Everything But Time is Running Out

Sunday came and went. Frank was still by my side 24/7 when he wasn't cooking me food or running to pick up my prescriptions or in the shower. My pain had grew louder with time and I was thankful Frank new how to safely dispense my medications to me because I sure as hell wasn't familiar with them. Anti-inflammatory this, anti-anxiety that, anti-nausea that, muscle relaxant this. I even had a separate pill for headaches specifically in case my head wound gave me a bad time. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep any of them straight.

He had bought me pill cases that had days and times separated by mini boxes and told me that the purple one was for medications I for sure needed to take while the green one was for PRN meds- meds to take if I felt like I needed them. He wrote with sharpie which meds were for which symptoms on the back of the cases to remind me in case he wasn't there to help (little pink pill = muscle pain, white chalky pill = unbearable pain, white tiny pill = nausea, white oval pill = moderate pain). There were so many that I never knew one person would be able to take all of these and still be alive, but Frank insisted I follow his instructions.

As I was eating homemade chicken noodle soup that Frank had YouTube'd how to make, he left to take a quick trip to the dorm manager's office to get me a new key for the building and for my room. I felt really bad that he was driving to all of these places, but after taking the white chalky pill for unbearable pain, I wasn't exactly with it mentally. I felt loopy and ditsy and surprisingly super cheerful. I was rocking back and forth as I ate my soup, watching Netflix and didn't even notice how long he had been gone.

"Babe, I'm back!" he yelled, taking off his shoes as he walked in the room, throwing them aside like guys do. I just continued to rock side to side, half sitting on the floor, half lying on the floor. When he saw the sight of me, he laughed loudly. "You feeling good there, babe?"

"Mmmm-hmmmm..." I said, completely content.

"Let's get you off of the floor," he said, leaning down to help me.

"Nooooooooo," I moaned, falling down completely, spreading my body to cover as much space on the floor as I could take up. "The floor is the best for making squishies."

"Squishies?" he asked, sitting next to my splayed body.

"You knowww..." I couldn't help but elongate every word I was saying; it just made my chest feel so puffy and light. "The soft, bubbly stuff growing out of the floor."

"The carpet?[i/]" he asked, thoroughly amused.

"Yassssss!" I giggled, letting the carpet hold my dead weight. "My eyes feel large," I randomly said.

"Large?" Frank asked again, as if talking to a child.

"Larrrrrrge, like... they're sinking into my skull."

"Oookay, doll, let's get you to bed." He immediately knew what I was trying to say; my eyes felt heavy and wanted to close so I could fall asleep.

"Beddy-bye!" I continued to giggle as Frank hulled me up and carried me to his bed. He just laughed. I found his face with my eyes and just stared at him.

"You're dreamy," I complimented, poking his cheek. "Can I kiss you?"

"Only if you hold still so I can finish carrying you to bed," he negotiated, but not before I tried to stretch out to try to touch the hallway walls with both my hands on one side and my feet on the other. I laughed out loud but complied. When we were almost to the bed, he threw me onto it, knowing I would enjoy the motion. It only caused me to laugh more, but once I felt the silky smooth sheets, I immediately curled into a ball, ready to fall asleep right away. He tucked me in.

"Kiss!" I reached out to him with my arms outstretched, making sure he didn't leave the room.

"Of course," he said, sitting down on the bed. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him to me, quickly kissing him hard. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned more passionate, but as soon as it started, it had ended. I pouted my lips and then it was his turn to laugh. "Sweetie, I have to go back out there and clean up dinner." I pouted even more.

"Stay with me," I pleaded, trying my best to give him the saddest, cutest, biggest eyes I could. He sighed before finding his way underneath the covers with me. I smiled and hugged him, nestling my head in his chest. He held me close and I felt his lips to my forehead.

"Goodnight, Kara," he said softly. His voice was the last thing I heard that night.



