Page 11 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)
My cheeks flushed as I thought about that wild time.
We’d gone on a few dates and had a few good kissing sessions, but the spark died after a few things went down with his friends.
It didn’t take him long to move on to sophomore Natalie Mao, who he claimed was the best kisser. Probably way better than me.
I doubted he even remembered that he kissed me, which made me glad that we stayed just friends. I didn’t want someone who had a new girlfriend every few weeks, though there was nothing wrong with that—I wanted someone who made me feel special.
Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I went to the cat hallway and brought food to the babies. A tuxedo who was only ten weeks old, Nina, let out a meow when I poured her food.
“I love you,” I whispered to her before closing her cage.
She meowed again, nearly turning me into a puddle.
I hated seeing everyone locked away on display.
It made me want to become a foster mom for cats .
. . only I’d keep all of them for life. Even Rocco, who shredded the newspaper in his cage, had me beaming.
When I finished feeding the last cat, Snowball the white Persian cat, I went back into the lobby to place the bags back down on the counters and to wait for my next task.
Mrs. Landers looked up from her desk and faced me, her blonde hair falling into her eyes. “Did you feed all of them?”
“Some of them weren’t hungry, but I gave them a healthy amount anyway.” I smiled. “They need more meat on them, the poor skinny things.”
“I know.” She sighed. “Some of them have been through a lot and are too scared to eat.”
I swallowed and pushed the sad thoughts away. “I’m about the feed the bunnies now.”
“Thank you.” She gave a nod of approval before looking down again.
I went to the food room to get the bag of bunny food and went over to their section. I opened Grey’s cage and fed him a carrot. “There you go, boy.”
As I fed him, Hayden Tidwell walked through the hallway, brushing his dark braids out of his eyes. When he saw me, he smiled and walked over. His dark eyes lit up. “Super cute.”
“It’s Raina, actually. I thought you’d know my name by now.” I wanted to joke that maybe he’d thought I was Arielle, but given that their relationship was complicated after their breakup before Christmas, it would’ve been way too soon.
He laughed. “Is Grey up for adoption? My parents finally agreed to let me get a bunny.” He stepped closer to the cage and waved at Grey. “Hey, cutie.”
“Now, now, let’s not hit on the animals.”
“I can’t help myself. His fur is such a beautiful color.”
“It is. Very wintery.” I admired Grey from floppy ears to paws, and he made a squeaking noise that melted my insides.
“He’s perfect,” Hayden said. “I can’t wait to adopt you, buddy.”
“Let’s hope that you’re finally responsible.”
“Rude.” He stood up again, flipping his hair back with no hands. Arielle found it hot, but it made me concerned for his neck. Then again, I was the last person who should pay attention to other people’s bad habits when I had way too many to count .
I twisted my bracelet around my wrist four times to make sure it was still there before giving the next rabbit, Popsicle, her food. “Just saying. Remember your two lizards?—”
“I thought they were friends.”
“Friends don’t get each other pregnant.”
“Well, I didn’t know what to do with a bunch of baby lizards!”
I rolled my eyes with a smile, but that was when a sharp pain shot to my hand. I jumped and dropped the rabbit food. I looked up at Popsicle, and I swore she was giving me an evil grin. The food wasn’t delicious enough, but your hand was right there.
“Are you okay?” Hayden asked. He took my wrist to examine my hand, but I yanked it back, causing him to stumble backward. “What the hell?”
“I-I’m fine.”
“Yeah, streams of blood coming from your hand is fine.”
“It is fine,” I snapped, though the words were more for myself. It’s fine. Accidents happen. You can’t prevent them . I covered the wounds with my hand. Please stop bleeding .
“I’ll get something to stop it,” Hayden said before running into the hallway.
“Thanks.” I removed my hand to see how bad the blood was and bit back a scream.
Please, please, please don’t have rabies .
Every animal got shots as soon as they came to the shelter to get rid of any diseases, and it was rare if they did have diseases in the first place.
But something could’ve gone wrong, and?—
Stop spiraling . I checked the spot to see if it had gotten worse. It definitely had. I covered the spot with my hand again, but then I checked it again. Stop looking . But I looked again, the impulse growing as my thoughts raced. You’re going to get sick, you’re going to get sick ? —
Someone made siren noises, and I looked up to see Caleb Branch with a first aid kit, Hayden running behind him with paper towels. “Help is here,” Caleb said as he placed the first aid kit down and opened it.
Hayden put the paper towels over my wound. “This is just until Caleb gets everything ready.”
“I’m the best doctor you’ll ever have.” Caleb started taking things out of the first aid kit and putting them on a table nearby.
“I would’ve preferred Oliver,” I said in an attempt for a joke to distract my racing mind. “He’s a lot faster.”
“Please, he’s too busy flirting with someone’s daughter in the lobby. I wonder how long it’ll take for him to get her number.”
“I’m betting four minutes,” Hayden said as he checked my wound. “It’s not bleeding as much anymore. You can clean it out.”
“Thank you,” I said as Caleb put the Neosporin on my wound. I winced as another bolt of pain spread through me.
“Anytime.” Caleb put the gauze over my wound after letting the ointment sink in. “Don’t want you to get an infection.”
My insides twisted as I looked at his prosthetic arm. He caught me looking, and his face pinched. He knew how much one infection could change everything more than anyone else did.
“Everything okay?” Oliver asked as he walked into the area. “I saw you guys run in here with the first aid kit.”
“You were too busy trying to get your lips laid while Raina was bleeding out,” Caleb said, irritation in his voice. “She needs to get checked out.”
Oliver looked at the gauze on my hand. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry that happened. Which one did it?”
“Popsicle,” I muttered as I glared at her, fighting the tears that formed in the back of my eyes. Gosh, the last thing I needed to do was cry over this. If someone walked in here to look at the bunnies, they’d immediately change their minds.
Oliver shook his head. “I’ll make sure she’ll get checked out too before the vet leaves.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should’ve kept checking my hands to see where they were in the cage while talking to Hayden.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Hayden said, and both Oliver and Caleb nodded. “Accidents happen.”
But that is what’s wrong . I hated it when people told me accidents happened. No crap, accidents happened. But that didn’t mean they were just small accidents and that it would never matter. Accidents happened all the freaking time when they shouldn’t.
But I couldn’t stop them no matter how hard I tried.
Caleb put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Sorry,” I said again. “I just—” I stepped away from everyone. “Going to use the bathroom.” I spun on the heel and ran all the way into the bathroom.
No one was in there, so I locked myself in the biggest stall and looked in the mirror. “Stop freaking out,” I told myself. “Please stop. It’s going to be okay. I’ll be okay.” I studied my face, which was paler than usual. My hands shook on the sink as I took four deep breaths. “Please stop it.”
The tears rolled down my cheeks, messing up my carefully applied mascara and eyeliner. I wet a paper towel and quickly wiped away the black stains before conjuring enough courage to leave the bathroom.
When I opened the door, all three of the boys were standing there with worry in their eyes.
“Thought Oliver’s new girlfriend walked in there instead?” I attempted to joke.
Oliver rolled his eyes. “Feeling better? ”
“Yes.” Barely.
Caleb and Oliver exchanged wary looks as Hayden put his hands in his pockets. “I can finish feeding the rest of the bunnies,” Hayden said. “Mrs. Landers says you can have a break.”
“Thanks.” Not knowing what else to do other than stand there awkwardly, I scurried into the break room to get my purse to do my makeup again. If I looked put together on the outside, no one would see how much I was falling apart on the inside.
But even my friends could see the cracks in my concealer.