Chapter 1 | The Position Of Change by Faceless at Inkitt

1

Coraline

"Fuck!" I yelled. "Wybie, get your ass in here!"

"Just a second!" He called from the other room.

"Now, Wybie, or I'm gonna bleed all over the floor!"

"Wait, what?" I hear his footsteps as he starts to run towards the room I'm in. He comes out from behind the wall, or horrific look on his face. "Oh my god, what did you do?"

"It's not as bad as it looks!"

"There's a knife in your arm, Coraline!"

I groan with frustration. "Why don't you help me instead of standing there like an idiot!"

"Oh, right." He takes my arm, which I was holding over the sink, and looks at it. "Um... should I pull it out?"

"I don't know! Do I look like a doctor?"

"Well I'm not a doctor either!"

"What's going on?" Jalin, Wybie's new dorm mate, asks from the doorway. "Oh my god, Coraline, what happened?"

"I was moving your goddamn box of weapons or whatever off the top shelf and it fell, and I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I'd rather I have a knife in my arm and not my head, so I put my arms up to protect myself!"

"Shit," he says. "I'm sor-"

"Don't apologize and just get this thing put of my arm!"

"We need to get you to a hospital," Wybie says.

"I can't afford a hospital, Wybie. I can't even afford health insurance at this point."

"I'll go see if there's a doctor major in this hall somewhere," Jalin says.

"Good idea." Wybie turns back to me as he runs off. "Are you okay? Do you feel lightheaded?"

I shake my head quickly. "No. It just..." I hiss in pain. "It's starting to hurt. Like, really bad."

"The adreneline is wearing off. If we take the knife out now, it won't hurt as bad, but you'll start loosing blood more rapidly. Stay here and don't move. I'll be back in just a second." And then he leaves. He comes back with towels, gauze, and bandages in his arms and sits by me again.

He grabs the handle of the knife. "Are you ready?"

"Can I say no?"

"Nope." And he yanks the blade out of my arm.

I scream. "What the actual fuck, Wybie? You could have at least given me a warning!"

"I'm sorry! It's better if you don't see it coming!" He sets my arm on a towel and presses some gauze to the cut. "This is really deep. We might actually have to take you to a hospital."

"No! No way in hell. None of us can pay the bill, and I am not asking my parents for money again."

"I'll ask my grandma. And didn't Mr. Bobinsky tell you that you could ask him for money whenever you needed it after the last accident?"

"My answer is no, Wybie. They're not always gonna be there for me. I need to learn to do it on my own."

"You're literally bleeding out on my dorm room floor. I don't think they'd mind."

"No, Wybie!"

"Why do you never accept help, huh? Why is it that every time I've offered to help you throughout our whole lives together, you've never accepted? Why don't you ever let me help you?"

"I don't need your help, Wybie. I've never needed your help!"

"Oh yeah? Never?" I can tell he's angry.

"Yeah, never."

"Not even the time you were getting chased by demons, or when you were about to fall off the roof of the Pink Palace, or when you used to wake up screaming-"

"I found a doctor!" Jalin comes it at the right moment with another guy behind him. "Coraline, this is Kyle. Kyle, this is Coraline."

Kyle kneels next to me and removes the gauze from my arm. "Well you didn't hit your radial artery, so thats good, otherwise you would have been dead by now, or near. Where's the knife?"

Wybie hands it to him. He examines it. "Well it shouldn't have hit anything too important. Can you move your arm?"

I try to lift it. It feels weak, and numb. "Barely."

He nods. "My best advice is to see an actual doctor, otherwise you may get much worse and never be able to use your arm again. It's not bad now, but it can be."

I was about to say something, but Wybie interjected. "I'll take her to the hospital. Come on, Coraline."

I sit there for a second and glare at him, but then follow him out the door.

--------

I dreaded when the nurse said she had to call my parents. Now not only did I have to face them, but I had to face them together. I don't think they've actually seen each other since my 10th grade year.

Wybie sat at my bedside, watching me like a hawk, making sure I didn't move. My mom came barging in the door and he immediately flew out of his seat and stood at the other side of the room.

