Everything hurt.

Rion was dragged to consciousness by pain. His whole body felt cut and bruised, like Sarina and her friends had given him the beating of a lifetime. Some places were worse than others – his right arm, his feet, his knees, and elbows. It was like he had rolled through shattered glass…

Oh.

That’s exactly what happened.

Rion lay there, eyes closed, his body stinging all over. He tried to sort through his scrambled thoughts. He remembered the fight. He remembered Noa breaking the glass cups and taking a shard in his hands. He remembered wrestling Noa for it, and then…

They’d struggled on the floor together. It was all a blur. He remembered sharp pain, places where he’d been stabbed by glass, places that still hurt now. Rion remembered the crunching sound beneath him as he rolled on the kitchen floor, fighting to get that chunk of glass out of Noa’s hand. He’d grabbed Noa’s wrist, pulled at his arm, and…

It happened so fast, too fast for him to understand. The next thing he remembered was sitting on the floor, his arm sliced open from wrist to elbow. Blood gushed, like something out of a horror movie. Everything was red. He’d felt sick, dizzy…

Rion must have passed out.

So where was he now?

Trying to ignore the pain, Rion did his best to focus. He could hear a distant mumble of voices and footsteps and there was a smell in the air…something like fresh laundry and antiseptic? Which meant…the hospital. That made the most sense.

His eyes felt so heavy, but he forced them open.

He was in a hospital bed, the railings pulled up on one side. He was hooked up to an IV and what little he could see of himself was bandaged like a mummy. The room itself was small, everything in the room decorated in shades of orange, brown, and off-white.

There was a nurse sitting next to his bedside. She was an older woman with a stern, matronly look to her. When he moved, she was right there, present and attentive.

“Good morning,” she said. “Are you awake?”

Rion felt like that was a stupid question, but considering he was in the hospital, maybe it was fair. He tried to answer but had to swallow twice.

“Yeah,” he finally said, voice rough. His throat felt like sandpaper. “I’m in the hospital?”

“Yes, that’s right,” the nurse said. “My name is Beth Foster. I’m your nurse this morning. Can you tell me your name?”

She was up and out of her seat already, moving around the room. Rion found it hard to follow her with her eyes.

“Rion Blum,” he said, even though he figured she must already know.

“Do you know what day it is?” she asked.

“Um… October,” Rion began. “October first? And it’s…2004.”

“That’s good. That’s when you were brought in,” Beth said. “It’s October second, five in the morning. There’s a clock on the wall just there, if you need it.”

Five in the morning? Rion stared at the clock as he tried to decide how he felt about that. It seemed too early to be up, but also like too much time had gone by. He’d been out for hours.

“How old are you, Rion?”

“Um…” he began, turning back to her. He only tilted his head on the pillow. It felt like a huge effort. “Seventeen. I turn eighteen on Halloween.”

“A holiday birthday, huh?” she said. “Must be hectic.”

“Sometimes,” Rion said.

His last few birthdays had been quiet. His dad tried to get the day off to spend it with him, but the last couple times it didn’t work out. Last year, Rion had opened his presents alone, ate junk food, and went to bed early, curling up in his dad’s bed so that he wouldn’t feel so alone.

The nurse asked him more questions, checking him over, taking blood pressure and a few other things. It helped Rion wake up, but he was also hurting more and more. Fortunately, she asked him how he was feeling as she checked him over.

“I feel…awful,” he told her. “Kinda like I was put through a blender.”

“That’s not surprising,” Beth said. “On a scale of zero to ten, with zero being no pain at all and ten being the worst pain imaginable, what are you feeling?”

“I dunno… Seven? Eight?” Rion said.

“Can you tell me where it hurts?”

“All over. But…my right arm where I was cut…that’s really bad. My feet hurt and…knees, elbows…my whole right side…”

She asked him a few more questions, prodding him gently here and there and getting him to move. She seemed to want to know where he was hurt the worst and while he got the idea, he didn’t enjoy it.

