1. A favor?

I was told to stay in the hospital for a week,

I really could not answer the questions the doctors asked me about my health. It is true that I have not been to the hospital much, at least not as much as a person my age should’ve. It was only because I never got sick enough for the hospital. The handful of times I visited the hospital was for some kind of broken arm or leg or a vaccination shot. Whenever I got sick, I would be healed before it got serious. A cold would only last a day in my body, and a stomach ache from eating something off-putting would last only a few hours. It was a blessing, in a way, because my mother and I were not that well off as my mother refused any kind of financial help from my father. I considered myself extremely lucky to have such a good immunity system.

Which was why it was such a surprise when I was told I had an allergy to silver of all things. Because this isn’t the first time I have ingested silver, and never before have I gone to anaphylactic shock because of it.

A sudden onset allergy is the last thing I needed.

My days in the hospital are so boring. I’m forbidden to do any sort of schoolwork as the doctors think it will affect my healing ability by tiring me out, so I spend my days watching movies or doing some light. reading. When they are also taken from me in the guise of ‘providing me enough rest to recuperate,’ I spend the time daydreaming, thinking about my father, Stone and his bullies, Coraline, Gerald, and everyone else who had turned up in my life to make it seem different from what it was just a year before. I think about my mother who had the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I wonder how it would’ve been if she was still alive.

One thing is for sure, she would’ve never let me put up with the bullying for so long.

Coraline visits me on the second day when the doctor deems me adequate to have visitors. As soon as she enters the hospital room and lays her eyes on my still-bandaged being, her hand goes to her mouth to hide her gasp, “Oh, my god, Jace, what did they do to you?! Did they stab you?”

I realize that Coraline is not aware of the incident that took place. So, I tell her about the silver allergy, hoping to placate her worries, but it makes things worse because her eyes start to get shiny.

“You could’ve died!” she shrieks, “if the doctors had been the tiniest bit late…”

“But they weren’t,” I remind her, “nothing bad happened. They managed to patch me up just fine. And apparently, I got a really good immunity system, so I’m healing just fine and really fast.”

She still looks shell-shocked. After some contemplation, I hesitantly take her hand, which is lying next to me on the hospital bed, and give it a reassuring squeeze. She turns her teary eyes at me, “I’m okay now, Coraline. I’m getting better. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Oh, Jace,” she squeezes my hand back, and shoots me a wobbly smile, “you’re my friend. I won’t stop worrying until you’re out of the hospital and all the bandages are gone.”

me such warmth that I

of my work. I wonder out loud if she feels the workload is too much, but she

that she genuinely loved

comes in the form of Gerald, who goes pale when I mention my allergy to

in a strange sort

is it so interesting, Gerald?”

have one,” he informs me,

a puzzle piece falls into place, “so I inherited it from him.

teach your attackers a lesson, and I’m not going to let them go

exactly is happening anyway? Also, I told you to just call

policy. The fight got leaked to the internet because of course the students videotaped it and released it on social media. The university had been getting

groan, “Oh, god, seriously?”

“I’m afraid so.”

everyone is aware

“No,

to the university records you’re still a student from a lower-class background, who is also on a scholarship. Even if your identity

hearing scheduled

yet. They’re waiting until you’re released,”

and bringing me

we warm up to each other. He does not talk about Zelt Tech or the argument we had before. Rather, he asks me

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