"What the hell, Coraline?" My mom screeched. "Again? You can't keep getting into these accidents!"

"Nice to see you too." I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"You'll learn your lesson one day, young lady, but until then-"

"Coraline?" My dad came into the room, then stopped when he saw mom. "Oh. I figured you'd be here."

My parents got a divorce when I was in 8th grade. Things got ugly. My mom was so sick of him being lousy and depressed all the time, and he claimed that it was her fault he was like that. Afterwards, I lived with mom at the Pink Palace during the week and I got to stay with my dad every other weekend. I don't know why I wasn't just with one of them one week and another the next, but apparently the law says my mom was a better suited guardian or whatever.

"Don't start with that," mom says to dad. "We came here to make sure that Coraline is okay, not to bicker."

Dad stands on the other side of the bed. "How are you, Coraline?"

"I'm fantastic." I wish I could roll over and press my face into the pillow.

I hear the door open again and the doctor walks in. "Hello, Miss Jones. How are you feeling?"

"Well I just pulled a knife out of my arm and am totally high off pain meds so I'm doing pretty spectacular."

"You do not speak to people like that, young lady," mom scolds. I groan and ignore her.

"It's quite alright, ma'am. Coraline might be feeling a little out of it for the next few hours."

"I'm not out of shit."

My mom looks madder than hell. "Coraline Jones, you are going to be in big trouble when these doctors are through with you."

"Oh yeah, mom? What are you gonna do? I'm an adult, remember?"

She looks furious. "What's your statement, doc?"

"Well we'd like to keep her here a few hours, but other than that she should be fine. Coraline, you'll need to keep that arm exercised, but don't strain it or you'll tear your stitches."

I hold up a thumbs up. I'm not wasting my energy on this bitch.

"I'll be back to check in on you soon." And just like that, she leaves.

I start to sit up, but my mom stops me. "What are you doing?"

"I can't afford to stay here, mom." I continue to get up. "I probably can't even afford what my bill is now."

"I'll pay your bill, Coraline," mom sighs.

"No, mom."

"Yes, Coraline."

"Fine, but I'm paying half."

She sighs. "Fine. But you're staying here."

I drop back down onto the bed. "Great."

--------

Wybie

I immediately left Coraline's room after her parents left. I couldn't stand to be alone with her. Not after I yelled at her like that.

I ran down to the cafeteria in search of apology food, but didn't see anything she'd accept. I went down to the gift shop instead and got her some flowers. I made sure they were wilted so that I'd have a better chance. She has an odd fascination with dead flowers.

I knock on her door before letting myself in. She's laying on her bed, as she has for the past few hours, looking at a magazine. She must be bored out of her mind. She hates magazines, mostly because they're full of girls that are "prettier than her."

There are no girls prettier than Coraline. She's always been pretty, but she's beautiful now, with a small sculpted face and a thin stomach that she hates but exposes through her cropped shirts. Her blue hair short at her chin and piled on one side and shaved on the other. Her piercings bright on her face, ears, and stomach. The tattoo on her neck that says It is that was sometimes, but only sometimes. She is beautiful, she just hasn't had someone tell her, and I'm still that scared little boy I was when I met her.

"Can I come in?" I ask after a moment.

She glares at me for a few more seconds, deciding, then sighs and puts her magazine down. She scoots over on the bed and pats next to her. Hesitantly, I walk over there and set the flowers on her bedside table.

"How you feeling?" I ask.

"Don't know. Can't feel anything below my shoulder."

I dont respond for a second. She's still not looking at me. "I'm sorry." I say eventually.

"For what, leaving me to confront my parents alone or for yelling at me while I was in pain?"

"Both?"

She scoffs, but lightly.

"Oh, come on, Coraline. You know I didn't mean it."

She waits a moment, then sighs. "I should be sorry. I instigated it."

I know I should probably say something like, "No, I talked back" or "It's not your fault," but instead I say, "Yeah, you did."

She smacks my arm. "Come on, Wybie. It's not every day I apologize to you."

"I still haven't heard an apology."

She slouches and mutters, "Sorry." under her breath.