“Okay. Thank you, Rion,” Beth said. “We did our best to remove all the glass, but you’re cut up pretty bad. We didn’t want to give you any pain medication until we gave you an assessment. I’ll make sure you get something right away, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks,” he said.

“There’s a lot of people who want to talk to you,” she added. “There’s a few more things we need to go over. The doctor wants to see you and the police want a statement about what happened.”

“Oh,” Rion said.

The last time he’d had to give a statement to the police was when Amber died. He couldn’t stop crying at the time. He wasn’t even sure how he managed to lie, and he was pretty sure that he just repeated, “It was an accident,” over and over again. It was the only fragment of the truth he could cling to.

He didn’t want to give a statement. But considering what happened with Noa…

Noa!

He had a sudden surge of fear, worried about what might have happened. Noa might have–!

“Where’s Noa?” Rion asked. “Is he okay?”

“The boy who was brought in with you?” Beth said. Rion nodded. “He’s in another room, being looked after.”

“So, he’s okay?” Rion said, desperate for confirmation. “He’s… He’s doing all right?”

He didn’t want to ask if Noa was dying. He didn’t want to ask if he was going to lose Noa… If… No… Anything but that…

“Noa’s doing all right,” Beth told him. “He’s in better shape than you are, so worry about yourself for now, okay?”

Slowly, Rion relaxed. In better shape. That was good. That was really good. Rion knew he could get through this, so hearing that Noa was better off was a really good thing. He must be all scratched up by glass too, and… It was awful, but at least he would be okay.

“That’s…good. Thanks,” Rion said.

The next few hours were a blur.

The doctor came and saw him and he got his pain meds. Then the police stopped by. He stumbled through a statement for them, sticking with the truth as he knew it.

He got into a fight with Noa. Things escalated. Noa broke some cups. He took a piece of glass and Rion was worried that Noa would hurt himself with it. He tried to stop him. They’d struggled on the kitchen floor, fighting over the glass shard.

Short, simple, to the point. That was what happened.

Rion was feeling fuzzy and tired afterwards. He was ready to curl up in a ball and sleep when his dad came by. Rion wasn’t expecting him here and he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

“Dad?” he said, blinking.

“Hey,” his dad said, coming over to hover next to his bed awkwardly. “How are you feeling?”

It was such a dumb question. Rion looked down at himself for a moment. Even though most of him was covered by the sheets, he knew he was bandaged all over, especially his feet. Both his hands had to be wrapped up, covering the cuts to his palms from grasping at broken glass, and his right arm was bandaged up to his elbow. When he moved it, it felt weird, like his skin was pulled too tight.

He’d been told that was the stitches. He’d also been told he was very lucky. The slice along his arm had missed anything important and it hadn’t gone too deep. He was going to have a scar but he couldn’t even bring himself to care.

Lucky… What a weird thing to call it.

“I feel like shit,” he told his dad honestly.

His dad let out a weak laugh.

“That’s… I can’t blame you,” his dad said. “I had the scare of my life when I got a call about you being in the hospital. I’m taking a couple weeks off work, so I’ll be around a lot.”

“You… You did?” Rion said, surprised. “Will that be okay?”

“Even if it isn’t, it doesn’t matter,” his dad said, shaking his head. “I was really, really worried, Rion. I came as fast as I could, but you weren’t conscious when I got here. It reminded me of…”

He faltered, swallowing hard. But he didn’t need to say anything else. Even with the pain meds and his fuzzy head, Rion knew he must be thinking of Mom.

“I’m okay,” Rion said, wanting to reassure him. “I mean, I’m not, but…I’ll get there. It’s just cuts and bruises.”

His dad hesitated before saying, “They told me that you also have some older bruises. It got me thinking about your black eye, so I mentioned it to your doctor. Have you been getting into fights?”

