When classes ended for the day, I parted ways with Ashley at her dorm room after we agreed to meet directly at the bleachers.
After a quick shower, I left my dorm with my book in hand. If I made Ashley wait alone at the bleachers for too long, she’d kill me. I skipped down the stairs two steps at a time, but after four flights of stairs I skidded to a stop at what was before me.
Someone—actually, I was pretty sure that was Nolan—was sitting on one of the steps in the middle of the stairs, with the side of his head leaned against the wall. His bag was still slung over his shoulder.
Was he sleeping out here? That made no sense; he had a perfectly good bed in his dorm room.
Tentatively, I took a few more steps down to reach where he was. When I bent my head down to see if he was sleeping, surprise jolted through me because his tired green eyes were looking right at me.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said, his gaze shifting away.
“Are you … alright?” I asked.
His half-closed eyes were unfocused, and his eyebrows were pulled together into a slight frown. Shifting a little, he leaned even more heavily against the wall.
He shut his eyes. “Yeah.”
He wasn’t convincing me with the way he looked like he was trying to press himself into the wall. “I don’t know, you don’t look okay to me. Are you feeling sick?”
Nolan’s eyebrow twitched.
“I just … I’m having a headache.” His voice was so low I barely caught the words.
I went down another few steps so I could look at him without straining my neck. “A headache? Maybe you should go to the infirmary.”
He shook his head listlessly, looking like it was taking a lot out of him to even do that. “I’m not going to the infirmary.”
I frowned. “Why not? You could use the medical attention, don’t you think?”
Nolan shook his head again. “I just need some rest, and then I’ll be fine.”
“Here?” Okay, he looked like he was in a really bad condition. Hoping Ashley was still slowly making her way to the track, I sat down on the step next to him. “You should at least rest in your room. Why are you sitting here?”
His eyes opened slowly, but he was still avoiding eye contact with me. After a long moment, he finally answered, “My headache’s really painful. I’m … I’m having trouble walking.”
“Why don’t I help you to your room?” The offer flew out of my mouth before I could even really consider what I was saying.
His eyes widened as they darted to me.
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised that, after what felt like half a minute of staring into his unreadable eyes, he said, “I’m fine.”
Scoffing, I shook my head. “You can’t even walk yourself to your room; how can you call yourself fine?”
“I’ll manage.”
“By sitting here all night until you get yelled at by your dorm parent for breaking curfew?”
He hesitated. “I …”
“Tell you what, you can either accept my help to get to your room, or you can rest here while I fetch Nurse Margaret to fuss over you and personally take you to the infirmary. Which sounds better to you?” I stood up, placed my hands on my hips and gave him a stern stare.
Margaret, one of our school nurses, was very good at her job. Her fondness of fussing too much over us often came with the territory, however. Most of us students loved her because she was kind and motherly, but still thought that she was way too passionate about her work. Given Nolan’s practically hermit status, he wasn’t going to enjoy it at all.
He glared back at me, and it was such a weak glare coming from him that I felt even worse for him.
“I mean it,” I warned, taking a couple of steps down to show him I meant serious business. “If I leave, I’ll be off to get Margaret.”
The moment I turned my back on him, he called out, “Wait.”
Spinning back around, I raised an eyebrow expectantly at him. “Well?”
He choked out a laugh that broke off halfway. I’d never heard his voice this loud before—it was rough and scratchy, and it sounded like he barely ever used it. Through the obvious strain on his face, he quirked a small smile at me. It fell as quickly as it appeared, leaving me wondering if I’d imagined it.
In one day, I’d seen his smile and heard his laugh. What was happening to this world?
“Could you help me to my room, please?” he asked in the same scratchy voice.
I beamed. “I thought you’d never ask. So, what floor is it?”
“Just the floor above this.”
After sending a quick text message to Ashley to keep her updated, I extended my hand for Nolan to take. His hand held mine in a hesitant grip at first, and then his fingers tightened to a firmer hold as he slowly made himself stand. His other hand pressed against the wall for additional support while he was getting to his feet. His hand was significantly larger than mine, and the rough, unevenness of his palm and the feeling of his hand enveloping mine made my cheeks start to burn—I’d never held a guy’s hand before this.
I wanted to laugh at myself because I never would have thought that the first time I held a guy’s hand, it would be with Nolan.
“Here, you can put your arm over my shoulders,” I said.
When he did, the pressure was so light that it was almost as if he hadn’t done it.
I cast him a glance. “Um, you’re supposed to lean on me. Come on.”
He didn’t say anything, but the weight of his arm fell upon me after a second’s pause.
“Great.”
Slowly, we turned and began to climb the stairs. Because he was really leaning into me, I could feel his upper torso pressed along my side, which was firmer than I thought it would be—he wasn’t as scrawny as he looked.
I’d never been so thankful for the fact that Nolan was lean. We had to go up two flights of stairs to reach his floor, but after just one flight, I was really starting to feel the effects of this major exertion on my body. He wasn’t even that heavy! I really needed to start taking up Melissa on her offer to be workout buddies.
“Are you okay?” Nolan asked as we were making our way halfway through the last flight of stairs.
