Smile for Me

“Jesus Christ, be careful, Katie!” Syn shouted up to me, and I thought for a second that he was actually scared I was falling.
“Yeah, we don’t feel like having to replace our lead guitarist.” Jimmy called up and started laughing, thinking it was funny.
Val smacked him on the back of the head and Johnny shoved him. I couldn’t turn my head to glare, as I was basically upside down, but I managed to threaten, “Boy, you better prepare yourself because I don’t care how tall you are. When I get down I am going to kick your ass.”
“Katie, be careful.” Syn ordered again and I nodded, but knew he didn’t see it.
I gritted my teeth and fought to bring myself around, forcing back a cry of pain at the way the bark was digging into my arms through the material of my sweater.
The task was slow but I managed to drag myself up until I was straddling the trunk and started to pull myself to the window. I steadied myself before I reached over to grab the windowpane and pull it. My hands were shaking, so it took a few tries to actually get a good hold, but I did and yanked as hard as I could. It slid open with a groan, as if it hadn’t been open in a long time, and I laughed at the hollering going on down below.
“Katie, you are my fucking hero.” Johnny was yelling up to me.
“Yeah, yeah.” I called down, grinning triumphantly. “Go around to the front door and wait for me to let you in.”
The rest of the guys took off, Matt dragging Val by the hand, but Syn stayed behind.
I frowned down at him. “What are you waiting for?”
“I want to make sure you get in okay.”
I smiled down at him, then put my hands inside the window to grab the frame and pulled myself in.
I climbed through the window as gracefully as a drunk person could and caught my foot on the sill. I tripped into the room and tumbled hard to my knees.
“Ow. Shit. Fuck. Damn. Ouch.” I muttered, hopping out of the room to find my way down the stairs in the dark, and fell down those. Tears filled my eyes but I pulled myself up and hobbled through the house to where I assumed the front door was.
I could hear the loud chatter of the guys from outside the door and fumbled for the locks, turning them and opening the door to be swept off my feet by Johnny.
“I love you, I love you, I love you.” He chanted, spinning me around and around.
“You know what happens when you spin a drunk person around and make them dizzy?” I asked threateningly, closing my eyes against the waves of nausea that rolled through my head.
“What?”
“They throw up.” I said through gritted teeth and he immediately set me down before kissing my cheek.
“Thanks for breaking into my house, Katie.”
I laughed at him and opened my eyes slowly. “You’re welcome.”
“That was seriously amazing.” Matt said.
I shrugged. “It was no big deal.”
“I think everyone needs a drink after that.” Matt announced and followed Johnny and Jimmy to the kitchen, leaving a swaying Val on the couch.
I turned and started to follow them.
“Why are you limping?”
I turned to look questioningly at Syn as he followed me, frowning in concern.
“What?” I asked and stopped to sit down on the stairs that led up to the bedrooms. It was too far to walk to the kitchen, and I was suddenly aching all over.
“You’re limping.” He pointed out, standing in front of me. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“I tripped over the window when I came in, fell on my foot. No big deal.” I shrugged and started to subconsciously rub the insides of my arms, trying to make the stinging stop.
There was a click and I blinked in shock when the hallway light was flicked on. Then Syn was crouching in front of me and taking my hands to push the sleeves of my sweater up.
“What’s wrong with your arms?” He questioned, but I didn’t think he really expected an answer.
“Syn – “ I tried to pull my hands away but he held tight, and peered down at my arms.
“Aw, babe, that must hurt.” He gently smoothed his fingers along the inside of my right arm, then my left.
I looked down and gasped. The skin on the insides of my arms, from my wrists to my elbows, was bright red, looking burned, and parts were slowly turning purple with bruising. The palms of my hands were pretty much the same way, except they were slightly scratched from the rough bark biting into my skin. But I frowned down at the way the scars on my arms showed white through the bruising, and looked up at Syn, anticipating his questions.
But he never mentioned the scars. He simply sighed and lightly kissed each arm before gently pulling my sleeves back down. Then he was pulling out my right foot to push up my pant leg, saying, “Let’s see what you did to your foot.”
My foot was fine; I might have twisted it a little when I came through the window, but it wasn’t bruised or swollen, thank God.
“It’s fine.” He said unnecessarily, letting the leg of my jeans fall back down.
When he looked back up at me I smiled, and he returned it with one of his own.
“You were really worried about me there, weren’t you?” I asked quietly, meaning not only that I was hurt, but also when I had been climbing the tree.
“Yeah.” He admitted with a sigh. “I was. I thought you had really hurt yourself or that you would fall…what?” He questioned when I grinned at him.
“Nothing. It’s just really cute, that’s all.”
He rolled his eyes and I laughed before insisting that I was fine.
“Well, good.” He said and leaned up to kiss me just as Jimmy appeared in front of us.
“And what is going on here?” He asked, his voice slurred.
Syn sighed against my lips and pulled away to glare at his friend. “What do you want?”
“Here.” Jimmy handed each of us a beer and walked away, but turned to shout, “Now get busy!”