Rion did not want to be having this conversation. Not now. He’d already tried to brush off the black eye as something that was an accident from school when his dad asked about it. It was gone now. Most of his old bruises were pretty faded too. How had anyone noticed…?

It must have been when they were stitching him up while he was unconscious. Come to think of it, his side and shoulder felt like it had taken the worst of the damage from his fall to the kitchen floor. But most of his other bruises… He did have a nasty one or two on his chest that were almost gone, but… Had they seen that? And they knew it wasn’t just from his fight with Noa?

“I don’t know,” Rion said, wanting to dismiss it. “I’ve been getting into fights with Sarina and her friends, but it’s not that bad.”

“You never said anything,” his dad said.

And he looked so disappointed. Rion hated it. He wanted to pull the covers over his head and hide.

“I…” Rion said. “It’s not important.”

“It’s important to me,” his dad said. “I know I…haven’t been around a lot. I’m not a great dad. But I do care about you.”

“You’re a fine dad,” Rion said. “Really, it’s not important. I promise. I’m fine, okay? I mean… I mean, other than…you know…”

His dad didn’t look convinced at all. But he dropped the subject.

“They also said you got into a fight with Noa… They implied he was trying to hurt himself. What happened?”

Rion tried to shrug but winced at even such a small motion. “He… We saw some pictures of Amber… You remember Noa’s cousin…? They were pictures from years ago, and we…we were really emotional. Noa just kind of… I don’t know if he was trying to hurt himself, but he broke some glasses and picked up this, like, big piece, and… I tried to take it away. I was scared he was going to get hurt.”

“And then you both got hurt.”

“Yeah, well… I didn’t know what he was going to do. I didn’t want him to…to…you know…”

He wanted to wave a hand dismissively, but when he tried to raise his arm, he dropped it back down to the bed instead. It was too heavy and sore despite the pain meds.

“You shouldn’t move around so much,” his dad said.

“Yeah,” Rion agreed. “Sorry. I just… I dunno. My head’s kind of fuzzy and everything still hurts.”

“Maybe I should come back later. You should rest,” his dad said. “You probably need it. The doctor said he wants you to have a psychiatric assessment. And some of your friends are wanting to visit later.”

“Friends…?” Rion repeated. He didn’t have friends. He only had Noa.

“The Murphys for sure. Danny, Jesse, and Celeste are really worried too. Danny especially. He saw the whole thing.”

“Oh,” Rion said. Right. They were his friends. Technically. “I don’t think I’m up for any visits.”

“I don’t think so either. Not right now. Did you want me to bring you anything from home? Some video games maybe, for when you’re better?”

“Maybe. I dunno.”

“Okay. Just let me know if there’s anything I can get you.”

Rion watched his father for a moment. It must have gotten colder out or maybe it was snowing because his dad was wearing his winter coat, along with his mitts, scarf, and toque. It made Rion realize he’d borrowed one of his dad’s jackets and it was probably still at Noa’s…

“Can I have your scarf?” Rion asked.

“My… This scarf?” his dad said, lifting the end.

“Yeah,” Rion said. “I know it’s stupid, but… I wanna have something of yours. So I don’t feel so lonely when you’re gone.”

“…Rion, I’m going to come back,” his dad said. “I’ll be here lots. You don’t need to feel lonely or miss me.”

“Well, yeah, I know you say that, but… I know how things come up. You’re busy,” Rion said. “It’s okay if you can’t come back again. I just… I’d just like something of yours. Just until I can come home. I’ll give it back.”

His dad hesitated. Rion was pretty sure he was tearing up, but Rion didn’t really get why. He took his scarf off, folding it up, and then tucked it next to Rion’s hand. It was on his injured side, with his stitched-up arm, and even though it hurt to move, Rion grabbed a fist full of the wool.

“I’m going to come back,” his dad said. “I’m not abandoning you here, okay?”

“Okay,” Rion said, but he already felt a lot better with the scarf in his grip. “Thanks, Dad.”