“Yeah,” I huffed. “I’m fine.”
I wanted to snap at him to not ask questions like that. If I’d responded with a ‘no’, would he have expected me to just abandon him in the middle of the staircase? We were almost there!
“It’s just … you’re panting kind of hard,” he said, sounding a little guilty.
I snapped. “I’m just out of shape, okay? I’m fine, this is like the perfect workout I needed anyway!”
“Okay ...”
I almost cried in happiness when we reached the bottom of the stairs. “We did it! Where’s your room?”
“Head right.”
“Okay,” I said, helping him to shift directions. “Let’s do this.”
“Why are you helping me?” he said, as we started walking in the direction of his room.
I tried to shrug and immediately regretted the attempt; I’d forgotten his arm was still draped over my shoulders, and the action just exhausted me more. “Well, if I were the one who needed help, I would’ve hoped for someone to help me too.”
“That’s really kind of you.”
“Well, of course,” I said, huffing out a pathetic imitation of a laugh. “I’m a kind person! Usually.”
“Yeah. I’ll pay this good deed forward, I promise.”
Pleasantly surprised, I turned to see that he was looking at me. Up close, his green eyes had flecks of blue I’d never noticed before. Feeling awkward because our faces were considerably close, I whipped my head back around. That was way too weird.
I quickly said the first thing that came to my mind, “You should! I’m holding you to that!”
“Yeah.”
When we finally reached his room, I just about sagged with relief. “We’re here!”
Nolan struggled for a moment to get his key card from his jeans pocket. When he finally pulled it free, he removed his arm from my shoulders so that he could rest his weight against his door. The warmth of his hoodie-clothed arm around my neck was abruptly replaced by the cool afternoon air, and I shivered a little.
“We got you here, safe and sound!” I said, feeling a little proud of myself. Melissa would be proud of me! “Alright, I should get going before any patrolling teachers catch me. Be careful going in. Bye!”
“Wait,” he said, turning to face me.
“Hmm?” I tapped my book against my thigh while waiting for him to talk.
“Thanks for helping me all the way here. I really appreciate it,” he said, his eyes focused my face.
At how earnest he was, a smile came easily to my face. “You’re welcome. You know, you’re not so bad. Would you appreciate it enough to remember my name this time, though?”
“Chelsea,” he said quietly.
My eyes widened. “How—”
“I heard it when Mr. Jameson addressed you this morning.” He cracked another pained half-smile at me. “So, Chelsea … thank you.”
“You took years!” Ashley accused when I finally reached her at her bleacher seat.
“I’m sorry! But I have a good reason, I promise!” I raised my hands in the air. “You saw my text, right?”
“Yeah, you came across someone who was sick and helped them to their room,” she said, sighing. “You did a good thing; I’m not blaming you for that. I just didn’t want to be alone here. Derek giggled at me earlier!”
“So mature.” I rolled my eyes. “How long have you been waiting?”
“Because of your text, I ended up leaving later,” she said, brushing her blond hair out of her eyes with her hand. “I got here maybe fifteen minutes ago?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Fifteen minutes are equivalent to years for you?”
“They are when I’m all alone out here!” she protested. “Come on—sit down.”
Laughing, I sat down beside her. The coldness of the seat seeped through even through my jeans. “Ugh, it’s cold.”
“It’s good weather for us, though.” She tossed her phone back into her bag. “If it was hot, I probably wouldn’t be here.”
“Not even to watch Jonathan?” I grinned playfully at her.
She rolled her eyes at me, but the corners of her lips lifted into a smile of her own. “No.”
“Hey, you’re not going to believe what just happened.” I kneaded the back of my neck, trying to relieve my groaning muscles. “The person I just helped was Nolan.”
Ashley, who had been watching them play with intense focus—her eyes were probably following just Jonathan, honestly—snapped her head around to stare at me. “What? You helped Nolan to his room? What happened?”
“He was sitting at the staircase when I was on my way down,” I said. “He looked really sick, so I offered to help him to his room.”
“He couldn’t walk?” she asked, frowning.
I shrugged, pressing my fingers into the muscles on my right shoulder. “I think he couldn’t walk properly; he said he had a massive headache. I think he made it halfway and then had to sit down.”
“Wow, if it was that bad, he really should have gone to the infirmary.”
“Right? I said that too. But he didn’t want to go. Man, he’s heavier than he looks.” I groaned as I stretched in my seat.
“But he’s so skinny!”
“He’s not as light as he looks. I think I’m going to need to start working out with Melissa. I was out of breath after the first flight of stairs!”
She laughed. “But that was still really nice of you to help him. I don’t know if many of us would’ve.”
“Yeah, I think that was part of why I approached him,” I admitted. “He probably doesn’t have friends he can call to help.”
“He hasn’t exactly been trying to make friends, either.” Ashley turned back to the soccer field. “Ooh, Derek just scored a goal.”
I opened my book and flipped to the page where I’d stopped. “Alright, I’m going to start reading. Enjoy drooling over Jonathan.”
She swatted my arm. “I’m not drooling!”
AN: tysm for reading!! ꉂ (′̤ॢ∀ ू‵̤๑))ˉ̞̭♡