When I woke up Monday morning, I was feeling fine. Sore, but it was manageable. I tried to cover up the discolored areas on my face from being slapped silly by that fraternity fag, but makeup just made it look even more obvious that I was trying to hide something. Oh well, I thought. Nobody pays attention to me anyway. I'll just wear my hood up. It was a bit windy outside anyway, so it would make sense that I would try to cover up.

I had Frank drop my off fairly early because I had lost my lit. book and my papers Thursday evening. I had really hoped that my professor would let me have the benefit of the doubt and extend my deadline because now I had to start all over. I wish I would've worked my ass off during high school so I could just afford a stupid ass laptop, I thought to myself, begrudging every single well-off student. I had originally tried to snag a computer at the library when I first started attending GVSU, but the ratio of computers to students is so unfairly large that I could never consistently get one.

As I walked down sidewalks and pathways and corridors across campus, I noticed how oddly quiet people were being, especially when I came within hearing range of their conversations. A lot of students would stare as I passed and I nervously tried to avoid eye contact. It was making me extremely self conscious and nervous. Before I entered the classroom to see if the Prof. was around, I caught myself at the doorway and quickly turned to hide outside of the room, only because I happened to hear my name being said by a group of kids standing and sitting near the door.

"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?"

"Yeah, just because she's not smart enough or hot enough to get into a sorority, doesn't mean she has to pull that shit off..."

"Whatever she did to those guys is a tragedy all by itself, let alone having the police investigate their entire house."

"If she wanted attention, she didn't have to go this route to get it."

I felt wetness on my cheeks and didn't realise that my eyes were leaking. I had no clue that rumors about me were going around campus. I wasn't even aware that rumors even existed period. And now I was the talk of the town, only obviously in a very bad way. A very bad, biased way. I would bet my university acceptance letter that it was started by the guys of that fraternity. I couldn't prove it, but this is just something that can be logically and reasonably assumed.

I felt my face heat up in embarrassment, frustration, distraught and a bit of shock if we're being honest. I was never one to be the center of attention for anything, whether it be on purpose or on accident. All throughout middle school and high school, I always kept to myself and stayed within my close knit of friends. I was never outgoing or a jokester in public and I was raised to be a polite and professional person. How could something like this happen to me? How could this happen?

"Oh look," a girl said on their way into the classroom, "it's little miss cry wolf. She even did up her face to make it seem realistic." She pointed and laughed at me, while the others she was walking with snickered and ignored my pleading gaze. How could everyone be on their side? Without hearing my side, too?

This seemed too much like a dream or something that was written in drama books. I fled the scene, totally ditching the idea of asking for an extended deadline. I'll just write her a Goddamn email, I thought, angrily wiping tears from my face as I continued to run to my sanctuary, which was actually the bathroom located in the first floor of the culinary building, where I just happened to be.

I slid down against the wall, letting my butt hit the floor only a little too hard. It didn't matter though how much pain my bony ass was feeling because my mental status was hurting more than my current physical status. I put my head in my hands, feeling a migraine coming on. Reaching into my bad, I grabbed the green pill case that Frank had packed for me and searched for one of the round, light blue tablets that he kindly labeled as for headaches and migraines. I cupped some water from the sink to drink with the pill and then sat down on the floor again.

My eyes were becoming dry and puffy and were probably shining a strikingly red shade. My nose was running like crazy and when I tried to sniff, I found it to also be stuffy as hell. I got up to grab a messy knot of toilet paper as I thought to myself, I'll probably catch a cold from all of this shit. I then started giggling to myself. With all of the shit that's happening right now, I'm sitting here worrying about catching a stupid cold. I tried to hold back hysterics while laughing at something that in reality probably wasn't funny in the least bit. I started to calm down when I heard footsteps clanking in the distance. I hurriedly got up to escape from any further torment from anyone passing by when I was called out to.

"Kara?" I very surprisingly looked over only to see Fish.

"Hi," I said softly.

"What the fuck, Kara?" He took wide strides to come to meet where I stood. "Are you okay? What the hell happened?" He lightly touched my face.

"Haven't you heard the rumors?" I said, my voice sharp with ice. The look on his face told me he did.

"I asked you what happened, not any of those dickheads that happen to attend this fucking school."

