all chlorine, sunscreen, and fruity sports drinks, with the fresh smell of the sun and the outside baked into her jacket. She could get drunk off this. Oh god she was blushing more.
They probably stood hugging for a minute, and while that was not nearly long enough for either of them, any longer would just be plain weird. Amity gave Luz a small wave, and watched as Luz headed inside her apartment, that smile glued to her face.