A friend through it all
The sound of the sirens and flashing lights didn’t worry her in the slightest. Instead, her heart thumped in her chest watching people patching up her friend, who was very much hurting.
“Is- Is she okay?” Sprite tried to ask one of the people checking up on Stella. She tried standing up, but her throbbing shoulder wasn’t agreeing with her. It was sending warning pinpricks down her arm.
She could hear Stella grunt out a reply. “I’m fine no thanks to you, dumbass.”
“Language!” She let out a breath of relief knowing that she was at least conscious enough to talk sass. Sprite was gently supported by a medic to sit by Stella's side on a stretcher after she refused to give up her attempts to get closer to her friend.
She cautiously prodded at her own shoulder that was black and blue, wincing. Turning to Stella, she grinned. “Oh, the others are definitely not going to believe that you, Stella, the definition of a golden child, crashed us into a tree.”
Stella groaned and hung her head. “Please don’t.”
“Don’t what? Don’t tell them? Too late for that.” She sing-songed and gestured to the small crowd of people moving fast around them. Surprisingly the ambulance got there pretty fast and luckily they weren’t heavily injured. Besides the few bruises and scratches, they were pretty much unscath-
Stella groaned in pain.
Oh…. Stella’s wrist didn’t look right. Ouch.
Sprite struggled to decide how she could help, and her hands ended up hanging in the air awkwardly over Stella’s figure. “We should really go to the hospital now.”
Stella snapped. “You think?”
Sprite put her hands in front of her, palms facing outwards. “Hey! I’m not the one who was driving. Don’t blame the passenger.”
“Yeah well if you weren’t picking a fight with me over the radio I wouldn’t have crashed us into a tree! Driver. picks. the. music. That’s like an unspoken rule, everyone knows that!”
“It’s a stupid rule,” Sprite muttered. Guilt began to pool in her gut as she noticed her friend closing her eyes, most likely due to pain. “You’re right though. I was being dumb and you got hurt because of it-“
“Hey!” Stella’s face snapped up "You wallowing in your ‘pits of despair’ isn’t going to fix my hand so stop it. Besides, we were both fighting over the stupid radio so we’re both kind of in the fault here.”
She smiled at Sprite, and they both knew they had forgiven each other.
“Sprite!”
No. Oh no no no.
She snapped her head towards Stella and saw her familiar teal phone lying next to her. “You called Ajak?!?”
Stella gaped and almost forgot about her injured wrist as she moved to grab Sprite’s forearm. “I- uh- I couldn’t find my phone and my parents are out of the city you know that!-“
“-So you took my phone and called Ajak?!? You could’ve called Sersi-“
“-Well sorry that I panicked and just called the last number you rang!” Her words got jumbled in the end as they were face to face with the only-5-foot-but-very-terrifying-when-she-wanted-to-be woman.
Stella and Sprite shrunk at the obviously fuming woman.
Ajak took a long look at the wreckage around them and raised an eyebrow.
Deciding that the quicker the better, Sprite blurted out the first thing on her mind.
“Honestly that tree came out of nowhere.”
Stupid. Answer. Not cool.
“Uh-huh, that tree, which is clearly on the side of the road?” She pointed at their battered up car.
Stella who was intimidated by Ajak – to be fair who wasn’t? - let out a small squeak of “Yep!”
Seeing Ajak disappointed at her was very much more hurtful than getting yelled at.
Rubbing her forehead, Ajak let out a dejected sigh. “Don’t lie to me, were you two drinking?”
She was met with two immediate yells of disagreement. They were both so loud that they drew the attention of a couple of people.
She calmed them down. “Alright, alright, tell me what happened.”
After a long explanation, Ajak’s disappointment faltered a little but didn’t disappear.
“Honestly girls I thought you were wiser than this. Especially you, Sprite.”
“'m sorry” Her shoulders sagged.
Stella had been her most trusted and closest friend for the last few years, so it wasn't surprising when she discovered Sprite's family secret on her own. Her family of course had different opinions on her friendship, but in the end, whoever agreed and whoever did not, they all left the final decision to sprite and promised to stand by whatever she chose. Her choice of course was clear. She wanted a friend, and this time hopefully a lifetime friend. They'd been practically joined at the hip ever since.
Ajak had whispered an apology towards the girl that she couldn’t fully heal her broken wrist or else the medics were going to be suspicious. But she could lessen some of her pain. Which Stella profusely thanked her for. Sprite knew that Stella looked up to Ajak as much or even more than herself did.
And she might’ve told Ajak that.
Knowing that it was best if they got Stella checked out as soon as possible, Sprite stood up from the stretcher.
“And where are you going?” She turned back around and faced her mother-like figure.
“Stella still needs to get her hand fixed.” She gestured towards her friend who was already being hoarded towards an ambulance.
Ajak softly laid her palm on Sprite’s bruised shoulder and she could feel the throbbing and soreness fade away. Knowing her shoulder was healed, she shrugged Ajak’s hand away.
“What was that for? One of the medics already saw my shoulder, they’re going to notice!”
Ajak guided her towards the ambulance with a side-hug. Subtly covering her ‘injured’ shoulder. “No, they won’t, it was just a small injury.”
“Then why’d you heal it?”
Being pressed up to the side of her body, Sprite could feel Ajak shake with laughter.
“Call it a mother’s instinct.”