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About an hour had passed since I was left alone in Noel's office and the need to use the restroom had forced me to abandon the warm bed to amble across the room where the bathroom was.

I pressed down on the cool silver handle and pushed open the door. The automatic lights flickered on and illuminated the vintage floral wallpaper that stretched across the top half of the wall. The white ceramic tiles that lay beneath it glimmered in the florescent luminosity, making the space brighter – almost blindingly so.

Unease settled in my gut at the sight of how tiny the bathroom was, and the childhood memories of my time-out trunk threatened to overtake me. I shook my thoughts away and kicked off my shoe. Moving around to face the other side of the door, I crouched down and then let the door ease shut against the worn converse until only a small sliver of Noel's desk was seen through the crack.

Satisfied that I wouldn't get trapped, I hobbled towards the toilet where I managed to make the process that would normally take 30 seconds at the most, take several minutes instead. Once I managed to tug my sweats back on, I flushed and then moved to stand in front of the sink.

"Remember to wash your hands!" exclaimed a colorful poster with loud shapes and cheesy clipart from the '80s.

"You're not my real mom," I muttered at the blight to all graphic designers then turned away to catch my hallowed gaze in the mirror.

I looked like a hot mess.

On the top of my head sat a lopsided bun that had hours ago given up on its one job of keeping all my messy, unwashed hair out of my face. Sighing, I tugged my tresses free, letting the rest of the tangled disaster tumble madly to my shoulders. I scowled at the reflection through the dingy bathroom mirror, which deepened when I noticed a huge zit.

I licked my chapped lips and flipped the faucet on only to again find myself fumbling over such a simple task. As careful as I could without getting my stitches wet, I washed my hands around the gauze and the dried blood off my arms. Once I was satisfied, I shut off the sink, dried off, and scooped up my shoe on my way out. After thrusting my foot back into my sneaker, I took the chance to snoop around a bit since the door was locked and Noel was still running errands with Mason -- much to my chagrin.

The office was about the size of my apartment, maybe larger. Not that that said much. Scattered sparsely throughout the room were a few streamers and fun posters left over from the previous nurse. For the most part, Noel kept the space clinical. The utmost he had done was to hang important medical facts in black frames on the stark-white walls.

He even had his diplomas proudly displayed behind his desk. But no family photos or anything personal that would give me any insight into what kind of life he led outside of school. To say I wasn't curious about the enigma that was Noel would be a lie.

I plopped down in his swivel chair. The phone was still off the hook. Somehow no one in the office thought to come and investigate why the school nurse was unreachable. I guess the level of professionalism that Noel employs was the standard at Mountain View High.

A sudden knock on the door resonated through the quiet room. Was someone actually coming to check up on him? That thought alone sprang me to my feet.

I jogged to the door and opened it, expecting to see an angry staff member or even Noel himself. But instead, I was met with a brown-haired boy.

"Uh, hi," I stammered, at a loss for words.

Briar quirked his brow upon seeing me. 

He looked immaculate. He wore a stylish V-neck white shirt under an unbuttoned watermelon pink cardigan paired with black skinny jeans and leather combat boots. Meanwhile, I stood wearing blood-stained sweat pants and a baggy graphic tee of Freddy Kruger.

Seeing him and realizing how I looked right now made me feel oddly vulnerable and insecure.

I stepped aside, attempting to hide behind the door. "McFadyen isn't here right now. But he did say it was a free-for-all when he left, so help yourself."

"Thanks," he responded, his tone quizzical.

Briar's scent enveloped me as he walked past me; I followed close behind. "Is there anything I can get for you? I know where he hides everything."

Including his scotch.

He turned to look at me. Those clover pools gazed silently into my eyes before dropping to my injury. Worry furrowed his brows. Before I could react, his hand had reached out and gently grabbed my upper arm, bringing my bandaged palm closer to him. It was then that I noticed splotches of gore near my elbow and under my fingernails that I had missed earlier.