"It's a long story..." I evaded his question. He stared hard at my face, not accepting my answer. "I mean it, Kyle," I whined, "it really is a Godawful and long story. And it's really late, and I have a class in a half hour..." I said, noticeably hinting that I didn't want to talk about it right now. That, and it actually was pretty late considering I've done nothing but cry and run away today. He looked forgiving as he checked his watch.

"Shit, yeah you're right; I gotta get to my next class. Promise me you'll tell me next time, though. And don't skip work like you did on Friday; I was really worried about you when you didn't even call the restaurant to let us know." Shit. I totally forgot about work on Friday. I mean, I was half dead, but that's beside the point. I nodded and fake hurried off, waving and yelling back to him.

"I promise, Kyle. I will." He shot me a smile as he walked the opposite way toward the staircase.

"Maybe I'll just skip all of my classes today," I thought to myself. "I mean, I do have a legit reason for having a hospital stay... Who's to say I didn't need today to recover more?" It didn't take me very much reasoning with myself to convince myself to retreat back to my dorm. But hold up. I can't return back to my dorm. If I barely got out of talking to Fish, I definitely cannot get out of explaining to Molly. But I really needed a new change of clothes. Frank had lent me his clothes during my stay at his place this past weekend, but I was technically right now still wearing what I wore on Thursday. Frank had washed them for me while I was sleeping, but there was a hole ripped in my pants where I had fallen and the blood from my shirt was still visible. I sighed as I made my way to the dorm in defeat.



Please not be home, please not be home, I chanted to myself as I unlocked my dorm room door. No lights were on and it was silent inside. I tiptoed to the living room and peered down the hall; nothing. I smiled with relief as I quickly jogged to my room to pack a few change of clothes and then some toiletries from the bathroom. I exited the dormitory safely and unnoticeable.

I took out my phone and it was only 1:00 pm. I called Frank to ask him to come get me, but it rang seemingly endlessly and then went to voicemail. He must be with the guys, I thought as I started walking toward the bus stop near campus. I'll just get there and then figure out what the hell to do.

I tried calling Frank while I sat on the bus and then once again when I arrived at his house. He didn't answer either time. I popped a squat near the front door, feeling awkward when other tenants walked by and I was just there sitting with all of my bags, probably looking like a homeless person. I used my phone to look at my reflection. My hair was all ragged, I still hadn't changed out of my ruined clothes from Thursday and I didn't even want to begin thinking about the condition of my face.

Who knows how long it's going to be like this, I thought hopelessly. I might just be ruined for my entire college career... I shuddered to think about putting up with the whispers and shunning and stares every single day I would walk on campus, attend class, eat at the cafeteria... I started feeling a panic attack coming on until I was pulled out of the deep end.

"Karebear!" I was tackled to the floor, despite me already being on the floor. "How the hell have you been, friend?" Mikey was so ecstatic to see me, and likewise, only the lingering pain I had was coming back tenfold thanks to his smothering.

"Dude!" Frank yelled, running to my aid, "take it the fuck easy! She's fragile!"

"Nah, man, she's a tough cookie. I mean look at her- Holy shit! Karebear!" Mikey noticed my face writhing in anguish and my swollen face. He immediately helped me up, but I was overtaken by Frank's hold.

"Who the fuck did this to you?!" Gerard asked. I could see flames rising in his eyes.

"Give me names and I'll won't stop until I find them!" Ray pitched in, full of vengeful energy.

I just kind of gave them an exasperated look. "Let's take this inside first, guys. It's a bit chilly in here." Frank suggested as he unlocked his door.

"Yeah, totally, dude. It's like the frostbite out here," Mikey said, rapidly rubbing his arms, acting like he was trying to defrost himself. Once the door was open, we all piled in and everyone quickly took their seats in the living room, waiting for me to begin my tragic story. All of their eyes stared into my soul as I began having déjà vu. Frank grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around me, just like how officers and detectives do for victims when unfortunate situations take place. I slowly took in a deep breath, breathing out slowly and then started my story.