Good Left Undone

7

The two of them walk around campus muttering gossip about the mysterious girl and Dr. Frieg, coming up with their own theories about what is happening. However, unlike the insignificant banter of the popular click, Rowen and Max will find out rather soon that this is all very real and all very cataclysmal. Lives destroyed, buildings crumbled, and the foundations of reality interrupted. In the meantime, birds chirp and sun pushes through the rather gray sky in streams. A vast array of decaying colors litter amongst the ground and crunch beneath their feet.

They wind through every building aimlessly and coincidentally find themselves at a halt in front of the Range building. A group of two girls and a guy are crouched on the sidewalk next to a girl covering her face and weeping. The two girls are busy on their phones, whether getting help or tweeting it is unclear, and the guy seems to be trying to counsel the girl on the ground. Rowen also could see streams of red flowing down between her fingers.

"What happened?" Rowen hesitates.

"Some asshole didn't hold the door open for her and she slammed her face against the door. We think she broke her nose."

" Dammit it hurts so bad. I don't know if it's broken but it's definitely bleeding."

First thing Rowen does is look to see if it is that all too familiar girl that has been haunting him but comes to find that it's just Raina Sing from his Intro to Clinical Psych class. Her fingers and cheeks are splattered with blood.

"Did she just not see the door?" Max asks gently and hesitantly.

" That's not the fucking point! The guy should've held the door regardless. In fact the guy kinda looked like you blubber-boy. Not a whole lot of fat people on campus."

Max drops his head in guilt. Fuck. Was that me? It couldn't have been me. My bout of assholeness was hours ago. No way it could've been me. I mean I guess a broken nose could put someone down for that long though. Damn was it me? But wait why haven't they gotten help yet?

"Stop it Craig. He was just asking. I was just stupid. I was looking down at my phone and just wasn't paying attention. I kind of deserved it." Raina replies and winces in pain.

"When did it happen?" Rowen motions to Max in a way that tells him that he's got it covered. He asks knowing that maybe it was best for Max to remain quiet.

"It just happened not more than a half hour ago. Maybe? Craig, Natalie, and Gwen just found me. I can't really walk. My head is dizzy so I can't really stand."

"May I?" Rowen motions to look at the damage. He hopes that he can at least help in some way. He has a slight hunch he knows what's about to happen.

" Fuck off man. We are trying to get a hold of the nurse's office to see if someone can come to see her. We got this under control." Craig replies aggressively.

"You her guardian or something? Or are you just the suffocating insecure boyfriend who knows nothing on how to help her?" Rowen thinks while Max blurts out.

"Talk again tubby and I..." Craig starts.

"It's okay Craig what's the worst he could do." Raina motions and waits for Craig's overbearing, steroid infused meat body to unflex and relax. The other two girls remain glued to their screens frantically dialing numbers and looking up diagnoses.

"Says here. That she could have fractured her skull." Gwen blurts out.

"Yeah says she needs to be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Or she could die." Natalie adds on.

"Thank you Doctors. I'll come up with my own diagnosis thank you very much." Rowen says sarcastically. Wow people can be really fucking dumb. Honestly think for your fucking selves. Haha I wonder what they would do if I slapped the phones out of their hands.

The thought lingers in his mind until he remembers why he even stopped in the first place. He could scold the other three idiots later.

Rowen sneaks by Craig hesitantly. He sees sweat built up on Craig's rather flat forehead from his spell of unnecessary misplaced rage. He reaches her and gently asks her to remove her hands from her face. Blood both wet and dry covers her face from her nose to her mid cheeks and down towards her chin. Her eyes watery with pain and vulnerability.

"Describe the pain to me." Rowen mumbles to her hoping he can coax her into feeling less pain. The less to take in the merrier.

"It's a sharp throbbing pain. I can feel it all throughout my head. I just feel dizzy and weak. Can't really think straight." Raina confesses.

Rowen moves in to caress the side of her face and with it comes a moment of shy understanding. She doesn't know him that well and vice versa but there's a sense of comfortability that allows her to give him a slight nod of approval to continue. He wipes the blood from her cheek with his thumb and part of his sleeve. As he does this he gradually feels a thundercloud of sharp pain and bewildering winds enter his prefrontal cortex and down towards his amygdala.

"Wow. I uhhh know how you feel." Rowen says mildly clasping his head.

"It's quite the headache." She looks at him and laughs lightly. She could feel the pain lifting and clarity returning in her mind. The blood still slowly drips from her nose but the pain disappears.

"I'm going to return the favor since I can feel what you are doing." She whispers to him. "Pain is mental right? Just like everything else."

Raina then takes her hand and places it on Rowen's cheek. Her sea blue eyes and earthy brown hair take his breath away but it is her relaxed, painless state that grounds him back. The pain in his mind now also dissipates to nothing.

"Wh..what the fuck are you doing?" Craig comes over and pushes Rowen to the ground.

He falls onto a low-cut hedge and receives a couple scrapes. No pain to talk about. A jealous boyfriend is all it is. Probably just a jealous twat that doesn't feel any connection to her. All he probably wants is sex and a blowy and that's it. And only HE can have her. Ahhhh poor Max. don't get involved man. You'll never beat a meat-head unless you can out run him. Ooff that looked like it hurt.

They lay in the hedges together and watch the beautiful damsel being carried away. She insists to the lug that he had truly helped her and that she was grateful but really wasn't having it. He continues with her in his arms and insists they just go to the medical building. Natalie and Gwen linger behind them without direction still glued.

"Huh pain is mental isn't it?" Rowen looks over at Max and both of them laugh.

As Raina looks over the shoulder of Craig, her eyes send them her appreciation and apology. The apologetic look of a frown and a twinkle in her eyes tells them so. With the last gleam of her eyes it became apparent to Rowen and Max that it began to snow. Flakes delicately flutter to the ground and the world faints to white.