"Are you okay? You have blood everywhere," he asked, gently.

His touch caused a circuit of electricity to shiver through my body, and I toyed with the idea of making use of the lack of supervision and empty room, but then I remembered how much of a mess I looked right then, so I shoved those indecent desires away.

As if my skin had burned him, he let me go, and for a second, I feared that he had somehow read my mind. 

Instead, he apologized, "Sorry, I should've asked to touch you."

I couldn't stop but smile at how sweet that was and decided to tease him, "You can touch me anywhere you want. It's just the two of us here."

 A deep red colored his cheeks at my overt flirting, and he wouldn't even meet my gaze. Instead, I watched as his eyes scanned my bandaged appendage in pensive silence. 

He cleared his throat and then asked, "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. Just a few stitches. Nothing to worry about." 

Briar's stare softened a bit. He quirked his head to the side; his cross earring that hung from his right ear swung with the motion. "What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

I paused slightly to think about what I should say. The white gauze filled my sight as I found myself gaping at it intently as Briar had been. I didn't want to lie, but it's not like I could just come out and say the truth.

Right?

I must have been quiet for too long as Briar enveloped the top of my head with his hand. "You don't need to respond," he soothed. I turned to look at him.

After taking a second to calm my beating heart, I gave him a lopsided grin. "You know, after our first meeting, I didn't think we'd be talking like this. And to think, all it took was a little bit of food to get you to warm up to me. Like a cat."

He ruffled my hair in response, causing a curtain of blonde strands to fall in front of my eyes. "I wouldn't call what you gave me food."

For a moment, I became distracted by his light brown locks that twisted wildly against his amused eyes. As soon as his hand left my head, I raked my own through my hair to push it back. I stared up at him through my lashes.

"Well, to make it up to you, McFayden keeps a bunch of Star Crunch in his bottom drawer," I mentioned and began heading towards his stash. "He won't mind if a few are missing."

Probably.

The leather computer chair rolled backward the moment I sat down at the desk. I swiveled around until I was facing the correct drawer then tugged it open. Sprawled out at the bottom were piles of Star Crunch, Zebra Cakes, Doritos, and a bag of animal crackers. All were stacked perfectly to hide the half-drunken bottle of Aberfeldy.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a couple of Star Crunch.

"Is that scotch?" queried Briar from behind, seeing the obvious bottle beneath the shifted snack mound.

"Yeah, I think our principal does drugs during the hiring process for shits." I shut the drawer and twirled around to face Briar, holding up one of the cookies for him to take.

He took it then tugged the other one out of my grasp, too. "Speaking of, where is the medication kept?"

"Uh," I started, eyeing my cookie in his hand. I pointed behind him. "Top right."

He turned to look at where I was directing him while tearing off the plastic wrapper. "Thanks," he said, holding the now open Star Crunch out for me to take.

Just as I accepted it from him, Briar turned on his heel and moved towards the cabinet. All the while, I sat in Noel's swivel chair, blushing like an idiot. I took a bite to calm down and watched Briar pop a few white pills onto his palm. 

"Not feeling well?" I asked before I could even think if I was being too nosey.

"Migraine." 

"If you want, you could sleep on the bed. McFayden won't be back for a while. You can even lock the door," I offered then added, "This place is lawless."

"I can tell," he chuckled lowly, dry swallowing the pills. "But I should get back. The Assistant Principal is evaluating our class right now."

"Gross," I cringe, elated that I wasn't the one that had to deal with Bater. "Good luck to you."

"Thanks," he smirked, biting into his cookie. "I'll see you around."

I gave him a small wave. "See ya."

He disappeared out the door, leaving me alone in Noel's office once again. I eased off the chair and crossed over to the bed, collapsing on top of it in a heap. With Briar gone, the room felt larger than it had before and even lonelier. 

Hating this new feeling, I could only hope that Noel would bring Mason back soon.